anyone else hate signblazer, or maybe have some idea how to make it work????

[Reaper_of_Souls 0]

ok, first off I want to say I am sorry if I seem a bit negative. I have been doing sign and graphic work for more than 5 years, and I have never been as angry and disappointed with any software in my life. I just purchased a MH721 as a light duty cutter for my home business....it came with the awful signblazer. 

I have installed this stuff 3 different times now. The first install it would open and let me see all the wonderful 'register' screens. It wont open any of my existing .eps files, I cant import anything. So I just tried to cut basic shapes to test the plotter.....Nothing. It wont communicate with the plotter at all, and I cant seem to find the problem....even though I have had some helpful people here attempt to walk me through it....thanks guys!

Uninstalled, and tried again.....and again. Now it will open, I get past all the annoying register screens, and it just closes or locks up...'not responding' This is the most frustrating and annoying crap I have ever tried to use. ok ok...lets try an old software I have had and really find easy to use and design in....cibercut. Sadly the functional software I have doesnt support this unknown offbrand plotter. I am running outta patience here......WISH I NEVER BOUGHT FROM USCUTTER!!!!

[Guest YHC]

So..... are you saying you don't like it? J/K

Sorry to hear about the experience. Hope you get it figured out. Try Flexi and I'm sure you will like it as I've used both and haven't had any issues with USC's LP.

[edge 67]

Are you attempting to run this on a computer with other cutting software installed? 

[Reaper_of_Souls 0]

i have tried it with and without the cibercut installed....seems to make no difference at all. signblazer just freezes and shuts down no matter what. i even put it on a separate computer and the same....it will open, freeze, close. hahaha...its almost to the point of being funny. but even the moments i did have it up, i was very unhappy with its appearance, layout, and functions. too much focus on bubbly colored buttons, but no real user friendly functions i could find. oh well...

As for the Flexi idea, I have used it in the past and it was pretty decent. I have run flexi, composer, cibercut, something from corel, and a few oddballs that seemed to be spanish....never had a problem before now. At the moment funds are limited which is why i went with USCutter. they seemed to have a good following online, this forum, and lots of products....so I never thought I would get burned with extremely cheap and unuseable crap or plotters that werent compatible with anything else. The add I bought from even said 'works with almost any software'...yeah any except what I happen to have.

From what I can tell, signblazer is just an inferior, hard to use, childishly colored, non functional waste of a disk that coulda been used to burn music on. But like I said, I only had a few minutes to see it running. Anyone wanna buy a new plotter, never been used?? haha

[BannerJohn 1,324]

I used Signblazer for about a year with no problems..my brother uses it going on 3 years now..he won't have anything else. The sdame can be said for MANY on this forum.

You are entitled to your opinion,...but before you judge it's functionality..get it working. And remember,it is free. If you want something better,spend some money.

[tinaski 11]

I used Signblazer for about a year with no problems..my brother uses it going on 3 years now..he won't have anything else. The sdame can be said for MANY on this forum.

You are entitled to your opinion,...but before you judge it's functionality..get it working. And remember,it is free. If you want something better,spend some money.

sorry but normally i wouldnt say anything but the quote " If you want something better,spend some money." really got me thinking we use

OS

linux -free

Design

inkscape - free

sk1 - free

to cut with

TUX PLOT - free

you dont always get what ya pay for - we have been using linux for a while now a we love it

and you dont always have to spend money to get something better - after we have gotten it up and going its been great well never go back

we also got the MH series and have had nothing but problems with it all customer service said (when they would call us back) was you need a new mother board - 3xs and since that got old to hear we upgraded to a Graphtec and we love it will never look at another brand ----- if interested we have a 15 inch for sale since we upgraded we have a spare

sorry to hear that you had so many problems 

[Reaper_of_Souls 0]

I agree totally, tinaski. The softwares I have used and loved were free versions, and like you said, some of the best stuff out there is free. Its not always a matter of 'spend some money'. I know everyone has their own opinions, and in my current situation I did 'spend some money' to get this heap of frustration and nonfucntional equipment. I know a few hundred isnt alot to some people, but when you are disabled and rely on a working plotter for your only income, then yes....it is alot. Simply put, it's not the cost thats the issue. I was sold a product that doesnt work, and no matter how many emails I send to support, it still doesnt get fixed. Their answer is to 'take control of my computer and let them adjust things' even after I have told them it is not a computer that is online, it will never be online, and there is no way I would let them 'control' it anyway.

