BrianSal05

M1 Mac Trouble

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Hi, recently mi mom's old computer died because of a motherboard failure and instead of trying and build her a new pc, I convinced her to buy one of the new Mac's.

I been having trouble setting her back up, because the software we use to cut VinylMaster Cut is not available on Mac. Looking at this forum user haumana says he runs his cutters on a m1 mac with parallels and win10, I wanted to know if someone has more experience running it like this and a maybe even a tutorial for drivers and such idk if it would require any extra steps. This is the option I been considering the most. 

Also if someone has any insight if Sure Cuts A Lot  works fine with the new Mac's or how have people been running their cutters in this new Mac's. And if someone has experience with the bridge version of the software as a illustrator plug in, sounds interesting.

Some other info: 

- Software is only used to cut, all design is done in Illustrator.

- Cutter is a LaserPoint II.

- Plotter connected on a USB-C dongle.

- Mac in question is the 24 inch Mac.

Thanks in advance. 

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On 12/14/2021 at 9:02 PM, BrianSal05 said:

Hi, recently mi mom's old computer died because of a motherboard failure and instead of trying and build her a new pc, I convinced her to buy one of the new Mac's.

I been having trouble setting her back up, because the software we use to cut VinylMaster Cut is not available on Mac. Looking at this forum user haumana says he runs his cutters on a m1 mac with parallels and win10, I wanted to know if someone has more experience running it like this and a maybe even a tutorial for drivers and such idk if it would require any extra steps. This is the option I been considering the most. 

Also if someone has any insight if Sure Cuts A Lot  works fine with the new Mac's or how have people been running their cutters in this new Mac's. And if someone has experience with the bridge version of the software as a illustrator plug in, sounds interesting.

Some other info: 

- Software is only used to cut, all design is done in Illustrator.

- Cutter is a LaserPoint II.

- Plotter connected on a USB-C dongle.

- Mac in question is the 24 inch Mac.

Thanks in advance. 

I run on a mac. I have zero experience running parallels or any other conversion so can't help that way at all. I made the moveto get away from that platform for a reason. My best advice would be either switch to a mac friendly platform for cutting or just pick up an old windows laptop for just the cutting and still do most of your efforts on the mac. I actually have SignCut Pro 1 (the original old version) and it is just a cutting utility and is cross platform compatible. They have a newer version out now that also does some design. Oddly, I ended up settling in and doing my design on my iMac and then I just transfer the file to a thumb and go cut it on an old windows 7 laptop that I keep Quickbooks on. (because quick books does not make a good version for mac which sucks) In your case the old laptop may be the cheapest route to get going IF you can't figure out the parralells angle (I have no idea what expenses running parralels entails either). There are a few other mac compatible cutting utilities. I looked at them at the time I switched and like the SignCut Pro the best. It's not cheap so if this is for hobby cutting then it may not make sense. I like SC Pro because if my pc laptop fails I can roll the cutter over and plug into the mac and I'm back in action. I don't know of another program that will run on both. I bought the lifetime dongle for Pro1. I don't know if that is even offered anymore and I don't know if the new Pro 2 is even available as a lifetime program , they may have joinded the dark side and went subscription only. 

Good luck and hope you have success. 

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Wild Goose and I are in very similar OS boats. Although the LaserPoint II (LP2) is compatible with Mac, the machine was discontinued long before Apple's M1 chip introduction, so whether that machine is still compatible, will most like come down to software. If you choose to go Parallels or VM Fusion, you will most likely need to run Win10 (minimum), because the versions of Parallels that can run on the M1 is not backwards compatible to Win7 (regardless if you have a disc (or flash drive) for the 64-bit OS or not). I can only hazard a guess that Fusion will be the same. To the best of my knowledge the M1's will not Bootcamp <_<. I'm not a fan of Bootcamp, because I don't care to have to shutdown and restart my machine to get to the OS anyway (on my older Macs). 

I would reach out to SCALP and see if their Bridge software will run on an M1, and if you have the compatible design software to pair with it. Although, their website says that it's Intel based Mac compatible, so it leads me to believe that some where along the lines, they've tried it on an M1 and it was a no-go. Now if SCALP were willing to send me the Bridge software, I'd be more than happy to test it out for them on M1 with CorelDraw 2019 :P  Force feeding software on to my Mac have gotten exponentially more difficult with the M1 chip :wacko:

My original LP has been out on loan since before I picked up my M1 machine, so I cannot speak to whether is it could cut directly from Mac to LP, nor do I have SCALP. I have been able to run Sign Blazer, Vinyl Master, and Graphtec Pro Studio via Parallels to my Graphtec.

