Cut lines problem with Illustrator and Versaworks

[Ridic]

I have designed a PSP skin and made all the cut lines (shapes) with the pen tool in Photoshop CS3. I save as .EPS and then load it up in Illustrator CS3 and do the CutContour thing and everything is all great. The problem is when it comes to cutting this design (with versaworks) after printing it will first cut the outside cut line, then the next cut line, then the outside again, then the next, then the outside again, and it keeps repeating this until its done cutting everything. Of course I know this is bad as it is cutting the outside line several times when it only needs to cut once. Does anyone know what is going on here? Is there a way in photoshop to combine all shapes (paths) together before I even load it up in illustrator? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mason]

Try creating all those cutlines in Illustrator not PS, then send it to VersaWorks and see where you stand then, it sounds like it is seeing multiple copies of the same cutline..

 

[Ridic]

Thanks Mason, I will try that tonight and see what happens and post my results.

 

[Ridic]

Was wondering something else if you could help Mason or anyone. When I am in photoshop and I select lets say the cut lines in that psp template with my magic wand. Its a nice clear selection but if I convert to paths I cannot for the life of me get the path lines straight or anywhere near accurate as the nice marching ants selection. Of course another problem I noticed it was making a path on each side of the line instead of one right down the middle which would have been nice. Not to big of a deal if anyone knows the answer to this I am just probably wishing for to much.. haha

 

[Ridic]

Everything worked out great!! Using Illustrator to make my cut lines worked out much better than using Photoshop. Thanks Mason!!

 

[Photoguy]

same but different cut problem

I'm having problems with versaworks and the cut image boundaries control with Illustrator files.

If I set an artboard size of 16x20 by example and insert lines of text then select "cut image boundaries" the cut isn't the artboard size but rather something arbitrary above and below the height of the type top and bottom.

The only way around it i have found is to draw in a white or empty box to the size of the artboard, put it in as the back layer then print and cut....

Am I missing something?

-John

 

[Mason]

Versaworks does not appear to honor the "artboard" dimensions, but rather sees the boundary of the artwork or text if you will, by adding the white box you specified the boundaries, however in the case of text, if it is not converted to curves then often times there will additional space above or below. This would really only be an issue were the text located very close to the top or bottom of your artwork.

 

[Photoguy]

thanks

That's a help already..forgot the convert to curves step...