crazy question

[Geneva Olson]

So, I use the roland software when I'm just plotting and I use Flexi when I'm printing and plotting. The flexi software seems easy to figure out. When I'm putting a contour around items, it LOOKS like the contour I applied first will cut first. So I am mindful of that one.
But the other day, when I posted this, I was cutting a wall graphic that was lettering 18 foot long and 2 foot tall. ALL placed in the Cutter software at one time. So it cut the first letter then went ALLLL the way to the last letter and cut it. Then it went back and cut all the "holes".
And the kicker, it was distressed lettering so it cut all over the place. I quit looking at it after a while.

 

[10sacer]

I think a bit if it has to do with the software anticipating how to maintain the best degree of vacuum on the uncut elements as it goes about cutting the other elements

 

[Cheezer]

I tell the machine to cut with least movement and it still moves all over. I also have some materials that need 3 or 4 cuts and it does one pass, then the next and so on. I just don't look anymore. VersaWorks 5.x

My old lettering quills never do that.

 

[Stacey K]

So, I use the roland software when I'm just plotting and I use Flexi when I'm printing and plotting. The flexi software seems easy to figure out. When I'm putting a contour around items, it LOOKS like the contour I applied first will cut first. So I am mindful of that one.
But the other day, when I posted this, I was cutting a wall graphic that was lettering 18 foot long and 2 foot tall. ALL placed in the Cutter software at one time. So it cut the first letter then went ALLLL the way to the last letter and cut it. Then it went back and cut all the "holes".
And the kicker, it was distressed lettering so it cut all over the place. I quit looking at it after a while.

Geesh, tell "Roland" to lay off the crack!

 

[bob]

Most plotters [and the attendant software] accommodate a number of plot sequence settings. One is simply the order in which the elements are received. Another is to plot everything in an arbitrary sized area, usually set to somewhere in the neighborhood of a 10" square, and then move on. This sounds good but...it depends on the currently buffered vectors and, most disconcerting, if it begins a vector in the specified area that takes it out out that area. In the latter case does it return to the original area or initiate a new area based on current location? Either way, it's going to dance around a bit. Another far more draconian but somewhat obscure method is to cut everything on the media in arbitrary steps, again usually 10". I have some software that accommodates this method. It cuts everything in that step area only to the limit of the area and then proceeds to the next step. This usually leaves vast numbers of vectors that stopped cutting at the boundary of the previous step that must be continued into the current step. This strains the repeatability of the best plotters and is the least desirable method I've ever encountered.

Regardless of method, don't try to visually follow along with a working plotter. It'll just make you crazy.

 

[FireSprint.com]

As others have said, there are probably settings to adjust the order of cuts, but in the end, this ties into the traveling salesman problem. There has not been an algorithm yet that can calculate the most effecient path without just testing all the possible outcomes.

Travelling salesman problem - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

I have always found the TSP riddle fascinating!

 

[Jeff grossman]

X axis Y axis repeat over and over again ............

 

[bob]

As others have said, there are probably settings to adjust the order of cuts, but in the end, this ties into the traveling salesman problem. There has not been an algorithm yet that can calculate the most effecient path without just testing all the possible outcomes.

Travelling salesman problem - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

I have always found the TSP riddle fascinating!

Way back when I was working for a the research division of a large company I was part of a merry band that was trying to solve this very problem. The project was to create a manufacturing scheduling system that minimized idle time for the various processes involved. Early on we determined that the problem was either indeterminate or would require a level of computation that was, at least at that time, unachievable. We settled on trying for a solution that was good enough rather than a complete solution. This was bases on the work of some academic whose name eludes me at some university, the name of which I also can't remember. Anyway, the project was reasonably successful but the actual problem remains, as far as I know, unsolved.

 

[Bill DiStasio]

Like those above, it should be in your plotting software. There are also should be sorting options you can set from the keypad on the cutter at least there are on the Graphtec models.

In Casmate (great grandfather to Flexi), it had an option to display a number on all the paths in a plot and you could re-order them by clicking the number and changing them one by one to what you wanted. Worked ok with simple cuts but not so good for a plot with hundreds of paths.

That is available in Flexi 21 as well. This came to my attention today as I was watching the cutter skip all over the place. I had forgotten to reorder again. I do this in every job now and it works great. Not only was it cutting a small peice and then on to the next, 1 small peice of each of the six signs and then the next letter on all 6 signs In other words my project is six copies of the same sign. It cut the c and then cut c on each copy before moving on. Using reorder tool makes it possible to cut into strips at the right time so the project doesn't fall apart in the cutter.

 

[GAC05]

As others have said, there are probably settings to adjust the order of cuts, but in the end, this ties into the traveling salesman problem. There has not been an algorithm yet that can calculate the most effecient path without just testing all the possible outcomes.

Travelling salesman problem - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

I have always found the TSP riddle fascinating!

I remember The Traveling Salesman Problem a little differently. This one involved said traveling salesman, a farmer's three daughters, and an overnight stay in a barn.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

I remember The Traveling Salesman Problem a little differently. This one involved said traveling salesman, a farmer's three daughters, and an overnight stay in a barn.

Interesting... Sounds like I should get a career in sales.

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Usually it's insides before outsides... but whether to do all insides first, or just each character's insides, before moving on, depends on much - including your software.
Corel often has a last item created gets plotted first, option.
With our cnc router, you can select -shortest path to the next element, or always start at a certain place, eg 12 o'clock, or always start midway on the longest straight, etc.

 

[VizualVoice]

Way back when I was working for a the research division of a large company I was part of a merry band that was trying to solve this very problem. The project was to create a manufacturing scheduling system that minimized idle time for the various processes involved. Early on we determined that the problem was either indeterminate or would require a level of computation that was, at least at that time, unachievable. We settled on trying for a solution that was good enough rather than a complete solution. This was bases on the work of some academic whose name eludes me at some university, the name of which I also can't remember. Anyway, the project was reasonably successful but the actual problem remains, as far as I know, unsolved.

Fuzzy memory of college statistic class makes me think you're talking about en Euler circuit. Where it cycles through every path only once and ends up at the start point, while being the most efficient route.

 

[Boudica]

Wow this got nerdy. Thanks Geneva!

 

[bob]

Fuzzy memory of college statistic class makes me think you're talking about en Euler circuit. Where it cycles through every path only once and ends up at the start point, while being the most efficient route.

Not Euler, some other guy who, I believe, is still alive. I think the school was U Penn but don't hold me to that. Euler showed possibilities for traversing a path depends on the number of nodes with either an even or odd number of paths leading to/away from it. See 'Bridges of Konigsberg'.

 

[Johnny Best]

I think it is this...What goes around, comes around.