LW Designs 1 Posted December 8, 2010 Okay, I will admit that I have been a lurker for a long time now and have learned a great deal from this forum. I was too ashamed to admit that I was dreaming about a real cutter someday instead of running my little business with a Cricut Expression. Well my business has taken off and I have saved enough money to get one! I am very happy but extremely nervous at the same time. I have been researching for hours on the best software for me and I still need help. I mostly do car window decals and lettering for signs. I currently am using SCAL for my cricut and INKSCAPE to vectorize. Does anyone have any recommendations for me? Thank you all again for the wealth of information on this site! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jay2703 704 Posted December 8, 2010 A lot depends on your budget. The Refine and Laser Point are entry level cutters. The Copam is more in the mid range. Roland or Graphtec are professional grade cutters. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dakotagrafx 7,297 Posted December 8, 2010 Graphtec ce5000-60 - great cutter, tracks incredibly well and cuts small detail well Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LW Designs 1 Posted December 8, 2010 haha okay decided to bite a huge chunk of my budget and go with the Graphtec CE5000-60 USCutter is having a bundle sale so I get extra stuff FREE - gotta love that. Okay my next question is do I stay with Corel Draw X3 which is free or get something else? Wanna order today so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dakotagrafx 7,297 Posted December 8, 2010 its about 800 but I went with VE-LXI master pro - essentially flexi pro without the printer rip feature. the best software I have used for cutting. if you want to stay with the corel software you can download cut master 2 from here for free http://www.graphtecusa.com Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LW Designs 1 Posted December 8, 2010 Is there a place to get a trial version of the software? I like to try before I buy Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rodger 527 Posted December 8, 2010 If you have been reading here , you should know about SignBlazer . That is what many use . It is free & does anyting you want to do . Try it, nothing to loose except for some time . Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LW Designs 1 Posted December 8, 2010 Rodger, I have tried SignBlazer and I cannot figure it out completely. I tried copying in from Inkscape and it only takes the clipart not the text too. I tried adding the pic in SignBlazer and only get partial of the pic. I group the pic and text together and just one of the pics came through into signblazer. I am trying to find a program that I can either design/cut and or design in inkscape and copy into to cut. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mabscotthandyman 1,410 Posted December 8, 2010 Rodger, I have tried SignBlazer and I cannot figure it out completely. I tried copying in from Inkscape and it only takes the clipart not the text too. I tried adding the pic in SignBlazer and only get partial of the pic. I group the pic and text together and just one of the pics came through into signblazer. I am trying to find a program that I can either design/cut and or design in inkscape and copy into to cut. With sign blazer you can design in illy or inkscape save as eps file ( in illy save in version 8 or older) in sign blazer go to import in the box on the right choose where you have stored your eps files, your graphics will show up choose the one you want open in the design box add your text and arrange go to cutter and cut. It is really a simple software to learn. Dan BTW welcome to the forum Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
LW Designs 1 Posted December 9, 2010 Dan, Thank you for the welcome! I guess I'm gonna have to play a little more. Tried saving to EPS didn't work just one part showed up. What I did was added a graphic, then letters, then graphic. Group them together before I saved and only the first graphic showed up. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bayotle 26 Posted December 9, 2010 ... is wondering why noone ever recommends the old faithfull xacto knife and straight edge??? Oh yeah, welcome to the 4um! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
