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Guest fivestar

Recieved My New LP

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I will add that I agree with you that sometimes the SBE just locks up and if I am designing I am screwed, I have to reboot the computer to fix it..

Wayne

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Guest fivestar

Gratz on the new cutter, I have had mine for months, I will have to try flexi if it is THAT much better than SBE... currently I use SBE for everything and think its pretty good... I have a copy of Flexi 7.6 Ill have to try it out..

Wayne

It really is THAT much better, but it is EVEN BETTER with a Refine as there are more features you can use such as contour cutting and the "show me" button.  I haven't had a chance the past couple days to try all the drivers in flexi on the laserpoint, but none of the pcut drivers allow me to use those features I described.  I really love the way the laserpoint cuts, it is a better machine then the Refine, it's just I want all those damn features to work with it. :thumbsup:;D ;D

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I can't comment on flexi. I had major issues with SBE and my LP24 from the point of view that it takes control of everything with no flexability. I bought my machine to contour cut, not to get into signs. That being said, in order to contour cut you have to print your image from SBE. That may be well and good with some of you, but having spent more than 20 years decorating wearables for national accounts I am very picky. The first item I printed thru SBE came out bastardized. It was horrible, the outlines around letters were very distorted and were very choppy. It also forces you to create the contour within the program, another disappointment.

I moved over to SignCut, and solved my problems. I design my image, create my contour lines, place my registration marks where I want them using whatever program I desire (Corel 12, Illustrator 10, Arts & Letters, or Inkscape) and print it out. Save the contour image to eps, open it in SC, load the printed image, align registration marks and cut away.

I don't doubt that SBE is a good program. But I have found SC to be just what I needed. Not bulked up with stuff I didn't need, the flexability of using it JUST to cut and not having to use features that I don't want or need. If you want to CONTOUR CUT with the LP I think you are doing yourself an injustice if you don't try SignCut. At a $68 a year lease it's chump change to have an alternative.

As usual this is MHO, as a FNG with old roots ........

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Guest fivestar

Yes rebjr, I agree.  Funny thing is now I am using my laserpoint for my main cutter and am going to use my Refine for contour cutting.  :thumbsup:;D ;D How ironic is that?  Actually I am going to work more with Flexi to try and get the laserpoint to contour cut in Flexi, but as of now it won't.

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Not that it's not possible, but without the laser it makes lining to a register mark a load harder. Then again, some folks just love the challenge ;-)

I think one problem with flexi and the LP is that the LP doesn't get recognized by the computer as a printer, whereas the refine is recognized. This allows flexi to see the refine. Although the machines all read and write hpgl, there has to be a specific driver for the computer to recognize. Apparently the LP is either so generic, or so specialized, that it can only be seen by the single driver that is supplied with it.

I know that doesn't make sense ... but it's all I can figure. I've tried a ton of drivers to make windows recognize the LP and the only one if the one that comes with it. But, I'm not giving up .. I would like to print direct fro Corel 12 or Inkscape .. or whatever .....

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Nope the refine is not recognized by the puter.  It is a dummy machine, the only thing recongized is if you use the USB connection then the USB to serial driver is recongized.  The reason the Refine works is because it uses a Roland driver and .dll file in Flexi and those were made to allow contour cutting. 

Also believe it or not, but it's easier to line up the blade then it is to line up the laser.  The blade tip is smaller then the laser point and you can get a more accurate reading.  It's done the same way the laserpoint is in SBE and probably Signcut use arrows to jog the cutter head then hit next and do the same for the other reg mark.

I just need to find a damn driver that the laserpoint can use to allow the manual contour and Flexi's "show me" button.  Those things are invaluable to me.  Especially the "show me" button.

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I stand corrected. I was going on what I think Ken Imes had told me about the machines ability to be seen by winders. I know he told me that the refine could use a roland driver, I assumed the rest in trying to figure out getting the LP seen.

You are right about the blade being tighter than the laser light. For you with better eyes than mine that's a roger. I have trouble with the laser and a magnifying glass, trying to do so via the blade would knock my sox off. I went for over 50 years not needing glasses. If I'd of known what spending more than 10,000 hours flying offshore was going to do to my eyesight I'd of figured out a different way to make a living. Things ya don't consider when ya is young. Oh well.

What does the "show me button" do? Anything like the way Roland auto finds the registration mark?

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Guest fivestar

No the "show me" button will roll off the required amount of vinyl needed to perform the job.  Say you're doing 12 9.5"x10" designs and you're using 20" wide heatpress vinyl it will pull the amount of vinyl off the roll and run the blade over the area that's going to be cut so you can make sure your vinyl is going to stay under the knife.  It comes in very very very handy.  I use it on almost every cut I do.  That way there's no waste of material and your vinyl doesn't come over track.

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That is a really cool feature i think i might have to hop over to google and well flexi torrent is all i have to say  :thumbsup:

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Guest fivestar

Swanee if you get it to work with your LP, please post how you did it.

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That does sound like a very valuable feature.

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Guest fivestar

Oh rebjr, it's invaluable.  I use it for everything I cut, well I did until I hooked up my laserpoint :thumbsup: I ever get some free time I am gonna try to get the laserpoint to do it.  Anyone having flexi and a pcut want to try different drivers, please post your findings if you find anything that gets it to work.

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