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New and need a little help!

mrgy05

New Member
Hey everyone!

I have a newly purchased Vinyl Express R series II 31" that I decided to go with for some freelance work. I'm now trying to cut out a logo / design for my vehicle and running into some hick-ups. When I send my design to be cut it randomly doesn't cut certain areas or it cuts areas it's not suppose to (like the blade doesn't pick up) why might I be experiencing this issue?

Just if you need it, I'm using CS5 for designing then importing into VE LXi Apprentice to get cut. Importing with .ai format. I'll link the design too just in-case I'm messing it up?

Puzzled. Any help is appreciated!

:thankyou:

Anthony
 

Travis Stanley

New Member
You could be dealing with any number of issues. i.e, blade setting, Logo not properly welded or trimed. try cutting a simple text. and see if that works. view your logo or design thru wire frame to check for overlap. When I first purchased my cutter I called technical support for an initial start-up. After that I was up and running great.
 

mrgy05

New Member
Hey Travis!

Thank you for your reply! I called TS and they referred me to a new driver. I re-installed with the new driver and the result is the same issue. I double checked the position of my blade as well as attempted a plot of the design and I get random cuts. As long as everything is fine with the design (which I feel comfortable saying it's okay) then I'm somewhat clueless. I think TS is a little clueless as well which makes me concerned.

Also note that I am able to print very small designs with a lot of twists / turns and have no issues, but the big designs have problems?

Here is a link to the file

Here are some pics of the problem, no rhythm at all:

Offsite pic replaced. Please read our rules and instructions on photo posting.
 

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mrgy05

New Member
Welcome to a outstanding Signs 101 and people.

What happens using software designed for cutter instead of importing. ?

Do you mean what happens if I use the software to design rather than importing from AI?

Also, I attempted to do the exact design (the .AI I linked) about 1/5th the size and it works like a charm. My cutter seems to only mess up when I do large designs, could this be true and why?
 
Have you tried saving the file as an eps or a pdf and then importing it? I have problems sometimes when I use .ai files also but saving them as eps or pdf usually does the trick.
 

Sign_Boy

New Member
I checked out your file.
It's welded properly, but some portions of the design are doubled up.
See attached pic. I grouped it together and moved it up for you to see.
This happens both at the top and down below with the web address & phone number.

Also as bayshore said try using an eps or pdf.

Hope this helps

If it's OK with you I can post a PDF with the fixes.
 

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mrgy05

New Member
I checked out your file.
It's welded properly, but some portions of the design are doubled up.
See attached pic. I grouped it together and moved it up for you to see.
This happens both at the top and down below with the web address & phone number.

Also as bayshore said try using an eps or pdf.

Hope this helps

If it's OK with you I can post a PDF with the fixes.

Sure you can post a PDF with fixes (if you want, no force at all)! :cool1:

Do you think that the doubling up of those similar layers could cause what I'm experiencing? I'm excited to be near a solution but I have to be careful because I'm running out of vinyl, I hate to be wasting so much material. It seems odd to me that I can produce a perfect cut when the design is small but once large it begins to have issues.

I'm fine with any function format as long as it fixes the issue. :banghead:
 

Sign_Boy

New Member
Here you go.

I brought it into my production manager and didn't see any extraneous cutlines.
You may want to convert the PDF to an EPS before trying to cut.
You'll also need to scale it back up.

I hope this works for you.

:supersmilie:
 

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Sign_Boy

New Member
Also, I see the problems:

Are these overlapped frames what you're talking about? I'm not sure what caused those. (neglect)

They may have been compounded or welded wrong.
It happens.

If I'm ever concerned about a file I drop a different color box behind my design, if I can see the color through my cutouts I know it's probably setup right.

On a side note have you tried cutting directly from illy?
You can use the cutting master plugin - just a thought
 
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mrgy05

New Member
They may have been compounded or welded wrong.
It happens.

If I'm ever concerned about a file I drop a different color box behind my design, if I can see the color through my cutouts I know it's probably setup right.

On a side note have you tried cutting directly from illy?
You can use the cutting master plugin - just a thought

I haven't ever used the cutting master plugin, but that sounds really handy!

And it seems that I'm still getting the same issue, only when the design is large (24" by 36") rather than small (12" by 18"ish) :Sleeping:
 

Sign_Boy

New Member
What is your media width?
If you can check both you plotter and production manager.
It's odd that it will cut fine when small.
 

mrgy05

New Member
That's odd. It should cut.

I'm a little puzzled as well. I'm new to vinyl but not to computers and the settings all seem to match up. I suppose something during the install could have been corrupt? Possibly a re-install of all vinyl related software (not AI) as well as drivers... I'm out of ideas, not that I had many when I started have this problem!
 

mrgy05

New Member
Solved

Signwarehouse expresses that it's a driver issue with 1/1000 plotters / PC workstations. They confess that they don't know the issue however if it ever occurs to call and they will send you a driver fix. Thanks for all who helped.
:thankyou:
 
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