My friend had a Graphtec, and it was great. I have enjoyed using Gerbers and even my cheap old GCC sable....but sadly it died. What type of 15" and any info would be great....possibly interested. Thank you so much. Just takes someone with similar experience to calm ya back down, you know?? Telling me to spend more when I just spent what I had saved for tires on my truck wasnt helping...haha

[BannerJohn 1,324]

one of our members ( jay2703 )  was a tester for SignBlazer before USC started offering it. He is as close to an expert that we have,and knows about everything about it. You might try PMing him for some advice. I don't know which version you are using but there are several versions out there. You might try another version.Some have bugs that can't be fixed,since the creator and developer of SB is dead. Links to other versions are available in the Signblazer threads. It could be that you have one of the buggy versions.

[Reaper_of_Souls 0]

Thank you very much, BannerJohn. That may help and it sure wont hurt to try. Appreciate the info.

[Buggie Pilot 4]

I seem to have a problem with everythin else .... but signblazer seem to be working great...... just about nothing I cant do, or workaround.

Hope you can figgure it out

pPete G

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

. Sadly the functional software I have doesnt support this unknown offbrand plotter. I am running outta patience here......WISH I NEVER BOUGHT FROM USCUTTER!!!!

  so sell it and buy a roland or graphtec! never be sorry there is always a solution

Have you submitted a support ticket with USC to get help - or just trying to figure it out on your own or other users on the user forum???

[CRD 9]

Ok,

Here some troubleshooting options.

Did you downloaded a web version from SBE or are you constant trying one version you have on disk?

The link to this web version can be found in the new bie manual (we all are in case of troubleshooting)

http://forum.uscutter.com/index.php/topic,17489.0.html

read the manual and let us know if this SBE version to be downloaded is working or not.

When that works fine you can always use the craked version (no start up screen) later.

Paco

[Reaper_of_Souls 0]

Thanks for the advice guys. Really is nice to know there are people that will try to help.

I am using the version that came with the plotter...SBE. Cant really download anything here, only available internet is dial up, and that basically makes anything more than a forum or small picture pretty impossible to open.

  Yes Dakota, I sent the support ticket off and their only reply was to let them 'take control' of the computer and try to set things up. Not an option since the plotter is on its own computer with no internet...besides, who trusts anyone to 'take control' of anything? I havent heard anything else from them when I explained it wasnt an online computer having the trouble.

  I have changed some stuff with the help of an old electronics guy, and he is way outta his element here.....somehow it cuts small stuff but only if I design the files in cibercut and export them as dxf. thats the only way signblazer seems to import them, and I still have no way to design with SB. Still randomly crashes for no reason, locks up the whole system, or just goes on a scribbling rampage wasting material.

  I do plan to sell it as soon as I can and buy a graphtec or roland....something I am familiar with and I can use my old software to run. Just sucks being stuck in a situation where you have to spend money to support your only income, then are highly disappointed with what you got. Sorry to all if I seem negative, and thanks to all for the help.

[tinaski 11]

Thanks for the advice guys. Really is nice to know there are people that will try to help.

I am using the version that came with the plotter...SBE. Cant really download anything here, only available internet is dial up, and that basically makes anything more than a forum or small picture pretty impossible to open.

 Yes Dakota, I sent the support ticket off and their only reply was to let them 'take control' of the computer and try to set things up. Not an option since the plotter is on its own computer with no internet...besides, who trusts anyone to 'take control' of anything? I havent heard anything else from them when I explained it wasnt an online computer having the trouble.

