darcshadow

You can use the same knife to cut multiple materials, the question is if the material can be cut with the plotter. The MH-871 can not do much other than vinyl. Can cut paper with a carrier sheet but anything thicker and you're going to be out of luck.

That looks very similar to the one USCutter sells in that price range. I have it and have been pretty pleased with it as a hobbiest.

My work around in that situation, get one the size I want, then copy and paste it and change what it says. To each his own, there's always a dozen or more ways to skin a cat.

The two different size things for Fonts can be a bit confusing. Typically I don't even pay attention to them, just type out what I want, lock the aspect ratio and resize as necessary.

If a straight cable was needed that would work, but a Null modem cable is required between the cutter and PC/adapter.

What model? Has it ever closed or just started doing this? Have you tried adjusting the pressure?

Most computers don't but getting a good adapter and not using the cheap adapter chip installed in the machine is worth it.

Have you tried a serial cable?

+1 on Inkscape. Bit of a learning curve but not bad, and extremely powerful design program.

You say you vectorized the design? It's all text, it would turn out much cleaner if you simply retyped it all. That might also improve the path taken by the plotter.

how much is "a bit" at 66" long, if the bit is less than a 1/4" you're doing good.

Most likely because it's more of a specialty/craft vinyl and not a big seller.

For home printing I gave up on inkjets several years ago. Switched to laser and have not looked back. Inkjets is superior for in home photo reproduction but for just standard printing laser wins out hands down.

VM has a reduce travel option. That might do what you're wanting. From a post about 2 years ago,

If VM cut doesn't have that function, and it's a pretty useful function you might want to look into other software. Either an upgrade of VM, or something else entirely. Inkscape is a free and very powerful vector program.