candace0272

Borders WHEN designing Where do I Go?

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If the border will fit withing the width of the vinyl, just add it into the design.

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No super familiar with VM, but I would guess that you can add a box, or in this case, boxes - one for the outer edge of the border, and another for the inner edge of the border.

That's the easiest route for me when doing something with a border.

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That would be my guess. You can make the boxes a totally different color so that you can see the text, and you should be able to "send it back" in terms of layers to control what you see in your design software.

Sorry, I'm not versed in VM at all, but the concept is same regardless of design software.

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24 minutes ago, candace0272 said:

ok like im very very beginner in this like by a few months in

Box? where do i go to get that box to insert, in shapes?

Go to youtube and look for some training videos. There are tons out there to help get you started down the right path.

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8 hours ago, candace0272 said:

yea I was being lazy! lol ok will do

thanks

Every vector program basically does the same thing but they each go about it a little differently. I too am not well versed in the VM program and there are different levels of design capability depending on which version you have. (that's a whole other consideration). 

A border like you mention I am assuming you mean like a thick border maybe 1/2 or 1" thick. You can probably draw a rectangle and then another on top of the first that is smaller and creates the inner line and then subtract the top inner layer form the larger one behind it and it will create a border. Other programs may have you draw a single box and give the line some stroke until you get the desired width then convert the stroke to outlines (because most programs will not cut a stroked line I know that's probably over your head sorry) other programs might have you draw one of the rectangles and then do a path offset either in or out to create the other line and then once again minus the top layer from the bottom to create what's generally known as a compound path (mostly means a path with a hole in it including letters of the alphabet). Just drawing two boxes freehand is probably the least friendly way to do it due to accuracy and symmetry problems. Drawing a line then adding stroke can be problematic because generally stroke straddles the line and will start to crowd into the inside perhaps more than you wanted etc... some programs allow you to define where the stroke sits in relation to the actual line and align centered or to the inside or outside. 

If you find that your version of VM is not high enough to do some of the things you want you will have to decide if you want to pay for an upgrade or figure something else out. VM is a pretty good design program so you won't go wrong with an upgrade. If you are purely a hobbyist and don't have a budget allowance you can try out Inkscape which is totally free and a fairly well put together vector art program. Once designed in Inkscape (or Adobe Illustrator or Corel if you happen to have either) you can then open the design up in VM and cut it. 

You can plan to spend some serious time playing around getting familiar with your program but the time is well spent. It's one of the facets of the craft that sort of make or break vinyl cutting. If you give up you'll be limited to basic text runs and things other people build for you (which are often not actually "cut ready")

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15 hours ago, candace0272 said:

yea I was being lazy! lol ok will do

thanks

Sorry, but you do have to learn the very basics before we can be much help on here. Everyone has told you good information but I gather from your question of how to draw a box all the information they're giving you is over your skill level at this time.

There are tons of great videos to get you started, or just start pushing buttons in the program and see what happens, that's usually how I learn a program.

Once you can do the basics, then everyone on here will be more than happy to help with some tricks or more advanced techniques. 

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VinylMaster has a great YouTube channel with a ton of videos.  I just started at the first video with my notepad and a cup of coffee.  If I found something I knew I'd want to review later, I wrote down the video name and how many minutes into the video the information was.  It will take a couple of days to watch them all but it was well worth it!

Now, the downside to their channel is that they suck at telling you which version of VM the command is found in.  So you sort of need to follow along in VM and see if the commands they are talking about are available in your version.

 

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Also, click the Help (menu) > Help Topics in the software to bring up the manual.

You can use the Keyword search to find the topic that relates to this issue and/or expand out the folders to drill down to the topic.

For a border, create a square and use the power nodes to form a border. 

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