Soren 56 Posted November 30, 2016 Unfortunately, on my home computer I am using Adobe Illustrator CS3. The software that I have for cutting vinyl is VE LXi Expert. I am definitely not an expert in Illustrator, I do know that CC is easier to work with (it's what I have on my computer at work, but I can;t afford to get it for home use right now). Here is a problem that I seem to be continually facing. In Illustrator CS3, I open a .jpg, .png or whatever, do a trace on it, expand the trace, delete the bits I don't want (basically, I am creating a a black and transparent image). I save it as a .ai or .eps file. Then a lot of the time, I import it into my cutting software, send the image to the cutter and in the preview it will either tell me it's not a vector image or it will only show a couple lines to cut. So... in Illustrator, is there something else I need to do to prepare images for cutting? It seems to be kind of hit and miss, and I am positive it's me just not knowing what I am doing. I had thought the other day I ran across an article or post that the headline said something like Just Because It's a Vector Does Not Mean It's ready For Cutting. Of course, I can't find that anywhere on the planet right now. Thanks in advance for any tips and tricks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
andygeekboy 62 Posted November 30, 2016 I'm definitely not an expert but Ctrl+y in AI will show you the wireframe, it's always good to double check there are lines where you want them and none where you don't. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mark-s 1,126 Posted November 30, 2016 I would invest in a good tracing program, Illustrator is not the best for tracing. mark-s Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wildgoose 4,200 Posted November 30, 2016 7 minutes ago, mark-s said: I would invest in a good tracing program, Illustrator is not the best for tracing. mark-s Or teach yourself to hand trace. Auto trace doesn't usually give great results unless the image is pristine black on white. I have an enlarger program that I sometimes use when I don't feel like tracing and I blow up the image 1000% and then do the trace and then shrink the results back down. Work pretty good on black and white stuff. Your interface issues are probably related to file types. Some transfer between different systems better than others. I use SignCut Pro and I talked to their tech support to ask which is the preferred format. For SignCut it's AI version8. The newer versions (even CS2 and CS3) there are too many new variables that cause issues. Try downsaving your work to version 8 and see if it helps. My other cutting software that came with my Summa actually likes version 3. I don't change into eps very often. Have done a few svg formats but found the dimensions slightly off for whatever reason so I stopped using those in my personal workflow. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mark-s 1,126 Posted December 2, 2016 Saving to AI 8 is industry standard. Any program should be able to work with that file. mark-s 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Soren 56 Posted December 2, 2016 Thanks for the replies! It is greatly appreciated. Saving as Ai 8 has seemed to do the trick so far. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
