1. What do the numbers on the Blade force stand for, are they Gram weight of the blade or are the just settings for whatever weight graphtec factory set.
They're not grams like the Summa - they're more like "units of measurement". Just get used to using whichever setting is best for you.
Once the new blade has bed in you should be using around 18 for most vinyl and say 24 for laminated prints.
2 Is the quality setting the same as smoothing or is something else
I just use the default setting - works fine. Not sure why they even have it as an option.
3. Is anyone else running their GT on Signlab 7 with a Mutoh Printer and cutting from Print and Cut manager. And if you are how are you keeping your alignment points correct as it seems almost impossible for me to a print from the far right and keep the image on the mutoh so I have to do a center print then that throughs off the alignment points on the graphtec. (Hope this make sense.)
I Print & Cut from Signlab7.1 using my Roland printer and the FC7000-75.
Cadlink have recently updated the Graphtec driver so you can now use the cutter in GPGL mode instead of HPGL. The advantage is it now reads 4 reg marks instead of 3 and it scans them much faster. The ARMS sensor moves quickly to each reg mark.
It also supports segmented reg marks (multiple concurrent marks)
Be aware that the scaling is different with the GPGL driver - you need to go into the Graphtec menu and alter the scaling to 25% or else everything gets cut 4 times bigger!
The trick with the reg marks that Signlab generates is to be aware that you can move the image up on the Y axis (for a landscape print) and the reg marks will follow - BUT - you can't enter an X offset because the reg marks will stay at zero.
And it's vice-versa if your printing in portrait.
It's hard to explain - you'll have to try it and see. Draw a rectangle and put a contour line around it, then go into P&C preview and observe the reg marks. enter a Y offset and observe how they move with it. Then try an X offset and observe how they become seperated from the image!
This causes havoc when the cutter reads the reg marks and then stretches the co-ordinates of the contour to fit the marks.
It had me stumped for ages.
As you know, the cutter needs some margin for the rollers and then some for the Arms sensor to find the reg marks (about 3/4 inch in from the rollers).
When you print you need to enter say an inch offset to accomodate the necessary margin.
So if you're printing in landscape, enter Y offset to move it up from the bottom edge but don't enter an X offset! Signlab automatically generates a couple of extra lines which are printed to allow for the margin needed at the lead in and end of the print.
Happy days.
