Primal Decals

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Posts posted by Primal Decals

  1. Posted

    1 minute ago, eprcvinyls said:

    Oh alright thanks. I think i would just want to use one program for design and for cutting.. I might have a need for more later. but right now everything should be pretty easy i want to do.

    I was trying to figure out how to make a line of words curve up to match the Oval i was trying to put it in... I will watch some more videos.

     

    for me its Ai and scalps. Its not hard or difficult to use 2 different ones. With any software one will not always do everything you need or how you like,,,  ..  It really flows when you get a combo that makes things easier for you , And i have mine . Many use Vm and many use scalps.   Its a preference...and your choice.   I can make things much faster in Ai than i can scalps lol..

    • Like 1

  5. Posted

    3 minutes ago, slice&dice said:

    Nah, it's clear as MUD !!!  :rolleyes:

    OK, everything you noted is accurate and valid, just I think Chris is still just trying to take baby steps, and his head is spinning with all of our information overload!

    Anyway, I was always taught that raster art is PIXEL-based (and depends on the value that any single pixel can contain only) whereas Vector art uses NODES (that connect along paths).

    Keep this term in mind, Chris ---  Node Editing !!  Aaarrrrrrgggggggh !  Now we've really messed up his mind!

     

    lol  And this is usually when i have stepped step in and give one on one help showing Vm,Scalps, inkscape,signblazer etc  and let them choose which one they may learn easier because some people end up getting so overwhelmed , they just feel completely lost and more confused than when they first started on the first question they asked..  

    Node editing lol.. Thats a good one .  I remember when i heard that term and was huh? are you kidding me ? more stuff to learn  lol...  now i love it . very easy to do .

  7. Posted

    8 minutes ago, slice&dice said:

    The funny thing about a 34" cutter is the actual usable cut width is really only around 28" or 28.5" (on 30" vinyl) and that is not a whole heck of a lot bigger than the usable 23" width on a 24" roll of vinyl.

    I mean, c'mon, what's 5" really matter in the grand scheme of things?!!  So, yeah, Primal, you are 100% correct, regarding breaking things up.

     

    (By the way, that choice of Magneto font was excellent for Cary's shop!)

    Thanks Bud..   That job on that sign landed me another job for doing doing decals on a mini sprint race car last year that raced at daytona raceway that was featured live on tv. The driver contacted me and said to have the tv on a certain channel ,Me not knowing why ., Changed the channel and there was my work on a car on tv going around the track. It was the best feeling ever .The car took 4th overall and they did an interview of the driver next to car for a close up ..freakin awesome lol.

     

  12. Posted

    3 hours ago, darcshadow said:

    Wonder what the reasoning/logic is behind limiting the design space size. A 1x1" vector uses the same amount of memory as a vector 1x1 mile in size.

    Ya i have no clue.Makes no sense..Wish they would add a little more to it .

  13. Posted

    On 1/25/2018 at 1:47 PM, Wildgoose said:

    The rare occasions that the actual design is over 18ft I just down the scale by a round number like 50% so it's easy to scale back up in your cutting software. Don't know how that works in SCALP which I know you use. In SignCut when I view the actual design it will tell me a given height and width that it was designed in and I just manually calculate it and I'm cutting. I don't often need to do this due to large stuff but sometimes have to for super small HTV work where there are complicated pathfinder operations that cause issues with super tiny text or things like that. I often create them larger and then reduce the size at cutting time to get around the weird glitch common to tiny stuff in AI. Even this is a real rarity but have had it happen occasionally. 

    The only job I have done over 18ft was a large lettering that went on an I-beam that was 22ft long. I knew the overall dimensions I had to work with and was cutting based on the letter height or 10" or whatever it was and the 22ft number was actually a byproduct of the height so it didn't matter other than finding the center to install. 

