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Flexi investment...

Bogie

Bogie

New Member
Yeah, but the does the guy NEED to invest the money?

He's got a cutter. He's got the software that CAME with the cutter (adequate to run it). He is gonna need Corel and/or Illustrator anyway. Flexi adds a _little_ to the mix, but not a great deal.

Think of it this way... When you're trying to take seconds off a car's performance in a race, that can be a matter of a few hundred dollars. When it gets to where you're worried about taking tenths of a second off the time, then you're probably talking thousands of dollars...
 
Fred Weiss

Fred Weiss

Merchant Member
Michael said:
In Corel I would select the shape tool and delete the 5 middle nodes and done.
Click to expand...

Then you would be accepting an inaccurate edit because the length and angle of the two nodes you left are not set correctly. You can argue that it still looks okay but as a procedural approach it is inaccurate and, in a larger piece with many more edits, you would see a difference between my approach and yours.
 
Fred Weiss

Fred Weiss

Merchant Member
Michael said:
Now to take it one step further I can just go to shape tool, select all nodes and reduce nodes to four nodes creating even less nodes than your five, bringing it down to one if I choose.
Click to expand...

This is a global change effecting path nodes and segments that were outside of the portion in need of the editing. One can do the same thing in Flexi, Illustrator and most other vector editing applications. It is by far the quickest way to work and also the least accurate. It will, in fact, cause distortions and undesirable changes in more complex examples.

I mean no rudeness but this is an amateur's approach to path cleanup and suitable for roadside coroplast signs. It is a far cry from producing a top quality result.
 
Michael

Michael

New Member
I also mean no rudeness but we are arguing about a circle :p you can simply set some guidlines and make sure it's perfect if you like. You gave me an amatuer example and I gave you an amateur way of cleaning it up.
 
Flame

Flame

New Member
Easier way to do it in Corel.

Double click above the bad area, double click below the bad area. That adds a total of 2 nodes. Drag and click bad nodes, click delete, and you have a nice circle. The 2 added nodes keeps everything in place, without distortion.

This is getting to be a funny thread. Everyone has very different tastes.
 
Fred Weiss

Fred Weiss

Merchant Member
Michael said:
I also mean no rudeness but we are arguing about a circle :p you can simply set some guidlines and make sure it's perfect if you like. You gave me an amatuer example and I gave you an amateur way of cleaning it up.
Click to expand...

I simply chose a simple to fix example to make my point in a reasonable amount of time. You are taking the example as a specific when I am simply trying to explain in general. If you reread my replies to your request from that perspective, perhaps you may understand my reply better.

The primary point that I was making is that global cleanup solutions are not a good solution for repairing individual defects. Forget that it is a circle. Pretend that it is a path with 1000 segments with 50 different glitches ... each of which I would deal with individually to achieve the accuracy of cleanup my customers expect. The various Flexi path cleanup and editing tools all save steps and therefore save time when compared to Corel, Illustrator or any other vector drawing and editing application in my experience. If your solution is to use global cleanup, then we are comparing apples and oranges.

Using global cleanup solutions is very much like making a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy. Every time one does it, one gets further away from the original artwork. Using manual editing on individual segments or sections of a path is not only more accurate but also allows one to interpret both artistically and technically what is there and to be able to compensate for distortions in artwork.
 
Michael

Michael

New Member
My first response of simply deleting the 5 nodes was not a global node change thus only changing the a. node to b. node. considering one would probably manually create this vector image from a raster/bitmap anyhow and not some simple cleanup step, your artwork would not be a "perfect" trace of the raster image anyhow, but if you can create it smoothly enough nobody would be the weisser (pun intended) :)


Fred you are the man :p, I like the way you talk! it sounds really smart, and I don't like arguing with you :p. My opinion still stands on the op choosing to invest in Corel over Flexi :p
 
Michael

Michael

New Member
Flame Master said:
Easier way to do it in Corel.

