REfine MH721 goes over each cut twice.

[geoffsculpt 0]

HI everyone, just a quick question!!

My refine MH721 goes over each line twice, unfortunately it cuts in the reverse direction on the second cut so the line is slightly offset.

I am using artcut 6, which came with the machine, lpt1 on a PC (XP :why:) and have made sure that no copies are showing when I go to cut... Most confusing, I would appreciate some help as the machine is doing everything else perfectly!!

Cheers, Geoff

[JoeCamaro 11]

This happens to me sometimes, but it cuts exactly over the first one and I never lost a single decal because of that.

I this the problem might be in the artwork. Have you checked that there are no outlines in the file?

[Guest Terry]

What joe said, in your cut program BLOW IT UP, ENLARGE IT so you can see if it does have an extra cut. Also in Flexi it has a setting to tell it how mony times to go over it, not sure if yours has that feature. And post the exact image so we can check it for you.

[geoffsculpt 0]

Well I have enlarged it and there is only one line. I have been tracing the files in Illustrator CS2 then importing them into artcut as eps. files. every line on every graphic I have cut has cut twice, cutting first in one direction then in the other, hence causing a slight offset. The strange thing is that it will cut a line, go and do another part of the graphic then come back and cut the second line. There seems to be no logic to the way in which it does this!

Could this be a software issue? There are no settings for multiple passes of the blade in Artcut. The software does seem to be a little strange but  it is really user friendly, so I would prefer to keep using it if I can, now that I have got my head around it...

Thanks for your suggestions :-

[Kimon 1]

Sounds to me like you have strokes with a file in your paths. In illustrator select all then clear the fill in the stroke. Resave and send to your cutter. If you decide you want a little bit more control over your cutter than artcut allows and want to work sraight out of illustrator drop me a pm.

[Guest Terry]

Ya, thats what I thought, would really like him to post a file that does it so I can see it in Illustrator and my different cut programs.

[arhash 0]

When you trace an image in illustrator you also trace it's background.  This will cause a duplicate tracing of the image.  The SignCut software will see this as two cut lines.  if there are two lines directly on top of each other you wont be able to see them no matter how close you zoom in.

Don't know if this is your problem with out seeing you file but it might help:

Tracing a image in Illustrator:

1.  Place your image and select it

2.  Click "live trace" this command will be in different places depending on which version of illustrator you have. 

3.  Double click the image (this will expand the tracing into seperate entities)

4.  Select what you want to keep(you may have to hold down the shift key to add items to your selection. example-the hole in the letter "O")

5.  Once you have what you want selected go to edit>copy

6.  Next select everything select>select all

7.  Then hit delete

8.  Imdeiatly hit paste (this will leave you with only what you want)

This process will get rid of any extra strokes that will cause the cutter to cut lines twice.

Here is a slightly different way to trace an image.

Look at these photos and you will see what I mean. 

step one:import image (I just grabbed something from the internet. Hence the crappy tracing.  Make sure whatever you trace has a high DPI like 300 - 500)

step two:live trace image

step three:double click or hit expand image

Step four: choose what you want to keep and move it out of the way.  This reveals the duplicate outline of the background that illustrator traced as well

Step five: choose the excess and hit delete