Wildgoose

If you are seeing a difference between the two it is entirely possible that your changes are not being applied to the cutter. You'll want to figure out what's going on there. My software (different than yours) has a check box to either allow or not allow the program to control the cutter settings. I personally do the cutter setting directly on the cutter. Some budget cutters do not have the ability to adjust any of the setting manually on the cutter. I never trusted the software to be completely trustworthy and it seemed prudent to make sure my cutter was doing what I told it without the possibility of some weird thing happening. I'm less trusting than some so your mileage may vary.

For beginners I usually recommend doing about 1/4 to 1/3 speed. So if your cutter goes to 600 I'd shoot for 150 to 200 to get started. You don't want to be too slow but you don't need to be slamming things around. Once you get it dialed in (And you will! Don't give up!) then you can speed up to whatever turns your crank. I don't run my $3500 cutter any faster than about 200mm/sec most of the time. If your car engine redlines at 5000 rpm it's generally not all that smart to rev it there all the time, at least that's my opinion. Each to his own though.

I am late to the discussion but thought I would add my bit. I am not totally familiar with the PrismCut but according to the user manual, any material that has a carrier (backing) can (and I add for emphasis) probably SHOULD be loaded right in the cutter without using the mat. I am one who often pooh-hoo's the greenstar exterior vinyl along with the others but honestly have no problems with cutting and weeding it most of the time. My problem with it is longevity, but for very temporary use it's fine and for very abrasive situations it can also outperform higher end vinyl simply because it's so much thicker. For instance I prefer it for sand blast resist on glass because the adhesive lets go easier for removal after the blasting process. If you are having major weeding issues it is more likely that you're a bit out of "tune" with your machine settings. If you are having trouble with weeding HTV of almost any brand then you definitely have some dialing in to do because HTV is very easy if it has adhesive backing. Some of the styles that are not adhesive attached to the carrier will weed more poorly though. (Siser Easyweed got it's name for a reason). I suggest double checking your various settings. 1. Blade depth (more accurately described as blade exposed). You said you followed Skeeters method and so you should be fine if you did that. Be sure that your blade holder still clears the top of the vinyl just barely. Sometimes if you are actually dragging across the top it will prevent cutting all the way through. I like to watch the cut in action and make sure I can see just a little bit of light between the blade holder and the vinyl while it's working. You should be able to see a slight scratch in the carrier sheet but not feel the impression/dent from the cut on the back side of the carrier sheet. (THIS SHOULD BE DONE ON REGULAR SIGN VINYL not on HTV) I recommend doing the hand cut set-up on greenstar with is 3mil thick and then you will be good for all 3mil and 2 mil products which is most of what you will be doing. You don't need to re-adjust between 3 and 2 mil. ALSO be sure you haven't accidentally broken a tip off prior to doing this step or it's all for nothing. Tips can break if you accidentally had too much out the first time and cut through and snagged your cutting strip while doing maneuvers. If you have a high level magnifier you can sometimes spot a broken tip but most of the cheap blades that come with the Chinese machines just aren't that expensive so maybe set it aside and start with a brand new one until you get dialed in and KNOW FOR SURE how it's supposed to be able to cut. - A word about HTV vs regular sign vinyl. For intricacy HTV is more forgiving and you can also get away with more down force (cutting force applied to the blade) without it cutting though your carrier because the HTV carriers are usually plastic and are tough. HOWEVER HTV can be less forgiving if you have a dull blade or a broken tip where regular sign vinyl will let you still get the job done with a dull/worn tip. Yes they do wear a bit over time. I have had several time that I was fine when cutting regular vinyl but had major problems getting HTV to cut and it took me a painful minute to figure out my tip was rounded down. 2. After you are 100% on the blade you will want to run a test cut at a pressure that should be less than you need to cut through your sign vinyl. Too much and you may break your new blade tip right off the bat. Work into the cutting force a little at a time until you reach the point where you cut though and just scratch the backing. IF you machine has a hand built in test feature that is best but you can also just create a small square or rectangle. My machine has a test square with an X in the middle and when cut you can pluck it off the backing and also see that the X has been cut through as well. It is about a half inch or maybe slightly larger. does not waste a bunch of product to test. 3. Once you get your pressure set then you will want to check to see if your blade offset is dialed in. The idea behind this is that the point on the blade is like a castor wheel on a shopping cart and as the machine lowers it into the vinyl it may be rotated in an odd angle and then as the blade begins to cut the "castor" drags the point of the tip into the following position as the cutting head moves about the design. Once again a square works well but maybe a bit bigger like 3/4". You will want to cut the square and play with the offset so that you can see the corners of the square go from round to perfect and then to having little "tails" and figure out where the middle of those was. The number that was the squarest corner is where you want to be and you should write that down because it will be your number for the foreseeable future. My cutter says that as blade ware happens this needs to be adjusted slightly but I just run a blade about half a year and throw it away. (This was good advice I got from Dakotagrafx years ago and have never needed to look back) 4. There may be a setting called "Overcut". The above mentioned castor concept is also pertaining to this setting. When the blade reaches the end of the cut it raises back up and sometimes there is a very small piece of uncut vinyl at that point where the end meets the beginning. Overcut is to allow a little extra run-out to make sure that the two points meet. In theory is should only be a bit longer than the amount of castor built into your blade tip. Maybe slightly more than half of your blade offset and no more than the total thickness of your blade. Most cutter do not need ANY overcut, I recommend reading your manual about this IF it even offers the option. I also do not know enough about the prism to know if these settings are done directly on the machine or only within the cutting software. You will have to figure that out on your end or another user may chime in. This has been a long drawn out answer but hopefully it help you or a future search gain some cutter knowledge. There are all these settings and sometime they make no sense at first. Good luck!

