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Suggestions Cutter software needed
- Thread starter ShawnE
- Start date
iPrintStuff
Prints stuff
What cutter do you have?
iPrintStuff
Prints stuff
Depends on how much you want to spend probably. That and how intuitive you want the software to be. There’s a few free ones like Inkscape you can probably try first
since it only involves 5% of what you do, consider using vmware sodtware to virtualize the old pc, then running the "guest os" using vmware player.
assuming you have an external drive to create a file on, this would be an evening's work & cost you NOTHING. you would be using 2 free pieces of software
i would not suggest this for something used constantly, but for an admitted 5% of your work, you could be up and running in a day. it will be quicker than the learning curve on your new cutter software
this is certainly not exactly what you are doing, but will give you the basic idea (virtualize windows xp & run on winows 7
http://www.digiblog.de/2012/01/virtualize-your-old-win-xp-machine-under-windows-7/
assuming you have an external drive to create a file on, this would be an evening's work & cost you NOTHING. you would be using 2 free pieces of software
i would not suggest this for something used constantly, but for an admitted 5% of your work, you could be up and running in a day. it will be quicker than the learning curve on your new cutter software
this is certainly not exactly what you are doing, but will give you the basic idea (virtualize windows xp & run on winows 7
http://www.digiblog.de/2012/01/virtualize-your-old-win-xp-machine-under-windows-7/
WildWestDesigns
Active Member
What communication port is it using? That makes running a VM a little bit more troublesome if it is say a serial port versus USB that the cutter is using. Not impossible, but definitely not plug and play as much as a USB one.
I love my VMs, they are great for this very reason, but they have caveats with them. Can your new rig handle running a VM and still handle your other day to day activities if you have to multi-task during that 5% cutting?
To do a VM legitly, you'll have to have purchased your copy of the OS to activate (non OEM version unless you are using the hardware that is bound to that OEM activation number (which would probably be doubtful)). Win 7 Pro and higher did allow one to get a free XP VM and use VirtualPC, but I don't believe that free option is available, nor is VirtualPC around, it's been replaced with Hyper-V or something like that. Could use VirtualBox (certainly better then VMPlayer, other one that I would suggest is Workstation Player (commercial version from OEM that supplies VMPlayer).
If there is a way (I left Windows (and Mac)) long ago, but if there is a way to setup your cutter as a generic printer that uses raw HPGL on Windows, you could use almost any design software and "print" (cut) from that. Exceptionally easy to do in Linux via GUI, but I never had to deal with that when I was on Windows, so that may not even be an option on Windows, I doubt very easy. But using that method, could even use Inkscape on it and it'll cut directly from there without any drivers. At least, I'm able to do that for my Roland GX24s on Linux, again, may not be an option on Windows. Just throwing that out there as maybe a possibility of looking into anyway.
I love my VMs, they are great for this very reason, but they have caveats with them. Can your new rig handle running a VM and still handle your other day to day activities if you have to multi-task during that 5% cutting?
To do a VM legitly, you'll have to have purchased your copy of the OS to activate (non OEM version unless you are using the hardware that is bound to that OEM activation number (which would probably be doubtful)). Win 7 Pro and higher did allow one to get a free XP VM and use VirtualPC, but I don't believe that free option is available, nor is VirtualPC around, it's been replaced with Hyper-V or something like that. Could use VirtualBox (certainly better then VMPlayer, other one that I would suggest is Workstation Player (commercial version from OEM that supplies VMPlayer).
If there is a way (I left Windows (and Mac)) long ago, but if there is a way to setup your cutter as a generic printer that uses raw HPGL on Windows, you could use almost any design software and "print" (cut) from that. Exceptionally easy to do in Linux via GUI, but I never had to deal with that when I was on Windows, so that may not even be an option on Windows, I doubt very easy. But using that method, could even use Inkscape on it and it'll cut directly from there without any drivers. At least, I'm able to do that for my Roland GX24s on Linux, again, may not be an option on Windows. Just throwing that out there as maybe a possibility of looking into anyway.
Johnny Best
Active Member
I run my Summa with SignCut. Good program.