darcshadow

thanks

Anyone know a good vinyl that is close to the Indianapolis Colts Blue? My sister is looking to make some decals for a motorcycle and doesn't web colors. Anyone in Indy have a color sample book she could stop by and look at?

If you use the serial port I don't believe you need drivers. The computer just sends the HPGL commands to the plotter using standard communication protocols that all computers should support. If you don't have a serial port you should be able to get a converter that works on macs.

Quantity discounts only make sense if it is actually easier, faster, or cheaper to make multiple items. With vinyl cutting since so much of the cost is your time weeding and preparing and that won't really change no matter how many you do a quantity discount doesn't really work. Some designs are rather simple and can be easily grouped in a way that weeding and preparing can go quicker so you could apply a discount then, but it would be determined by your time rather than anything else. Now if you're printing it and you just hit go, a decent discount would be reasonable, since you'll only do a bit more work, but produce a lot more quantity. On the spreadsheet, personally I'd change it so that your labor cost are cost per hour rather than minute. I'd also rework the material cost so that you simply enter the size and cost of the roll your using, the length of vinyl to be used for the decal, and the qty. This way you factor in the cost of the waste vinyl if the design doesn't fill the width, it also adds a little bonus if you can get multiple copies within the width. But unless you're working with expensive vinyl and large designs the material cost is usually pretty small and a very small percentage of the actual cost.

For both of those processes you don't specifically need a vector file, do you? Obviously a vector is better for scaling but a raster image can be made to work, correct? At any rate, to answer your first question if you have photo shop you should be able to use the eyedropper tool to select and change colors in a raster image. http://www.dummies.com/software/adobe/photoshop/photoshop-cs6-eyedropper-tool-lift-or-sample-color/

Check that track that the rollers run in or look for anything else that would be stopping the cut head from moving. The grinding noise is simply the motors and pulleys trying spinning and the belt not moving. Not good, but it sounds a lot worse than it really is.

You just want to recreate that image? If so, here is a pretty high resolution version that should produce a pretty decent result if you trace it. I know tracing font's are not ideal but you have to do what you have to do.

While unlikely that it is a software problem, you might try downloading a trial version of a different cut program and see if still puts the random lines in. On the video, please people, hold the phone sideways so the video comes through correctly on a computer. Regarding your problem, it looks like a stray node to me. Have you cut this exact design in the past? Does that stray line show up the same place every time?

While I agree that sounds like a good bit of force in the video, force is not the reason it is cutting through the backing paper. Too much blade exposure is the problem there. Take the blade holder out and try to cut some vinyl by hand with a good bit of force and you too will cut through the backing paper. Adjust the blade till you just barely make an indent then stick it back in the machine and adjust the force till you get the same results. The force you use with your hand will be much greater than the force from the machine.

Greyed out options you're out of luck but there is a "hacked" version that removes the nag screen. Take a look in the section of the forums call SignBlazer and you'll find all the info you need.

Without more info, I'm guessing that is a traced image and that the offset needs to be adjusted.

Trying different software is a good idea, but to me it sounds like a plotter problem. If you can manually send the HPGL file to the comm port and the cutter shows that is has received the data I would suspect something in the plotter has died. Does the plotter have a self test?

If it does the problem with paper and pen then static is not the source of the problem. Grounding the stand to the cutter should take care of any static problems anyway. Does your computer by chance have a serial port? If so you can use that and the null mode cable and not worry about the Tripp Lite thing at all.

And if SCAL doesn't work for you, you can always use Signblazer. It's what I first used and still do occasionally.

You're going to have to provide a bit more info. It doesn't work, doesn't tell us what your actual problem is. Have you installed the Tripp-Lite drivers? Have you configured your comm ports? Have you setup SCAL4 to use the correct comm port? Are you using a null modem cable? Are you getting an error of any kind? What exactly is happening?

ok, now I understand. Yes, what arty said to do will work. A second option you can do, is punch the white through the red. This will turn the letters into paths but it also means your cut image is all one single color. I prefer doing this but it's just a personal preference. I also like to convert text to paths once the design is finalized so that if for some reason I ever loose the original font file, or go to a computer that does not have that font, the vector file will not be effected. Also, if you still want to use signcut to do the cutting, you can export files from SB into eps format that signcut should then be able to open.

What Arty said will cut both colors at the same time, but I'm having a hard time picturing exactly what you're wanting. I suspect cutting both colors at the same time is not going to produce the results you're after. Could you post a screen shot of what you're trying to do, or if you don't want to post the actual sign, maybe make up a generic version.

Illustrator and Corel Draw are probably the biggest two on the market but both have a pretty steep learning curve. SB is pretty easy to get started with so you might want to play around with it a little learning more about vector in general then when you outgrow it move on to one of the other two.

Vector magic is a trace program, it takes a raster image and converts it to a vector image that you can then send to your cutter. So what you need to do, is take the vector created by Vector Magic, open it in a vector design program, delete the traced wording and replace it with the correct font.

Cause it's easier and faster to find someone that already has done all the work. A note on recreating it if you can't find a kit, that stripe on the top will not be as simple as it looks. The curves of the hood and ruff mess with you and a straight piece of vinyl will not go on straight on those curves. You're best bet is a good wrap vinyl and some knifeless tape.

Yeah, that looks like an auto trace. Letters never trace well and you're better off finding the font and recreating the wording of what ever image you're tracing.

I'll let someone that knows AI help you out, I don't know that program. In Inkscape, all you have to do is enter the node editing mode then just select and delete the individual nodes. I would assume it's similar in AI.

That's not bad, so what are you not happy with? You simply need to do some node editing to remove the remaining letters and maybe sharpen up some of the corners.

Depends on the hub, some are, some are not. But in order to connect 2 computers to a hub you'd need a special USB male-male cable and then a female to female cable for connecting to the plotter. It'd be cheaper to get the switch I linked to above.

Have you tried using the pen holder and drawn the B on paper, does it still do the exact same thing?