I would cut it an inch or so wide and hand trim like you said. That way it will match really tight. You can cut right on glass without too much worry if you don't push too hard. Another option is to use a piece of app tape to make a template. Apply the tape (low tack) and then pull it up and reinstall it on top of the vinyl or even over the real app tape as a second layer to trim to. I saw similar on a youtube with a guy maing a decal for the side of a jeep hood and it worked real sweet to make a curved peice fit well. My dad once told me there are 10 ways to do a job and 7 or 8 of them are right.

if it is all one object then in the curves tab you can break it apart (quote from previous post)

Slice, I thought you had VM cut? (as well as being the SB guru)

Potentially yes if the design is all one object. If it is a grouped object then in the arrange tab you can ungroup or ungroup all or if it is all one object then in the curves tab you can break it apart. I am much more handy in adobe illustrator and have to go hunting to find the way through with VM.

The quick way is to just switch your selection tool to the object mode vs the pick mode. There is a small triangle in the lower RH corner that you can tool open and change the selection tool to the other version. This will let you select each individual parts and then once selected just pic a color over on the tools and change it.

I added an embroidery machine to my operation several years ago. It is a bird of a different color and takes some practice and learning to get going. Plan to make a lot of mistakes as you learn. If you have been around any kind of sewing machines previously it will help since a lot of the overall concept is the same. Your machine will have specific needles with either a round base if it's a full on commercial machine or will have a flat side if it is more home/hobby built. If it is a round base you have to set the angle of the hole and there are a couple ways to do that. One is to drag a thread through and hold both sides so that the thread is angled according to your machines design. I use a small magnet and it will sit nicely on the flat side of the front of the needle and you can see where the hole is oriented from that. I also use a cheap set of doctors pliers that have the locking ratchet grabbers in the middle that clamp and hold it tight on the needle as they probably are designed to do on blood vessels or sutures. The standard size most people use is usually a 75 and if you are sewing tougher things like hats or canvas sometimes jump up to 80. I have occasionally ran 70 on really light material. Most people run 40wt thread but you can also run 60wt but again you are going to be messing with your tensions. I run poly/neon thread but some run rayon. You can read up on the pro and con of each. I tend to the poly because it is known to resist sun fading better and most of my work is for clothes that will be outdoors or washed a lot. I have not tried rayon but I have heard that it runs at different tension so bouncing back and forth will lead to problems. My machine runs L bobbins and I buy pre-wound bobbins. I have been told that the consistency of the rewound helps with overall machine tension staying consistent. As to embroidery files, I have some software but I almost always hire out the digitizing to pro's. It is far more complicated than I would have thought. I am a wiz on graphic arts and through it would be simple. Not even remotely. Plan to spend $35 a logo for a decent job. There are some cheaper people that do them for $10 or thereabout but some are crap so you get what you pay for and a crap file will not run well and being new you will be trying to decide if it's the file or your machine messing up. I recommend using the Wicked Stitch of the East. There are plenty of others but they are good and actually sew them out once they build it to be sure it runs good. They take a few days to get back to you so you have to plan ahead. You will find more questions the more you get into it. Hoops and hooping aids are all important too. Thread stabilizers are varied and there are topping materials for fuzzy stuff. Good luck and I have felt your pain. I would consider finding a commercial shop in your area and go ask if you can hang out. They may consider you a threat (probably not if you just have a single head machine) and not let you but you will learn more in a day at a pro shop than months of trial and error. (same goes for vinyl cutting!)

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I went and found a free vector of carbon fiber and was able to change the color and use it for fill as a clipping

I don't know my way around VM very well but possibly you could do a Clip of the sample. They probably call it something different maybe trap. I'm an Adobe person so I'm only fluent in AI terms. The trick will be getting the carbon texture to be size accurate.

What equipment and software are you working with?

I would do similar to darcshadow and reintroduce the original dog shape (just the outline). Maybe offset the line a pen width outside the original edge so you don't kill the negative space you have so laboriously created. Then you can use the same line (or a copy paste of it) to crop out all the outer lines.

I suggest contacting tech support with Oracal/Orafol. If you can get a real person to talk to they will give you some good tips and probably give you a difinitive answer. I called them about their HT55 Oratape tranfer paper for matt finish indoor vinyl and they were very helpful and gave me all sorts of interesting data that helped me better understand how that particular product perfomed. This is just a users forum and MAYBE some here have done some applications but you are getting someones opinion and their take vs a manufacturer who knows for sure whether your going to have complications or not. With cermaic coatings having entered the norm (we bought a new Hyundia and that was an option from the dealer) I guarantee they have gotten out ahead of this already.