The main thing is that you have a working cutter. Worst case scenario, you try to find a machine that runs Win7 and have that be dedicated to the cutter.

In deed, Quicken for Mac sucks, and it's really not that hard for them to do a Home & Business version for Mac, instead of a watered down Quicken, or needing to jump to the overkill and over-priced QuickBooks. But then again, I'm not surprised since they too have gone the way of subscription based software. Boooo!

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Excelent point haumana. The new chip is an issue for sure. I upgraded my imac last winter and my old hard copy of Illustrator CS5 became an issue.  Even updating my old 2010 imac when I put a new HD in it had started to cause some program crashes in AI when scrolling through fonts. That's the price of progress I guess. I ended up biting the bullet and joining the darth vader team and now have an Illustrator subscription. It was nice not having a payment but the new digs are kind of handy because I CAN now run on multiple computers so I can save work from my home workstation onto the cloud and keep going at my day job if I need to. Or just use my AI skills to amaze my co-workers in the construction industry LOL. It blows their minds when I open a PDF set of drawings and make all sorts of notes and resave it and send it back to the dude that drew it. Tons of fun. 

Anyway your point that the M1 will probably come into play is a very important one that may kill off a few options out there. 

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Thank you for all your responses I was able to visit my parents this winter break and got to work on it, SCAL works perfectly fine on M1 Mac's without having to do anything else, the drivers for the Laserpoint 2 work fine too no trouble, Just do note that the printer has to be on when to computer is turned on else the serial port won't open in the mac, restarting the computer after turning on the plotter works fine as well. I imagine that as long as drivers are able to be install any cutter that is supported in SCAl will work just fine.

 I wasn't able to get parallels working properly, idk why but driver just wouldn't install and I didn't understand port sharing. So in my experience at least is not possible with this cutter, though I'm pretty sure it was probably due to an error in my behalf. which is a shame since imo Vinylmaster cut is far more complete than SCAL at the same price point.

Also the Sure cuts a lot bridge works too, as long as illustrator is running through rosetta.

Tried inkscape and inkcut but it is not compatible with m1 macs just yet as a free alternative, gonna try running it through rosetta and update if it works, though I doubt it since the problem is not inkscape itself but python through homebrew and M1 macs.

Again Thank you for your answers.

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I suppose I am in a similar situation. I have an SC1 plotter 24" (using SCAL3Pro) that worked great on my WIndows 11 (13 year old) laptop.  The laptop is showing its age and slowing down. I am now a Mac (M1) user.  I upgraded, installed and activated SCAL5Pro on the Mac M1.  The software seems to have more features and works great...until I go to cut.  The plotter will begin to work as expected.  Then it begins to jog down the page, then across the page, then back again.  Sometimes in moves to one side or the other of the plotter and jogs along the plotter edge.  And then eventually it moves to a point and then freezes completely.  I have tried the SCAL3 and SCAL5 files all with the same result.  I ruled out static since I can still cut using the old windows laptop.

 

One big difference, which it may very well be the issue, but I am not sure how to address it is that the Mac only has the Thunderbolt ports.  I am currently using a USB to USBc adapter (I use the same type for my mouse/keyboard.  I have seen there are different Serial to USB cords and adapters available.  Has anyone been able to use SCAL5Pro with an older SC plotter and M1 Mac?  If so, what cable/adapter was used? 

 

I have contacted SCAL with this issue, they responded a few times with follow-up questions (to which I responded), but I am now 3 weeks from the last response from them, and I have resent my response to them every couple of days. 

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The only serial to USB adapter guaranteed to work with a vinyl cutter is a Tripp-lite Keyspan Adapter with a null modem cable.  Has been mentioned 100's of times on here.   Tripp-lite is the brand name.

find the best price.  Download the Tripplite driver and install.  You plug the USB end to your computer, screw the null modem cable to the Tripplite, then the other end screw into your vinyl cutter. 

https://www.amazon.com/Tripp-Lite-Keyspan-High-Speed-USA-19HS/dp/B0000VYJRY/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3R96FTQ93017J&amp;keywords=tripp+lite+keyspan+high+speed+usb+to+serial+adapter&amp;qid=1659968032&amp;sprefix=tripplite+keyspan+%2Caps%2C584&amp;sr=8-1

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