GCC Expert II LX with Great Cut software, need basic help with setup

[VicoDrive]

I just bought a used GCC Expert II LX and have my trial of Great Cut. Ive use industrial cutters before so I feel like many basic settings would carry over but I just cant figure this software out! Decent tutorials just dont seem to exist out there for it for what I need to do.

Im not really looking on how to design, I do all that in Illustrator. What Im mainly trying to figure out is when I size my vinyl in the cutter that is smaller than 24", shouldnt that reflect on the screen so I know where to lay my designs for cutting? This really seems to be the first step before anything and I cant find answers for it or how I should be doing this.

Also I bought the cutter in hopes of just using the Illustrator driver but thats even more confusing. Anyone have any decent tutorials on using Illustrator with the GCC?

Last, what does Great Cut cost after the 30 days is up? I cant find pricing anywhere and even the GCC support isnt exactly telling me. I am worried is some crazy out of control price because they are not being very clear about it. All I want is software to place my designs on the vinyl, not to design with. So because of that, I really dont want to pay for software that I will only be using 10% of. If there are other and easier options, Id love to hear that too....thanks!

 

[jimdtg]

GreatCut is rebranded/OEM of CoCut.

CoCut cuts directly from the vector-based graphics and drawing program Adobe Illustrator.

 

[Greenlight signs]

if you are using GCC then you can create the file in adobe then save as a Ai and then import it into GCC. there is no cost on it per month.

 

[VicoDrive]

That I know, I just cant figure out how to properly size up and cut my AI file in GreatCut. Also it says its a 30 day trial. I read that after 30 days, you can still use it but it will put extra cuts across your entire layout to make it almost unusable. So there must be something to pay somewhere

 

[VicoDrive]

I dont understand, are you saying you can cut directly from Illustrator somehow with CoCut/GreatCut?

 

[jimdtg]

Yes, you can.

 

[VicoDrive]

How do you do this? There is some driver I downloaded from GCC to make Illustrator work with it but its horrible. There doesnt seem to be any real way to line anything up, its just random. Is that what you are referring to or something else?

 

[jimdtg]

You can get more detail at CoCut website:

http://www.cocut.com