mars

Gary, You are welcome. Glad I could help. -Mike

EddaAltStyleA The "th" in SABBATH are lowercase all the rest is uppercase. http://www.fonts101.com/fonts/view/Uncategorized/25034/Edda_AltStyleA -Mike

Those are there already in a slightly different way. Click on the toolbar "+" and you can click on a point you want to work on - it generally stays centered on the point you click and gets larger with each click so you can guide it to the area you want to examine as you zoom in. While in this mode you can also click and drag a "rubberband box" around an area and it will zoom into that area. Click on the toolbar "-" and you can zoom out by clicking on the point you want centered and it zooms out a bit more with each click with the new size and the screen centered on the object you clicked on - no rubberband box though. I agree on .eps -- too common a file format t not be useable in serious software. -Mike

I think it is the way they have been doing node editing in SCAL all along - it was in the tutorial videos for earlier versions - I just missed that it took 2 different tools to do the job - even though that is what they were showing in the video LOL. -Mike

Ditto on Stacking - the only way to do it now is to select shapes and center them (to the cutting mat - not to each other) then you can select them and move the out of the way to work with other shapes -- Much better to have the capability to align and/or stack shapes to each other without reguard to where they are on the mat.

For a $200 program it should have tools like tiling available. I bought it - for the sale price - but haven't activated it yet. So I think my 2 cents is worth putting into the conversation. I would also like to see a duplicate/array function for when you want to make a sheet of small stickers. I am going to start a wishlist topic and put these requests there - I hope the topic makes a good place for the developers to see requests for improvement all in one place.. -Mike

Surface temp makes a diference. Cleaning the surface is important too as said above. You say nothing has changed - have you used THIS PARTICULAR roll of vinyl before? Have you applied to the THIS PARTICULAR substrate material before? Do you have a vinyl applicator squeegee - probably will get better pressure than a credit card - and may make the difference in getting the adhesive to grab. It is called "pressure sensitive adhesive" for a reason. You may need to get a lower tac transfer tape to make the job easier. Paper tape can be sprayed to aid in release. In the meantime - I have had some jobs that I had to work to get the tape away from the vinyl after application. First - get a vinyl squeegee. and squeegee the graphic down very well - Here is a 3M video - for the proper technique - to get you started with good technique. I know I see guys doing the "incorrect" techniques and getting good results - I did it myself - so it may bea matter of learning the "touch" needed rather than the correct position and movement of the squeegee - but 3M has been doing this longer than I have so I accept their advice. http://youtu.be/2VR8vO1doMQ I have had to "roll" the app tape off of the vinyl - press on the point where the tape is coming off the vinyl and pull the app tape flat against the surface with your other hand - doing a press and drag on the vinyl with your fingers to keep it in contact with the substate while dragging the tape off in the opposit direction. It is a pain in the a$$ -- lower tac tape is a better solution. Good Luck -Mike

Very Creative - if it works -- it works!!! Which company did you call USCutter or CraftEdge? I hope they said they are working on a solution? -Mike

No you didn't make anything. But I think you were aware before you asked the question. I ran the prices and I would be about 4x the total price you charged. I also priced the stickers you said you were giving .99 for and came up with $1.07 each if you get the 2 colors and assemble them yourself - or (using 20 seconds per sticker) $1.33 if I assemble in the shop. Just so you know the effect of a higher volume on the same job setup. How long did you spend doing the job? Divide the money by the hours and see what you "made" per hour - Would you hire on at a business that wanted to pay you that amount per hour? Don't sweat over it - just do the setup in Estimate to make your hourly shop rate something you can live with. I also have default minutes set up for each job to cover the putzing around it takes loading vinyl and getting a file loaded and sized to cut - this makes 1 of a kind jobs more expensive - but they are more expensive to process so it evens out. In the end it is your business what you charge - Good luck -Mike

I would sugest contacting CraftEdge to see if the registration works with the upgraded versions of the Pro software. They can probably just send you the link to download the newest version. I don't think there is much problem with not having the CD for Pro since the versions have been upgraded so many times already - CraftEdge may tell you different - -Mike

Scott, Good idea for a buglist. The keep proportions only seems to work for entering sizes into the H and W boxes to control the size of the object. I think this is how it is meant to work - quirky I know - but in the world where this software was born it probably made sense to use check keep proportions and use the property boxes to make the size exactly what you want. Or use the shift and drag to keep proportions when sizing with the mouse. Or just drag it to fit the space on your scrapbook page. I agree is makes more sense for sign guys to make it lock the aspect ratio even when dragging with the mouse to resize. -Mike

But if you have customized your layout of the tool boxes and just save your project the default tool box layout will show up the next time you launch the program -- saving the workspace makes it easier to get the space tweaked to your liking and then re-use it - an improvement I would suggest is to allow you to make the custome workspace the default on launch instead of having to select it each time - not a big deal - just a little more elegant to make it come up customized for your taste when you launch. -Mike

