mikev210 0 Posted May 20, 2014 So i just got my mh series uscutter delivered yesterday and im so lost i've watched everything on youtube that has anything to do with the mh series anyway my question"S" are how many is to many nodes? and I thought u could vectoriz anything by just putting it in inkscape then into scal3 am i right or am i wrong help!! O one more thing my machine is making a loud rubbing noise when cutting im headed home to see if it's because theres to much pressure or if there is something else i should know please help........... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
darcshadow 1,626 Posted May 20, 2014 You need to do more than just open an image with inkscape. Once the image is opened, select it, then from the menu bar, select Path->Trace Bitmap. That will open a window with various options to tweek, but the default should give you a pretty good starting point. Click ok. The trace of the image will be overlaid on the original. Click the trace and drag it over to see it better. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikev210 0 Posted May 20, 2014 sorry i should have clarified i know that much as far as tracing it and then bringing it up in scal but that is it right or am i missing a step? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jmas 119 Posted May 21, 2014 I'm not a sign guy, but I have to make a lot of odd shapes and I've learned that when I have a lot of nodes, I better zoom in on them and see what's happening. Often, that line with a lot of nodes that I think is straight isn't really straight when I zoom in. Here's an example. The shape on top looks fine, right? The second one shows that it has a lot of nodes. The third and fourth are enlarged snippets of the upper left corner of the shape and show that the lines aren't really smooth. This shape was supposed to be about 6 inches wide, and at that scale, no one would ever see that it wasn't smooth, but you can hear the plotter go chiga-chiga-chiga as it follows those tiny curves while it cuts, and if I cut it larger, it would be noticeable. The bottom one is the final version after I edited out most of the nodes and smoothed out the lines. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jay2703 704 Posted May 21, 2014 I don't think the number of nodes is important. So long as if cuts correct I wouldn't worry about how many there are. More doesn't mean it's going to take longer to cut or will cut any better but the same can be said for less nodes. If your creating the nodes manually, less is better because it will take less time. The thing to watch for is stray nodes that cause random cuts in your design. When vectorizing you will have a lot of nodes. The higher resolution the bitmap image, the smoother the vector curves will be. Vectorizing will pick up the bitmaps that are not smooth, they are more or less squares. Removing some can help smooth your design. All this takes practice, it's not usually just vectorize then cut. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wildgoose 4,200 Posted May 21, 2014 Yep, what Jay said. There is no easy button that works very well. Some things will trace real good but most have to be cleaned up afterword to look right. If I have something that I am concerned about (80-90% or more) then I trace it manually. Takes more time but with practice it's not that bad and sometimes you spend just as much time trying to fix a dirty traces as if you had just done it by hand anyway. In the vinyl world, learning to trace (and graphics in general) is like learning to read. You can get by to some extent without those abilities but you will never be able to really excel without learning those skills. It takes a serious amount of time and effort but after you put in the time the rewards are fantastic and you will look back and wonder why it seemed such an obstacle. To mike the OP. You will find that any text that you can re-create rather than try to trace is 10 times better. I will sometimes spend hours finding an exact font and then manipulating it like the original so I can then convert to curves and have a good clean job. Even hand traced text is really hard to get right. For designs, if you can find a single color (B&W) with a good clean white background you stand your best chance at a clean trace. If you decide to learn to trace by hand then import your pic and decrease the opacity of the pic and lock it and then you can draw right over the top. The opacity thing isn't a 'must do' but it helps see your tracing lines. I trace without any fill or stroke and then color after I'm done. i also trace in the order from back colors to front so when i'm done all my layers are already sorted and ready to cut. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mikev210 0 Posted May 21, 2014 thank you everyone this helped me out a lot!! I was able to cut out a few simple things yesterday, but i am now having trouble bringing up my vector files in scal3 on my imac it does it easily on my computer at work (windows) i know im probably asking a lot of questions but if anyone knows it would help out a bunch thanks for the help from the first few questions Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Go-C Graphics 856 Posted May 21, 2014 Here's a little secret. Check out Vector Magic. It's a great start and normally doesn't need a lot of node editing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