Double click above the bad area, double click below the bad area. That adds a total of 2 nodes. Drag and click bad nodes, click delete, and you have a nice circle. The 2 added nodes keeps everything in place, without distortion.

This is getting to be a funny thread. Everyone has very different tastes.
Click to expand...

Simply deleting the 5 center nodes does this same thing.

No more arguing from me darnit, I am new here and I don't need anyone hating me :p
 
C

cfbeagle

New Member
Just spent a bunch of time reading another useless post.:help:

But my Chevy is still better then yer Ford.:rolleyes:

But to answer the question that was asked, if you are starting out and do not want to spend a bunch of money, buy Corel. It is a great program that can do much more then you will be able to get out of it for years.

That is all you need, a cutter driver will come with your Graphtec.

BTW here are some great links if you are learning Corel

www.advancedartist.com
www.corelunleashed.com
http://www.unleash.com/
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=alexisgalvez


Later
 
GAC05

GAC05

Quit buggin' me
Dollar for dollar it is hard to beat value you get with the CorelDraw package.
I have Draw X3, Flexi(7.6) & CS3 (Illy)
In the end it will be the user and what works for him or her that determines what is "best".
I would not use Fred's method in Corel to fix his sample circle, but could do as quickly & accurately in Draw as he did in flexi.

Get the demos for Draw and CS3 (don't think flexi has one) and see what works for you - then buy it.

wayne k
guam usa
 
coyote

coyote

New Member
Just to keep things in perspective as far as cost is concerned: When we bought our Graphix 4B back in 1988 (used), it set us back $11,500-the down payment on a house! We thought we got a good deal, as it came with a font extender,15 fonts and the outline module. We were in heaven-I don't know if anyone remembers Tuffbak....

We just purchased a Graphtec CE5000 15" plotter and Flexi Sign (not pro) and I feel like we just got a rocket to replace our horse and buggy. The whole package was under $2500 -downright cheap if you ask me. I could upgrade to pro and get a larger cutter and would consider that cheap as well-just not what we need as we don't do any printing-just vinyl and hand painting and nothing huge.

When you factor in inflation-today's dollars vs. 1988 dollars the savings is even greater.

Carol
 
T

Todd Jelle

New Member
Another flexi user here...
I used corel since V3 and its a great program, now using X3, great stuff
but.... it has no where near the tools or ability of FLEXI to simplify your work if you are node editing/ cleaning up or vectorizing art. Dont knock it until you see it in use! Thoose abilities are the focus of the FLEXI software, along with a full function production manager
I print & cut, & need both a good program for designing and output.

I use flexi for output, exclusively either printing, or cutting
I know you can get by with co-cut or cheaper software, but sooner or later if your really in the sign biz, your going to need a serious sign program.
FLEXI or SIGN LAB are a must have.
but you cant live without a support program Corel or Abobie
 
Bogie

Bogie

New Member
Right - you're gonna need Corel or Illustrator regardless.

And if all you are doing is cutting, the interface that is supplied FREE OF CHARGE with the cutter will work fine. If you need something more after you've used that for a while, fine.

You're looking for bang for buck at this point - not tweaking the fine points.
 
The Big Squeegee

The Big Squeegee

Long Time Member
VinylMaster Pro

onesource said:
Although cheap it looks like a good program to have.
...
Click to expand...
I like it because it splits the job up in seperate colors and lines them up for the best fit. If you don't like the way it uses the vinyl, you can rearange it.

It also allows you to bring in raster images resized to actual size so you can place the graphics on them to show the customer what the finish job looks like.

I only have the vinyl cutting program. It also come with a printing program.
 
P

Pro Signs & Graphix

New Member
People that do not like Flexi or SignLab (or whatever) really just do not know how to use the software as it was intended and designed. If any or all of these packages were junk - they would be gone.

SignLab user here...with no interest in learning Flexi.
 
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