    I dont really design in scalps except for making a shadow or outline or now using the text on the path feature they fixed. Everything else is in Ai thanks to you lol..  And in scalps i can make a 1200x1200 inch artboard which blows away Ai  227 inch size. And now that ive just typed that , I think I might have to try using Scalps for what i need with a large image lol. If it works thanks Wildgoose lol

    • Like 1

  14. Posted

    1 minute ago, Dakotagrafx said:

    that is part of it the RIP - and I commonly run VE_LXI Master plus, Corel Draw, AI, Chrome with about 20 tabs open, edge with another 10 tabs open. Versaworks etc - so you would say not a normal user.

    for the OP a simple $60 old windows machine would make life a lot easier but I am sure Primal will get the mac working

    Fingers crossed lol

  16. Posted

    6 minutes ago, Dakotagrafx said:

    I use an old smaller computer that is dedicated to the cutter with no internet connection - been that way for 10 years always ready to rock and roll - the design computers come and go every 3 years but the old trusty simple cutting computer like you can buy for $60 works great connected and left alone on a cutter - the old cutting computer is  dual core 2.6 ghx with a whopping 2 gb ram and works flawlessly - so it takes very little to run a cutter.

    the latest design computer I went a little more nuts on :)

    I spent 2500 on my laptop lol..

  17. Posted

    1 minute ago, bikemike said:

    Adding to that, if you doing this stuff you should leave the computer alone when it is cutting. If you sent the file from any program to another, shut down the other first.

    Computers have a habit of deciding what needs to be done first. And as we know, computers are stupid.

    Prep, then process, then continue. That is why most of us use a cheap computer on the cutter and something better on the design side.

    Lol very true and good point @bikemike.. the more thats running at once the more its stealing from everything else which can cause the issue also.

    I also see that some people have 2 computers .1 for cutting only and the other for designing etc. Im in the process of setting my system up that way right now . My high end laptop for designing and the other for 1 thing only, Even tho both have more than needed for doing everything .....

    • Like 1

  18. Posted

    2 minutes ago, Dakotagrafx said:

    if you could post back the final solution though it might help someone with a mac in the future.

    Well for cardudenc it was lack of ram, after freeing up ram and restarting the software he was using allowed the software to have the ram needed to work properly, So now on his screen in the corner is a little tab he can watch and when it starts climbing above ( lets say 75%) he clicks it and in secs it frees up  what it can. I have it on mine but i have no worries due to having 16gb ram. upgrading to 32gb soon. ..  Hes only running 2gb ram on his which is not good. And running Ai is a killer for ram hogging.  Cardudenc has a newer laptop he just bought and is not going to have this problem with it having more than enough ram and power. Just need to get his software all transferred over .

    My buddy who doesnt do designing  but uses Photoshop and lightroom software like me but  has a mac and was having the same problem.His Processor speed was great  but lacked ram, So we upgraded to 8gb from 2gb and his problems were fixed as well instantly .. So sometimes its not the software and its the computer. I have noticed some people are buying computers before researching what they need it to run or do,thinking they are getting such a great deal and then find out they have to spend more in the end cause it lacked 1 thing or another. 

    • Like 1

  19. Posted

    Dakotagrafx i fully agree with you until it doesnt work on a forum ,It always doesnt work out easily for some when they read toms of comments, So hands on is the next best thing and does work.

    @cardudenchad an issue last night with importing svg files into scalps . And it is now resolved to the problem being that he is pushing his ram in his laptop to the max. Tried figuring it out thru messaging and sending me photos of what he was seeing and it just wasnt working that way , Not everyone can be easily helped and instead needs a one on one only because they may  get themselves overwhelmed with too much help. I used to be one of them when i first started using Ai and Scalps ,And thanks to Wildgoose for things he has taught me outside of the forum.....   but it was hard to do without seeing what was really going on with cardudenc issue..  So I had to do a Live view with him. And i actually do it a lot with others cause its much easier to help that way with others. .Once i Physically seen what it was doing and did some svg file tests with svg files and exporting etc .Ran a simple FREE software  from the web that tells me how much ram is being used while he has several programs running at once ,And it was using up to 86% of ram which affected everything . When he imported the Vector file to Scalps it would show nothing  until you ran the mouse over it and then it would make an outline image of his work..

