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cutting with a gerber on the cheap

rfulford

New Member
I just bought a used Gerber Envision 375 for an extremely cheap price. It is in working order without software. Does anyone have suggestions on how I could drive this without making a $1000 dollar investment. I am not interested in design capabilities. I just need to cut vector files I create in illustrator. Any ideas?
 

Malkin

New Member
I have a licensed dongle for Omega 1.56 that is an old parallel type. Unsure of if I have any install disks though. Would be willing to part with it pretty reasonably.

I am sure that there are better options though.
 

Fred Weiss

Merchant Member
I have a licensed dongle for Omega 1.56 that is an old parallel type. Unsure of if I have any install disks though. Would be willing to part with it pretty reasonably.

I am sure that there are better options though.

That was my first thought. As far as I know the only software that will drive the Envision is Omega, Graphix Advantage, SignLab and FlexiSign. Not sure on signLab but Flexi has been able to drive an Envision since version 7.6 and maybe earlier.
 

rfulford

New Member
Signlab does not seem to bad at $500 but it the web site seems to be broken (for me) as far as finding supported cutters. If I can find the Omega software to install, I will contact Malkin. Thanks for your offer.

Does the envision series use HPGL? Can I possibly cut on this machine by treating it like a printer?
 
W

wetgravy

Guest
There are plenty of places that sell flexi starter ($100-200) ... I also at one time saw a few programs that cut directly from corel draw directly that actually did a decent job (about $200). Signlab is also apperently a decent enough program ... really depends on what you want.
 

James Burke

Being a grandpa is more fun than working
SignLab has a starter program for around $500. Much of my SignLab 8 work is done via imported Illustrator files.

I think you can get a functional demo copy so you can try it out to make sure you like it.

I've been running a 20 year old Gerber GS15 with mine, and it works great.
 

Malkin

New Member
I will have to check at the shop to see if we still have any install disks for it, but I'm not going to be back there until Monday...
 

rfulford

New Member
I will have to check at the shop to see if we still have any install disks for it, but I'm not going to be back there until Monday...

Good for you! I am going to do the same. I have informed everyone unavailable and out of town.

I am also toying with the idea of linux, inkscape and tux plot. Many of my fruitless google searches today led me in this direction.
 

signmeup

New Member
I use flexi starter to run my plotter. Works great. It was free with the plotter but can be had pretty cheap.
 

Mosh

New Member
OMG, like the old 5" floppy disks? I in fact have Gerber Graphix advantage 5" floppies. I also have the 3" ORIGINAL signlab 1 disks. I should be on American pickers!!!
 

Malkin

New Member
OMG, like the old 5" floppy disks? I in fact have Gerber Graphix advantage 5" floppies. I also have the 3" ORIGINAL signlab 1 disks. I should be on American pickers!!!

haha nice. I recently ran across our 3.5" floppies for G.A. 6.0 Probably should have kept em for that one-in-a-million person that needs em, but I was on a cleaning kick and out they went with the rest of the floppies.
 

signage

New Member
OMG, like the old 5" floppy disks? I in fact have Gerber Graphix advantage 5" floppies. I also have the 3" ORIGINAL signlab 1 disks. I should be on American pickers!!!


Mosh I think you meant Hoarders :omg::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 

OldPaint

New Member
no, some of us never got "the hook." 1992, guy tried to sell me a goober 4b, cadlink card yada yada, all the add on crap you needed to run it and at that time geber was getting $100 a font. guy wanted $3-4000, i said ill pass, best thing i ever did. After much research i found out that COREL 3 would do the same job, ANNNNNNNNNNNND use every font on the computer. more research and i found that rolands seemed to be the most portable to any program. sooooooooooooooo i found a BRAND NEW, roland PNC-1000, now this cut 20" material over the goober 15", actually 13.5". so there was 3 advantages to buyin a roland. why i say brand new was the owner went to some trade show, spent a lot of money to buy the cutter, computer, LETTER ART 5.0, and then just let it all sit in a corner till i saw his add to sell it. i went and looked at it, he want to sell it all, by this time the computer was outdated, told him i had no use for it. all i wanted was the plotter. so he agreed to sell it for $1600. then as i was going out the door with it said here take the sign program i got no use for it. so i did. it was an ok DOS based program but i liked COREL so much better, even tho it was limited to 30" x 30" of work space. but i worked around this by breaking up anything bigger into 30" cuts. so i had another $400 dollars i bought vinyl and tape with that, and i was in bus-ness)))))
when corel 7 came out, they had increased workspace to 150 feet x 150 feet, this was the only program i needed from then on. still today i cut direct from corel X3, no bridge or add on program. i now have a roland CX-300.....SWEEEEEEEEEET!!!!!
 

Embosstek

New Member
I just bought a used Gerber Envision 375 for an extremely cheap price. It is in working order without software. Does anyone have suggestions on how I could drive this without making a $1000 dollar investment. I am not interested in design capabilities. I just need to cut vector files I create in illustrator. Any ideas?

Just type "VINYLMASTER" aND "GERBER" in the ebay search field to find a jewel of a software piece for $199.95.

Thinking of buying myself a copy and I already have Omega!
 
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