new plotter issues

[old sign painter]

Hello, all. new user here and i have a problem plotter. Perhaps some of you can help. I use Letter Art, Windows 7, 64 bit and until recently, had a Graphtec CE3000 running just fine. Then some sort of Windows update caused the plotter to stop functioning from Win 7 and no upgrade downloads were available from Graphtec. Sold it, bought a Creation CR630 that won't function (turns out its 32 bit) Vendor stated that Flexi Art, Vinyl Master or Corel Draw will bridge the two but in doing so, I won't be able to import the 20+ years of client's files saved in Letter Art and I don't have the dough to buy a brand new Graphtec CE 6000 or 8000, their current lines. So....dang, will the new sign making software actually bridge my 64 bit Win 7 computer to a 32 bit Creation plotter? I've been hand lettering signs for the past two weeks now.

"Help me, Obi Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope."

 

[OldPaint]

i dont know what version of letter art you have, but the window 7 and it i think are your problem. there is no reason you need WINDOWS 7!!!!!! thats your 1st mistake. LETTER ART, is the 2nd. just kidding. you need to get a computer and load it with XP........and run it till it dies. the last version of letter art i had was 8. and to be honest COREL has more capabilities. so i havent even messed with it for years. best thing i can tell you get a machine up and running with XP, load your LETTER ART, all the files and export them as EPS or AI's and load em on a CD.......or.......to another directory. at least you can access them in most any other program. even COREL)))

 

[round man]

the plotter doesn't run on 32 or 64 bit it works from a graphic language such as hp-gl or gp-gl. the 32 vs 64 bit issues arise from the drivers used by the software addressing the actual port hardware addresses within the computer itself with 32 bit addresses and or 64 bit addresses,....the difference is alot like trying to dail a local phone number but adding an international prefix before it and the zipcode on the end,...it ain't gonna work,...in other words the plotter doesn't get the call from the computer because it never gets thru the port to the plotter to ring in the first place (wrong number)

most times the problems can be fixed with a 64 bit driver and or going back to a 32 bit operating system(win 7 32 bit will work just fine on a 64 bit machine 90% of the time). the plotter will run from either 32 bit software and or 64 bit software as long as the driver uses the correct addresses( sorta like a phone number of the port used by the plotter) within the operating system. The only reason a program that ran well on win xp would not run on win 7 32 bit would be that it was written with 16 bit code.