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Need Help - Double cutting the image!

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I have a MH871-MK2  

 

  I have had my cutter since late winter and had no issues cutting lots of stickers. The past two times I have tried to cut, it is double cutting the sticker. The second cut is much harder it seems as it is cutting through the backing paper as well. 

    I looked on the settings and do not have double cut selected. I checked software for updates...nothing. reset program, I cannot seem to get it to stop doing this.

 

Any help would be great please! i have to make some stickers asap and this is preventing me because it ends up shredding everything when the backing gets sliced. 

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Make sure the design is not double layered..  Zoom on wire frame, edit the nodes and see if there is another of the same design under it.

 

Sometimes white will be another layer

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I apologize, I do not understand wire frame & nodes...I am just learning with this kind of stuff. 

   

  This has been happening on images that I have cut in the past numerous times without any issues. So I open up SCAL3 and select my image to trace. Plus when it cuts the second time it seems as though it is cutting with more pressure because it slices the paper on the second pass. 

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Nodes are what make the design,of a vector image.,,it will have many nodes..that connect the paths of the design together,  Wireframe>outlines.. Outline view. Your cutter cuts the outlines of the design...  Those are basics that you should know about vector images, before cutting designs.

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Are you tracing an image that is already a vector image?  It it has already been cut before, You would not trace it again. That is how you are getting doubles ,if that is what you are doing...,It is ready to cut if it has been traced before and saved.

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Skeeter is basically saying that you probably have two copies of the design, one on top of the other. This is why it is cutting twice.

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If they are stacked perfectly it can be hard to see the second image too. Use the single node edit and drag a node over to see if there is another beneath it. (as mentioned previously)

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Okay... I let me see if I can help make sense of all this. I have done this same process dozens of times. I open the program, click the Autotrace icon (because it works on jpgs) then cut the sticker. Close the program (do not save the project) and do the same thing over again next time I open the program again. Yet the past two times, i have tried to cut, I have had this issue. 

 

Plus it is cutting the paper on the second cut?....If it was cutting the image again it shouldn't  cut the paper backing because it didn't the first time, to me, its cutting the paper because there is more pressure? 

 

I am sorry, I do not understand the lingo of Nodes. I have no idea what a single node edit is. 

 

   I just tried it with an image I had not previously cut & it is doing the same thing. 

 

Again, settings for multi cut are off

 

Thank you all for helping a newbie through this. 

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If it is cutting 2 times, yes it can go right thru the paper backing,,   but even though, you are saying it is cutting 2 times, it still sounds like you need to set the blade depth correctly. Here is how.   And try reinstalling SCALP

 

To start with, you should set your blade depth correctly, by taking the blade holder out of the machine, and firmly cut across a piece of scrap vinyl, you will be cutting. You should only be cutting the vinyl and barely a mark on wax paper backing, Adjust blade to get there, Then put the blade holder back in machine, and use the force of the machine to get there, same results, only cutting the vinyl and barely a mark in wax paper backing.

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Is it double cutting every image?

 

 

Yes it is. 

 

I just reinstalled the program and it triple cut an image?!?

 

I have a mac. No recent updates. ...when I hit test on the cutter it single cuts the test image

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Pretty sure the MH won't run consistently on a mac. That may be the real issue. If you can upload a file you have been having issues with (do your trace and then save it) we can take a look and see if there are actually duplicate layers.

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Yes,  stated on the ads.  

 

PLEASE NOTE: This vinyl cutter is not compatible with Mac.

 

If you can get it to work, on a Mac, it will be hit or miss.   There will not be any support, if your using a Mac,

 

Go find a cheap Windows computer,  just not Windows 10

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Post the file. I'll look at it. 

 

I have attached the file. Hopefully it is the .SVG you wanted. 

 

I was aware when I purchased this about the Mac. I had a friend that had researched the unit and purchased it & used it without any issues. I have cut easily 1000 stickers since I purchased it. no issues. Only one has been this. multi cutting

 

    I truly do appreciate the assistance from everyone trying to find a solution.

Wake_Surf_540_art.svg

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Look at your image in wire frame mode before cutting. You will notice that this file has multiple overlaps. It looks like someone has made different revisions within the same file and stacked them for some reason. You can see that they have progressively smoothed some corners. You will need to decide which layer you want to keep and remove the others. You are cutting decals and not stickers.

 

post-35520-0-50960600-1442837239_thumb.j

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Look at your image in wire frame mode before cutting. You will notice that this file has multiple overlaps. It looks like someone has made different revisions within the same file and stacked them for some reason. You can see that they have progressively smoothed some corners. You will need to decide which layer you want to keep and remove the others. You are cutting decals and not stickers.

 

attachicon.gifmulti-cuts.jpg

 

 

Wow, okay.

Thank you 

 

Question 1- why could I cut this decal without issues several different times, and not now.

 

Question 2- this seems to be happening with only images I use the trace function on? 

 

Question 3 How do I go back and cut these decals now? I had always traced every time I needed to cut them. 

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You may have been cutting by individual color and now are cutting all colors at once but It sounds like you may have traced the image multiple times and saved to the same file.

