eprcvinyls

is there a way to get SCAL4 Saved projects into Vinylmaster?

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Warning.... If you read this whole thread your going to know a lot more about me,, okay if your still reading.

okay so i really like using the SCAL4 demo, its easy to use to me ive really caught on to it. and I have saved a ton of projects in it. but the files say there scut4 files.. I cant import those to Vinylmaster.

and when i try to export them from SCAL4 it does it but when you open it it has DEMO across it.. so i'm trying to figure out if there is anyway at all i could convert the files to vinylmaster so i can cut the projects i already have.. Cause the SC2 cutter i'm going to buy has Vinylmaster with it not SCAL4.. wish you could pick.. I'm going to order off amazon to save on shipping.

I want to buy SCAL but i just cant right now.. I have wanted a Vinyl cutter for many years and I guess i always posted in the wrong places about getting one, I was always talked out of it by people who were rude in telling me if i cant afford to buy a $500 software program and another $200 for fonts and clipart i shouldn't get one and just have someone who knows what there doing to make decals i wanted cause i never be able to do it myself... Years have past and i was just going to buy a Silhouette and cut stuff then found a site joined and they talked me into a bigger/better machine then i found out this site and everyone's been very helpful but honestly i don't have $2,000 to buy all the best stuff and buy everything i need at once.  Ive been out of work Since July 1st, was working for a buddy who owned his own handyman company and i had been working for him for a month when all sudden he stopped texting and calling me to tell me what time to be at his house for work, ( i think iether his wife got mad about how much he was paying me and that was less money for her) a month before this I left a regular job that had health insurance and a regular paycheck every 2 weeks to come work for him cause he said he could pay me double for less work i was stressed out at my job ( retail job) working electronics for a company. Yeah I screwed up that was my fault on leaving a job for another.

Anyhow, Pior to that I hadn't really worked much at all cause in December of 2016 I found out i had a rare Bone infection in my right index finger and i had to have a operation on Jan 18 2017 to have that finger amputated a quarter the way back, I was out of work from Jan 15th till March 10th 9 i think was the date) so that whole time i made nothing, I had to be out of work for the surgery and psychical therapy to get my finger bending again. It was a HUGE challenge inmy life i pretty much had to relarn to type.I still cant use that finger to type but luckily im back typing almost as fast as i could before. ive had to learn a different way to shoot guns, run chainsaw, hand tools work on my automobiles you name it.. its been very annoying at times. At the time of my surgery right before and after cause the finger was wrapped up good i couldn't even open a bag of chips..i fought with it fora while the infection came back 3 times, had to be put back on antibiotics 3 different times. finally got rid of it.

Anyhow today my finger is healed, i still have to be very very careful what I do, i bump it on everything it seems like and it still HURTs. i met a guy in PT that had same thing done to him in 2007 and he said if he bumps it on something it still hurts bad.. ive bumped it doing the most basic things. I can't do a lot of jobs now cause of it. i used to live to auto machinic but now im scared doing a oil change or changing a thermostat on my truck ( done both since this happened, Im lot slower now not to bump it on anything and i have to wear gloves to be safe) Anyhow 2016 was a very bad year for me, my family on july 16th 2016 my 71 year old father had a massive stroke, and he is paralized on his left side. I moved back home in July to help my 69 yr old mother take care of my father, My job gave me leave to help with him, Doctoer apointments, sergury, ect. so i was out of work not getting paid from about july 16-october 20th 16 so also all of that time i was out of work..

 

Im really hoping i can make some money any money at all doing this. and but i  just dont have the funds to buy all at once i don't want anyone to think im just trying to get stuff for free cause im not.. my mom is now 71 dads 73 they get SS i guess but its not much. Only lucky thing is my father worked his butt off for most of his life and had a really great job for the last 25 yrs of his life and saved ton of money that now is going out every month to bills and health care people they have insurance but it don't pay for everything we had to buy a $16,000 wheelchair van just to be able to bring dad home and get him to appointments.

