darcshadow

Unless you ever mentioned to them that you were using the cutter for cutting paper, it never would occurred to them to tell you about the need for a cutting mat. The machine is designed for cutting vinyl, cutting anything else with it is an off label use. Not saying it can't be done, but it'd not the typical use for it.

Yes, different vinyl won't fix this problem, so we'll need to get it sorted out first. But for making shirts, sign vinyl will not work. Unless maybe you just plan to wear the shirt once then toss it.

Does the blade spin freely? Is the tip broken. Kind of looks like the vinyl is being ripped rather than cut.

From looking at DeTape's web page, they do not make any HTV. If you're just doing crafting, most craft stores sell HTV in sheets. You pay a bit more per square inch, but it's not bad for one off shirts.

The vinyl in the photo looks to have blue backing. That is not heat press vinyl, the vinyl in the photo will not work for shirts. How exactly are you setting your blade depth?

What cutter are you using? A graphic that big on say an MH Cutter and only being off by 1/8" is actually pretty good.

The MH uses a serial comm interface so in theory there is no reason you couldn't use a Mac you just need software that uses the proper serial communications. I do not have a Mac, so I am of no help on that side of things. Inkscape is a very powerful and free design program, that does have a cutting capability built in. The cut capabilities is very basic, although for a hobbyist, it works well. I used Inkscape almost exclusively for years for both design and cut. Only recently have I started using VM for cutting.

I've had issues where it's like VM doesn't see all the nodes and shapes just go all wonky.

Correct, the fonts are fonts created for SIgnBlazer and the names are the closest matching named font at the time of the creating of the font list.

static perhaps?

VM has some issues with SVGs and I believe they are working on it but for now your best bet is EPS files. If you have to use SVG, a flat SVG seems to be the most reliable option.

It's possibly to cut ok with the blade depth set incorrectly but once do set it correctly the difference in cut quality is night and day.

Here's Cut-In http://abfonts.freehostia.com/simplement.htm Here's Benjamin sort of. It's not a solid fill but it would be easy enough to modify the font once you type out what you want. https://www.1001fonts.com/benjamin-font.html This is a close match for Edda font for the capital letters, lower case isn't very close though. https://www.1001fonts.com/edda-font.html Here's Bulk https://www.ffonts.net/Paper-Punch.font Here's Avondale https://www.whatfontis.com/Mackintosh-SF.font

Yeah, if you're only wanting/needing a handful of them try searching for the Nearest Equivalent Font Name. If that doesn't work, take a screen shot of the font and feed it into what the font or some other font searching program. For example, I just tried to find A015 which says it's nearest equivalent font is Agency Bold. The Agency Bold I found was not even close but what the font found Arruba, which appears to be an exact match. Obviously doing this for each font is not as convenient as if you had the install files but it's probably you're best/only option at this time.

From the license stipulated on page 2 of that PDF even if someone does have this collection of fonts they can not legals share it with you.

Good idea, how'd you get the holder at that angle?

There should be a setting in the software to adjust the steps per inch, or the scale. You should also double check your blade depth setting. To much blade exposure can cause bad corners as well. Follow Mz Skeeters instructions found here:

Are they reusing the stencil or is it a one and done? If it's just a one time thing there's no need other than that you have to peal off individual letters.

if the oldest you can download is 3.9 and you're running 1.3, your firmware\hardware maybe too old to go straight to 3.9. Is there a revision history for the update that tells you what new abilities the firmware offers? Firmware won't have any effect on the software's ability to run on your PC.

Signblazer should also work I believe.

Recognized as what? As far as I'm aware the MH has never shown up as anything other than a comm port.

If you're using vinyl you just use your application tape to put the vinyl on, paint it, then pull the vinyl off. If you're wanting to make a reusable stencil out of say cardboard you need to use a stencil font, or add lines to your fonts to join the centers so they don't fall out when you cut the cardboard. Keep in mind, these are vinyl cutters, and most are not designed to cut through anything much thicker than vinyl. They also most all require the item being cut be attached to something. For example vinyl is on a backing sheet so that you cut through the vinyl but not the backing sheet. Hobbiest cutters will come with a cutting mat for cutting paper. The paper sticks to the mat and holds in in place so the machine can cut it like it would vinyl.

Is it only cutting text backwards or the whole design? If the whole design, make sure you don't have a mirror option turned on in your software. As far as cutting through, have you set your blade depth correctly? Ie, followed Mz Skeeter's directions that been posted on here hundreds of times.

When you connected with the serial cable, did you use a null modem cable, and did you make sure you were on the correct comm port. It'll be different from the comm port used when connected to the USB>

I know it's not much to go on, and I have found a couple that are similar but they were too straight and didn't have the right feel.