Mega Vault is not in the listing title - but is on the graphic of the "package" shown in the listing. though it really doesn't come in any box just an envelope and sleeves for the disks 2 links below will bring up all the auctions look for this title: NO RESERVE AUCTION! HUGE MEGA VECTOR CLIPART FOR SIGN VINYL PLOTTER CUTTER I bought these too -- looks like he is selling under 2 different names now I bought from the eknrew username -- his last neme is Wernke - so I know this is the right guy - but most of the listingings now are under the second username - not sure why - but feedback is good so probably legit. http://www.ebay.com/sch/eknrew/m.html? http://www.ebay.com/...fxuwant/m.html? -Mike

" You can name and save the customized setup - just click on "window " in the menu and select save workspace under the workspace menu item. - you give the workspace a name of your choice and then can select it via the name anytime you want to use that setup. I did 2 different ones and the names show up at the top of the list under workspace menu. There is also a manage workspace command so you can delete or rename workspaces too. -Mike

Here are some other things to check 1. Is the blade holder fouled with a small bit of vinyl - sometimes a tiny piece will get lodged in the opening and cause the blade to not swivel freely with wonky results in the cut path? 2. Is the blade chipped or dull? 3. Is there any roughness/cuts in the cutting strip - usually caused by cutting completely through the vinyl and backing paper and damaging the strip. 4. Is it just a crappy font? Have you done other fonts with good results? 5. Is the blade set correctly? Should JUST cut through the vinyl and maybe leave a slight mark in the backing. Looks like you have checked for play in the moving parts and played with values for offset - so these things are the next I would be checking if I had trouble. -Mike

Rodger, I didn't realize USCutter was selling SCAL (my lack of observation - not USC's lack of promotion I'm sure LOL)- that does make it atttractive to new users. Is there a Copam driver? - I'll be looking - but thought you might know already. Do they have a demo download? Thanks, Mike OK - I looked and saw that it lists the Copam so am downloading a copy to evaluate. Anybody using it with the Copam yet? Does it require USB- or will it cut through the parallel interface?

Rodger, SCAL is well thought of - I haven't tried it - but do use another cutting program with it's roots in the crafting world - called Make-The-Cut! The thing I am most impressed with it the vectorizing features (called "Pixel Tracing") Check it out too - similar in cost $58 and change for a license and includes free updates.

Download the trial and give it a whirl - it is fully functional - with watermarks inserted into files you save or cut until you pay for the registration code and activate it -- Cost if $58.36 and you can load it on all of your computers with the provision that it only be run on a single computer at a time - no dongle or limited installs and updates are free - can't beat it! Here is the page to download the program and any plug ins you want - for sure get the UScutters MH/Laser series http://make-the-cut....oad.aspx?ref=lp Try it out with your cutter to see if it works for you - you can cut vinyl with it - but it will have extra cuts that make it not much use except to test that it works with your cutter. Good luck. Check out their forum and the recorded webinars for some idea of the capabilities of the program. http://forum.make-the-cut.com/ -Mike PS you might want to post your own new topic on this (USCutter) forum with the title asking for help getting signcut going for you - might be all you need is a little guidance in setting up something that is not quite right yet. Then you have no need to buy an additional program. I think MTC! is worth a look even if you get the signcut going - because it is a one time registration fee and no recurring costs involved.

DeAnna, Yes you can send the cut to a MH series cutter - got to use USB interface to cut through Make The Cut! - how is yours connected? There are drivers for a number of cutters (called Plug-uns) you can have any or all of them installed and just select the one for the cutter you want to use when you get ready to make the cut. -Mike

I agree with the SignBlazer recommendation. Good program and probably all most people need for both designing and cutting. A lot of the learning curve is getting your head around the differences between raster and vector images and doing conversions of raster to vector to make a file that you can cut. The actual program takes some learning of what tools do what job - but step by step videos are on the internet and if you put in the time you can get it on your own -- or can always ask questions here. I would also suggest taking a look at Make The Cut! http://make-the-cut.com/ The free trial would let you see if it is suitable for your needs - if you like it it costs less than $60 - and updates are free for life. I use SBE - but still bought MTC! for it's vectorizing tools - try it you might like it. welcome to the forum -Mike

Do you have your pinch rollers on the edges of the vinyl? I can see 2 in the center area of the roll in your picture - but can't tell if there is another one on the right edge of the material. My Copam will not cut past the pinch rollers (only 2 of them on my 24" Copam) because of the magnetic sensor on the cutter head - not sure wht sze your cutter is or how many pinch rollers you have. Do you have enough vinyl rolled off the roll to complete the cut? The material will skew like this if you try to let the machine drag the vinyl off the roll.

The ease of converting to a vector will depend on the quality and resolution of the image you are working on (a bitmap image - .jpg etc) If it has sharp edges to the shapes and solid colors it will be a snap to vectorise. If it has halftones and graduated color areas - or many small colored areas - it will be hard or impossible to do without a lot of editing of the vector - or some editing of the bitmap image to clean it up before using inkscape to vectorize. Keep working and learning and you will get a feel for what will vectorize easily and what is just not suitable to easy use.

Looks great - I know he is proud of his wall! Nice Job. -Mike