Software

[dcbevins 340]

DOH the date says Feb!  I just trusted the show new content option in the forum.  Weird.  Anyway.

[Wildgoose 4,200]

QUOTE>Are there any cut software programs out there that you buy and don't pay a subscription fee monthly,

quarterly, yearly and so on.   I would rather buy a program and be done with it.  one less thing to worry about.  

Know what I mean.<

 

I do.. and faced that decision recently when I re-up'd. Figure if I get through this next year with no problems,

I'll likely just buy it outright next time around. Gimme the dongle and lemee alone!

 

Also, I had a laptop with Windows 7 64 bit and had issues as well. My answer to the problem was to step back to Windows XP.

Have you read this?

AN_119_FTDI_Drivers_Installation_Guide_for_Windows7.pdf

may hold some answers to you crashing problem.

 

What cutter do you have and are you using the ftdi chip drivers?

I recently purchased the dongle. It's nice because I have a windows and mac version on diff computers and can swap back and forth without having to un-install or whatever they call it.

 

As for crashing SignCut Pro has fantastic live tech support and if you are having issues they will fix you up. I like Signcut so much I opted to go with it over the proprietary software that come with my Summa. I think the dongle was around $400

[kjsos 0]

Yeah, totally get that—subscription tools crashing is the worst, especially when you’re trying to keep costs down.

For free/open-source options on Windows, you can check out:

• Inkscape (with extensions/plugins for plotters)
• Inkcut (works nicely with Inkscape)
• Sure Cuts A Lot (not fully free, but sometimes cheaper one-time options)

A lot of people use Inkscape + Inkcut combo as a solid free alternative—it takes a bit of setup, but once it’s running, it’s quite stable compared to older tools like SignBlazer.

For CorelDraw X3, plugins are pretty limited now since it’s quite old, so you might not find reliable modern support there.