Today i am really still sat,upset,annoyed that the home health never got my dad to walk, they never had a Hand dr (OT) to come out to try and get use of his left hand/arm.  Facts are hard to face but most likely my father will never walk again, he will never be able to do anything by his self again, he loved to fly radio control planes and helicopters with me, and loved to shot his guns, he loved to reload ammo, and loved taking care of his grass,yard flowers and now he never be able to do any of that again.. living in a wheelchair and hospital bed every day.

Im trying very hard to eat better being i have high blood pressure also ( that what cause dads stroke) and im a type 2 Diabetic.

Sorry for the long long post. but i think i feel a little better  I am on here to get advice, learn stuff and enjoy being a apart of this group. Hope I'm here a long time.

Thank you to any who read this whole post.

 

 

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to answer the top question - the demos are made so you cannot save nor cut from them without marks - otherwise no one would buy the software they would just use the demo fro free.

to go from one software to another try "Exporting" as a .eps. svg. or similar vector format that is common between programs - anything "saved" is usually just saves in a proprietary format for that particular program.  in your case it will have demo on it or if connected to a cutter it will cut lines thru the design until a legal copy is activated.

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If you can save the file without the demo thing going across it, you might be able to find someone one here that you could send the files to and have them save them off as an EPS that you could then open in most any vector program. Unless the design is complicated and not easy to reproduce I'd suggest just redoing it. It'll give you the practice of working with what ever the new software you choose.

I know I'm probably starting to sound like a broken record (do kids know what that means these days?) but I highly recommend giving Inkscape a try. It's free and very powerful.

Signblazer Elements is another free and very good program, although it is very old and feels a bit clunky.

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3 hours ago, darcshadow said:

If you can save the file without the demo thing going across it, you might be able to find someone one here that you could send the files to and have them save them off as an EPS that you could then open in most any vector program. Unless the design is complicated and not easy to reproduce I'd suggest just redoing it. It'll give you the practice of working with what ever the new software you choose.

I know I'm probably starting to sound like a broken record (do kids know what that means these days?) but I highly recommend giving Inkscape a try. It's free and very powerful.

Signblazer Elements is another free and very good program, although it is very old and feels a bit clunky.

So with inkscape and signblazer you can design and cut from them? or you have to export the file as something vinylmaster will read to cut?

 

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14 minutes ago, eprcvinyls said:

So with inkscape and signblazer you can design and cut from them? or you have to export the file as something vinylmaster will read to cut?

 

Inksacpe you can vectorize, or design in vector,  then export as a vector file. The vector file will typically be .eps or .svg, and can be used across the board with most cutting software (import image, etc.).

Sign Blazer  you can design and send to the cutter. Sign Blazer does allow you to export a design you created to a vector file as well, however, if you're saving the layout and color layers, etc., it's a proprietary file type .SBD

I'm biased towards Sign Blazer because that's my cutting app of choice - I have Flexi, but didn't want to relearn something that already worked for me. (Not to mention that I'm completely out of date when it comes to the newer software :P)

~btw - the whole reason I bought my cutter, was because I couldn't find someone willing to cut my stuff (at a reasonable price), which basically were one-off custom stuff "Stupidity should be painful" kind of stuff. <- That was my very first thing I cut! Then handed out as many decals as I could possibly force my friends and family to have. purely selfish, but it's turned into a hobby that has paid for itself several times over.

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3 hours ago, haumana said:

Inksacpe you can vectorize, or design in vector,  then export as a vector file. The vector file will typically be .eps or .svg, and can be used across the board with most cutting software (import image, etc.).

Sign Blazer  you can design and send to the cutter. Sign Blazer does allow you to export a design you created to a vector file as well, however, if you're saving the layout and color layers, etc., it's a proprietary file type .SBD

I'm biased towards Sign Blazer because that's my cutting app of choice - I have Flexi, but didn't want to relearn something that already worked for me. (Not to mention that I'm completely out of date when it comes to the newer software :P)

~btw - the whole reason I bought my cutter, was because I couldn't find someone willing to cut my stuff (at a reasonable price), which basically were one-off custom stuff "Stupidity should be painful" kind of stuff. <- That was my very first thing I cut! Then handed out as many decals as I could possibly force my friends and family to have. purely selfish, but it's turned into a hobby that has paid for itself several times over.

