Cut Lines NOT WORKING!!! WTF (illustrator CS)

[signpro]

First off... i've done this THOUSANDS OF TIMES!!! Not sure why it's not working.

I have a cut/contour path around my shape, and it's got a stroke with the pink cut/contour swatch, like always. now when i SAVE AS i get the warning that "when spot colors are used with transparency illy will generate unexpected results..." i know when that happens i forgot to FLATTEN TRANSPARENCY on everything but my cut/contour line.

well, i've flattened it a hundred times. i even rasterized it once. still the same thing, i cannot get my cut line to show up in Versaworks, and i get the error msg every time i "save as". i've restarted Illy incase it was a glitch. i've restarted the computer. i've rebuilt this file from scratch and retried it that way. i'm about to lose my mind. i keep getting this error. i'm sure it's something simple i'm missing, but what?? as i've done this a thousand times in the past, and never once had it do this. (another Bill Murray Grounhogs Day feeling...)

it is a very basic file. It contains a simple PSD file image, 1 line of text, and an oval shape that is filled in with color. then i have a seperate oval shape on top that is no color, with the cut/contour swatch for the stroke only. what am i missing?? I FLATTEN everything but that top oval, still no cut lines in versaworks, and always the error msg.

Thanks in advance for such a newbi question, but it's kickin my butt today. there are no spot colors to the best of my knowledge, except the cut/contour swatch. argh... everything is in cmyk

 

[rdm01]

Try to save the image file as a tiff instead of a PSD. I know that vesaworks
can be finicky about those cut lines!

 

[signpro]

the edges of the image fade off to transparent, so it needs to be PSD. done it this way multiple times, with no problems before. i just tried a tiff for S&G's, and i cannot get the edges to be transparent with the tif file. thanks though.

anyone else? this is still not working?? wanted to print them today. ugh.

 

[tazzman]

This happened to me the other day. The settings on the stroke size were not right. After I fixed the stroke size it worked perfectly.....Just a thought

 

[signpro]

stroke size? tried all stroke weights from .25 .5 .75 1.0 ( assume that's what you are talking about)

same. nothing. thanks again though for the suggestion.

 

[signpro]

well now i'm really confused.

i rebuilt the file again from scratch, using the same exact PSD file i have been all along. two ovals, one filled, one with cut/contour only. same text converted to outlines. EXACT SAME WAY I BUILT IT 4 TIMES THIS MORNING

it worked just fine this time.

it must have been that key lime cake i had for lunch, or the scrambled egg sandwhich. i don't have a clue. did it the same way i have been all day and many times in the past.

anywys, thanks guys for reading this and giving your opinion. i'd love to say "i know what fixed it" but i haven't a clue. thanks again though!!

 

[rdm01]

I almost hate it when that happens, cause I want to know what the hell went wrong and why it wasn't working!

 

[asd]

sometimes when you are using raster images and cut lines at the same time in illustrator your transparency box is set to "preserve appereance and overprints" when it needs to be in "preserve paths (discard transparency)"

 

[ProWraps™]

your lost me at rasterize... im thinking that might be the problem. anyone else know what im getting at?

 

[Spencer McMurtry]

upload the print file so i can take a look at it, could be a number of things... goodluck

 

[threads1]

could been a Worm in da Warp-Drive

 

[javila]

I get this alot randomly with multi layer files. What I end up doing is copying everything to a new document, and leaving everything on one layer, does the trick for me.

 

[visualeyez]

I think this is caused when the stoke of your cutline is set to the inside or outside of the path, rathen than center over it. This is in your stroke settings toolbox.