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vinyl cutter/software brands

tverdin

New Member
I am trying to figure out what brand vinyl cutter and software to get. We have outsourced our vinyl needs for years and I think its time we bring it in house and do it. We have CNC router so we are familiar with this type of work already. we would be looking at a 48-54" machine. we will be cutting high performance vinyl for basically laying on acrylic signs.

what brands do you guys recommend as far as the cutter itself and then what software do you recommend? I dont want to say that price doesnt matter but at the same time I dont want to go cheap and have to replace it or upgrade in a year or two. thoughts????

thanks in advance
 

Bill Modzel

New Member
Graphtec provides a Cutting Master plug-in for cutting directly out of Illustrator, both general vinyl and also contour cutting your printed decals.
 

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
We use Roland and you can cut directly out of Ai or Corel, but they also have plugins as well for those programs to make sure sep marks are located correctly for print/cut.

As far as software, I've used three, one of which I cannot imagine you needed for anything else and it isn't worth it to get it just for cutting. The other two are Illustrator and Corel.
 

tverdin

New Member
So i wouldnt need to buy flexisign or anything with a graphtec? I use CS6 already so my graphtec is the way to go????
 

rcook99

New Member
So i wouldnt need to buy flexisign or anything with a graphtec? I use CS6 already so my graphtec is the way to go????

As already said in other posts no you won't need to buy Flexi but I will say I started with corel and it worked fine until I jumped in to Signlab. Some of the features found in SL are nice when cutting multi color jobs or lettering as it has power weed which makes it nice for menu boards. You can also cut by color without having to resend the information but if money is an issue there are some work arounds you can do in the other software. I have no need to worry about the weeding as much with the new to me Mutoh VJ1204.

Summa or Graphtec you can't go wrong. I have both but the Summa is an older T750 and the Graphtec is an FC7000. See who in your area can service one or both machines as this will make a difference when and if you need service. Good luck!
 

tverdin

New Member
wow, I hadnt thought about service at all. That is a very good point to bring up. I looked up Graphtec and their nearest is 250 miles. Im sure there is some sort of service companies out there that offer service to all/most brands but I havent found them yet.

thanks everyone for their input. anything helps, you all know this stuff better than me.
 

Kottwitz-Graphics

New Member
I am trying to figure out what brand vinyl cutter and software to get. We have outsourced our vinyl needs for years and I think its time we bring it in house and do it. We have CNC router so we are familiar with this type of work already. we would be looking at a 48-54" machine. we will be cutting high performance vinyl for basically laying on acrylic signs.

what brands do you guys recommend as far as the cutter itself and then what software do you recommend? I dont want to say that price doesnt matter but at the same time I dont want to go cheap and have to replace it or upgrade in a year or two. thoughts????

thanks in advance

Ok, if your outsourcing your vinyl, how do you design it? I would assume you have to design it to send to your vinyl guy. And you have to design on something to send to your CNC...

So what programs do you have now?
 
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