thanks, I looked for the sign blazer and cant find a recent post on it with a good download link did a google and couldn't find it guess not many do use it.. I do have the inksacpe and ive just not played with it. its almost to much with all the tools it has. guess i should give it another go

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Yes, Inkscape can be overwhelming at first glance, but once you start playing around with a little you'll find you only use a handful of the tool to do 90% of your work. Inkscape can do quite a bit more than what is needed for cutting vinyl.The text tool, circle, square, beizler and node edit tools are really the main ones you'll need.

Inkscape can be used as a cut program, but that's not what it's good at and since Vinylmaster will come with you're machine it'll better for cutting.

Don't let the idea of designing in one program and cutting in another scare you off. That's quite common, I would guess it's actually more common than using one program to do it all.

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3 hours ago, darcshadow said:

Yes, Inkscape can be overwhelming at first glance, but once you start playing around with a little you'll find you only use a handful of the tool to do 90% of your work. Inkscape can do quite a bit more than what is needed for cutting vinyl.The text tool, circle, square, beizler and node edit tools are really the main ones you'll need.

Inkscape can be used as a cut program, but that's not what it's good at and since Vinylmaster will come with you're machine it'll better for cutting.

Don't let the idea of designing in one program and cutting in another scare you off. That's quite common, I would guess it's actually more common than using one program to do it all.

Thanks for the input. guess i will try it again.. I wasn't able to find much on youtube i like watching videos on how things work also i know ive said it a lot but its true im better at watching and learning then reading and learning.

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funny, when it comes do doing things on the computer I'm better at reading than watching. Partly because watching someone do it takes about 5 times longer than for me to look at a picture and short description. :)

There are tons of Inkscape tutorials, here's a good place to start, although i believe most of these are reading and pictures.

https://inkscape.org/en/learn/tutorials/

if you google, Inkscape tutorial youtube, there are quite a few that come up.

I use Inkscape exclusively for what I do and will be happy to answer any questions you may come up with. Although fair warning, all that I know came from just playing around and google. :)

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3 hours ago, darcshadow said:

funny, when it comes do doing things on the computer I'm better at reading than watching. Partly because watching someone do it takes about 5 times longer than for me to look at a picture and short description. :)

There are tons of Inkscape tutorials, here's a good place to start, although i believe most of these are reading and pictures.

https://inkscape.org/en/learn/tutorials/

if you google, Inkscape tutorial youtube, there are quite a few that come up.

I use Inkscape exclusively for what I do and will be happy to answer any questions you may come up with. Although fair warning, all that I know came from just playing around and google. :)

Thanks, I looked again and found one i watched it was pretty good but the guy talked really fast... Do you know off hand a easy way to do curved text like is in my avatar

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Use text tool to type out your text, Use circle tool to draw a circle, Select the text and circle then under the Text menu select put on path.

You'll probably need to rotate the circle 90 degrees as the text is usually centered on the left side.

Unfortunately, if you delete the circle your text will go back to normal. So what you have to do in order to get rid of the circle is convert the text to a path. Select the text then from the Patch menu select Object to Path.

The text is now a path and can no longer be edited as text, but it also means you can delete the circle.

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3 hours ago, darcshadow said:

Use text tool to type out your text, Use circle tool to draw a circle, Select the text and circle then under the Text menu select put on path.

You'll probably need to rotate the circle 90 degrees as the text is usually centered on the left side.

Unfortunately, if you delete the circle your text will go back to normal. So what you have to do in order to get rid of the circle is convert the text to a path. Select the text then from the Patch menu select Object to Path.

The text is now a path and can no longer be edited as text, but it also means you can delete the circle.

I drew a circle and typed my text but cant get it to put on path. you group the text and circle? or just put a box around both

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No, you just select the text and the circle. You can draw a selection box around both, or click on the text and while holding down the Shift key click on the circle.

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19 hours ago, darcshadow said:

No, you just select the text and the circle. You can draw a selection box around both, or click on the text and while holding down the Shift key click on the circle.