  I have changed some stuff with the help of an old electronics guy, and he is way outta his element here.....somehow it cuts small stuff but only if I design the files in cibercut and export them as dxf. thats the only way signblazer seems to import them, and I still have no way to design with SB. Still randomly crashes for no reason, locks up the whole system, or just goes on a scribbling rampage wasting material.

 I do plan to sell it as soon as I can and buy a graphtec or roland....something I am familiar with and I can use my old software to run. Just sucks being stuck in a situation where you have to spend money to support your only income, then are highly disappointed with what you got. Sorry to all if I seem negative, and thanks to all for the help.

i know the feeling we first bought a MH and it was great for a month or so then started to have problems after many times trying to get ahold of uscutter finally. they told me 2 things 1 mother boad bad and 2 well if you dont mind i want to be honest with you. you bought a piece of junk there very low end and will not work forever.

i was shocked they said that but they did.- ok they replaced it well kinda - i had to either send my old one to them and when they got around to it they would send me one back. i didnt feel too good about that atleast i could do somethings with it so i bought a new boad. then mailed the old one back they did a credit so that worked out good then again it happened same thing --then when it happened a 3rd time it was out of warrenty. so it came out of my pocket i bought off ebay so less warrenty.

i got on here and made a post right away. i got in responce back was - its got to be user error - your screwing something up - you dont know what your doing -

ok ya your right i dont know what i was doing but i know a little - and now there are more and more people that have had multiple problems with alot of the cheap cutters. so know i know it wasnt just me

so from there we got a graphtec 15" and love it - your only problem with it is cant tell when its done cutting (too quiet) lol.

o ya we didnt buy from uscutter either and our 2nd one we got was a 24 inch we upgraded a few months ago and we bought a graphtec again still love it.

[Guest kenya]

but even the moments i did have it up, i was very unhappy with its appearance, layout, and functions. too much focus on bubbly colored buttons, but no real user friendly functions i could find. oh well...

From what I can tell, signblazer is just an inferior, hard to use, childishly colored, non functional waste of a disk that coulda been used to burn music on. But like I said, I only had a few minutes to see it running. Anyone wanna buy a new plotter, never been used?? haha

You said it yourself..... you have only seen a couple of minutes of the appearance, so do you simply judge all thing by appearance? SB is quite a powerful program. 

It's terrible that you are having computer or user error problems, but for any of us to help we would need more details.... like your setting!!!  Just ranting about the program won't solve the problem.

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

but even the moments i did have it up, i was very unhappy with its appearance, layout, and functions. too much focus on bubbly colored buttons, but no real user friendly functions i could find. oh well...

From what I can tell, signblazer is just an inferior, hard to use, childishly colored, non functional waste of a disk that coulda been used to burn music on. But like I said, I only had a few minutes to see it running. Anyone wanna buy a new plotter, never been used?? haha

You said it yourself..... you have only seen a couple of minutes of the appearance, so do you simply judge all thing by appearance? SB is quite a powerful program. 

It's terrible that you are having computer or user error problems, but for any of us to help we would need more details.... like your setting!!!  Just ranting about the program won't solve the problem.

Well stated Vette

[Truckntran 0]

I'm running signblazer with a Graphtec FC 3100 and experiencing absolutely no problems. I can think of over a thousand rea$on$ I like it better than Flexi. I don't like the trial startup screens but compared to a free trial of signcut (I think it was, I've since dumped it into the trash bin) it is a great useable program. Now it isn't gonna make you happy if you want to PRINT signs, but for a vinyl machine......I really can't complain. Took me about a week to get where I was comfortable enough to start offerring signs to the general public. I'm still learning its capabilities.

If you have an internet equipped library bring a laptop to the library and download the program on a CD.  That is what I had to do as I have no internet connection for my cutting machine, which is an old XP machine. SO far, even with the old and small machine running it, it has worked well once I figured out a COPAM driver was the one that would work with my Graphtec. I also have it loaded on the laptop I bring with me on the road, (Vista) and swap files with flash drives all the time.

