Gerber Omega 5.0 Not Cutting Parts of Files

[Machinegunkenny]

Hello, We are having major issues with Gerber 5.0 not cutting parts of files sent to our plotter. Also it scales things down. I am at wits end an have spent hours on the phone with Gerber support. This is happening at all 3 of our locations. The odd thing is that the not cutting objects and how much or if is scales things down is completely random! One thing is consistent is that this happens daily to approx 30% of all we cut. It is costing this company thousands of $$$ every year. We contour cut to our plotter with FineCut 8 for our Mimaki prints with NO issues. I have used Gerber since Gerber Advantage and have never had this problem. I have been trying to convince this company to just buy CoCut and be done with Gerber for cutting.

 

[Fred Weiss]

If a vector isn't cutting, the first thing to do is to check the cut assignment for it. Turn off the preview (F8) and see what color the vector is that isn't cutting.

Black = Cut only

Green = Print and cut

Red = Cut only

Under the View Menu, set Filled to Output View and Wireframe to Cut Print Colors to see properly.

You can also evaluate your file in GspPlot by switching between Cut Only, Print Only or Show All under the View Menu with Preview turned off.

I have no idea why you are getting size changes. It has never happened to me.

 

[Machinegunkenny]

See that is the thing...everything is as it should be. I can cut the same file 5 times and it will do something different most of the time. When it fails to cut objects it is normally the out side of a letter or sometimes the inside. For instance, I cut 4 lines of copy earlier today and everything cut but one word....the next time I re-cut it I cut the SAME already opened plot file and it cut everything!? Before that I had cut 3 60" wide 14" tall rectangles with the word PROPANE in them (reverse weed) and the bottom 2 cut fine but the top cut the rectangle and the inside of some letters but not the outside of the letters. I then isolated and re-cut one of the rectangles again and it cut everything...except it was .5" shorter lol...I have no idea it is friggin' weird.

 

[Fred Weiss]

Are you using a Gerber plotter or the Mimaki you have listed?

 

[Machinegunkenny]

We are using the Mimaki CG-130 FX-II. I have tried the generic HPGL driver for Mimaki and the specific driver for this model and the same thing happens. Ya Pat, I thought the same thing...checked all the cables and reconfigured the USB ports as instructed by Gerber. It can't be the cables because FineCut cuts flawlessly. Even 120" prints contour cut perfectly. It has to be something with Gerber or the driver. Like I said, all 3 of our locations have similar issues and we are all using different plotters. Our Fargo location was using a Graphtec until they got the same model cutter as us a week ago and our Minot location is using our old Gerber plotter (can't remember the model). Forgive my 1 paragraph posts. I am not typing like that but when I hit submit it is removing all line breaks...maybe its my firefox browser causing this lol.

 

[Fred Weiss]

We are using the Mimaki CG-130 FX-II. I have tried the generic HPGL driver for Mimaki and the specific driver for this model and the same thing happens. Ya Pat, I thought the same thing...checked all the cables and reconfigured the USB ports as instructed by Gerber. It can't be the cables because FineCut cuts flawlessly. Even 120" prints contour cut perfectly. It has to be something with Gerber or the driver. Like I said, all 3 of our locations have similar issues and we are all using different plotters. Our Fargo location was using a Graphtec until they got the same model cutter as us a week ago and our Minot location is using our old Gerber plotter (can't remember the model). Forgive my 1 paragraph posts. I am not typing like that but when I hit submit it is removing all line breaks...maybe its my firefox browser causing this lol.

The carriage return issue is a known problem with Internet Explorer's Enhanced Editor. The usual fix is to switch to a different browser such as Firefox. In you case, you might want to try going to your Settings > Miscellaneous and choose the Standard Editor to see if that helps.

Like Pat, I am not able to offer any help with the Mimaki plotter since I have never used one.

 

[Tony Teveris]

Lets try this to insure that gspplot is generating the correct data and all of it. Setup everything in gspplot then save the file as a spool file. With spoolview you can open the spool file you just created and see if any data is missing, if not then cut it and see if any data is missing. If the data looks good in spoolview then you should continue to use THIS spool file until the problem is solved as we know its good.

Now the cutter you are using is using the HPGL command set and I assume you using the serial port (COMx or are you using a USB port?

If the serial port is being used is the cutter setup correctly for CTS/DTR data flow.

If you slow it down (real slow) can you see it miss any data?

 

[Machinegunkenny]

All the data is there in spoolview yet it is not cutting correctly, I have sent the spool files to Gerber twice but they never respond and when I call claim they never received them. Our production girl has the plotter slowed to a crawl. For some reason she always has the speed turned down. We are using a USB connection.

 

[Tony Teveris]

There are a lot of Tonys in this place so yes sent it to me (Tony T). I will take a look, not sure we have a Mimaki here. Most of the HPGL cutters we support are straight up simple but some do have "special" commands like page feeding, etc so I'm hoping that if we do not have a Mimaki I can at least test it on another HPGL type. I also think (but need to look at the spool file) that the positional commands sent to the cutter are all "relative" not absolute meaning that if data was "lost" the cutter would loose position, with "absolute" data you would loose data but continuing cuts would be in the correct position.

Just to confirm, it's USB to USB, not USB to Serial?

So please sent me the file

 

[Machinegunkenny]

Fixed Problem...Kinda

We have found a work around.

I am posting this to help others that may encounter the issue we had.

In order to get Omega to cut properly with our Win XP computer that was having this issue was after outputting the image to plot we select how many copies and or rotate image to make it ready for cutting but instead of hitting the plot button, we "Save to Spool File". We put this file in a folder on our desktop. Then we open the plot manager and cut the spool file directly from it. It cuts perfectly everytime.

When our production people forget to use the work around and cut the normal way it screws up as explained above almost everytime.

We have a new computer with Win 7 that needs to be hooked up and all software installed. We hope on Win 7 we will no longer need to use the work around.

 

[J Hill Designs]

might be that its trying to cut as it spools. is there any 'spool entire job before sending' type function? (kinda like RIP then print, but for a plotter)