Do you know why when i export my file and i import it in vinylmaster only one part of my image is showing up? like i designed my logo in it and it only showed the cross. witch is the last thing i added to it.

thanks

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For designing in Inkscape and then cutting in VM, you don't want to use the Inkscape export option, you just need to do a save or save as. Save will save it in a SVG format, which I believe VM will open. Save As gives you loads of options, EPS is kind of the industry standard.

The Export function in Inkscape will produce a PNG file, (a raster image). When you do the export, the window that opens has 4 tabs, Page, Drawing, Selection and Custom. If you have a single item in your design selected when you click the export, I believe it will default to the Selection tab and only export what you have selected. You'll want to select Drawing to export the entire drawing. Remember though, this is a raster image. The main reason I use this feature is to save a design off that I can then send to someone for review knowing they will be able to open it without any hassle.

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3 hours ago, darcshadow said:

For designing in Inkscape and then cutting in VM, you don't want to use the Inkscape export option, you just need to do a save or save as. Save will save it in a SVG format, which I believe VM will open. Save As gives you loads of options, EPS is kind of the industry standard.

The Export function in Inkscape will produce a PNG file, (a raster image). When you do the export, the window that opens has 4 tabs, Page, Drawing, Selection and Custom. If you have a single item in your design selected when you click the export, I believe it will default to the Selection tab and only export what you have selected. You'll want to select Drawing to export the entire drawing. Remember though, this is a raster image. The main reason I use this feature is to save a design off that I can then send to someone for review knowing they will be able to open it without any hassle.

Thanks, i tried that first and it wouldn't open. Maybe since i don't have the full version yet but it will only open a few files. here is a screen shot of what ones it will open and i dont see none of those on the save as in inkscape

saveas.jpg

inscapesaves.jpg

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3 hours ago, slice&dice said:

Saving is different than Exporting.

I know... and those are both the save and open options.. under regular Save as and open...

the things for export and inport are driffrent.. darcshadow said not to export just to save as for what i was trying to do.

 

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3 hours ago, darcshadow said:

Right, Exporting in Inkscape is only for raster images.

In VM, is there an import option? 

Oh, So save as in inkscape but import it into VM... I got it now i think ,thank you

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Yeah, every software is a little different in how they do things. typically, if a program uses a proprietary file format that is usually the only options for Save and Open functions and you have to use Export and Import to get other file formats.

Inkscape tries to make Opening and Saving a little more straight forward by doing the import/export without calling it that. For example, when you save an EPS file from Inkscape you'll be prompted for some additional settings on how you want the file saved. These are essential the same questions you'd be asked from other software when you tell it you want to export it.

The downside of Inkscape doing this, is since you are technically exporting/importing the file, it may not be exactly what you intended due to things like layers being handled slightly differently between different programs and variants of file formats. EPS for examply, there are a few different versions of EPS, but they all have the EPS extension.

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3 hours ago, darcshadow said:

Yeah, every software is a little different in how they do things. typically, if a program uses a proprietary file format that is usually the only options for Save and Open functions and you have to use Export and Import to get other file formats.

Inkscape tries to make Opening and Saving a little more straight forward by doing the import/export without calling it that. For example, when you save an EPS file from Inkscape you'll be prompted for some additional settings on how you want the file saved. These are essential the same questions you'd be asked from other software when you tell it you want to export it.

The downside of Inkscape doing this, is since you are technically exporting/importing the file, it may not be exactly what you intended due to things like layers being handled slightly differently between different programs and variants of file formats. EPS for examply, there are a few different versions of EPS, but they all have the EPS extension.

Thank you for all of your help, well i wouldn't know how VM saves anything cause on the demo your not allowed to save. that is why i had been making everything in SCAL. Yesterday part of a letter was cut off when i went to vector the image its okay cause it still looks fine with part of the V missing.

 

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saving in most software will be in their format - that is why you "export" into a common type file like .eps - then you can import into most other programs - when I started out the first year I saved a lot in signblazer and since have learned to use .eps or other more common file format - that way when working in various programs it opens in all of them.

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