Contour cut without printer loaded?

signette · Joined: 09 Aug 2005 Posts: 5

a) I designed the graphics in signlab 7.1, with the contour cut lines and registration marks.

b) Printed them in Mimaki JV3, it's in another room and not networked with the cutter computer

c) Brought the print back to the plotter, it's a Vinyl Express Q100, with ARMS, but from there I haven't managed to make it read the registration marks and cut the contours. The print & cut will not apparently work without having the printer connected/loaded?? Exclamation

Please advise, I have now a bunch of decals and no way to cut them.

Thanks!

frankd · CADlink Employee Joined: 09 Aug 2005 Posts: 1145

Are you using our VPM to Print and Cut.
There is no need in our VPM for the printer to be connected to get the cutter to work.
I suspect you are not using our PrintNCut VPM.

You say you designed in Signlab, but how did you print the job.
Did you go File/ PrintNCut in our program?

Once the job is in our VPM from PrintNCut, you can print with the cutter On or Off, and then later Cut, with printer either on or off.

One other thing, i beleive the Vinyl Express Q series plotters are really graphtec plotters in disguise. You need to make sure that the plotter and Signlab are set for the same type of Registration mark.
The plotter can do what it calls TYPE 1 and TYPE 2.
If the plotter is set for say Type 2 while Signlab is set for Type 1, it will fail to find the reg marks.
Do you know how to tell what the plotter and SignLab are set for?

signette · Joined: 09 Aug 2005 Posts: 5

Thanks for your time, Frank.

I'm using 7.1, not sure if VPM is part of it or not.
Could not Print & Cut, when I go to Print & Cut, it tells me:
\"no printer is configured to print with this installation of SL print and cut\" -
(I already talked with my computer guy who will make it possible for the printer to talk with this pc from the other far away room).

I did not use Print & Cut to print, I exported it into pdf (with all the registration marks, outline, etc.) & printed it with the printer's RIP

Vinyl Express are indeed Graphtec, I am using what SL calls \"corner\" (Type 1) multi-registration marks, which are supposed to be detected by the plotter. Really don't know if that what the plotter is configured for, don't know where to find that. In Plot/Tools, it shows Setting 1, Setting 2, Registration Mark Tool (??) & Setting 4.

Thanks

frankd · CADlink Employee Joined: 09 Aug 2005 Posts: 1145

Can you click on PrintNCut Setup and add a Queue with a mimaki printer.
I know we now have a mimaki jv3 printer driver but dont know if Signlab 71 has it.

With Signlab PrintNCut , you configure Signlab for the mimaki in printnCut setup. You configure it for the Graphtec as your cutter. You set the regmark type you want.

Draw your graphic.
Go File/PrintNcut, The job appears with the regmarks. The job get sent to our VPM (visual print manager). In VPM , you can print it, and then cut it with the regmarks.

signette · Joined: 09 Aug 2005 Posts: 5

I was able to install the Mimaki, so now it allows me to go to VPM.

Still, no luck contour cutting, the plotter is not reading the registration marks (type 1), and so will just go and cut like a regular cut job, and mess up my nice decals. I have no idea what else to do.

Anyone with a Graphtec/Vinyl Express that is doing contour cuts, anywhere close to NE Oklahoma? I guess sometimes you have to see how something is done to figure it out.

Thanks for reading!

frankd · CADlink Employee Joined: 09 Aug 2005 Posts: 1145

Which cutter driver are you using, the HPGL one or the GPGL one
The HPGL driver has 4 tools.
The 3rd tool is the Registration mark tool.
So when you go File/PrintNcut, a toolbar appears that shows the current driver and the current tool. Is the current tool \\\"Reg Mark Tool\\\" or is it
\\\"Setting 1\\\" or \\\"Setting 2\\\"

Does it try to look for the regmarks, or does it just start cutting.
It has to work, Im buried in graphtecs here and they are used constantly for testing.

signette · Joined: 09 Aug 2005 Posts: 5

Thanks, Frank,

I use the HPGL driver; and I did use the Registration Mark tool to try to do the contour cut. I tried this several times and nothing, I even lightly sanded the marks a little after a while, in case they were too shiny from the registration.

It asked to place the cutter on the first mark, which I did (placed it in the middle of the corner mark), and then it just went on to cut like normal without reading that mark or any other.

signette · Joined: 09 Aug 2005 Posts: 5

Any new tips? I'm still stuck without being able to contour cut.
Thanks for reading.

frankd · CADlink Employee Joined: 09 Aug 2005 Posts: 1145

Go to File/PrintNCut Setup/Cutter.
Under \"Printer cutter Alignment\", is it set to Type 1?

In the middle of this dialog, there is control called \"Tool\"
Is it set for \"Reg Mark Tool\" ?

Click the Setup button thats just to the right of the Plotter Name.
Plotter Setup should appear.
Click the Port Tab
Make a note of what your current Port location is.
Change your Port location to \"FILE\"

Draw a rectangle. Make it a contour cut object.
Go PrintNCut.
Do you see the rectangle with 4 registration marks around it?
Click on the Scissors tool, 3rd from the right.
The job will get sent to PrintNCut Manager.
A Save As dialog should suddenly appear.
Save it in a EASY place to find.
I suggest C:\\TEMP and call the file something like TEST.TXT
Make sure the extension is \".TXT\"
Once finished, start Notepad, or Wordpad or any Wordprocessor.
Find and Open C:\\temp\\test.txt
The first line should read something like
TB99,TB57,1,1,TB50,0,TB51,508,TB52,1,TB53,20,TB54,0,0,TB55,1,TB24,5122,6981,TB99,;PA;

Do you have something similar?
These are the commands to tell the cutter to look for regmarks
TB52,1 means look for Type 1 regmarks.
TB24,5122,6981 means look for 4 regmarks and tell the cutter where to look for them

If you have lines similar to the above, the problem seems to be on the cutter.
Its possible that reg marks are disabled on the cutter.