sign software best bang on low budget

[tholme1]

Just wondering what software will serve me best for vinyl cutting My budget would b in the $400 range and I am fairly new to the Gig. I have Corel draw 9 and use artcut to send to cutter. I can not make registration marks with artcut to make a 2 color graphic or sign so just lookin 4 advice:Canada:

 

[GVP]

If you're just trying to line up two or more colors of vinyl, you don't need any fancy registration marks. Just pop a couple or four small squares or circles on your page just outside of the main image area, and select them with each color when you cut. Then it's just a case of lining up the squares or circles so they fall exactly on top of each other, thus ensuring perfect registration between colors. After removing the last mask, you can just peel them off and discard, having done their job. You can even cut a small piece out of the mask where the dots are so you can easily see when they line up with the one underneath.

 

[royster13]

If you stack registration marks for each color on top of each other, and then "cut by color" it will pick what ever colour you are cutting....

 

[tholme1]

thanx so much for the input I will try it out and c what i can do, But I will still need better software then they Artcut that I am useing as it is very limited

 

[James Burke]

What types of file formats will Artcut import?


JB

 

[James Burke]

SignLab has a starter product for around $500, but I think the catch is that it only comes with one driver.

I think they're betting on beginners starting out with an inexpensive cutter and then upgrading to a full SL blown version when they get better equipment.

Here's a blurb from a while ago: http://www.signs101.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-60030.html


JB

 

[James Burke]

You gotta be careful, but there are some good deals on Ebay once in a while. A friend of mine found a package of SignLab 7.0 this past spring for $300...complete with the extra artwork / fonts CD and USB dongle. It loaded and works flawlessly.

I paid nearly $1,200 for mine, back when it first came out.

The economy has put a lot of pressure on sign shops, so there are deals to be had....just watch out for who you're dealing with and what you're getting.

Just a day or so ago, somebody had an older package of Gerber Omega listed, but I don't see it any more.

More than you wanted to spend, but with a cutter: http://www.ebay.com/itm/GERBER-GS-1...592?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4169575de8

JB

 

[Scott Reynolds]

Light table.

You can make one for $50.

I know your "new to this gig", but your going to have to get comfortable with thinking outside of the box if your going to get anywhere.

Scott

 

[haulin]

Light table.

You can make one for $50.

I know you "new to this gig", but your going to have to get conferable with thinking outside of the box if you going to get anywhere.

Scott

 

[haulin]

http://www.vinylmasterseries.com/en/products_vmx.html

Downloaded the demo and am also in the process of watching the over 100 how to videos on you tube, and so far I like it. They have some crossgrade offers and you can also pay in installments too.

 

[tholme1]

thx for ur input

I think the light table is the one 4 now great tip thx :Canada:

 

[round man]

for only cutting vinyl corel 9 will do just about anything needed . I am computer tech and I have access to and have used just about all the software out there( latest versions of flexisign,signlab and gerber) and I still use version 9 to design any vinyl I need to cut and for my vector file creation,....it runs damned fast on this quad core I7 Win 7 machine and rarely if ever crashes,....I'm somewhat old school and if something works well I see no need to fix it and there is no sense in reinventing the wheel here with a bunch of extra bells and whistles,...sure I have access to alot of the new features of the newer programs but rarely if ever use or need anything but coreldraw 9 to do any vinyl sign design for cutting,...I do use cocut to output directly from corel and for cutting vinyl it serves all my needs,...being a computer tech I love it when I use an old program that was designed and written so well that runs super fast on a machine and os that was not even an idea when the program was originally written and see how well it works,.....

 

[DizzyMarkus]

Light table.

You can make one for $50

+10

Markus

 

[OldPaint]

depending on what cutter you are driving.....YOU CAN CUT DIRECT FORM COREL 9......ALL DAY LONG. i have been cutting direct form COREL since version 3, NOT X3, but 3!!!!! i have played with all the hig dollar sign programs, and in 20 years, have never needed more then COREL DRAW. instead of registration marks, you ever heard of CLEAR TRANSFER TAPE???

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

I'm with old paint on the clear transfer tape. I tried to use registration marks once and never will again unless it's an absolute must. For one, you can use more vinyl and waste more time having to add the needed registration marks. Besides that, if you have a good eye and a little patience you can figure out how to apply the second layer of graphics wet and line them up that way. I will usually wet the vinyl and the substrate and apply from the center out toward the ends. As I lower the ends of the graphic toward the substrate I can shift it one way or the other til the ends fall into place. If not, I pull it away and try again. Most times I can get it laid on perfect the first time around. Some people may agree that wet application isn't the best method. In my opinion wet application traps more air bubbles than dry application, but it's one of the fastest, easiest ways to line up multi-color graphics.

The only thing I don't care for with the clear tape is, at least from my experience, it doesn't release nearly as nice as paper transfer tape, so I generally use the paper tape more than the clear, but the clear has it's purpose, especially when applying multi-color graphics in a low contrast situation.

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

Oh, and by the way, I don't know how advanced your software is that you are currently using, but we use Sign Cut. which is a UK based software and I believe our yearly license costs $85 or $90? I absolutely love it. For what we do in cut vinyl it's the only software I need. We also run Corel Draw X5 and although I have cut with it direct to our Roland with no issues, it has nowhere near the features that Sign Cut has.

 

[Mosh]

xacto knife, about $4! That is what I started with!

 

[DaveD]

Air bubbles while installing a pre assembled multi color graphic.

How do you keep from getting bubbles around the edge of the vinyl layers? Pre assembling the colors is the easy part. I've tried dry, wet and chemical (rapid tach) and find that I get small bubbles most every time.

 

[TammieH]

You can't, unless someone knows a trick. I always apply colors one at a time to whatever surface you are using, car, coroplast etc.

 

[player]

depending on what cutter you are driving.....YOU CAN CUT DIRECT FORM COREL 9......ALL DAY LONG. i have been cutting direct form COREL since version 3, NOT X3, but 3!!!!! i have played with all the hig dollar sign programs, and in 20 years, have never needed more then COREL DRAW. instead of registration marks, you ever heard of CLEAR TRANSFER TAPE???

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