Josh623

Adobe Illustrator and the Titan 2 vinyl cutter

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Hey everyone! I got my Titan 2 in the other day. I will be using it to cut stencils out of vinyl for air brushing/hvlp paint graphics onto firearms and knives. One of the issues I ran into is that I have a few .eps files that SCALP will not let me trace, so I got AI and want to figure out how to use it with my cutter. The issue is that I want to take a file like this and pull out one shade of gray and be able to cut the that out on my vinyl for my stencil work. How do I go about doing this and how do I send the file to my Titan 2 to get actually cut? 

 

Thanks. I will be posting more questions here probably as I go along lol. 

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I can't see the pic you linked but you should be able to install a plug-in to send the work to SCALP from Illustrator. I use a different cutting program (SignCut Pro) but it works the same way. To tell the truth I just draw what I want and then open the file in SignCut rather than sending from AI most of the time. SCALP has cut by color so you can leave all your color layers in there and just cut the one you want as long as it's built correctly. 

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Thanks Wildgoose... so AI won't work with my titan 2 directly, I need a plug in to send it to SCALP to get it to work? 

 

"SCALP has cut by color so you can leave all your color layers in there and just cut the one you want as long as it's built correctly. "

 

How do I go about doing this in SCALP?

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I am not UP on SCALP, used to have a copy way back but it's been updated several times. In the final window when you are about to send it to cut there should be some toggles that you can click to select one or more, I think they look like little eyes. Most of the regular design programs like AI or Corel will speak directly to your cutter. There are a few out there like Flexi that will but to get the full on design capabilities that you can get with AI it's pretty pricey. Not to say that AI isn't pricey in it's own right. 

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lol isn't that the truth (about price). 

 

ahhh so AI will talk with my cutter directly? that is sweet! does anyone have any references or instructions for how to do this? 

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No AI won't talk directly but with a plug-in from whatever cutting software you have (SCALP probably) it will send right to it so it essentially will. What actually happens is the plug-in will batch it up and send it typically in the correct version for the program to handle and send it to the cutter. So you still have to have the cutting program and it essentially is going through that program. I don't send them straight through from Illustrator very often because I typically design in CS5 but SIgnCut likes AI version 8 which is older so the plug-in converts the data to version 8 on it's way and I have had a few issues due to that conversion process so I just down-save my cut files separate from the main design files and open them up in SignCut and cut from that program. This also free's up AI to be working on other things while the cutting is going on. Actually do design on my mac and then transfer the files on a thumb drive to a windows7 laptop that sits over by the cutter. 

 

The other reason I don't cut from Illustrator directly is I do a lot of HTV and often there are separate color layers. I like to break these out and line them up so I can save HTV so I make separate color layer files that often will have 10 or 15 of a design all stacked in to maximize vinyl consumption. HTV is real forgiving with layering so you can utilize all the little corners and space if you pay attention. For one or two shirts that's no big deal but do a few hundred and you can save many yards of vinyl. 

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No AI won't talk directly but with a plug-in from whatever cutting software you have (SCALP probably) it will send right to it so it essentially will. What actually happens is the plug-in will batch it up and send it typically in the correct version for the program to handle and send it to the cutter. So you still have to have the cutting program and it essentially is going through that program.

 

I guess I am confused... where do I get this plug in from? and how do I send the file from AI to SCALP to print? Do I just save it in a format SCALP will recognize, then open it with SCALP and print that way? 

 

that's weird that you can't view the file I posted... I would love your thoughts on this... can you click on the link again then hit the down arrow (download button) at the top? it's an eps file and I would like for you to look at it. Otherwise I will find a way to post it (I couldn't figure out how to put attachments in this thread)

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ahhhh sorry!... i didn't follow back up and look on that other thread after you posted that. so sorry and many thanks!

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Hey guys! Back again =) So I'm running into a couple problems... I'm on windows 8 too btw. 

 

After I install the .exe plug in for AI and reboot the program/my computer, it does not show up under the "scripts". So I can navigate to where the plug in was installed and then it does move the picture over to SCALP but when I try to cut it I get the error "There are no shapes to cut". 

 

Any ideas or help? Thanks!

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Hey Josh,I was having the same problem as you and i couldnt figure out why,Everytime i would install etc, it would be there and then the next time it was gone,,So i gave up and just did the old fashion way import into scalp..Im curious if anyone else may have a final solution for us both, im running the same system as you ..

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An eps format file can contain only raster data, only vector data, or a combination of both.

Don't know what the above poster is doing... just sayin'.

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