I have a large one color graphic that is 12'X16', long. I have a Roland CX 24, Sign Tools 3 Plug In and Corel 11.
I was wanting to cut 16' long strips with 1/4" or so over lap but can't get my cutter to cut over 126" Sent support emails to Roland but haven't heard back.
I also tried using the paneling option in Sign Tools 3 but it wont panel anything that's been converted to curves, only shapes and fonts.
Anybody know if this can be done with my equip. or know a trick I can use to make it work or know of source I could have this graphic cut.
Thanks Dave
Posted by KARYN BUSH (Member # 1948) on :
ooops sorry i read it wrong...thought you were wanting to cut 1/4" strips 16 ft long...nevermind. don't know enough about cutting with corel.
[ December 14, 2004, 05:47 PM: Message edited by: KARYN BUSH ]
Posted by Dave Grundy (Member # 103) on :
Dave..I have a CM 24 and cut directly from Corel. I have never cut anything that was 16' long but have regularly cut more than 10' 6".
The max length of cut for my CM is 984" should be the same for your CX???
NOW...tracking might be a problem though at 82'!!!
Have you tried it cutting directly from Corel yet?
Posted by TransLab (Member # 470) on :
As far as I know the limit for cutting from Corel to that plotter is about 10'. The revised driver from graphtec allows me to go to 50', however I'm not sure that any friction fed plotter could track that long accurately and I'm not sure what the maximum length is that the roland will cut accurately. Grundy should know ... Posted by Dave Grundy (Member # 103) on :
16' would be REALLY pushing it I believe. You'd have to set up the file to cut in an "energy saving" manner to limit the amount of back and forth wasted movement.
I don't know if there is a 10' limit on the CX 24, but it would seem odd if there was, since my CM 24 has an 82' limit and it is an older model.
One thing I have started doing when cutting long runs is to only cut one object at a time. I then reset the cutter and cut the next object. Less chance of drift that way.
Of course I am a one man shop with 24 hrs. per day to sit and watch Mr. Roland work his heart out!!!!!! No real need for power cutting here.
Posted by Laura Butler (Member # 1830) on :
I've done 16' many times with my PC-60 but you have to select the lowest resolution. I think its 120 or 150 dpi. The longest that I can cut is 17.3'. I do this right out of Corel 9.
Posted by Kissymatina (Member # 2028) on :
I've gone 17.5 feet with the CX-24, straight out of corel. (no signtools)
Select items to be cut. Click Print, select CX-24 as printer, print selection. Then hit "Properties" You'll get a 1-tab "layout" menu. Click "Advanced" Go down to "Media Size Settings", hit "Properties"
It'll give you a list of media sizes. I just added one, told it 23 wide and 984 long, the maximum. (make sure you click on inch)
Keep clicking ok til you get back to your print setup screen. Click preview and make sure it's starting the cut at the bottom of the screen. If it doesn't all appear in your preview, go back to make sure you selected the new media size you set-up.
Edit: Alright I just saw that's 12 feet, not 12 inches wide so you'll have to panel. I rarely panel anything, not enough to have a good method for that. But maybe the directions I gave above will help with signtools???
[ December 14, 2004, 07:49 PM: Message edited by: Kissymatina ]
Posted by TransLab (Member # 470) on :
If you can get the length, the paneling is easy from corel, you can even specify the overlap. From the print dialog window (after you've set media/page size) select the layout tab,then'print tiled pages. Goto print preview to see whats happening...to print the sections one by one, right click on the section that you want to print, then select 'print this sheet now'
[ December 14, 2004, 08:18 PM: Message edited by: TransLab ]
Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
ive cut 15-16 feet......right from corel PNC-1100
Posted by Dave Levesque (Member # 4374) on :
Alright I've done some experimenting, and I have been able to enlarge the cutting area to the maximum and I have also figured out how to do the tiling. At least set it all up. I do have a couple more questions.
When setting up the page size do I set it up as the max or should I set up at what the exact cuttable area will be on the plotter.
Also Mike is their a way to set the tiles at custom settings or do you just have to use the default that corel is using. I will keep looking and try to figure it out but if some one knows how please let me know.
Great info, Thanks a million.
Posted by Dave Levesque (Member # 4374) on :
OK, I figured it out I think.
When I set the media size use the exact size of the tiles I am going to print, then do as mike says and use the tiling option. I will do some test pieces tommorow.
Corel Rules.
Posted by TransLab (Member # 470) on :
The tile width and length is set by the page size that you set in the print driver, the overlap is user defined. When in print preview you can manually drag and drop the graphic to better position it.
Posted by Dave Levesque (Member # 4374) on :
Mike all is great as far as laying it out but when I right click selection and click on print selected tile. Either nothing happens or it just cuts a small part of the graphic.
Is there a setting inside the plotter I need to change, been working with it for hours and haven't find any solutions on my own.
So far what I have done is set the width in the print driver the same as the actual width on my plotter and then for the lenght I use 8' lengths.
I then go to the layout and tile the pages, and it looks perfect on the screen but then when I try to cut I am having problems...
So close and yet so far.
Posted by Dave Grundy (Member # 103) on :
Dave..I have never had any luck using the "tile" feature for cutting. I prefer to set up the tiles in Corel and cut each one separately.
When I say "tiles" I mean the tiles that will be laid over each other vertically. (horizontal overlaps)
"Panelling" (vertical overlaps in the length) shouldn't be necessary if you set up the max length of cut to whatever you need.
Boy, it is tough describing what I mean sometimes!!!!! Posted by Curtis hammond (Member # 2170) on :
or, you could buy cocut,, and never have to worry about all the tiling and other combooboolations to get it right. Lets see here,, You spent about 5 or 6 hours gettin and still have a problem. I did this very thing once,,, hunted around trying to get something to cut,, Once!
If yer worth $100 bux an hours thats $600 bux,, Less than the price of cocut pro 12..
[ December 15, 2004, 10:34 PM: Message edited by: Curtis hammond ]
Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
mike you set the page length and higth in the roland driver, i always set mine to 5-10 inches over the iten iam cutting. most of my cutting is done from 20" or 24" vinyl. i have 2 settings in the roland driver page. one is plotter 19x72 the other is 24x72. these are 2 setting i use the most. if i need to go longer then 72" i reset the lenght to accomadate what i need to cut in lenght. corel will layout out up to 150 FEET X 150 FEET. so you can set you plotter lenght anywhere between roland default of 62.99 and up to 150 feet if you want to. once you set this page its set....all you do is select when that page to cut from..no huntin and no more effort then selecting a printer.... i been cuttin from corel VER 3 an its never failed me...except when i loaded corel 5!!! and it screwed everything up...
Posted by Dave Levesque (Member # 4374) on :
Dave I understand what you meant, sometimes what I mean and say are not exactly the same. Curtis your idea about Cocut got me thinking, I already bought the Sign Tools 3 and its supposed to do this out of Corel. So I emailed the Sign Tools Guys.
Well I never got a reply from the Sign Tools 3 guys,there was a new update on the site.
Downloaded the update, select my graphic and hit the panel button. And its done.
I still would like to figure out how to cut direct from Corel with the tiles, I will keep trying when I get some free time. Thanks for all the help.
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