haumana

Hmm.... so is there a freebie someplace hidden on the net for the rest of us to take advantage of?

You computer is powerful enough. If there's anything that will give you some issues, it'll be Vista. Ken (Imes) doesn't think highly of it. Definitely look into the serial or keyspan. Believe it or not, but there are a lot of small issues here and there that ca be remedied by just changing to serial. I do consider slashing a big issue though. If you have any additional issues, you can also post them in the Pcut bulletin board. You might get a faster response, and chances are you'll get a response from a Pcut owner. Good luck and keep us posted!

If you search on "line of death" or "slashing" you should find a few posts about that issue. Help us help you... What cutter model? USB or Serial? Operating system? If you have your cutter setup with a USB connection, make sure that it's a direct connection and not going through an extension or a hub. If you possibly can, hook up your cutter with a serial cable, that will usually get rid of that problem and a few issues that other members have come across. If you don't have a serial port on your computer, you can purchase a keyspan (Serial to USB). That can be purchased from US Cutter, Radio Shack or dirty cheap from eBay. Start off with that and see how you do. Keep us posted.

use? hahahaha ... I'll be the first to admit that I would consider myself an abuser of this forum ... there are just soooo many questions! I need to get my self some edu-ma-cation.

map it out in SBE. Just make sure that you try to load the vinyl in as straight as possible.

I guess a little booze and a lot of karaoke goes a looooong way.

there are times that perforation does occur on the vinyl, but it's usually not desired. As far as cutting things other than vinyl, it depends what you're trying to cut, and what kind of backing it has. Because the media scroll, if you're trying to cut paper or something that does not have an adhesive, you will need some kind of light adhesive backing to place your media on. If you don't then your media will most likely lift and will get caught in the blade and/or carriage as it's sliding back and forth. Like Piston said, the LP ships with a pen for plotting, but others have managed to get sharpie pens in there for plotting as well. If you're looking for something to do more scrap booking stuff with then I would probably stick with a craft robo or a cricut.

awesome. thanks guys. i hope to give it a try later. would be nice to be able to plot big stuff

the link is bombing out.

too easy? Larry - since what you're cutting is really only text, why aren't you just doing the layout and cut in SBE? Any text under 1/4" is a nightmare to weed. the test cut on the cutter has nothing to do with what SBE spits out. I can't say that any of the test boxes I cut ever came out with absolute 90-degree 0-radius corners - it comes close, but not absolute. the only thing I can think of is if you post your issue to the LP Support bulletin and see what kind of solution that Ken comes up with.

Hey Wallace - take look at a thread that I started a while back. I was lost in the vector vs. raster, and how do I know if an .eps file is vector. It might help clear some info up. Once I understood it, I was good to go. You also might want to check out Inkscape (it's free - inkscape.org). It's a great app that will convert stuff from raster to vector. You can also sign up for an account with Vector Magic, and they will give you two free tokens for use.

True that .... but then again, if someone told me that I had to dress up like a tv wrestler to own and promote a multi-million dollar company, I think I'd bite the bullet and play dress up.

just emailed it. enjoy!

PM me your email addy. I think the forum is still having issues with attachments.

So far you're off to a good start. I personally found the cleanest text is if you can actually use the text in SBE, rather than it being converted to a vector file for cutting. Regardless of method,generally any text smaller than 1/4" is going to give you grief. Tiny text is a huge pain. Sounds like you got the blade situated perfectly for your use. The keep the pressure you have. Slowing down the cutter should have minimized any radius in the corners. The LP isn't the most precision cutter out there, but it works well. You could also double check your vector file and see if there are any unnecessary nodes in the corners that might be causing the cutter to stray a bit. Others have also had better "closing cuts" using Flexi Starter or other cutting software. You can usually download it the software and test drive it for a bit. It might be worth trying just to see if it's the software or the cutter. Another thing that might be worth trying is a 60-degree blade. Many here, as well as myself, found that for smaller or more intricate cuts the 60-degree blades do a better job. I changed to a 60-degree to run a special project I was working on, and haven't bothered to go back to the 45-degree blade. Good luck. Keep on posting, as we all want to help you get to where you going. Keep us posted.

Mahalo for the input. I'll definitely check what my options are when I get to the supply store

Does anyone know what the shelf life on a roll of paper app tape is? I bought my roll about a year ago, and I swear that it's not as sticky as it was last year - it's also turning more beige in color. How long is stuff supposed to last?

can you provide an email where the vectorized file can be sent to? the forum is having attachment issues right now. never mind. you can download your file here: http://midpacsolutions.com/cutter/viper.eps

Hey Mike - How do you know how far to drop the sharpie into the blade holder cuff so that the tip of the of pen doesn't get all smooshed and the cutting carriage isn't over taxing itself?

How can you argue with free? If you just think of it like any other popular open source software than how is that a bad deciision? It's like the "open office" of the cutter software. While I think it would be great if they were still around, I can honestly say that SBE has done everything that I needed it to do. There are times when the graphic needs to be tweaked, etc - but that's something that I do in AI or PS and I use Inkscape to vectorize my stuff. I bought a copy of Flexi a while back, but still haven't installed it because there really isn't anything that SBE can't do for my needs. SBE might be out of business temporarily or for good, but regardless - it's an impressive product for the great price (free!).

Mahalo for the advice. I'm going to test it out and make those changes too! Mahalo!

Does anyone know if there is a zoom work space button or if I can program one to place on my toolbar? Is there a way to toggle the (text) menu bar on/off? There are times when the text menu completely disappears and I can't figure out how to get it back. (sigh)

I can't say that I've every heard of that before. Going to have to remember it! Hahahaha.

Thanks for the guidance. I didn't find an actual Zoom Workspace button. It doesn't seem like it might be a toolbar option, just like the Increase By 2 or Decrease By 2. (sigh). You would've thought that they would create a button for just about every function they have (sigh).

Definitely go wet. If you're installing on the inside, then don't forget what Jen suggested - Mirror your graphic/text so that its backward. If you install on the outside, then no mirroring is necessary, and it should hide any air bubbles better. As for which lasts longer, I think that it probably wouldn't differ a whole lot - depending on weather conditions on the exterior- but don't take my word for it.