BearlyRich

Yep, mention pink and Rodger is guaranteed to pop up And where is Ash anyways? Haven't seen him here in a long time... As for the weeding of large sections, when my hand can't handle any more, I cut the section off from the rest and start again. Never needed any extra weed lines. But sometimes I just like to make work for myself...

Dan's got it right. I use just a touch of ash from my pipe. You need almost nothing and just wipe it across with your fingers. The lines show up really well in any lighting.

Yes you can. But you don't want to... In order for the cutter to cut completely through, you'd have to extend the blade down far enough. Unfortunately, this will also cut into the strip below the vinyl/backing and leave a groove. That's bad and why people have to replace their cutting strips. You don't want grooves in that. Use an envelope opened, exacto, scissors or anything else you fancy. You don't want your cutter doing that job...

PCuts don't usually have these kinds of problems. Might well be the combo of win7 and USB. But before you spend the money on a Keyspan, check into the port settings and Flexi. I also don't use Flexi, but I do read a lot around here... As I remember, Flexi has a setting for something like an output buffer. Setting this to a smaller value may let the cutting system catch up to what the computer is sending. Also, don't waste vinyl. Use the pen and paper. Saves a lot of money and frustration! Just did a quick search. See this thread: Not a 'buffer' but a "packet size". Maybe it will help...

I hate to say that I can't help you, but I can offer a suggestion: You have to give more info. What OS? What connection; USB or serial? If it's USB, then people will rightly tell you to try a Keyspan adapter to go serial. Try using SignBlazer to see if you have the same problems. That's all I got...

Welcome from WNY

If it's really a driver signing problem in win7, there may be a work-around. See this: http://www.ngohq.com/home.php?page=Files&go=cat&dwn_cat_id=34 Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider 1.3b A bit of work but may be worth it, depending on your anti-virus program as it seems they have coerced some companies into flagging this program as "riskware"...

Lazy? If you've never had any problems that were internet related, consider yourself lucky! And why give those data collectors (who sell that info) any more info about yourself? Just my opinion, but the less personal and specific info we give out to the entire world full of crazies, the better. It's bad enough that many of the retailers we deal with along with google & MS sell off all our personal info to anyone who wants it. Why give it away... No, I'm not being paranoid. Just experienced and realisitic and too many years of being on-line...

I was going to offer my opinion about all this and then realized that it was past my closing time, so it will have to wait...

I just posted a reply to this question and then thought I'd start a new topic here where it belongs. This question comes up all the time and this plugin does seem to work with a pcut CT series. ===================== The Chinese pcut site does have a Corel-pcut plugin available. You lose some of the nicer functionality of cutting from better software such as SB, but it does seem to work. I have it installed but use SB myself. To use it effectively, you have to follow the instructions included (pdf file) to set it up. See here: http://www.pcut-cn.c...upport/?type=14 They also now have a beta stage plugin for Illustrator in case any is interested... And; the Honk Kong Creation site also has a Corel plugin. I have not tried this one. The instructions seem to be in Chinese so I ahve no idea if the plugin works in English. Might be worth a try though. See here: http://www.creation....eng/support.asp

Since your Laserpoint is really a pcut in disguise: The Chinese pcut site does have a Corel-pcut plugin available. You lose some of the nicer functionality of cutting from better software such as SB, but it does seem to work. I have it installed but use SB myself. To use it effectively, you have to follow the instructions included (pdf file) to set it up. See here: http://www.pcut-cn.com/en/support/?type=14 They also now have a beta stage plugin for Illustrator in case any is interested... And; the Honk Kong Creation site also has a Corel plugin. I have not tried this one. The instructions seem to be in Chinese so I ahve no idea if the plugin works in English. Might be worth a try though. See here: http://www.creation.com.hk/eng/support.asp

Thanks John. Grabbed it too

But if you don't have a real serial port, you might want to invest in a Keyspan adapter. USB connections have always caused problems...

I'm not sure I like being in the middle. I'd get it from both sides then! I've always tried to stay out in the fringe myself

I just got my order of 2832 Economy Promotional Phosphorescent Vinyl. EXPENSIVE stuff so I only bought 5 feet. First impression was good. Color okay and phosphorescence seemed great. I wanted to make a silhouetted wolf for my daughter's room wall. She's been asking almost every day ever since I made the elephant for her... Well, it all went downhill from there. As soon as I took the tape off the roll, the vinyl started to tunnel and bubble and peel off the backing. I lifted the first two feet and laid it back down but bringing it over to the cutter simply produced more tunnels. Cutting it was a nightmare. I have a very new 36" PCUT. I first tried with the 45 degree blade and a pressure of 135. After several attempts, the blade was out more than usual and the pressure was all the way up to 250 (as high as it will go). Still not cutting through. I switched over brand new Roland 60 degree blade. Seems like I just couldn't get it right. At a pressure of 250, it would cut though the backing, maybe 50% of the cut. I think I finally settled on a pressure around 190 to 200 when I decided to go ahead and try the graphic. I did get it to cut through the vinyl (but not the backing) for a good 90% of the lines and was content. But this seems just too tuff and I thought my cutter went to a higher pressure? After weeding, I thought it would be easier to lay the black background onto the graphic because this stuff is very stiff. I thought it all went well until I peeled off the tape. Not good at all with quite a few tunnels. There's no peeling this stuff off either... Okay, maybe I should have tried wet, but was afraid this vinyl wouldn't do wet (don't know why) and I thought that being so stiff that it would just lay there and let me roll the black onto it. So, yes I do need a lot more experience. I've only made a dozen or so graphics now and am learning more with every one. But this vinyl just seems like it's not made for a cutter and is horrible to work with. I really wanted that glowing moon behind the wolf... Ah-well... At the cost of this stuff, I don't think I'll be trying much more with it plus I can't put up with the tunneling on it's own backing... Has anyone worked successfully with this stuff? Did I just do it all wrong? If there is a right way, I have enough to do one more wall graphic for her. If this is how it works, then she'll have to be happy with a wrinkled moon... Thanks for any suggestions... I just checked again. This is FDC 10mil vinyl and they state that it can't be wet mounted. That's why I didn't try it. I thought I had looked that up...