What sort of computer are you running it on? Also....are you running a serial cable or a USB adapter or??

One thought on running the cutter with cibercut.. have you tried drivers for similar machines or older machines?

It sure is frustrating when the cutter just sits there.......I feel your pain.

[Reaper_of_Souls 0]

haha...I am not trying to hurt anyones feelings or make anyone mad here, but I dont think most people are reading it when I say the program crashes randomly, and I cant really tell what the settings are because it usually wont run long enough for me to even see settings. I would love to give more details about the problems, but trying to insult me and my opinions is not helping. I cant access settings without it crashing....no big deal, I'll work around it like I have been. I was looking for help, if you arent able to help I understand..but we all know there are better softwares and even the best software isnt worth the disk its burned on when it crashes. No one can argue that they wouldnt be upset spending money and getting nothing but run arounds from the company and failure with the products...sorry if the truth offends some of the SB lovers here.

Thank you for the help everyone, thank you for totally understanding, tinaski!!

Truckntran, I am running it on an older laptop with XP. the computer is for nothing but graphics....mainly cut decals for small local businesses, race cars, personal cars and window stickers, banners...basic vinyl stuff. I agree about the signcut..and yeah flexi is not my favorite either

[Guest kenya]

Who do you think is mad? Without details how can anyone here help.

You just went on & on in you post about the SB being crap & US Cutter's lack of support.

What would you expect them to do.... drive to your house & set it up?  Did you ask if your software would work with the cutter before you bought it?

Yes, it is upsetting to get something & have problems, but your post is all about SB being the problem.

With most problems being user errors, I wasn't trying to insult you. Just simply stating that you 'could' be doing something wrong and more information would be needed for someone to help. In fact, in one of your earlier post you stated, "....i feel i have done something to screw this whole thing up".

You say that the program doesn't run long enough to even see the settings, but evidently long enough to convince you that you are "very unhappy with its appearance, layout, and functions. Too much focus on bubbly colored buttons and signblazer is just an inferior, hard to use, childishly colored, non functional waste of a disk." 

If you haven't even gotten it up & running, why would you form an opinion so early? I'm sure it's just the frustration. 

[Jay2703 704]

haha...I am not trying to hurt anyones feelings or make anyone mad here, but I dont think most people are reading it when I say the program crashes randomly, and I cant really tell what the settings are because it usually wont run long enough for me to even see settings. I would love to give more details about the problems, but trying to insult me and my opinions is not helping. I cant access settings without it crashing....no big deal, I'll work around it like I have been. I was looking for help, if you arent able to help I understand..but we all know there are better softwares and even the best software isnt worth the disk its burned on when it crashes. No one can argue that they wouldnt be upset spending money and getting nothing but run arounds from the company and failure with the products...sorry if the truth offends some of the SB lovers here.

Thank you for the help everyone, thank you for totally understanding, tinaski!!

Truckntran, I am running it on an older laptop with XP. the computer is for nothing but graphics....mainly cut decals for small local businesses, race cars, personal cars and window stickers, banners...basic vinyl stuff. I agree about the signcut..and yeah flexi is not my favorite either

What type of connection are you running? USB or Serial?

[Truckntran 0]

I wonder if that older laptop isn't your problem.... Just how old is  it?    I have an XP laptop that will run DR Stika but it won't run any "real " sign program, locks up, etc... I hate to suggest a different computer but I have a feeling it might be the problem... or not..

Just my two cents, ignore at will...

[Truckntran 0]

Did you read this thread? similar issues...

http://forum.uscutter.com/index.php/topic,27165.0.html

[cutme 5]

your problems may be with your computer, not the software itself. do you have the latest updates for xp? do you have enough ram installed? (xp will only recognize 3 gigs, but that is plenty) what about your graphics card? is it powerful enough? i have sbe installed on three comps, all running some version of xp. the only time i get any errors, is when i try to open ai files that are newer versions than legacy 8. are you installing the latest version of signblazer? go to help>about to check the release number, it should be 6.0.21. hope this helps in some small way.

bb