You shouldn't need to trace an image more than once. Trace is for tracing raster images like gif jpg bmp png and so on. Once it is traced remove the raster image and save your new vector image so its ready to cut in the future. You can save it to a new folder such as "ready to cut" or something so it's easy to find.

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You may have been cutting by individual color and now are cutting all colors but It sounds like you may have traced the image multiple times and saved to the same file.

You shouldn't need to trace an image more than once. Trace is for tracing raster images like gif jpg bmp png and so on. Once it is traced remove the raster image and save your new vector image so its ready to cut in the future. You can save it in a new folder such as "ready to cut" or something so it's easy to find.

 

 

I had never saved them after I traced....I would just open the jpg, png, etc in the trace format to cut.

   I just saved this image from online, just to test ( Billabong)...traced it.....then it cut twice on me

 

I sent an image to an online converter & it cut fine, yet cut a box around it.

post-94957-0-74022000-1442841093_thumb.jWakeSurf_540_smal.eps

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Wow, okay.

Thank you 

 

Question 1- why could I cut this decal without issues several different times, and not now.

 

Also if you had been using "cut selection only" it would be cutting only one layer. Probably the top one.

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Ok  Matt,  After you trace any image, you should be zooming it up big on wire frame and looking it over before cutting it. Most any file will need a bit of tweeking with the nodes to make a good cut.. Also, I don't get why you want to do the extra work of tracing it every time you want to cut it..It probably will not trace the exact same way every time.  Trace it, make sure it looks good, do your tweeking, node editing on wire frame until it looks great, then save it for the next time.. Then all you have to do is import it in your cutting software and cut it.. You want a product that looks the exact same every time you cut it.

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I agree with Skeeter. Change your methods now while you are new and you will be doing it the right way forever. Build a file once then just open it to cut again. Auto trace which is what you have been doing usually does a crappy job. Once in a while when the file is pristine black on white with no pixelation you can get a nice trace that looks perfect but in my experience that is about 1 in 100 tries. Most times I spend about as much time trying to "Clean" the file and remove the weird glitches where the program misinterpreted the picture as if I had just hand traced what I wanted. You also have control of where the control points (Nodes) are placed when hand tracing. The reason this matters is auto trace will usually place 5 times as many nodes around an arc as are needed which makes smoothing it out practically impossible. A hand traced version probably would only have 2 or three instead of 17. 

 

Takes some practice and if I remember correctly SCALP kind of sucks for hand tracing but you should learn to do it, you'll thank yourself later like you do now that you now how to read and write. It's THAT important. IF SCALP isn't working to your satisfaction try some of the other options out there. Inkscape is a great FREE program that is superior to SCALP for design and there are several other paid programs like Illustrator and Corel that are even better but you have to pay and the learning curve will be steeper. If you decide to make a change in design you will likely still be cutting from SCALP unless you choose something like Flexi or similar that do both design and cut. 

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Ok  Matt,  After you trace any image, you should be zooming it up big on wire frame and looking it over before cutting it. Most any file will need a bit of tweeking with the nodes to make a good cut.. Also, I don't get why you want to do the extra work of tracing it every time you want to cut it..It probably will not trace the exact same way every time.  Trace it, make sure it looks good, do your tweeking, node editing on wire frame until it looks great, then save it for the next time.. Then all you have to do is import it in your cutting software and cut it.. You want a product that looks the exact same every time you cut it.

 

I did not know of any other way. ....Seemed easy enough hitting the trace button. Which again has been very successful. Just still don't get why out of know where it messed up.

 

I agree with Skeeter. Change your methods now while you are new and you will be doing it the right way forever. Build a file once then just open it to cut again. Auto trace which is what you have been doing usually does a crappy job. Once in a while when the file is pristine black on white with no pixelation you can get a nice trace that looks perfect but in my experience that is about 1 in 100 tries. Most times I spend about as much time trying to "Clean" the file and remove the weird glitches where the program misinterpreted the picture as if I had just hand traced what I wanted. You also have control of where the control points (Nodes) are placed when hand tracing. The reason this matters is auto trace will usually place 5 times as many nodes around an arc as are needed which makes smoothing it out practically impossible. A hand traced version probably would only have 2 or three instead of 17. 

 

Takes some practice and if I remember correctly SCALP kind of sucks for hand tracing but you should learn to do it, you'll thank yourself later like you do now that you now how to read and write. It's THAT important. IF SCALP isn't working to your satisfaction try some of the other options out there. Inkscape is a great FREE program that is superior to SCALP for design and there are several other paid programs like Illustrator and Corel that are even better but you have to pay and the learning curve will be steeper. If you decide to make a change in design you will likely still be cutting from SCALP unless you choose something like Flexi or similar that do both design and cut. 

 

    Seems to be working on files I had converted by this website. I will have to learn more about all the topics you mentioned. Thank you both

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We don't know what "your" claim of successful looks like..  we have not seen your finished products or your files that go with the product, except the one above which was a total mess. ...What you may think is successful, may be below average,,because you don't know any different.  I'm with Wildgoose,, with the 1 out of 100 times you will get a good trace, most any traced file will need clean up work to cut good..  And if your doing any tracing of text,  you only do that as a very LAST resort, With text, the font should be found and the text recreated.

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