Lettering overlaps when text is horizontal but not vertical

[Nick Thompson 0]

I am using my MH-365 cutter to cut out a 3 digit number ("246") with 8" tall lettering using "Berlin Sans FB Demi" font.  It looks perfect on-screen.  The preview before sending to the cutter looks great, centered, none of the numbers overlap each other.  According to the ruler, there is just over 1/2" gap between the "2" and the "4"

But when the cutter cuts the numbers, the "4" is shifted left by over an inch which causes the "4" to overlap the "2".  The spacing between the "4" and "6" is shrunken too but not by the same amount.  In the preview, there is a 1/2" gap between the "4" and the "6" but in the cut version, the gap is shrunk to 1/4".  Another odd artifact, the "2" isn't closed...the cutter fails to fully cut the bottom of the shape of the 2.

Funny thing, if I rotate the numbers by 90degrees, they cut just fine.  Is this a bug in the application?  Or do I have an offset or something misconfigured in the page or cutter setup?

Fortunately after the first bad cut, I swapped to the pen to "plot" the results instead of burning up vinyl.  

[Nick Thompson 0]

Pics of preview, actual cut (plot), rotated preview, and successful cut (plot)

 

[MZ SKEETER 4,709]

That cutter only has a max cutting width of 10" wide.  You have . 10.787 inches wide.as your design width.  Are you putting the carriage head as far to the right close to the vinyl edge and pushing the ORIGIN button?  That is where it measures from.  You have to have the vinyl over to the right as far as it can be, because it is only going to go left 10 inches.  Why isn't the 6 starting closer to the right side? That is my 2c at 2:22 AM 02/22/2020

[Nick Thompson 0]

The numbers themselves are not over 10".  They are less (approx 9.8").  The 10.787" you see above is the workspace area that was setup for the page size.  But perhaps, as you mention, the software is trying to compress the numbers together due to the oversize workspace?  That's a thought.   

However, the software (and the specs) declare the MH-365 cutter has a 10.82"7 cutting width and complains (refuses to send the job to the cutter) if I try to go larger than 10.8".   If I was running out of cutting room space (ie vinyl not far enough over), I'd expect the "2" to go off the edge of the page.  Not get jammed up against the "4". (the cutter doesn't know where I put the vinyl, but I do reset the origin every job and I keep it as far to the edge as possible).

The fact it doesn't close the "2" character leads me to believe that altogether its a software bug. 

[Nick Thompson 0]

Here are my cut job settings that go along with this. 

• I'm not cutting a weed box because I'm actually using this cut-out as a stencil to paint.   
• I used the "Absolute (position)" setting so that the numbers were centered on the page as I had set it up. 

These are the only settings which are "unusual" compared to other times I use this cutter.

 

[MZ SKEETER 4,709]

Uncheck the Absolute in your software, and see what that does. Put the carriage closer to the vinyl edge and push the ORIGIN button on your cutter also. Did you ever calibrate the cutter to make sure it is cutting the correct size? You do that in the software.

[haumana 1,220]

Why does the software add spaces to the edges? I wonder if the cutter is choking on that small detail if it's supposed to not exceed 10", but the software is assigning it a width of 10.827

If you're not under the stress of an impossible deadline, trying downloading SignBlazer and see how that works. 0,0 is actually exactly where the blade drops, and the software doesn't add an space to the design when you send it to the cutter.

Another thing to check - make absolutely sure, if you're cutting from a roll, that there is enough slack for the job to complete in its entirety without having to draw off the roll directly. That can potentially affect feed/tracking issues.

[Nick Thompson 0]

Actual measured side to side cut width on this cutter (measured with a ruler) is about 10.3"  My numbers are less than 10".  When it cuts, the entire numbers end up only 8" wide which means something in either the software or the cutter are compressing the result even though the preview looks OK. 

Also, even if there was a width problem, it wouldn't explain why the "2" isn't completely cut out (note the bottom of "2" does not get cut out fully).  This detail is not corrupted in the preview, so why does it end up in the cut?  This is cut/drawn on a loose sheet, no corruption from a tight roll of vinyl.  

[haumana 1,220]

okay, so if you physically measured the cut window that the vinyl gets fed through, that's only about 10.3, and you're software is giving you a measurement of 10.787, then I would expect that the software would either reject the job, scale the job, or hopefully there's a kill button so it doesn't over tax the carriage from going somewhere where it shouldn't. Is the 10.3 from where the blade can realistically cut from one side to the other? what is the width of you actual vinyl? Is good practice to set your workspace width to be the same as the actual vinyl, so you can see if it's going to exceed it.

Have you tried SignBlazer like I suggested? That software will allow you have the blade drop from where you designated 0,0 to be, and not add any space beyond the actual design you're trying to cut. If you know that your software is adding some space outside of your design, then I that's something you would need to anticipate.

There is a chance that it's not necessarily happening in the software, it could be happening in the cutter,  because of the fact that the design you sending it is in excess of the capability, and the machine is trying to (unsuccessfully) figure that out. I wouldn't obsess over the fact that the "2" doesn't have a finished cut. That's not an issue under a normal functioning parameters, which is not happening with anything 10"+. Chance are, you fixed the overlapping, and that will resolve the "2".

Either alter your design so that when you see a preview, it's under the 10", or try SignBlazer, or see if you can manually set the media width to 10" instead of the software defaulting to the larger number.

[darcshadow 1,626]

Have you checked the cutting strip? If it's damaged bad enough it might cause something like this? What does the cut look like if you rotate it 180?