    Ai was even slow at running while i checked everything But after running the Ram cleaner it sped up as well... Ran the Ram cleaner to free up ram resources and also restarted scalps and it was fixed... He needs to add ram for he is at 2gb and 4 will be just fine to fix it. In know cause i added to my other laptop before i had my new one built and the ram upgrade solved it on mine as well... 

    So sometimes things cant be just resolved thru chatting on a forum. But i do try to post on the forum until i see its not getting anywhere fast enough for the person asking for help, so  i offer direct help..

    Im just one of those people who enjoy helping no matter how busy i am with my own work. And @cardudenc @zip2it @fatih @Chriscarp746  @Powerboss   are just a few of tons ive helped one on one and they continue to get ahold of me anytime they need something . I hate seeing people struggle to long,

     

  21. Posted

    50 minutes ago, joker said:

    Primal Decals no website yet. What is so great is the local screen printer always sends people to us. 

    Thats great you have another business to help get things sent to you. Thats one way to get the word out for sure.

     

    Just as a reference ,I use vista print for my website host and i pay like $18  a month for unlimited pages,video,image uploads etc . It was really easy to setup using a template which they have tons to choose from...once i had everything together on my end it was a piece of cake .  I dont do any direct selling on mine,but can .  but a lot of people go to it to see some of my stuff. I need to go update more photos etc on there this next week actually.

    • Like 2

  23. Posted

    53 minutes ago, Wildgoose said:

    The rare occasions that the actual design is over 18ft I just down the scale by a round number like 50% so it's easy to scale back up in your cutting software. Don't know how that works in SCALP which I know you use. In SignCut when I view the actual design it will tell me a given height and width that it was designed in and I just manually calculate it and I'm cutting. I don't often need to do this due to large stuff but sometimes have to for super small HTV work where there are complicated pathfinder operations that cause issues with super tiny text or things like that. I often create them larger and then reduce the size at cutting time to get around the weird glitch common to tiny stuff in AI. Even this is a real rarity but have had it happen occasionally. 

    The only job I have done over 18ft was a large lettering that went on an I-beam that was 22ft long. I knew the overall dimensions I had to work with and was cutting based on the letter height or 10" or whatever it was and the 22ft number was actually a byproduct of the height so it didn't matter other than finding the center to install. 

    I think i understand a little now . Ill keep everyone posted on this. Just wish they would update to make it so it will be much larger than just the 227 limit. I havent checked  corel yet. I really dont like corel like i do Ai.

  24. Posted

    2 hours ago, bikemike said:

    If it is anything like corel, the size should not matter while you are designing. Vector graphics scale without loss. Start with anything then capture the final and set the size to what you want.

    Can AI work outside the art board?

    If that helps.

    No its limited to the whole size of the canvas/Artboard which is 227 inches.  

  25. Posted

    Sorry for the confusion on this , I might be doing this the hard way but its been working fine until i got this last job which is a limo bus which is longer etc than the artboard,

    I have no idea how to word this and cant get myself to figure what how to solve this on my own. ..I know the limits are set to 227 inches in Ai.... .. And I do things a certain way in Ai to where my images will be larger than the artboard is allowed so i get a more life like look at my previews when i build them in Ai and i use inches as well..   How or what are the percentages used for like 1:20 scaling etc   . So if the way im doing it is i guess 1:1 if im correct on that , Where can i find the math part of it to help me shrink my over-all image  down to fit the artboard which would make everything shorter etc , and after i get my design like its supposed scale it back up to be the proper number. 

     

    I really appreciate your links or info provided,Thank you.

    @cardudenc this might come in handy for you on some large things as well if i get the help on this .