MH365

[Fridgeola 1]

Hey all. I'm totally new to using cutters and purchased the MH365 to use for making stencils and masks for my airbrush work. It does fine cutting simple shapes like circles etc, but totally freaks out doing complex shapes or designs. I'm attaching a sample of what I'm trying to cut.  Does anyone have any suggestions to help solve my problem?...or shall I just continue to waste vinyl?

BTW...What is the actual cutting area of the MH365?

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[slice&dice 2,450]

The MH mini provides 10" of cut width.

 

Your example doesn't seem to be the type of thing that any cutter will handle.

 

What you want are silhouette designs (and if there are lines they need to be substantially thick, not too thin) --  Like THIS --

 

 

 

 

[Fridgeola 1]

I see...I was under the impression the cutters needed hairlines to cut - is this not so? I can block in the shapes and widen the outlines.

Thanks, I'll try that.

[MZ SKEETER 4,709]

Vinyl cutters need outlines of the objects, text etc. ,, not hairlines...

[Fridgeola 1]

I use Corel Draw to do all my vector drawings. So If I was to use some text how big should the outlines be? 1pt -2pt-3pt? Like I said - totally new to this.

[MZ SKEETER 4,709]

You need to make them large enough to have plenty of adhesive to stick with, when you cut the vinyl....Tiny little pieces will peel up. Not enough adhesive to hold it in place.

[Fridgeola 1]

So what about this version? - How much of this will need to be removed for it to cut? I really only need the shapes as a guide.

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[Wildgoose 4,200]

I don't see any problems with the actual difficulty of the two you posted other than the parts of the designs are overlapping each other. I opened these in AI and they appear just as outlines with stroke. You don't need stroke but your objects are overlapped in a lot of places. If you view them in outline mode or whatever Corel calls that you will be seeing what your cutter will see. (which will look basically the same as the current look with the stroke) Stroke weight will not transfer over to cutting, it will just cut the line itself. Not sure from these files what the final design is supposed to end up to be and if it has multiple color layers etc.... If you are trying to achieve one shape that is the whole of these then you need to union/weld them together or if there are multiple layers then color each layer separately and cut-by-color to get them separated at the cutter. I don't know if that makes any sense or not to you. 

 

As for saving vinyl, you may have received a pen attachment with your cutter, if so you can draw on paper with it while you get figured out and won't be wasting vinyl. 

[Fridgeola 1]

I wasn't sure if the cutter sees the image as flat or layers. So that makes sense to use different color layers to get the results I want. I'm trying to get it straight in my head what's needed and what isn't. Thanks for you help.

[Wildgoose 4,200]

The other thing I noticed is that some of your lines are not connected so they are just a bunch of different lines that make up a shape but aren't all connected. The cutter will cut these as drawn but any gaps or breaks or overlaps will also be cut. it's better to complete the circle on objects so they are a whole piece. Then if they need to be combined with other parts you can weld them together. I am not a Corel guy but in AI you can't do functions like weld or union or subtract one lines they need to be objects. 

[Fridgeola 1]

I suppose what I was trying to achieve was to cut the image as seperate shapes and weed them out as I need. Corel and AI function pretty much along the same lines (no pun intended) I can weld shapes, delete sub paths etc. Do you think this latest version will work if I cut by color or are the lines still overlapping too much?

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[darcshadow 1,626]

The overlapping is only an issue if you are wanting to cut the entire image at one time. If you are going to separate it out by color then what you have should work.

[Wildgoose 4,200]

Yes I would think you're going to be fine if you just color it up like you would be painting it and then use the cut by color function in SCALP. (I am making the assumption that you are using Sure Cuts a Lot Pro for your cutting)