Circle Edges Rough??

[storm2313 25]

I'm trying to isolate this issue. It seems to reveal itself when cutting with the contour settings down to .003 for a slight bleed to not see any white from the bordering unprinted vinyl.

 

If I adjust the contour line around .005-.006, and have a slight white boarder it vanishes. What could be causing this? The circles are perfect other than the roughness on the edge that was cut when printed on. I'm thinking the blade may need to be replaced, but would rather ask if someone else had experienced this. My cutter is a Graphtec CE-6000. This issue only seems to appear when cutting circles with a bleed, so zero white shows on the graphic.

 

My pictures attached reflect the issue.

 

All help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Command 97]

I think the first thing you need to do is to try to cut a perfect circle with another program / not contouring.

 

That should tell you really fast whether or not it is a physical or software problem and narrow down the possible causes.

[storm2313 25]

I cut circles fine when not using contour cutting. The cuts look perfect without any roughness. The issue is when I perform contour cuts with bleed around a circle. The interesting thing is as long as I leave a few thousands of the un printed vinyl the edge appears perfect.

 

I'm wondering why the inconsistency? If it's the software you would see it on any cut correct?

 

I hope someone can at least point me in the right direction.

 

Thank you.

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

if it is solvent leave it to outgas for a night - but if you cut into that bleed be prepared for it to curl in a short amount of time - that solvent gets into the vinyl and right after printing it is like cutting wet toilet paper - then as the solvent outgasses the vinyl shrinks and that is why I always leave the boarder

[storm2313 25]

I understand your point. I just wish I could have some direction on why this occurs during bleed circle cuts. It's very strange. I did review a sample circle under the contour generating option. I found out that after zooming in close the circle contour line is jagged. Can anyone else review this on their system to confirm what I'm seeing?

 

If this is the case it appears you can't do a bleed on a circle cut without generating the rough line. The contrast when performing a bleed cut, and black ink makes the rough line stand out more do to the contrast.

 

I hope someone else posts their results.

 

Thank you.

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

I understand your point. I just wish I could have some direction on why this occurs during bleed circle cuts. It's very strange. I did review a sample circle under the contour generating option. I found out that after zooming in close the circle contour line is jagged. Can anyone else review this on their system to confirm what I'm seeing?

 

If this is the case it appears you can't do a bleed on a circle cut without generating the rough line. The contrast when performing a bleed cut, and black ink makes the rough line stand out more do to the contrast.

 

I hope someone else posts their results.

 

Thank you.

just like when you try to let a program trace an image for cutting - you have to watch for things that need fixed - not sure which program you are creating your contour from but at the least separate the contour and node edit if needed to clean that up.  but you have been doing cutting long enough to already know that part.   

[storm2313 25]

I'm using Vinyl Master Pro software. I review all the contour lines closely as I realize no program is perfect however this is a rather large issue for those of us contour cutting graphics that include circles. I haven't had a response from  Futurecorp yet to see if it's a setting to manipulate to possible correct this.

 

I'm sure I can't be the only one cutting circles with a bleed. I'm curious if anyone else has experienced this?

[Guest Future Corporation Support]

Firstly to rule out the generated cutting contour, you can select the circle shape you want to cut around exactly, duplicate it, and set the color to the "Contour Cut" color (top right on the color palette). You can turn any shape into a cutting contour using this method (including circle objects, etc)

if you view in wire frame, you will be able to visually inspect if the shape is smooth. 

One possibility also, is that the blade offset may not be set correctly on your Graphtec, so when the cutter moves to the beginning of the circle, it does not fully compensate for the trailing blade offset.

[storm2313 25]

Incorrect blade offset would be reflected by non square cuts as covered in virtually all examples explaining the condition. This cutter cuts squares perfectly. I use the generating contour cut feature as I believed that would generate the most accurate method of contour cutting.

 

The method your describing I never heard of. If I have a shape with a circle in it, and create a duplicate image of that shape I can turn the duplicate into a contour cut pattern for the original shape?

 

How is it done? Selecting the contour color I thought was for making the contour cut lines easier to review prior to cutting. Please outline the process to complete what your describing in detail, as I was never able to generate a contour line without the feature in the software.

 

Your time is greatly appreciated.

[Guest Future Corporation Support]

To manually create your own cutting contours, from existing shapes and curves, all you need to do, is select the objects and change their color to the "Cutting Contour" color, which is in the color palette on the right hand side. It is the one with a small icon of a blade.

If you had a shape that you also wanted to print, but also cut around as well, that is where the duplicating the item (having it selected and pressing the "+" key on the number pad), so that when you set the color to the contour color, it applies this to the duplicate item, and the original item remains unchanged, and thus prints.

There are a few ways this issue can be troubleshooted, and if you are interested in exploring these options in more detail, we would be more than happy to assist you, so that you can resolve it.

Go to: http://future.support and lodge a support ticket so that we can work with you to determine the underlying cause.

My gut feeling it it is either related to small imperfections in the shape being used to generate the contour being magnified during the contour generation process, or possibly related to how the blade cuts out areas dense with ink, although I have never heard of this being an issue before.

We can rule out either of these by performing a few simple tests.

[storm2313 25]

I found out how to fix the issue today. I reviewed the graphics at over 1200% zoom. I saw the circles edges of the image had a blur to them. I used the sharpening effect in the mask option which eliminated the blurred edge. I then went over with a pen outline very fine to refine the edge further. I recommend any one cutting an image perform the sharpening effect to assure the edges are smooth. 

 

I then went into the contour cut module, and the lines were perfectly smooth. I performed a rework cut to verify it corrected the issue, and the graphics were perfect.

 

It's sometimes harder to explain when writing. I appreciate the support, and can't wait to see the new videos.

 

Thank you again for your time.

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

I found out how to fix the issue today. I reviewed the graphics at over 1200% zoom. I saw the circles edges of the image had a blur to them. I used the sharpening effect in the mask option which eliminated the blurred edge. I then went over with a pen outline very fine to refine the edge further. I recommend any one cutting an image perform the sharpening effect to assure the edges are smooth. 

 

I then went into the contour cut module, and the lines were perfectly smooth. I performed a rework cut to verify it corrected the issue, and the graphics were perfect.

 

It's sometimes harder to explain when writing. I appreciate the support, and can't wait to see the new videos.

 

Thank you again for your time.

glad you got it - that is why I try to always work from a clean vector image or high rez - 

[storm2313 25]

I do tons of custom work, and some images have that blurry edging. I will use the technique above to eliminate any issues in the future. Hopefully others can learn from this, To get a perfect edge a perfectly smooth outline is critical. The software is EXTREMELY accurate. Sometimes more so than your eyes. I suggest using wireframe, and in the contour module the cut view to identify abnormalities that should be eliminated before the cut process.

 

Thank you for all your support. I greatly appreciate it.