Hey guys, having a tough time with setting my origin

[Guest Taurus]

I bought a GCC Expert 24 and just got it in today.  I'm trying to set it up and I'm having a little difficulty.  I'm sorry that it's not a us cutter distributed cutter but I assume that most of these cutters are similar and that someone might be able to help me out.  I love the machine and when it does cut it does a great job.  I'm just having trouble with setting my X and Y origins.  I'm new to the cutter world so I'm not sure how their origins are set up but I'm a CNC machinist by trade and X0Y0 is typically in the lower left corner.  I've manually moved the blade over where I wanted 0,0 to be and pressed origin.  Unfortunately when I send the job, the blade moves over to the far right and cuts everything upside and backwards.  Am I missing something?

Thanks for any help.

[MZ SKEETER 4,709]

most all vinyl cutters cut from lower right to left side.

[roxanneupnorth 106]

Hmmm....I will have to see if I can figure that out.....Cuts fine the way it is so never tried to change start point.....

[rrc1962 0]

In the CNC world origin is lower left.  In the plotter world origin is lower right, but your cutting software should know that.  For instance, When I generate a part file in ArtCAM for the plasma table, origin in the part file is at the lower left.  When I create a job in FlexiSign, the origin is set to lower right of the design.  I can manually move the start origin on the cutter, but that just changes where the cutter starts cutting.  The origin is still lower right of the cut design.

What cutting software are you using?  If it's cutting upside down and backwards, it sounds like you have it set to cut mirrored or you have the wrong driver selecting in your cutting software.

[deth502 39]

What cutting software are you using?  If it's cutting upside down and backwards, it sounds like you have it set to cut mirrored or you have the wrong driver selecting in your cutting software.

+1, check the easiest things first.

is the image displayed properly on the screen before you cut?

[Guest Taurus]

Okay I got it.  I just cut out a turtle and it came out great.  The problem was that I didn't comprehend what was going on.  Working with CNC machines, I can actually watch the machine cut from 0,0 bottom left corner and move out from that point.  This machine is still cutting from 0,0 in the bottom left corner, its just cutting vertically instead of horizontally like I'm used to.  The 0,0 origin is still in the same place I'm used to, it's just turned 90 degrees counter clockwise.  Hard to explain, here's an image example.

Thanks for the help guys and sorry to those who tried to make me comprehend what was going on, I'm a visual learner lol.

[rrc1962 0]

Depending on the cutting software, you can change the orientation of the part to what every your want.  A plotter and a CNC machine just don't see things the same way.  The way a plotter...and cutting software...operate as far as orientation is more like a printer than a CNC machine.  You need to forget about what you know about CNC machinery when you're working with the plotter.  It's just not the same.

If you import the turtle as a DXF into your CAM software and position it right side up, the resulting part file will...or should... have an origin point at the lower left of the part.  If you import the same DXF into your vinyl cutting software, position it right side up and send it to the cutter, the origin point will be at the lower right.  We have a CNC plasma cutter and I routinely cut the same designs in vinyl and steel.  I export a DFX out of AutoCAD and if I'm cutting vinyl, I import it into Flexi.  If I'm cutting steel, I import it into Artcam.  Flexi puts the origin at the lower right.  Artcam puts it at the lower left.