Problems cutting with Summa D610

[Ann_P]

Hello!
(Excuse my English I hope you can understand most of my questions)
My name is Ann and I´m living in Sweden.
I have mailed Summa my questions, but they have vacation until 2:nd of august.
So I hope you nice people can help me.
I have been reading a lot of the questions and answers here and you are really professional at this!! But I still have some question I have not found answers in.

I have an old Summa Sign D610 and I am absolutely not a professional user of it yet (I am learning and will learn more!!). I have been working with illustrator a lot so I am familiar wit that program but I need to learn more about the Summa machine I bought a couple of years ago. I use Winplot as software and I have a cable from the parallel port, so the plotter can´t communicate with my computer. (I do not know if I can use another cable – I´m going to check that out later)

When I bought the machine (second hand – I don´t know how old it is) the man who sold it to me installed Winplot and selected one of the cutters in Winplot, but I do not remember which one of the Summa machines it was. I re-installed Winplot when I first tried to cut this latest logo and it went wrong. I have tried to install and use Summa legacy, Summa 750D and SummaCut 60 as selected plotter in Winplot but it doesn´t seem to work with any of them.

I tried to cut a logotype and something went wrong. The machine cuts parts of the logotype in wrong direction and sometimes it cuts parts on other parts of the logo and/or move some parts a bit and /or cuts a line just across.
The logo is less than 54 cm (width, when it is rotated) so it would be enough with more than 3 cm margins on both sides? I have rotated the logo 90 degrees in Illustrator so it would fit the width of the media, does it matter where I rotate the design? When I send the design from Winplot I put the design in the middle of the document (first I write the size: edit – cutter design size and here I write for example 610 mm width and 500 mm hight ) but on the vinyl the design is placed just closed to the right side of the edge, even if I put the logo in the middle in Winplot - document.
When I am working I save the design as Illustrator 5.0 / 5.5 or 7.0 and it have been working. (I have Illustrator 10 - I know it´´s old.) I know about outlines so that should be ok.
Is it necessary to place the ai-files on the harddrive? I allways have had them on desktop, it have been working before….

Have anyone of you had this problem?
Do you know what it could be?
Maybe I have to reset the cutter? How to do?

Thanks in advance
Ann P

 

[David Wright]

There has to be a driver for the D series in there if not a exact D610 selection. You are cutting with the wrong plotter selection.
Using a parallel cable is going direct to the computer.

Winplot is about the worst choice for cutting vinyl but should do elementary cutting.

 

[Ann_P]

Thanks David!
Do you think it is worth trying Signcutpro (trial). It is possible to download and use for a week, to try the software?
http://www.signcutpro.com/trial.html
The problem is that I have Illustrator 10. But I suppose it would be possible to import the design in Signcut from Illustrator instead of using the plugin to export from illustrator to Signcut.

Ann

 

[David Wright]

Interesting this comes up because I am a long time user of Signlab but due to the fact that my version does not work with Windows 7 I am trying out other sign programs. (I will keep using Signlab on my other computer).

Trial is the way to go and I have tried a few. Some are sign programs in their own right while others are bridge programs to use in conjunction with Corel or Illustrator which seems to be the way to go for you.

Yes try Signcut and also Eurosystems Cocut. The D610 is a good plotter which was my first Summa owned.

 

[Ann_P]

Ok, that sounds hopfull. I am waiting for a mail from Signcut to download the trial. But is it possible for D610 to have another cable than the parallell so it can be possible with communication in both ways?
I will allso try Eurosystems Cocut.
I am very grateful to you for helping.
Ann

 

[David Wright]

I believe a serial cable attached to the com port is the other option for that plotter.
Do you have a serial port on your computer? (Com1, Com2 etc.)

 

[Ann_P]

No, I do not have a serialport on my computer. I bought a cable with USB in one of the ends (to the computer) and in the other end it is possible to attach to the serial port on the plotter. But when I have looked around in different forums it seems as it´s not possible to do that way. Do you think it can work with the parallel-port if I install Cocut?

Ann

 

[David Wright]

yes

 

[Ann_P]

Hello!
Thank you very much!
It works!! (with the parallell)
Thanks for your help.
I have been working with installing the trial on my computer, trying different cables and reading manuals. And today I cut the logotypes!
What a difference between Winplot and Cocut!
With Cocut I know exaktly where it will cut. Maybee it sounds stupid but I think it is a BIG difference. Never thought that!!
I will buy Cocut!!

Thans again David!

Ann P

 

[David Wright]

Glad it worked out.

 

[Ann_P]

Hello again!

Hello again!
I bought SignCut. It was actually a mistake (
I think I were sleeping when I ordered.....
I wanted to buy Cocut as it worked out so well, but I bought SignCut!

I tried to cut a logotype (with SignCut) and it starts to cut correct, but then it starts to cut some parts of the logo in wrong place on the folio.
Sometimes it cuts parts on other parts of the logo and/or move some parts a bit and /or cuts a line just across. (like when I used Winplot).
Do you think it is better to try to sell SignCut and buy Cocut instead?
Or do you (or someone else) think it might can work with SignCut?
Do you have any suggestions?

Ann