Sambo418

I hope someone here can help me. I have an old Graphtec CE1000-60 and cannot get it to communicate with my computer. Here's what I have: A laptop with Windows 7 and Illustrator CS5. An old desktop with Windows XP and Illustrator CS2. I have the original serial cable for the plotter, a parallel to usb and a serial to usb. I've tried Cutting Master 2 and 3. I've tried every combination of plotter/cable/computer I can come up with. I've triple checked that all of the parameters match and they're good. I emailed Graphtec to see if I downloaded the correct plotter driver and they said that the driver for the CE2000 was the correct driver for the CE1000 and that it won't work with Cutting Master 3. The furthest I've been able to get is on the XP computer, Cutting Master 2, with the original cable, I hit "Send" and the job won't go farther than 0%. It also won't poll the size. The computer shows that the plotter is installed on COM 1. Now, one thing that's weird is in Cutting Master, when you set which plotter you're using, the CE1000 isn't listed and neither is the CE2000. Only by choosing the CE3000-60 or CE5000-60 have I gotten as far as I have. With the others, I get a port error message. I'm obviously missing something but what??? Any suggestions?

Anyone want to buy a plotter? I'm totally serious. I'll post it in the classifieds. Thanks!

I set it to Graphtec 50 and still nothing. ARRGGHHH!!! I'm completely out of ideas. Thanks for trying to help.

Is "Graphtec 50" short for something else? I see all kind of Graphtec plotters in the list in SB but none are just "Graphtec 50". Sorry if that's a stupid question! And thanks so much for taking the time to help me.

I installed Signblazer, the UK update and patch and all that went well. I set up my cutter and made sure all of the settings and port matched. I hit "cut" and "cut tile" and nothing happened. I changed the plotter to HPGL and still nothing. I tried changing the plotter in SB to the CE2000 (since that the driver that Graphtec said would work for the CE1000) and still nothing. Arrgghhh! I thought for sure it would work this time but I'm still missing something. Any suggestions on what to try next? Most cutting software I've used before will poll the size of the media but I don't see how to do that in SB. In the Cut window in SB, there's a graphic of the plotter on the right, the media coming out of it towards the left, and the square I'm trying to cut is on the left-bottom corner of that. Does that make sense? Is that what it's supposed to look like? I've shut that computer down and it's late but I'll post a screen shot tomorrow of what I'm talking about. Thanks!

Hi everyone! I came here because I'm having a problem with my plotter but discovered so much more here! I'm looking forward to diving in. A little about me: I'm a certified "sign geek". I've been in the sign biz for about 23 years. About a year ago, I started working for a national flag and banner wholesale manufacturing company and it's awesome! Flags are a whole different world and it's been fun learning something new. I finally got my degree in graphic design last year. From community college. At age 43. But at least I got it. See ya around the forums!

Thanks, guys! I'll check out signblazer and hopefully come back to tell you that it worked!