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So Im cutting 2,6" stripes, outlined ith some graphics cut into the stripe (reflective vinyl for an ambulance).............. So alls going nice-nice and all the sudden,BAM........... the cutter starts butchering the stripe with some nice diaganal cuts right through the whole striped..... Well now its ruined...... all that vinyl..... SHOT......... I didnt put in these lines... dont know where they came from....
I use ANAGRAPH design Art pro with an IOLINE CLASSIC plotter........ is it a bad file........ bad art program (that would be my bet)... I just dont know and I am afraid to re cut it again and waste more $ on reflective vinyl..........
Has anybody ever had a similar problem ?......... Thanks in advance....
-------------------- Rich Parthemore Buchanan NY rparth139@aol.com Posts: 107 | From: Buchanan, NY USA | Registered: Nov 2000
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Oh, and one more thging that makes me nuts now that I am venting.. The plotter never cuts in any kind of order......... just goes all over the dam place cutting a lil here a lil there...... It has a mind of its own !
-------------------- Rich Parthemore Buchanan NY rparth139@aol.com Posts: 107 | From: Buchanan, NY USA | Registered: Nov 2000
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It might be a loose connection... Have you recently moved any of the equipment? First I would check both ends of all cable connections to make sure none of them are partially loose.
If you have your plotter connected to an added-on circuit board (I/O card) which is installed in your computer, make sure that it is fully inserted into the slot on the motherboard.
Another commonly overlooked source of problems is processor chip over heating. When was the last time you blew out all the dust in your computer? If it was long ago, or never, shut down and unplug the computer. Remove the cover. With shop compressed air or those canned compressed air cannisters, blow the dust out from the power supply and especially from the mother board. If your processor chip has a fan installed over it, make sure it is clean and working when you turn everything back on.
Dust holds heat and it will sometimes cause the processor chip to overheat. When this happens, all sorts of weird "unexplainable" things take place.
I'm not familiar with your software but many plotting softwares have the ability to "sort" the output, and reduce the excess travel of the plotter. In SignLab, for example, you can sort the plot horizontally, vertically, by database order, closest, etc. This may be in your design software or in the plotter driver or plotter set-up, or you just may not have the option.
Without sorting, sometimes the plotter just cuts in the order that everything was created.
If it's not an electrical issue, it may be invisible drawing elements creating havoc with the plotter. This is not as crazy as it sounds...
If your software has the feature of telling you how many objects are in your drawing, you could "select all", and take note of how many objects it says you have. Then unselect everything. Now select all the objects that should be there, by clicking on them one by one. Most programs allow you to hold down the shift key while clicking objects, in order to add more objects to your selected group of objects.
(Apologies if this is all too obvious - I don't know your familiarity with computers and software)
After you have shift-clicked on all your items in the drawing, if the number of objects reported is now less than the number of objects reported when you did a "select all", then you probably have some invisible elements. If the plotter is cutting everything in your drawing, this may be the reason for the plotter cutting where you don't expect it to.
Hope you get it figured out - it sux to ruin expensive vinyl and waste time... Maybe try pen plotting on paper until it gets fixed.
-------------------- EmpY Mayo Pardo #138 South Elgin, IL. Posts: 436 | From: South Elgin, IL | Registered: Nov 1998
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Try viewing your image in wireframe mode (no fills) Sometimes the export of a file puts lines in there, especially if there was a gradient fill (it seems .ai files do this the most) If so....just weld the pieces back together.
Just a thought.
-------------------- Ace Graphics & Printing Camdenton, MO. USA
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I use Ana graph Design art pro and have never seen this problem..
If u look close there may be an extra node around making a stray line. All you have to do is delete it.
I've used design art for a few years.
-------------------- Leaper of Tall buildings.. If you find my posts divisive or otherwise snarky please ignore them. If you do not know how then PM me about it and I will demonstrate. Posts: 5274 | From: Im a nowhere man | Registered: Jul 2001
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you're not alone my friend, that's called "plotter f&*k, and when it happens on the router... we(me, myself and i) call it f&*kin' router f&*k(ya know cause it's wastes more $$$)...doesn't it just make ya mad...do a little digital print and finally you're making good $$ on one job that day and bamm the knife on the plotter forgets it needs to lift up before it screaches 18" down the vinyl..buh bye $13.67...and now we get to start all over...oh happy day(& my pizza's burning..dammit)are we havin' fun yet?? lol!!
but i love what i do for a living!!!....laughter
-------------------- Karyn Bush Simply Not Ordinary, LLC Bartlett, NH 603-383-9955 www.snosigns.com info@snosigns.com Posts: 3516 | From: Bartlett, NH USA | Registered: Jan 2001
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not alone by a long shot. I can't count how mant time things like that happen on my plotter over the years. Often if I have had everything running for a long time I will get a glitch. I shut down everything & am back to getting better results. Of course if you DO have a ghost then, there you go, but if nothing shows up to explain it, just re-boot, cross your fingers & try again with one finger on the pause button.
Sometimes if I have reason to fear a glitch, or other potential trouble like barely enough vinyl etc. I will run the file without a blade in the plotter just to inspect things.
I didn't understand the part about a graphic in the strip, but on straight stripes, don't forget the old fashioned (safe) way of cutting with a straight edge either. Time is money, but so is damaged reflective vinyl, so if I have just enough to finish a job, & my equipment is acting up, sometimes I just don't risk using the equipment if it can be done without it.
Have a great weekend, (if you get one this week, I know I don't )
posted
i agree with tony mc donald on this one.ghost lines from imported ai files will do this in omega. lots of generic graphic stripes will do this.that is why your getting too many selected items to be cut.go in and select each item you want cut ,group them and copy and paste in a new file.this always works for me.good luck
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Dear Rich, I had a Camm-1 double-cut a 2 inch star in the middle of some prismatic letters yesterday, and it also shifted the outline 1 inch off on two middle letters. This started off as a new blank file. Three goes at trying gave variations on the wasted vinyl theme and so I started again- new document,and all went well.] On odd occasions similar 'unscheduled structural coefficients' creep in when you do a lot of moving, reflecting and distorting of text, before cutting it. Sometimes, grouping, then copying the text (or a cut & paste) shifts it to another part of your screen without leaving invisible stray nodes, and you can cut safely from this version of the text. Do you use a switch printer/plotter box. Sometimes I'm told, heat from poor solder inside them can cause electrodes to expand and odd minute connections touch and foul up the signals to the plotter. Clean out the dust as Empy says. Why do they start all over the place? often, they cut the centres of letters first, then the outsides, in the order you typed them, and sometimes in the order you grouped them. As others have said, sometimes on basic jobs, handcutting is more efficient, especially with some basic masks, and this works well if you have a file that has too many jagged edges- just print it as an outline, then tape the paper on top of your vinyl or masking vinyl, and hand cut through both, averaging the bumps as you see fit. Best wishes, Ian S-K
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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I'm a DesignArt Pro user also. A lot of good comments above. I've seen this happen more with imported ai's than anything. When this happens to me, I take the knife holder off of the plotter and watch it plot till I'm sure it has finished with no glitches. Then I put the knife back in, load the material and use the repeat feature to cut the job.
I'm using an Ana AE-120 plotter. I don't know if your plotter has this feature but it may be worth looking into.
For your random cutting, try sequencing the job and when you go to plot, make sure you select Sequencing Plot.
One other thing that sometimes works when DesignArt decides to go wacky on a job is to save the job as a graphic and reopen it before cutting.
-------------------- Dave Johnson Saltsburg, PA
724-459-7240 Posts: 228 | From: Saltsburg, PA | Registered: Dec 2001
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