If you're looking for the glow-in-the-dark stuff that I bought, just do a search for: "2832 Economy Promotional Phosphorescent Vinyl" and you'll quickly find the place I bought it from, for $10.50 a foot...

Somehow, I feel left out and forgotten...

Hey, at least my panties aren't pink! And I don't think anyone here thinks Rodger is abrasive > Either that or I just don't think...

If you have X3, don't waste your money on anything else. learn and use X3. It will do just about anything you need and do it well. Some things may not be intuitive but all software trades off on menu structure and definitions. I haven't looked seriously at X4 or X5 only because I can't afford to upgrade at the moment. But I will upgrade at some point. The only "flaws" that bother me in X3 are the loss of the center line tracing. That was a big plus in earlier versions and I heard it came back in X4 but I'm not 100% sure about that. I certainly miss the feature and keep a working copy of Corel 11 for it's separate tracing program for when I need the center line feature. It also flaws in flowing text on a curve. For example, it you flow around a circle (short text, large circle) and want the text at the bottom, it will be upside down and backwards. You have to pre-plan by flipping and mirroring the text before you follow the curve so it's correctly oriented. This one really pains me and is the major factor in my wanting an upgrade. Beyond that, Corel is amazing and packed with features. It will even make rhinestone patterns with all those little holes to drop the stones into. It does much more than I need it for but I have found nothing else as easy to use and feature rich.

Well, name calling and so close to Christmas... > So I think I'll toss some wrenches in here... According to this sites interpretation of copyright law: http://www.free-legal-document.com/copyright-infringement.html Partially quoted:: What does Not constitute Copyright Infringement * Reproducing work for private, personal, academic or research purposes. This does not give anyone carte blanche to copy work and the "fair dealing" principle will apply. * Using small portions of a work with acknowledgement to the author - if the portion used does not represent the core of the original work. It is the importance or quality of the work copied rather than the quantity, which will be a deciding factor. Determining how much or how little constitutes infringement or fair use is a gray area and care must be taken before using anyone's work. * Creating an identical work without copying the original such as where two identical photographs of the same scene are produced by separate people. As we can see here, if you use it strictly for yourself, it's okay. Surprisingly, if you create it yourself, it's still okay! Creating an original photograph is no different than creating an original eps file of someone's logo! Not copyright infringement! Now, as to that "copyright infringement" itself. Using a logo of some sports team would not be held under the copyright laws at all. The logo is technically a trademark. So you'd really be talking about trademark infringement. Oddly enough, those laws deal entirely with selling some kind of product and using the same or similar logo as some other company to make money off of a familiar logo. Now as a disclaimer; I am not a lawyer and have not investigated this any more than the past five minutes on the net. But my readings of the interpretations of the laws hold true to the above. If you're making something strictly for yourself, the entire world is open to you, including those "copyrighted" logos... More so if you created them yourself. Do we have any lawyers among us? Would be interesting to hear from someone who actually knows the laws... For me and my hobby cutting, strictly for myself, I'm not losing sleep over it all

Ah, the arcade machines. I spent a lot of time with them. But my "Atari" would be with their computers. Very fond memories there

Love the "Atari", and your cutting of it

Whoops, sorry. I had no idea that they had an export extension for inkscape->signcut. That's nice. Not enough for me to buy signcut, but still nice

With inkscape, you don't "export". You "save as". If you want eps (like we all do), then also install ghostscript. And while there, install gsview too. It really comes in handy...

That's one of the reasons I entered this thread. I did not say "X5"! I said "5". There's a huge difference. Corel started at "1", then "2", then "3", then "4", then "5", then "6", and on up to "12". They somehow decided that releasing a version "13" was a bad idea so they named it "X3". "X4" and "X5" followed. "X5" is NOT "5"! And yes, the release of "X3" was a mistake... But I can't afford an upgrade to "X5"... My comment was about the vector graphics that accompany the graphics suite. Versions "3", "4", and "5" had amazing graphics with great detail. After those versions, it was all downhill with poor, cartoony graphics that I generally hate...