MDesigns

Looking at SC2 28" Cutter (SCALP work with Affinity Designer?)

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Im almost ready to pull the trigger.  I run mac. Seems that is no longer an issue as it was in years prior for the SC2.  I have access to Affinity Suite right now.  Is anyone sucessfully creating in Affinity and then exporting SVG to Sure Cuts  Alot with consistent success? Ive seen varying discussion regarding this topic.  Its what I use to design regularly and would be great to know that workflow is feasible.  Ive never used SCALP. I really want to make sure Affinity files export into SCALP wo issue?  Any other info regarding this cutter is appreciated. It will potentially be me first foray into this.

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You'll be fine, if you have any doubt about that EXPORT/IMPORT workflow, just install the trial version and verify.

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Sure Cuts A lot has a free trial. Try it. Never heard of anyone using  Affinity Suite.  First time I have heard the name.   I have been on here for many years. 

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I am betting you'll be fine. I agree with slice about trying out the free trial just to be sure. There are other options if it's a total fail but they cost more. I run in adobe and export to SignCut Pro 1. It costs either a monthly fee or a Dongle purchase expense so hopefully you can make the SCALP program work for you.

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Affinity Designer? You have not heard of Affinity before? It's a great affordable alternative to the blood sucking Adobe suite lol.  I love Adobe but its become so unpractical for most.

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1 hour ago, MDesigns said:

Affinity Designer? You have not heard of Affinity before? It's a great affordable alternative to the blood sucking Adobe suite lol.  I love Adobe but its become so unpractical for most.

I started this in 2006, and have been with Flexi software since then.  I don't need to look for something else.  I have GREAT software.    Guess others have not heard of it either. I have been on here since 2008,  Not one other person has ever mentioned  Affinity.   And for inexpensive  vector software. Inkscape org is free.   Signblazer is also free.

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Affinity designer is just a vector design program. It doesn't do any cutting.  Maybe SCALP will have all the features I need.  But I wanted to make sure I could used Affinity as well. I'm coming from a Graphic design stand point not so much the vinyl cutting. I appreciate the feedback! I will check the others mentioned.

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Signblazer is Windows only, The owner passed away years ago, so it has not been updated for many years, but many member here still use it and are very happy with it.  It is design and cutting software. Inkscape.org is open source software and it is updated all the time. Windows and Mac. 

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If you have any troubles might try esp rather than SVG. SVG should work, but it's an open standard and not all programs have adopted all it's features and some times files don't play nice between programs. EPS is proprietary so it's protocols are better defined/controlled but it's openly shared so just about every vector program will support eps files.

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4 hours ago, MDesigns said:

Affinity Designer? You have not heard of Affinity before? It's a great affordable alternative to the blood sucking Adobe suite lol.  I love Adobe but its become so unpractical for most.

Nope, we ain't all mac users.

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I'm pretty sure that SCALP will import SVG files. At one point I tried out a beta version of SCALP and it seemed to import SVG fine but sometimes the scale went off. I think I could have found a workflow to tune that into shape but it also handled blood sucking adobe files too and they came through better. I found the program lacking compared to SignCut Pro1 so I stayed with them.

I DO design in Adobe and yes it's cost prohibitive for non-business users who don't have large wads of spare cash to donate to the cloud every freaking month. I have a hard disc CS5 Illustrator version that I ran since that was new (2010 ish) but upgraded to a new iMac recently and decided I needed to step it up with cloud. The CS5 version on my old mac (which I still have in another room) will crash in certain situations when using the font viewer which was becoming more and more annoying. The CC does not have that issue. I have an ipad pro too and adobe recently released compatibility with that which is really nice. I don't like having a monthly payment (I paid yearly but still..) but at least I can write it off and having my files available wherever I happen to be via the cloud is a nice perk. 

Good luck with your new endeavor. I doubt you will fall in love with SCALP as a design program but I think you'll be able to use it as a cutter interface. 

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Its hit or miss.  I would agree SCLAP isnt great to design in.  It has no shorcut keys either?? So Ive mostly be designing and importing svg png or now maybe Ill try eps! 

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