kal259

If vectormagic cant handle it I doubt you will have any luck with Illustrator or Corel Draw, even Inkscape for that matter. You can try Ebay or Amazon for CS6 but not for a couple hundred bucks, closer to $ 600.00 to $ 1000.00 for older versions. I would download inkscape and get the basics down before spending the money on a professional program, for what it is Inkscape is great. If vectormagic can't handle it , you will need to learn to draw paths and node edit and inkscape is the perfect price for that.

Like others have said layer them on the car. First layer dry, second layer wet to line everything up,then squeegee well to get all the liquid out. When you layer them before application it looks good but applying it to the car will force air between the layers and it will never look right, the small bubbles will go away after being in the sun for several days but the large ones need to be punctured and hit with the squeegee. Trust us when we say to layer them on the vehicle we speak from experience.

I would do the doors for $150.00 installed, $250.00 if you have to remove old decals. I just finished about 2 dozen trucks doors and 5'x2' graphics for the box, with removal of old graphics I charged anywhere from $600.00 to $800.00 for each truck depending on how long it took to remove the old graphics.

In the past I've used 631 as a mask on drywall and glass with great results, assuming it will stick to the wall. With 631 I found I get the best results peeling the mask shortly after the paint gets tacky, if it dries you could peel some of the latex with the stencil. I've had problems with a few brands of spray mask on cars, havn't used real spraymask since.

Had a similar problem about a year ago. Flexi and Sentinel were no help. I installed on a new pc dedicated to run my cutter, Flexi wasn't seeing the key. Looked at my laptop and compared all the installed files for sentinel. Somehow one file that needs to be running in the background at all times was missing, copied it from the laptop and put it in the pc, everything has worked fine since then.

Just need to vent. Customer calls needs to push a job scheduled for Friday up to tomorrow, 4 trucks. Doors and 5' x 2' for the box, 2 color 751. So I say ok. Start cutting the job, all the doors are done. Start the box decals. On the second one Send All Colors gets checked somehow. Just wasted 5' of vinyl. The third comes out great and on the fourth my tracking goes way off, vinyl gets crunched up in the corner and I ruined another 3'. Start taping all the vinyl and in the middle of the roll its like there is no glue, have to peel back as best I can and retape, now I will have bubbles to deal with tomorrow. It's just after 11, I've been up since 4 am and still need to cut and tape truck #s for the hood sides. I really hope tomorrow is a better day. Thats my vent I feel better now,LOL.

Need help, Customer claims it's Helvetica Nueu. Can't find a match on WTF or anywhere else for that matter.

Thats it, Thanks for the help.

How long would it take you to use 10-20 50 yard rolls? Vinyl does have a shelf life, it gets shorter if not stored properly. I try not to keep more than I need, for large jobs I order fresh rolls from local vendors. If i can't pick it up they can usually deliver next day.

It looks like the text is subtracting from the mountain. Since the logo is reversed I would guess the text goes on the window first then the mountain? I would group all the text, then pull the mountain to the top and leave it as a seperate layer. If you are trying to cut the text from the mountain and have the keep the outlying parts I would duplicate, subtract, then weld the rest of the text to the mountain.

I remember seeing alot of posts on one of the forums awhile back about problems with 651. White usually gives the biggest problem, maybe it's a little thinner than the other colors. The biggest problem I have is a few random letters not releasing form the liner. I almost always use 4076 for everything, a little overkill I know but I've been using high tack forever so it's what I'm used to. 751 is much better, weeds and release is a dream and is only a little more money.

I've used vector magic,illy, and inkscape. Inkscape works just as well as the others and it's free. Just keep in mind that no matter what program you use the end result will still need some node editing. Trace programs are great for a starting point but more often than not there are too many nodes and the end result is usually lacking compared to original work.

It's cutting great, Now if I could just get my son to weed it, tape it, and apply it to the substrate I would have it made.

I'm having trouble remembering how to change the panel size on my Graphtec. I know it has to be done at the plotter itself. I went to cut a job before i left earlier and the panel size changed to 6in., had a power outage all day yesterday and a few things have been off since. I know I can download the pdf manual from Graphtec, but reading it from my phone is a little hard. Thanks in advance.

I also set everything up in the Cutting Controller, and Flexi. Panel size would not change only on the cutter, not sure why. If I recall I had to go to menu, media and somewhere in the media section it can be changed

My son figured it out. Plotter was still set to 60in., Somehow the Auto Panel button was active on the panel screen. Thanks for the help. I think I'm going to start unplugging everything when I'm not using it, with my surge protector fried now. My son is sending everything now hope it works, I have to deliver first thing in the morning and it's for my best customer, can't afford to lose them as they pay well and upon delivery.

I use Flexi 10, tried changing it on the software side but the cutter still cuts in 6in tiles. I changed it in the past to 60in, just have no idea how. When i get back later today i will look in the Graphtec manual on how to change it on the cutter side. After th e power outage I lost all the settings in my CPCTL and on the cutter. Hope I didn't fry the plotter or cause a problem on my pc, as they were both on and I have a feeling my APC (battery back-up/ surge protector) is fried.

If your clear coating an oil based enamel you should be adding hardener to it. You can clearcoat vinyl, just make sure you have no air bubbles and the edges are not peeling anywhere.

I made used the left over bracket and rollers from the LP stand I bought for the basket. Great deal for $13.00, basket and an extra roller for one of my other tables.

If the file looks good in flexi, try checking the box for cut all colors. It may be showing up a 2 colors, white letters with a black outlinewith backing.

If the customer is happy thats all that realy matters. On the topic of negative space and layout there is a book called Matering Layout by Mike Stevens that I would recomend.

I don't think Graphec Studio and Cutting Master 3 suck at all, a bit of a learning curve maybe. You could also use the plugin for illy or corel for cut vinyl and have a program equal to Flexi for a fraction of the cost. If I'm not mistaken flexi designed the software for Graphtec.

Alot of cities and town have codes against bandit signs, some don't bother to enforce them others go all out. I remember watching a video where they say to use a google voice number and a bogus gmail account to put on the signs to make it harder for code enforcement to find out who the signs belong to. I guess if your not legit a google number would work great, but I can't see this working for every business.

Mac Tac Intermediate. If you google M838900 it brings it up beacon graphics M838900 3055U. The U is for unpunched, the P is for punched.

I get $50.00 an hour min. one hour. Some in the area get $65.00, but I do just fine with $50.00. Don't forget to include cleaning the glass in your hourly rate, I have had good luck with alcohol, If it's really bad I use Bon Ami (the one thats safe for glass the other one will scratch the glass), then alcohol after.