NukleoN

Hi there, First, if you need help it's better to title your posts something specific, rather than just 'I need help' which could be anything. Might get more eyes on your post. Maybe update your title with something like, 'Help: MH721 and erratic behavior' or some such. Second, does the cutter always start off ok and then freak out in the manner described, with serial or USB connection? That's very odd. Maybe it's overheating? I know that sounds weird, since I've never heard of overheating issues. Could be static electricity too. Have you wired your cutter to a ground source? A Keyspan is also a good idea for any cutter with a serial connection (especially if the USB connection seems too loose). Good luck, definitely keep trying with US Cutter, sounds like a question for them.

I just ordered the WF1100 from Richard at Cobra Inks and can't wait to start using it for jobs. This seems to be the go-to desktop printer, and a great size format for t-shirts (I plan to do shirts later, but am sneaking up on it step-by-step). My Epson WF30 is almost out of ink and I was considering buying *shudder* replacement cartridges before I just pulled the trigger and bought the WF1100.

Go to USPS.com, and order the free supplies they offer which they also deliver to your door, free. There are all kinds of supplies they offer, from customs forms to boxes and mailing envelopes, etc.

Very easy solution, stop using SignBlazer! It sucks royally (yes, I've tried it). Try Flexi or SignCut ProdPro.

Vectorizing is free and easy with Inkscape, why pay someone to do it?

Testing...URL images work fine if people host their own images (which is really the best way to do it imho, since you can keep control of your image, change it, etc.).

I'll be buying my CIS kit from the inventor....Richard at Cobra Ink! Their CIS seems to be improving with what appears to be a more internal system now.

Hi there. You came to the right place for answers. U.S. cutter sells great products but also has a helpful forum. There are two basic types of cutting you'll commonly want to do: Regular vinyl cutting and contour-cutting (a more advanced technique which is better to do once you're familiar with regular cutting). Vinyl Cutting: With regular vinyl cutting, you basically send your vector design to your cutter from your cutting software. Vector designs are basically mathematical representations of shapes so you can zoom in infinitely and the edges stay sharp, and this is what is used with your cutter. Bitmaps (most images you see on the web and such) are mapped to a pixel grid and lose fidelity when you zoom in, depending on resolution this will be more or less noticeable. You can convert bitmap to vector with free programs such as Inkscape. Download that at your earliest convenience and check it out. Once you have a vector design made from scratch or converted from a bitmap, you can send it to your cutter from a cutting software package of your choice. I've tried a few and really like SignCut Production Pro, which is linked to Adobe Illustrator CS3 when you install SignCut. Others will have their own suggestions. I tried the free 'Signblazer Elements' but I think it's a steaming pile of junk and I don't recommend it. On your cutter, you place your vinyl, set your origin point near the end of the sheet (nearest you) and then send your design from your cutting software and watch the blade cut. Usually, you will need to make sure your blade offset is correct for the type of cutter blade you have. You can adjust pressure on the cutter too for thicker vinyls. Some of this is just experimentation but there are basic settings which tend to be good to start from, depending on your cutter. Once done cutting, just weed the decal (remove excess vinyl) and you're done. For complex designs, you can even add extra cuts to make 'weeding' easier, otherwise there will be too many connected portions and weeding can get tricky. If you haven't bought a cutter yet and you want to do contour-cutting later, check out the Laserpoint 24 by U.S. Cutter. It's reasonably-priced and will allow contour cutting. Contour Cutting: Summed up, this is generally a contour-cut of a printed image on vinyl (the vinyl of course has an adhesive backing). Papilio sells a wide-variety of vinyl sheets which will go right into your vinyl-printing compatible printer. For this you'll need an inkjet printer with quality pigment ink. The ink needs to be quality pigment ink which will properly adhere to vinyl (which has its own adhesive backing already). I have the Epson Workforce 30, which is a good starting printer with Epson's 'Durabrite' pigment ink, which sets fast and is great for vinyl. This printer is good for letter-sized printing and smaller. There's also the larger Epson Workforce 1100 large format printer, but the best option for these printers is a Cobra Ink Systems printer with Continuous Ink System (CIS) that has pigment ink in bottles you can refill. They sell pre-converted WF30, WF1100 and other printers for reasonable prices. Your savings on replacement ink will be substantial over cartridges sold by Epson. They can even convert an existing Epson Workforce printer to use the Continuous Ink System as well. Once you've printed your design on inkjet vinyl from your printer, you will generally have a 'cut' layer outline in your vector program (Illustrator, Corel Draw, etc.) so your cutter knows where to cut. This is more or less just a a top layer vector outline, and I usually put these on their own layer and in Magenta (since some higher-end printers use Magenta for the contour layer and I got into this habit). At this point, you'd feed in your printed design to the cutter, align registration marks (this is the tricky bit) and send the cut layer to your cutter (you'll need a cutter which has reg-mark recognition or a laser sight you can align manually). The contour-cutting process is a little more of an advanced technique, but there are tutorials online based on your cutting software, cutter and vector program. I use a U.S. Cutter LP24, SignCut Productivity Pro and an Epson WF30 for contour cutting, and I do a lot of contour-cutting. The main thing is, ask questions like this here and you'll get the help you need. Consider everything you want to do with your setup before buying. If you want to do t-shirts later, you might want the larger Epson 1100 printer right out of the gate.

I am kinda getting used to it. It's kind of like SMF meets VBulletin. I like being able to select text and add a link. Nice!

