MecH

My computer/graphics/electronics/etc history all spawns from my dad (aka Alien). Hes a jack-of-all-trades, and i have yet to find something that he just CANT figure out. Since I was old enough to walk, he taught me everything from simple computers to full blown industrial electronics. 32 years later, he is still the most amazing man i know. So from the wealth of information that I had access to, i set out to find my niche. First it was mobile electronics, installing car alarms and stereo systems. (you know you have a great electronics teacher when you can be color blind and still install car alarms ). I absolutely love it, but theres just not enough money in it around here. Then I went to installing Dish Network and DirecTV, which was cool in its own way, but I despise the heat lol. Finally I went to work at the factory where my dad worked (Maytag). and was there for 2 weeks before deciding that I am definately NOT a factory guy, and after 6 years, i still knew it lol. I have done graphic design/computer repair/website creation/etc for years and years and was a designer for Darkforge Graphics (www.darkforgegfx.com) until i lost my monster comp. to a motherboard meltdown. And me and my dad both have wanted to get a cutter since forever, and neither of us wanted to dish out the funds to get one. Then came D-Day for Maytag. After 19 years of pure service, my dad was out of a job for the first time in his life. They sold the company to Whrilpool, and they simply closed the doors. After the initial shock/stress/fear settled down, my mom (the family optimist) had the mindset of 'Why not?' and 'Now you can both do what you want, and do it together'. So after a lot of hesitation, we broke down and bought our first cutter, the copam 2500. Can you say HOOKED! We the aquired a Roland GX-24 and a HP DesignJet 500 42" wide format printer and now its like 2 big kids playing with expensive toys all day . So we named ourselves Vinyl Visions (www.vinylvisionsonline.com) and hopefully we can make a nice run of it.

Id be happy to help ya out, but i dont use SignBlazer so you have to give me an EPS or JPG to work with.

On something like this, where you have an outine and you want to give it a fill for 2 color, I take the outline and make a duplicate of it. Then move one to the side and work with the other.(make sure its grouped) and draw a square big enough to cover the entire outline (solid fill with no stroke). Then select both the square and the outline and in your pathfinder window click `minus back`. It will make a `punch`in the square like a stencil. The parts that are left make up your 2nd color overlay. Personally, when doing a multi color like this, I will go back to the outline, and make it a silouette then lay the 2nd color over it. You can take the one that i did apart and see what im talking about.

Here it is in 2 colors...the link is in 3......cut ready w/reg. marks loader.ai loader.ai

Look at all these sexy TN ppl Welcome from the West end of the state. I was just in Smyrna last week...stayed with a buddy of mine thats in Old Hickory.

What is this `black and white` TV you speak of?

Here ya go. I didnt have one so I made one BigHornSheep.ai BigHornSheep.ai

lol...i used to be a chevy guy....then i was a pontiac guy...and now its just whatever drives the best

You guys are funny lol Here ya go mate. SaleenLogo.eps SaleenLogo.eps

Heres the logo in 2 colors with 'pixel gradient' effect on the I. Cut ready, even has registration marks (yeah i was bored ) DotComLogo-2Color.eps DotComLogo-2Color.eps

oooook and back to vectorfest Heres a quick one to help get the ball rolling

I`m game Question tho...are you looking for just like a promotional tshirt design, or more of a logo design?

Looking for the font that `Quality` is in. Ive been through over 6k fonts lol.

I went through this too...For me personally, i found it much easier to make my own....just draw a small square then rotate it 45 deg. and it makes a diamond...then select it...control C (copy) then control V (paste) and youll have 2...select them both, and align the horizontal centers....space them out like you want them...then group them. Lets assume your design has 2 colors..black and white..make the first pair you made black..and make sure they are grouped before you do this part..... Now click one of those (it will select them both because they are grouped) and once again..do Control C...then Control V...now you have 2 pairs...make the 2nd one white (also make sure you dont have a stroke on either one of them. Now select all 4 marks...and align the vertical center AND the horizontal center...that stacks them. (might help to put the black set on top, so you can see it.) then with all 4 selected...group the 2 groups....so they all move as one. move it just above your graphic and select the whole thing and cut it All that is actually a 30 second process once you get used to it..just remember that you need one pair of reg. marks for each color that you have in your design...and the colors have to match exaclty, or it will simply add an extra color to it.(i usually just use the eyedropper (or color picker tool) and just click the color in the design to set it for the reg. marks) Just in case you havent done this, it makes life SOOO much easier when youre doing multicolor if you go to your options in the prod. manager...and choose `single job seperate colors` and make sure `pause between colors` is checked....then it will cut one color...then stop, and wait for you to load your next color, then hit ok and there it goes ...also if you get your size set in the prod. manager...then hit done...then save it....the settings in the prod. manager will stay every time you bring it up...so say you mess up on the white while youre weeding etc...you can bring it back up...and when it says black..just hit SKIP...and it will move to the white...and you can just cut that one.

