BooKooGuru 0 Posted July 4, 2012 We are newbies and spending a lot of time in the "learning curve"! We got our US Cutter set up, no problem. Cut sample, no problem. Scanned one of James' hand-cut designs, no problem. Cut the design with the machine, no problem. Problem is the edges of the design that was cut with the machine are very jagged, look like they were cut with pinking shears! The original, hand-cut sticker has very smooth edges. What do we do? We don't know very much about all the design software, but are very willing to read and learn. Any help would be greatly appreciated. James wants to design his own decals and is a very creative artist, we just don't know about raster/vector, filetypes, etc. We've watched alot of videos, but they seem to always leave out a very important step or two. Almost like they are setting us up to fail?!? Can anyone help us? James is considering sending the machine back and giving up. No! Thanks, Ramona Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MZ SKEETER 4,709 Posted July 4, 2012 Scanned files could be jagged from the git go.. If you didn't clean them up first, before sending to cutter. It may not be the cutter at all. Did you zoom that file up real big and look at it, before sending to the cutter? To make sure it is a nice clean file. Post your file up here. Next to post, there is MORE REPLY OPTIONS. You haven't stated what cutter?, what software? or anything USB or serial? what your blade offset is? on your message above, so can only guess. You could also post a picture of your problem , the cut vinyl. The more info the better. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Coaster36 327 Posted July 4, 2012 Welcome aboard! If you post the file that you cut one of us can take a look at it and see if the cutter did what it was told to do. What cutter did you buy? Thats also important info for us to help. Lastly look into downloading inkscape its a fee vector software that will let you create your own decals. its very easy to use and a lot of us use it. So theres plenty of help available. Looks like skeeter beat me to it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
slice&dice 2,451 Posted July 4, 2012 First of all, James needs to be designing stuff right inside of a vector-based program, such as Adobe Ilustrator (or using Inkscape, a free alternative) Getting those 'jaggies' is a result of the conversion process from raster to vector, so James would be well-served by learning to create vector files directly as his source for cutting designs and not playing around with paper and scissors ('hand-cut' is what you termed it) and scanning. Best wishes, and welcome to our world. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mark-s 1,126 Posted July 4, 2012 Once it`s vectored you have to do node editing- delete some, smooth lines and circles. mark-s Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Coaster36 327 Posted July 4, 2012 Lol this forum is great. 13 minutes and 4 posts. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
slice&dice 2,451 Posted July 4, 2012 Poor James & Ramona, they now know that their "learning curve" is about to zoom off the charts!!! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mabscotthandyman 1,410 Posted July 4, 2012 Read some of the post on converting to vector/eps (encapsulated post script ) and node editing it will serve you well . I will venture to say that most of the members started like yourself and myself without much knowledge of how cutters actualy work but by reading and researching on this forum and the web I have became somewhat proficient at cutting and designing . So read a lot and check out the tutorials on here and utube and have fun learning it all lol. Good luck . Dan Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BooKooGuru 0 Posted July 19, 2012 Sorry to be so long getting on here, but we had a family reunion and had to do some real work to earn money! Thanks for all your help. I have some more questions but will start a new thread. Sincerely, Ramona Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
