• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

Graphtec Contour Problem

PMG

New Member
I thought the were running off but after getting the true measurements of the good and bad,the bad ones are of 1/16th of a 1/8th inch border!! And im doing step and repeat. and yes it repeats itself,on any design i send .but as a cutter there are no problem when i just do cut vinyl!!
 

PMG

New Member
also I send the design to the production manager then select my copy's then send to rip!!
 

PMG

New Member
ok, I see you're still on-line, so a few more ideas...

with any design huh? ...that sounds bad..

so, when it's 1/16th off... it is still exactly a 2" x 3" cut... but it is 1/16th out over from the print? ...or is it 1/16th shorter then 3"

and with step and repeat, IN FLEXI... the space between your 10 prints, is exactly the same, like 1/4"
...but on the cuts, after 6 good ones... the space between them goes off.

so, I hear you that the cutter still works right, like if you are cutting big letters for some banner or whatever... but if you send 10 small rectangles that are 2" x 3" created using step and repeat... BUT WITHOUT ANY PRINT DATA... are you saying even this cut file will proceed correctly?
Its 1/16th over and the sticker is still 2x3,and the spacing is the same,yes without a print the cutter works perfect!!! So it seems to be the print running off then and not the cutter!!
 

iSign

New Member
Its 1/16th over and the sticker is still 2x3,and the spacing is the same,yes without a print the cutter works perfect!!!

but if the 5th cut is 1/16th over, then the space is not the same there, right?

and you HAVE sent the EXACT same "10 squares" cut file with out spacing irregularities?
 

PMG

New Member
i just measured it doug correct it seems the space from that point is off as well sorry!! yes the cut files is fine!
 

iSign

New Member
So it seems to be the print running off then and not the cutter!!

oh.. I just caught that part. so if you measure the prints... the space between 4th and 5th, or 5th and 6th are NOT the same as the rest?

Earlier I mentioned trouble shooting with various slight changes to the combination of commands & elements & methods. You really have to do this to solve mystery's like this.

You asked earlier if I thought your support people should come out to help you. FIRST, trouble shooting every variation possible is the best way to isolate where & when an irregularity begins.

Have you set up a row of 10 NOT using "step and repeat??

Tomorrow, do one where you just keep making copies & manually lining them up in a row. Then do another where you "rip & print" just ONE... and then ask for 10 repeats in the "Rip & Print" interface.

Good luck. I know I'd be pulling out my hair by now.
 

PMG

New Member
Thanks for giving me a helping hand doug ,,i will try what you just said and see if it does the same!!!
 

PMG

New Member
I did the step and repeat 10 copy's 1 row and ripped it as 1 (took allot longer to process ) and then i sent 1 copy to rip,and selected 10 copy's and both print and cuts are off in the same locations!!! I know ive smoked a carton of cowboy killers in the past 3 days,and wasted allot of media trying to figure this out,LOL !!!!!!!!
 

iSign

New Member
...and both print and cuts are off in the same locations!!!

OK... I get that it's still messed up, but "BOTH print and cuts are off" means what?? The cuts START OUT matching up with the prints (which are EVENLY spaced ...right?) ...and then, around the half way point, something shifts OUT of where it should be (NOT EVENLY SPACED)

WHAT SHIFTS??? PRINT? CUT? ...OR "both print and cuts are off" :help:
 

EndlessOptions

New Member
I have had a similar problem when I do the contour on the whole group. I now will set up one and then select contour cut, then I will use step and repeat to get the number I want layed out. Make sure that you have some room it the panel margin around the whole print.
 

bob

It's better to have two hands than one glove.
Very interesting that the error is constant and not cumulative and seems to occur beyond some fixed point on the Y axis. At least this is what I assume from the previous tsunami of posts.

So either the printer is going short on Y or the plotter is going long on Y at this point on Y.

If the printer were going short then not only would the object spacing be short but the the registration marks on that side would be short as well. If that were the case then the cut would be cumulatively short on Y starting at the origin. This is not the case.

Ergo your plotter or it's software is going short after a certain Y value. If your setup was working properly, as you reported, then it is reasonable to rule out software. Software neither breaks nor wears out. Unless, of course, there's some particular value calculated or encountered that starts a harmonic, for want of a better word. A really obscure notion that, in over 40 years of dealing with software, I have seen exactly once. That was an ill thought out piece of micro-code in an IBM 360-20 back in 1970. During the era of 'face down, 9 edge first'.

So most likely it's something going on in the plotter. It's the nature of electro-mechanical devices that 99% of problems are mechanical. In this case, I have no idea if Graphtec infers position or actually senses position of the Y axis. Inferring by keeping a running accumulation of Y motion or sensing via some mechanism like an encoder strip or something.

If Y position is inferred, look for something really silly, like a tooth missing or clogged on a drive belt, a gear loose on a shaft, etc. Something in the physical drive that would cause it to take a giant step at a given location.

If Y position is sensed, look to that mechanism, whatever it might be.
 
Top