Bad things always happen at the worst times

[SellersSign&Design]

Yesterday I had to cut some of the new Real Gold brand 22kt. reverse glass gold vinyl for a window job. Its really nice stuff, but its fairly pricey and I had just enough to do the job. I cut the black backup shadow and outline out of Oracal 751 with no problems. I loaded the gold up, and sent the job to the plotter. Everything went fine until it was cutting the last little piece at the very top of the design, and then the plotter randomly stopped what it was doing and proceeded to cut two lines all the way across the middle of the whole design before I could get it stopped. It conveniently ruined every part of the design, so I can't really salvage anything. Why would the plotter do this? It has never happened before, but I cut a lot of gold vinyl so I would like to make sure it doesn't happen again. The plotter is a Mutoh SC-850D

 

[letterman7]

Ghosts in the machine. Random code generated, static charge on the port, hiccup in the file transfer.. pick one. Had an old Gerber 4B that was ultimately connected to a computer (yes, way back when..) and that would occasionally happen. Knock wood... never had it happen with my Summa in the 15 years I've been running it. Doesn't help with what happened with yours, but I'd double check the file, clean up any temp files or folders if the job gets stored there before being sent, etc, etc...

 

[player]

What software?

What type of file? Did it go through any import export filters along the way?

Can you look at the gcode and see if the moves are actually being sent to the plotter?

 

[SellersSign&Design]

It was designed and cut all within Flexi 8.1 on the same computer. The outline and shadow (which cut fine) came from the same file, and I can't find anything that would lead me to believe there was an issue with the file. I'm not sure what you mean as far as looking up the gcodes, but maybe I can send the file to the plotter again with some cheaper vinyl loaded and see what it does.

 

[player]

With many plotter and cnc machines the code is very easy to understand. It is a bunch of coordinates with lines of commands. I think they are based on gcode. So if you can find the spot in the plotter file where it says go from 0,6 to 5,2000 then someone who is versed in this stuff could say the move was in the code, not a screw up with the plotter. But this is probably not something you want to spend time on...

Was any of the file imported clip art? We used to have a pile of goofy stuff importing DXF with Flexi years ago...

 

[SellersSign&Design]

Actually now that I think about it the piece it messed up on was an imported .eps scroll. But there were four of the same scrolls in the design, 3 cut fine and then it messed up while cutting the last one.

 

[player]

I remember reading about extension "flavors". That was what they called different versions of files like dxf. So if the file was one version of dxf and the program was importing a different "flavor", those things would show up.

 

[Jillbeans]

Been there done that. This is why I always quote higher when using expensive materials, so that it tastes a little better when I get stuck eating a job.
Love....Jill

 

[SellersSign&Design]

Thanks for all the great advice. It definitely makes me feel better to know that I'm not the only one who has trouble with things like this. Most of the work I do involves either the Real Gold vinyl or actual hand laid 23 kt. gold on vinyl, so it gets really costly really fast when things go wrong. I have more material headed my way, I'm going to load up some cheap vinyl and send the job to the plotter just to make sure it was a one time mess up, and then load the gold up and try again...

 

[player]

Thanks for all the great advice. It definitely makes me feel better to know that I'm not the only one who has trouble with things like this. Most of the work I do involves either the Real Gold vinyl or actual hand laid 23 kt. gold on vinyl, so it gets really costly really fast when things go wrong. I have more material headed my way, I'm going to load up some cheap vinyl and send the job to the plotter just to make sure it was a one time mess up, and then load the gold up and try again...

I would zoom in very close on the offending vector in wireframe mode and look for something weird. A crossed loop or a cluster of nodes etc.