I've never had an issue with white, but yeah I use Oracal 651. I also use decent lighting when weeding complex jobs and just take my time with it.

Yeah, better for off-topic. Personally, I understand that people and events affect your life, for sure. As for 'extra-dimenstional forces', I don't believe in anything like that, but I am an atheist so that kind of comes with the territory. Even if you do believe in extra-dimensional forces though, it's best to operate in the real world so you can be most effective in controlling your destiny (at least with stuff you can control). I'd be happy to chat with you offline about this if you're so inclined.

In this tough economy Rodger, we do what we can! Glad to hear you're alive and kicking. I still check the forum from time to time....and once I get into T-shirt making I'll be a lot more active hehe.

Thanks! I might make stickers out of 'em sometime. Dan

I have had great luck with papilio waterproof vinyl and have been printing it with pigment ink from my cobra epson 1100 printer and then spraying them with Aerosol UV Laminate Spray 12 Oz . http://texascraft.com/hps/ Hey Bill, love what you did with the water-hunter graphic! Yeah, the 1100 with Cobra Ink System is brilliant...that's what I plan to get as well. I've just ordered the Papilio Waterproof vinyl and hoping it does well outside with some lam-spray. I find the vinyl+laminate sheet to be way too hard to cut. How well does the waterproof vinyl cut...can you cut that with the same settings as regular vinyl? I even linked Cobra Ink Systems on my Facebook. Good advice here. Dan

Hi Rodger! Well, I've been hard at work on my website and new artwork. Still looking for a job too (heh, I should be a proofreader). Still cutting decals and selling 'em here and there. Here's one of my new models: http://www.nukleon.com/images/Pics/VoodooWarrior/VWPosed_02.jpg[/img] How've you been?

I am confused. On Sunie's website I see a press that is 16x20, but on Amazon and other places it's listed as 16x24. Which is it? Anyone know?

Remember the expression 'Penny-wise, pound-foolish.'. The warranty is worth at least 80 bucks.

Yes, SignCut Prod Pro is solid and great software. I did have a repeated crashes on my Windows 7 64-bit system when I had outdated Keyspan drivers. Updating the drivers fixed the issue (can't blame SignCut). I knew SignCut probably wasn't the issue though since it was rock solid on my under XP and my Keyspan was fine too, so I figured drivers were the issue and sure enough they were.

Hiya, I just installed Illustrator CS5 and noticed there was no 'Send to SignCut' option from the File Menu, as there was in Illustrator CS3. I am using the latest version of SignCut Prod Pro (1.07 for Windows). Per the instructions from the SignCut site, I tried re-installing the plugins from Help/Reinstall Export Plugins. Still no 'Send to SignCut' from the File menu in Illustrator CS5. Is the plugin from SignCut known not to work in the latest version of Illustrator? What's the latest version of Illustrator with a working plugin, CS4? If there's something I am doing wrong or a way to get the SignCut plugin working from Illustrator CS5 I'd love to hear it. Thanks! UPDATE: I just went back to CS3. I re-installed the plugins from SignCut and the 'Send to SignCut' feature is now available in CS3. Yay.

Hi there, I installed Windows 7 (64-bit) recently, which I need so my 3D programs can use all my 8GB of RAM. Are there any known issues with the LP24 with Win7-64? I do have drivers installed for my TrippLite USB to serial adapter, but I haven't tried the cutter yet since I am busy installing software still. I wanted to give time for answers to this thread. Any known issues, and anything I should look out for? Anyone using an LP24 or any cutter under Windows 64-bit? I use SignCut ProdPro for all my cutting.

Yeah, art is more time-consuming now than ever, since all the detail obviously requires more time to create....and that doesn't include all the time needed for the programming, audio, quality assurance, etc.

The sculpted detail would be exported as a normal map, and everything would be applied, lit, rigged and animated in a 3D package such as Max or Maya. You'd export the color detail from Z-Brush as well. Then, you could prepare everything for realtime game engines (XBOX, PS3, Wii, etc.) or render images or cinematics using custom renderers as needed (Mental Ray, VRAY, etc.).

Hi Jay, Took a week or so for the modeling and design, and another 3 days or so to sculpt, and 3-4 days to color. Takes a while! Now I am working on posing him with his items so I can make a final image with a background. There is a lot of detail here, for sure...if I zoom in the detail shows up...but in the final I'll do some close-up renders.

Yep, the 64-bit version gives you a lot more bandwidth for all that geometry you could create with CAD. Here's a sneak peek of the Orc Voodoo Warrior I just finished painting in Z-Brush...I still need to pose and render it for a final image. I might make a few full-color magnet decals out of it when I am done. Right now he's in the standard T-pose. http://www.nukleon.com/images/Pics/VoodooWarrior/Voodoo_Warrior_01.jpg http://www.nukleon.com/images/Pics/VoodooWarrior/Voodoo_Warrior_02_Rear.jpg http://www.nukleon.com/images/Pics/VoodooWarrior/Voodoo_Warrior_03.jpg http://www.nukleon.com/images/Pics/VoodooWarrior/Voodoo_Warrior_04.jpg Running 64 Bit Catia V5. Haven't even gotten a chance to start it up yet.

More RAM is better, for sure. But, you might also have the option to install a 64-bit version of CAD as long as you don't have plugins or addons which are 32-bit. If nothing else, the extra RAM lets you multi-task programs more easily.