Looks awesome! I don't do enough of that kind of thing to warrant a cutter like that but I am a tool addict and my secret self is envious. Every time I DO pick up a high volume decal job I always wish I at least had a big enough trimmer to handle larger sheets.

The screen shot is NOT adobe Illustrator. Whatever you are seeing there is being inserted by the Cricut interface. I would assume it is somehow sending some interface instructions meant for your cutter that are transposing as cut line? Just a guess... I would suggest trying a newer or older version of your saved AI file or even change the file type from AI to SVG or EPS or whatever the Cricut program likes. My cutter interface prefers Adobe Illustrator version 8 which is a much simplified legacy version. There are a LOT of extra "doodads" especially in the CC version of AI that may be complicating your file.

I am not a SCALP user either but I suggest saving a working file to the side or whole other file when practicing so if it goes badly you can quickly revert to the original starting place. I would also consider saving your work in a non-proprietary file type. Seems like SCALP can export or save as SVG or EPS or similar. If you ever need to send one to another person or change design programs you will be glad you did. I had a beta version of SCALP way back but just didn't ever fall in love with it. I am an Adobe Illustrator design guy but was attempting to use SCALP as my cutter interface because I run on Mac computers for the most part. They (SCALP) have made progress in their capability since those early days and there are some on here who know the idiosyncrasies and tricks to get it to perform fine. I wouldn't want you to think I was disrespecting them.

Paper tape is better IMO. I know you can't see through it to layer but overall application success is better. That's a large graphic so there will probably end up having some bubbles trying to get it stacked prior to application and then potentially along the edges where the two layers meet there often ends up a small line or rill of bubbles following that edge. If you have a simple application surface like a sign you can just install it in two layers but some things like race car bodies make that really hard to do. Good squeegee control is the key to reduce bubbles. Again, that is hard to employ when layering pre-install but still relevant. Search videos of actual pro's doing it, they make it look easy but there is a lot of skill you don't see if you aren't watching closely. You can use a pin to puncture and then deflate bubbles but if there are a lot it turns into a lot of work. If this is for a client it looks unprofessional. If it's for your own use the small bubbles will often disappear over time. My first big job was on my own suburban window and one side had a whole bunch of tiny bubbles because I sucked at the squeegee. A few weeks later they were gone from the heat and cool of day to night expansion and contraction. In my early days I had a few go a little rough. I made an excuse and told them if they didn't go away in 30 or so days I would replace the logo. They never needed to but I don't think I came across as a very experienced installer. I watched a lot and read articles about proper installation and things got better with time and practice.

A common misconception with new cutter owners is that the blade cutting depth is somehow related to the exposed length of the blade sticking out of the blade holder. Follow Skeeter's directions on setting the proper amount of blade exposed and then you adjust the actual depth of cut into the vinyl by the down force applied to the holder. The blade exposed should be only slightly farther than the thickness of the vinyl and not at any time far enough that it could cut all the way through the vinyl and carrier sheet. It's not much and most people have far far too much exposed. She suggests removing the blade holder altogether and drag it across a scrap piece by hand to verify that it can't quite cut all the way through. (Use a cutting mat beneath in case you do so you don't break a tip). I would also be sure your blade is fresh and not either broken or worn down. For many people when they aren't able to cut deep enough they think they need to crank the blade out of the holder farther and this is exactly wrong.

Another tip I would give is use some parchment paper (or even better if you happen to have any Gerber 225 vinyl it has a clear carrier that is totally amazing for layering) I submitted a video a few years back using parchment paper:

Welcome from Idaho. Great fun to own a cutter as I'm sure you are finding out. Takes a bit of learning but it's worth the effort.

I would add that the logo is copyright protected so be sure to get permission to use that and not get yourelf into trouble.

I do a lot of shirt work. Rarely have I ever had anything like a stain guard on regular tee's but there is always that posibility. The 150C is a bit on the low side by most standards. Siser regular easyweed is about that but most HTV is higher by another 15 degrees. I would try more heat and do exactly what Dakota suggested, verify your press temp with IR thermo gun to be sure it's actually giving what it's supposed to. Even my $2500 Fusion was way off when I first got it. (It was actualy high and cause scorches but still off). The techs at hotronix had me buy an IR gun and check so that's the correct proceedure and important. Pressure on the shirt is also important. I usually error a bit on the high side just to be safe. Typically if you overdo it you can see some adhesive ooze out at the edges of the vinyl (hard to see on anything except double layers thgouh). I have never had a failure from too much pressure either. The HTV techs get touchy with it, worrying that you can squish it all out the sides but like I said, never had a failure and I have occasionally over pressured significantly on accident. The only failures I have had were 1 roll of bad HTV (very very very unlikely but is possble) but that would only happen on one of the colors. And lack of either heat time or temp. Most often due to temp or something like a thick neck collar holding part of the platen up causing eneven pressure (baby onsies are the worst!) Heat most likely in your case. EDIT: Just saw that only the black is lifting. If you are putting the black on last and the others are getting more swell time it could do what you say.