darcshadow

Getting the blade depth set correctly and then the blade offset will very likely solve your problems. Blade offset should be around 0.2mm I believe.

NOOOOOOO! Never EVER have that much blade sticking out. If you can easily see the blade you have too much. Look for Mz Skeeter's instructions on these forums on how to set the blade depth, been posted hundreds of times. The majority of your problems sounds like your cutting into the backing paper which will be solved by setting the blade depth correctly. If you're just doing a shirt for yourself or a friend you can "get by" with an iron. But if you're going to be selling shirts you need a proper press. Also keep in mind the MH is pretty much the bottom of the barrel. It is what I have, and it can be made to work quite well but you do have to do quite a bit of tweaking and learning to get it to perform well.

I was able to open the file with Inkscape, which is free. For a long time I would use Inkscape to create the design then copy and paste into SB to do the cutting. Not ideal but it worked. I eventually figured out how to cut straight from Inkscape, although it does not have any of the features that a true cutting program has it will get the job done. If I ever get serious about this hobby I might buy a true cutting program, till thing Inkscape and SB have served me well.

I too do not use Vinyl Master, but your setting of units per inch, assuming you have a stepper motor machine, is usually referring to number of steps of the stepper motor and 1016 is in the neighborhood of what it should be so I don't believe that number is something you should change. Until someone chimes in with anything better, I'd simply make your design then scale it down before cutting. The beauty of vector graphics they can be scaled up and down with no loss of detail.

Yes, the welding is a different matter but will need to be done. It can be done before or after the punch through, doesn't make much difference. I may have made my original statement too wordy.Here's how I would do it in Inkscape Step one, weld the script font - Select all the script text and do a Union (Ctrl++). Step two, hit ctrl+D to duplicate the script font. Step Three, hold down ctrl and select the C Step Four do a difference command, (Ctrl+-) Done.

Yeah, both are discussed in that thread.

The search function is your friend.

I also just noticed that in the PDF anyway, the letters are all individual. Prior to cutting you'll want to weld them all together so you get a clean cut.

Yeah, true, Inkscape can be a bit daunting, a handy tool to have though. To achieve the desired effect in Inkscape you need to duplicate the wording that crosses the C, then select the wording and the C and do a Difference command. The duplicated wording will be deleted and you will be left with the original words and the C cut out where the words cross over it. The difference command uses the layers of objects to determine how it behaves. The object on top will be deleted and will cut through the lower object.

RedSail RS720C will work for you.

You could just layer the wording over the C without cutting the C. There will be a slight bump at the edges of the C, but unless you're really looking close it wouldn't be noticeable Inkscape is another good free program for designing vector images.

After you do the break apart, keep the text selected and then do the union. Below is what it should look like after the break apart. You can see the distressed stuff inside the font is selected along with the rest of the font, with all this selected if you do the union the internal distressed stuff will disappear. After Union

If this is something you plan to do often in the future, it might be worth it to download a font editing program and create a new version of the font with the interior distresses removed so that in the future you can simply type out what you want and it'll look the way you want without any further editing.

In Inkscape, if your text is still text, select it and choose Path->Object to Path. The text will now be a group of objects. Ungroup the newly converted text Select your text then choose Path->Break Apart Now choose Path->Union This will remove all the white spaces inside the letters. Unfortunately, this will also remove the inside of letters like A, O, R, P so if you have those letters you'll need to edit those manually and delete individual nodes.

Because the problem is so predictable I do not believe static is the issue. And since the only thing that has really changed is the computer upgrade I'd focus there. Do you have another computer you could try, or one you could borrow to try? Have you tried different software? Does it do it even on a really simple design like a square?

Something else you might want to consider going forward. Once you finalize your design you might consider saving it off/exporting it as an EPS, SVG, or AI file, something that is "standard" among most vector programs so that in the future if you ever do want to or need to change software you will still have access to all your old designs.

You said you tested removing the 651, how long did you leave it on the wall though? That'd be my only concern with using 651, a year or two down the road you might not be able to remove it without damaging the wall.

Do you frequently plug and unplug the USB from the plotter? Sounds a little like the USB port on the plotter is starting to fail.

Programs like to store stuff in the Users/<username>/AppData folder a lot these days and it doesn't always get deleted when a program is uninstalled. Might try looking there to see if there is a log file. It's just a log file though, doesn't have any impact on anything other than a very small amount of disk space.

It's always amazing how often unplugging and plugging something back in fixes the problem. ha

That's sort of what I do for bigger jobs. I send the job to the cutter, make sure it gets started well, then leave the room and close the door.

ah, ok, makes sense now.

I have not used either of those programs, so my questions may seem obvious, but what exactly do you mean you print from AI then plot from Graphtec? I would assume the graphtec software would load a standard vector file such as an EPS so in AI you simply save the file as an EPS. Should not be any need to print.

And if you can't get those to work, node edit and delete all the nodes is an option, although an annoying one to do. Does VM work with raster images as well? An eraser tool seems more of a raster image tool than a vector tool to me. Never mind, just looked up VM and the eraser tool, apparently it is a node editing tool so does kind of make sense.

So you got me curious what the file actually looked like. Opened it with a text editor and it appears to be a simple version of gcode which is what CNC and 3D printers use. My assumption is PU is pin up, PD is pin down, and the 2 numbers are coordinates on where to move to. Given this, it would be possible to create software to draw the image the same as the plotter would plot it, a simple program written with MatLab could probably do it. Could be useful for tracking down if a problem is in the coding of the file or the plotter hardware. Further research shows that it is HP-GL languange. So not sure which came first HP-GL or GCODE but either way they are both basically the same. Also found PA stands for plot absolute. Here's an interesting write up about HP-GL Language. https://www.isoplotec.co.jp/HPGL/eHPGL.htm#-PU(Pen Up)