Software for Summa S3 Cutters

[levsmith]

Hey everyone, we recently purchased a Summa S3T75. Been happy with the cutter, but not so much with the Summa GoSign software. We have been using Vinylmaster with our old cutter but they don't have drivers for the S3 yet. We would prefer something that's a one-time purchase and not a subscription, but that is not an absolute requirement. Bonus points if it also has nesting capabilities. Anyone have any recommendations? Sorry if it seems like a weird question, we've been happy enough with Vinylmaster as our first ever cutting software that I never looked around for anything else, so I'm not sure what else is out there. Thanks for any help!

 

[balstestrat]

Have you tried with S2 driver for example? It usually works using TCP/IP.

 

[PHILJOHNSON]

Is nesting the most important feature, or is there something else in Vinylmaster that isn't in GoSign that you need? Are you contour cutting with the S3 or just vinyl cutting without registration?

Best regards,

Phil Johnson
Airmark Corporation
(800)527-7778, ext. 112
philj@airmark.com

 

[levsmith]

Have you tried with S2 driver for example? It usually works using TCP/IP.

I tried to use the S2 driver without success. Maybe I wasn’t doing something right?

 

[levsmith]

Is nesting the most important feature, or is there something else in Vinylmaster that isn't in GoSign that you need? Are you contour cutting with the S3 or just vinyl cutting without registration?

Best regards,

Phil Johnson
Airmark Corporation
(800)527-7778, ext. 112
philj@airmark.com

At this point we are only vinyl cutting.

I wouldn’t say nesting is the most important but it’s quite a ways up on the list. We tend to cut small quantities of lots of different files so we are looking to take advantage of the better tracking on this machine but it’s a pain to lay it all out manually in the GoSign software.

Our main problem with GoSign is that it just doesn’t seem to be user friendly. Harder to rotate the files, saving seems more complicated than it needs to be because it acts like I’m clicking “save as” every time, asking if I want to overwrite the file. I’ve had times when I clicked yes on that window and the program crashed and I lost the file completely. We can’t edit any points on the file like we could in VinylMaster. Also when we send the file to the cutter, it seems to take a LONG time to process before we can click the cut button. I’ve gotten the hang of the software by now but it still seems like everything takes twice as long to get files set up and cutting compared to our old software.

I would say the ability to click and drag to rotate files and the ability to modify points in the file would be our biggest push to look for another software, I’m just hoping we can get nesting as part of that package as well.

 

[PHILJOHNSON]

At this point we are only vinyl cutting.

I wouldn’t say nesting is the most important but it’s quite a ways up on the list. We tend to cut small quantities of lots of different files so we are looking to take advantage of the better tracking on this machine but it’s a pain to lay it all out manually in the GoSign software.

Our main problem with GoSign is that it just doesn’t seem to be user friendly. Harder to rotate the files, saving seems more complicated than it needs to be because it acts like I’m clicking “save as” every time, asking if I want to overwrite the file. I’ve had times when I clicked yes on that window and the program crashed and I lost the file completely. We can’t edit any points on the file like we could in VinylMaster. Also when we send the file to the cutter, it seems to take a LONG time to process before we can click the cut button. I’ve gotten the hang of the software by now but it still seems like everything takes twice as long to get files set up and cutting compared to our old software.

I would say the ability to click and drag to rotate files and the ability to modify points in the file would be our biggest push to look for another software, I’m just hoping we can get nesting as part of that package as well.

If you're looking for more design functionality in the cutting program, GoSign is definitely not the right solution. Like most free cutting programs, it's very basic, and really just designed to import a cut file and send it to the Summa cutter(similar to the previous Summa cutting software called Winplot).

Something like FlexiSign, which has more design functionality and the ability to also send cut files to the Summa, could be a better option for you. The Flexi Complete option has nesting built in, you can easily apply cut paths, and it also has functionality built in to facilitate printing and cutting(contour cutting) if/when you add a printer in the future. The downside of Flexi based on your original post is that is subscription or timed licenses(1-5 years) and it also they have not yet released an official Summa S3 driver, but everything else matches what it sounds like you're looking for(more design functionality, nesting capability, etc.).

Sadly, most of the software for design and cutting has moved to a subscription model and there are very few that actually let you purchase a full license. Aside from FlexiSign, you might also consider something like CoCut, but I don't think CoCut has added the S3 driver yet, either, and it's not as robust from a design editing and nesting standpoint compared to Flexi. I would expect most of these different cutting programs to have S3 drivers integrated by the end of the year, but it could potentially take longer than that to get them added.

Let me know if you have any other questions or if there is anything else that I can do to help.

Best regards,

Phil Johnson
Airmark Corporation
(800)527-7778, ext. 112
philj@airmark.com

 

[levsmith]

If you're looking for more design functionality in the cutting program, GoSign is definitely not the right solution. Like most free cutting programs, it's very basic, and really just designed to import a cut file and send it to the Summa cutter(similar to the previous Summa cutting software called Winplot).

Something like FlexiSign, which has more design functionality and the ability to also send cut files to the Summa, could be a better option for you. The Flexi Complete option has nesting built in, you can easily apply cut paths, and it also has functionality built in to facilitate printing and cutting(contour cutting) if/when you add a printer in the future. The downside of Flexi based on your original post is that is subscription or timed licenses(1-5 years) and it also they have not yet released an official Summa S3 driver, but everything else matches what it sounds like you're looking for(more design functionality, nesting capability, etc.).

Sadly, most of the software for design and cutting has moved to a subscription model and there are very few that actually let you purchase a full license. Aside from FlexiSign, you might also consider something like CoCut, but I don't think CoCut has added the S3 driver yet, either, and it's not as robust from a design editing and nesting standpoint compared to Flexi. I would expect most of these different cutting programs to have S3 drivers integrated by the end of the year, but it could potentially take longer than that to get them added.

Let me know if you have any other questions or if there is anything else that I can do to help.

Best regards,

Phil Johnson
Airmark Corporation
(800)527-7778, ext. 112
philj@airmark.com

Thanks Phil. I’ll check out those software. We don’t need anything real powerful as far as design goes. We just have cut files every now and then that need a few points deleted or a point moved just a little bit to make weeding better. That was really simple in VinylMaster so it’s something we miss in GoSign. Thanks for helping us get going with this new cutter!

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

Running into similar stuff but using an old original S series. Works great with the exception of some home commands and the like. Email the guys at FutureSoft (VinylMaster's authors) and they tend to get drivers up pretty quickly. Love the cutter, hating the software. Been looking, but is there an command list for the cutter? Does it just use standard HPGL?

 

[FrankW]

Summa

Running into similar stuff but using an old original S series. Works great with the exception of some home commands and the like. Email the guys at FutureSoft (VinylMaster's authors) and they tend to get drivers up pretty quickly. Love the cutter, hating the software. Been looking, but is there an command list for the cutter? Does it just use standard HPGL?

Summa is able to use HP/GL and HP/GL2, but the native language is DM/PL.

 

[Smoke_Jaguar]

Yeah, been looking at the data stream from the serial/usb converter. Just don't have a code list for things like triggering flexcut, sheetcut and tangential specific commands. Can't find a lookup anywhere.