ORION

Yes, this is our very 1st plotter/cutter. There is always a learning curve, but God has blessed me with strengths in mechanics and troubleshooting. That, plus the patience & wisdom that comes with age, has served me well. Thanks to ALL for the wealth of info contained in these forums... it was one of the primary reasons I even considered this adventure. Our next purchase will likely be a larger format Print/Cut machine, it's truly amazing all that can be done with one of those. Of course that will be a significantly more pricy investment! - Steve

I had that problem too. Be sure you save to AI version 8, AND convert all fonts to outline before saving to a V8 file. Hope this helps.

Received my 1st Vinyl Cutter yesterday (Copam cp2500). Here's my thoughts as a NEWBIE. 1. We decided to use the Signblazer Trial to feed the CP2500. We design in Illustrator then import to SB for cutting. Our new CP-2500 has a USB port right on the side! What a pleasant surprize... but SB wouldn't let me use the USB port to communicate with the CP2500. Turns out the USB port is really still feeding Serial data (I think). When VISTA recognized the new USB connection, it requested to search for drivers... I indicated OK and Vista proceeded to load USB to Serial drivers and assigned COM3. Still couldn't get SB to communicate via USB/Serial. I gave up and tried the Parrallel port. LPT1 worked the 1st time and the communications were very quick, it worked GREAT. 2. IMPORTANT FOR NEWBIES!!!! I Worked last night til 4am and finally gave up on my project and the machine! No matter what settings I tried, we couldn't get nice clean cuts. The file is quite detailed, and the inside and some outside corners would tear. I thought maybe I needed more pressure, so the knife would have some resistance and help it to rotate... NOT! Then I tried less pressure... NOT! Slower... NOT! At the end, I wondered if the machine just wasn't accurate enough for such a small and detailed project... NOT! I was pulling my hair out (what little left there is). During my sleep, the solution came. Don't account for blade offset in both your software and your hardware! I know this sounds too simple, but SB has a blade offset setting AND the CP2500 cutter has one too. Mine were both set to .25mm (the correct setting), BUT - if you use the correction in both areas, you end up with 2X what is needed (I THINK). I had this problem last night (and didn't know it)! After removing the blade offset in SB, the cutting was fantastic! 3. Be sure to set the blade depth correctly. The blade should only protrude from the holder, just far enough to cut the substrate and about half way thru the liner. My best results for 3M electrocut premium material was 80gr down force, .25mm offset for 60 degree blade, and running at the slowest speed due to the very small letters of my 1st project. 4. Watch your blade holder to keep stray vinyl from attaching itself to the bottom. If it does, it effectively stops the blade from going deep enough and getting a clean consistent cut. 5. I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of now. Good Luck... AND thanks for all you who have contributed to this forum!

Rcvd our 1st vinyl cutting machine (Copam cp2500) yesterday at noon. Assembled and hooked up by 3pm. Trying to cut a complex auto decal by 5pm. NEVER used or operated one of these before. A few thoughts about SignBlazer: Seems like good software... I like the weld feature. Most of our design is done in Illustrator. Good things to know if your new to SB (SignBlazer). 1. Before importing your AI file, be certain the layers are correct. I battled with a file for 2 hours today when importing into SB, I could see the entire outline (viewing wireframe), but when sending it to the CP2500 the cutter screen showed only part of the image to cut AND would only cut part of the image. Problem turned out to be my AI file. I was viewing the AI file in "wireframe" mode and didn't realize there was a layering issue. 2. I beleive you MUST save the AI file as version 8, before a successful import can be made into SB. I think I read this somewhere here earlier, but wanted to remind those who need to know. And then use the "Postscript scanner" option for importing. 3. I had my best results designing weed lines into my art file right in AI... more control, then not using the auto weed functions in SB. 4. SB wouldn't let me use the USB port to communicate with the CP2500, but as soon as I hooked up the Parrallel port it worked GREAT. 5. IMPORTANT FOR NEWBIES!!!! I Worked last night til 4am and finally gave up on my project and the machine! No matter what settings I tried, we couldn't get nice clean cuts. The file is quite detailed, and the inside and some outside corners would tear. I thought maybe I needed more pressure, so the knife would have some resistance and help it to rotate... NOT! Then I tried less pressure... NOT! Slower... NOT! At the end, I wondered if the machine just wasn't accurate enough for such a small and detailed project... NOT! I was pulling my hair out (what little left there is). During my sleep, the solution came. Don't account for blade offset in both your software and your hardware! I know this sounds too simple, but SB has a blade offset setting AND the CP2500 cutter has one too. Mine were both set to .25mm (the correct setting), BUT - if you use the correction in both areas, you end up with 2X what is needed (I THINK). I had this problem last night (and didn't know it)! After removing the blade offset in SB, the cutting was fantastic! 6. Be sure to set the blade depth correctly. The blade should only protrude from the holder, just far enough to cut the substrate and about half way thru the liner. My best results for 3M electrocut premium material was 80gr down force, .25mm offset for 60 degree blade, and running at the slowest speed due to the very small letters of my 1st project. 7. Watch your blade holder to keep stray vinyl from attaching itself to the bottom. If it does, it effectively stops the blade from going deep enough and getting a clean consistent cut. 8. I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of now.

Received our 1st vinyl cutter yesterday (Copam CP-2500). Produced 1st job today (partial). See the Copam/SignBlazer forums for details. Thanks to all who have contributed to this forum group... I spent several hours here before the purchase and a few since. Steve, aka ORION