Well, well, what's going on here then, pffft.

[Bellicose]

Hi all, newbie from New Zealand here (yep, have posted in the intro' section) and have a couple questions.

First tho, I'm a car painter of 32 years, last five dabbling with the airbrush but decided to step up abit and buy a plotter / cutter.

BUT i'm having some issues. (Have spent last 2 days researching issue but no luck)

I bought a Refine MH721 (also known as uscutter MH721 & ROHS MH721)

It came with artcut 2009.

I'm using Inkscape to design and saving as *eps and using artcut as a 'bridge' to the plotter.

BUT, here's my problem, artcut opens the *eps and it shows up like this (first pic' is in Inkscape & vectorized, 2nd is how artcut opens it.

Any help will be very much appreciated

John.

 

[player]

Are you exporting and importing?

Are there any choices for eps export and import?

You could also try DXF.

 

[Bly]

I think there was a free version of Illustrator CS2 around the place somewhere.
The problem could very well be Inkscape.

 

[Bellicose]

Are you exporting and importing?

Are there any choices for eps export and import?

You could also try DXF.

In Inkscape i "save as" then in artcut i "import".

Can get from Inkscape to artcut as dxf but once there it's WAAAAY to big and is un-editable for some reason.

Pic' in artcut as dxf.

 

[Bellicose]

I think there was a free version of Illustrator CS2 around the place somewhere.
The problem could very well be Inkscape.

Was wondering if the 'problem' is Inkscape.

May download the trial version of Corel draw X7 and see if that sorts it.

Although it may take me 29 days to figure out how to use Corel then i'm left with one day of the trial left haha.

 

[player]

Try exporting (or saving) the eps, then opening or importing back into Inkscape and see if it works.

 

[Bellicose]

Try exporting (or saving) the eps, then opening or importing back into Inkscape and see if it works.

HMMMMM........................Inkscape will save it as an *eps but won't open it as an *eps.

 

[knucklehead]

From my limited Inkscape experience, I don't think inkscape will 'open' an EPS file. Try saving the inkscape file as eps, then import the eps file into artcut. Might work?

 

[Jburns]

This may sounds strange, but has worked for me and inkscape.
1. Select your image ( has to be traced object) . 2. Control C to copy. 3. Open your other program. 4. Control V to paste.

You may have to move or re-color your image. But this has worked with inkscape and other simple vector programs- Also be sure you are copying the appropriate layer or .eps image.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

The one thing that you have to be aware of with Inkscape is that even if you save as an EPS, it does do a bitmap clipping mask as well, which defeats the purpose of plotter use. In order to get rid of that clipping mask and have it usable is to open it up in Ai (or DRAW) and remove it and you are off to the races. I do not seem to recall a fix in the beta version of .9 either, but it's been awhile since I've played with that.

Now, I know I can cut from an SVG file (which is Inkscapes native file), can your plotter cut with that file format? That would perhaps be the best way (in my mind) to do this.

 

[Bellicose]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Have found a solution.

It appears 'artcut' (cutting software) only likes to open things in *PLT or *AI.

Inkscape won't let me save as *PLT

SOOOOOOOOOOOOO...................I found a "Home & student" version of CorelDRAW X7 which will do everything i need ($149nzd as opposed to $1100nzd for full pro version)

I downloaded the trial and played for awhile, saved things in *PLT and artcut recognized it straight away and so i'm off and cutting.

Thanks again and i'm sure i'll have more questions soon enough.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Have found a solution.

It appears 'artcut' (cutting software) only likes to open things in *PLT or *AI.

Inkscape won't let me save as *PLT

SOOOOOOOOOOOOO...................I found a "Home & student" version of CorelDRAW X7 which will do everything i need ($149nzd as opposed to $1100nzd for full pro version)

I downloaded the trial and played for awhile, saved things in *PLT and artcut recognized it straight away and so i'm off and cutting.

Thanks again and i'm sure i'll have more questions soon enough.

Inkscape does save as Ai though. I don't think that has the same issue with EPS, but I haven't played around with that format through Inkscape though.