darcshadow

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Posts posted by darcshadow


  1. The text height setting and the actual height setting are not the same thing. The text height accounts for letters like g that hang below the bottom of the letters. Although this particular font, I would expect the text height and the actual height to be the same. I've never understood the point of that setting, I'm assuming it comes from an older type set mind set when people had to manually pace the dies in the printers.

    If you cut this image and it was 6" high, then you have a scaling issue and need to calibrate your software/cutter. The image should have cut at 6.2" tall and 31" wide.

     


  2. A grinding noise would be the motor trying to move the carriage and not able to. Can you slide it by hand? Do you feel any ruff spots when you do that? Sounds like something is blocking the movement.

    You didn't put oil on the actual belt did you? The belt needs friction with the rollers to work. Oil the axis of the rollers but keep the belt dry.


  3. AH! GP-GL, don't know anything about that or how it works. And it just occurred to me, you don't have stepper motors anyway, you are using servos. So the idea of "steps" isn't really the correct term anyway.

    Just going from page of the manual, it would seem you need to match the steps set in your software with what you have the hardware set to. If it was me, I'd probably set it to option 3, 0.025mm and leave it there.


  4. 9 hours ago, jagrjones said:

    What is the step size set up as on your plotter?  When I use cutting master 4 to send 2540 steps/in data to my CE7000 the plotter switches to 2540 steps/in and the artwork prints the size expected.  The same happens when I send data using Graphtec Production Manager.  I would expect that a size mismatch between the data sent to the plotter and what the plotter is set at to result in artwork being scaled larger or smaller than intended.

     

    Not if the hardware is set to 1/2540.

     

    If someone really wants to validate this themselves set software and plotter to 254 steps/in.  Cut Arial lettering at 0.25" height (PQRS will be enough, those letters will all look awful).  Set software and plotter to 1/2540 and repeat the test.  You will find the letters come out much much cleaner (and the correct size). 

    You're not understanding what I'm trying to say. You can not change the amount a stepper motor moves per step. Doesn't matter what you have any settings on the machine or software set to. A stepper motor will always move the same distance per step. The settings just control how many steps you tell the motor to move. As I said, if it's working for you and you're getting the results you want great, I just don't think it's working quite the way you think it's working.


  5. If that worked for you awesome, but that doesn't seem right. Step size is a physical characteristic of the stepper motor and gear/belt sizes. Using the number you mentioned, 1 step is equal to 1/254 of an inch. Changing the value in the software to 2540 means the software will think 1 step equals 1/2540 of an inch and it will send 10 step commands to move 1/254 of an inch. The hardware however, will see those 10 step commands and move a total of 10/254 of an inch. The design will come out 10x larger than intended.


  6. Not many on here use Silhouette so sorry to say I doubt you're get much useful help. Only thing I can suggest is contact the Silhouette people. In the short term, can you open with glowforge and save back off as an EPS or something Silhouette might be able to open/import? Might also try Inkscape to see if it can open them.


  7. The Green Star vinyl is your problem. It's just not good. Go with Siser Vinyl and you'll be amazed at the difference.

    As for HTV vs "normal" vinyl, I don't change any of the settings on my machine. Actually, HTV is much more forgiving and you can get some very intricate designs to cut. The downside is, too small of pieces don't have enough adhesive to stick to the shirt. So while you may be able to cut it, it might not stick to the shirt.

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  8. There is a lot about VinyMaster that is not very intuitive. Once you select the Arc Text tool, and start typing, the buttons to move the text appear in the tool bar. If you click away from the text so that you are no longer editing it, the buttons go away. To get them back, double click on the text so you get the cursor to change the text.


  9. I think he/she i's using the term files in place of shapes, and they would like to move the shapes around to minimize wasted vinyl. You could grab all the red shapes and do an auto arrange, that would be it into a grid pattern. You would then have to rebuild your design during the install to put everything in the correct place.


  10. Just to clarify, the static you are trying to eliminate is building up on the vinyl itself. The idea behind grounding the stand is the vinyl rest on the stand so the static will transfer from vinyl, to the stand, and then to ground through the grounding wire. The idea behind the grounding kit is you have a piece of metal making contact with the vinyl at all times. You do the same thing with a small, non painted chain, it just needs a ground connection.