Not sure if this has been posted or not, but I thought I would share it. My dad found the swatch files on oracal, and I just got them put into illy cs4, and I personally think its a must have if you use oracal. The swatches are separated by vinyl model (eg. 651, 751, etc.) I personally installed them all, just to have them. Basically its like having the oracal color chart right there in your program, but also, when you are ready to cut it, it shows the color and number of that color (eg. Green 061). Best of all...they are free from oracal Grab em from here: http://www.oracal.com/knowledge/oracolor.asp Note that I only use Illy to design, so for the other software you will have to locate your swatch library directory. But for Illy (and this is for CS4...earlier versions the directory is slightly different, but its still the swatch library directory.) First go to the link above and click the link to the software that you use, and download the file. Unzip the file to somewhere convenient (i like the desktop ) Then you will see all of the different .AI files for the different models of vinyl. (if you only use 651, you may only want to put the 651 file in, up to you.) Select all of the .AI files you want to install, and copy them (control+c) Now you have to navigate to your Illy swatch directory: For CS4 the directory is C:Program FilesAdobeAdobe Illustrator CS4Presetsen_USSwatches Once in that directory, create a new folder and name it ORACAL or whatever you prefer. Open that new folder and paste the .AI files into it (control+v) Now fire up illy, and click WINDOW/SWATCHES your color swatch will pop out on the right...click the button at the top of that window that has the down arrow and 4 horizontal lines beside it...it will drop down a menu. In that menu, go down to OPEN SWATCH LIBRARY and the sub menu will show, you should see your new ORACAL folder there, in that menu are the oracal color swatches, select the one you want to use, and voila I attached a screenshot of my illy with the 651 swatch out just to show ya. Hope this helps somebody Props to Alien (My Fatha) for finding the swatch files

Theres a couple different ways to do it. If you want to `freehand` the part you want cut out, you use the `knife tool`. Its located in the flyout menu under the eraser tool (just click and hold the eraser and then select the knife tool). Then you make a cut on the path. After you cut it, use the selection tool to select the piece you want out, and hit delete. Or if you have a certain shape that you want removed from the object, select the shape that you want to use as your `cut shape` and send it to the BACK (object/arrange/send to back) then select BOTH objects and look in the pathfinder menu, and choose the last button on the bottom (subtract from) and it will cut the back object out of the front one.

Just got our Copam-2500 yesterday, and spent a few hours setting up/dialing in/etc. After we got it to cut right, we had to 'christen' the cutter But you know I had to see what it would do . Sorry for the crappy images, all i had atm was my phone. The logo on the cutter. And a small detailed cut

Its 8.1v1 and xp pro. I couldnt get it to run at all on vista 32. It could be that there is not a true copam driver for flexi yet, but idk. Im using the DGI-om-60 driver atm. Oh, and I cut the logo thats on the cutter with flexi so it works, but *shrug*

Oh yeah, def. Its a very sturdy machine. It took a little while to get it cutting right, (and its still a touch too deep i think), but yeah it does a great job IMO. That small cut was a shrunk version of a side window decal that we did last night for a Tahoe (ill grab a pic later) that was cut at 22" wide. For some reason Flexi dont like bigger jobs tho. I cut a test one in flexi and it did fine, but after making it the full 22", it went apeshit on me lol. But SBE cut it fine. I`d much rather use flexi, but not sure whats up with the large files. But simply, its a great machine, and we dig it

What cutter do you have? the Copam uses the digi-om-60 driver

The color in the program doesnt matter. It is just for your benefit. The cutter doesnt care what color vinyl is loaded, it is going to cut the paths (or lines). If you take the horse example, the image you see in the program is black/white, but when you send the file to the cutter, of course its up to you what color you load.

Maybe? .... You`ll have to replace the ribbon txt.

nice...thats a 2nd generation bird I have a `78 TA

Well at least you found the problem..much easier to fix it when you know what youre fixin

You can make your registration marks once, just make them a diff color than any other object in your design, then when you send it to cut, select the color you want to cut and the registration marks color...rinse and repeat for each color