Need Help Best way to contour cut?

[Tuanny]

Hi guys new to vinyl printing/cutting. What is the best way to contour cut a vector object. for example this horse. Im using onyx thrive 19 and a summa T plotter. I can do simpler shapes in illustrator by copy pasting the object on top and giving changing to a prefix spot color for onyx to recognize it but Is there a better way to do this? more automated or simpler way to do it.

Thanks!

 

[balstestrat]

Automated way could be for example Onyx Trufit. You can test it on a trial from their website.

 

[KEYSER SOZE]

We also run Thrive 19 on our Colorado 1650 and 2 OKI m64s, and cut on a Summa T160.

I'd advise profile cutting directly from illustrator or Corel using the Summagaphics plugin.
It's so much easier than dicking around through Onyx.
You're then cutting directly from the file and program you generated the job in.

I read a lot on this site about people cutting from Onyx, but I just don't see the point when you can do it directly from your design program.
Can someone enlighten me ?

 

[balstestrat]

We also run Thrive 19 on our Colorado 1650 and 2 OKI m64s, and cut on a Summa T160.

I'd advise profile cutting directly from illustrator or Corel using the Summagaphics plugin.
It's so much easier than dicking around through Onyx.
You're then cutting directly from the file and program you generated the job in.

I read a lot on this site about people cutting from Onyx, but I just don't see the point when you can do it directly from your design program.
Can someone enlighten me ?

How is it so much harder to do via onyx...? Should be about 10 times easier.
In Onyx you can just pile up all your cutfiles and jobs (with Colorado AND two printers you should be getting tons of them) and let the cutter just retrieve the file automatically with the barcode.
Only thing you have to do is make sure you have the cutcontour in your file and Onyx takes care of the rest.

 

[White Haus]

If you're trying to figure out how to set up a cutline for that image.... I know you mention vector but this is what I did with your jpg:

Import into Corel (that's what I use) and Trace bitmap. Adjusted settings to keep the outside details accurate.
Use pathfinder tool to connect any outside/loose shapes.
Add outline/contour, adjust as needed
Delete all inside shapes, clean up any areas that wouldn't be great for cutting
Apply cutcontour swatch to stroke of cutline
Export as PDF (see attached)

Not sure if that's what you're asking, but needed a quick warmup before starting the day while having my coffee.