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I received a nice big Graphtec cutter recently, but I hadn't had the chance to plug it in or configure it yet, I was just putting that off 'til the weekend. Well, someone must have told my trusty Roland (we've been together since 1994 without a hitch) that I was planning to elope with another cutter, because she up and died on me, yesterday afternoon, ...communication error it said..., I couldn't get a peep out of her. -- I spent a long night trying to resuscitate the old girl, but to no avail; I poked and prodded, and changed cables, ports, settings, and finally computers, but she is truly dead at this point in time (sniff...). I'll keep her in stasis, who knows, maybe an i/o card transplant will bring her back to life someday. So with three people standing around with nothing to do, and with tears in my eyes I had no choice but to Tackle the Graphtec.. I had bought it without cutting software, I wanted to see if Signmate would run it, plus there are a couple of corel plug ins I wanted to look at , and I'm also waiting for a demo from Shaun, (guess USPS is slow to Canada too!), - besides I had a working cutter, I wasn't in a hurry.. - 'til today. I plugged it in, fired it up and ... Signmate Lite (ver 2.5.8, circa 1993, build for windows 3.1), didn't want to look at it 'cause it wasn't a Roland (loyal little program that it is.. ); SignLab 5.0 said .. "not without a fight", and I'd had such a bugger of a time configuring it to run the engraver properly that I just didn't want to go there. That left me with plotting directly to it from Corel.. Grundy & Old Paint do it, so it Must Work I figured, .... I loaded the driver like any other printer, and away it went... like a charm ... with a little bit of tinkering to see how it registered to an image (print & cut job), I sent some sheets of printed decals through it, then some long big vinyl pieces for a couple of 12' billboards. .. Slick .. .. man that cutter flies. It made up in speed for the lost morning easily. I'm still going to get some cutting software for it, I like tools like autopanelling colors, speedweed, and tiling that Corel doesn't do very well by itself.. but it's nice to know I can operate very well without proprietary software, and I have the time to pick and choose what I want, rather than be sold a package only because 'that's the way it's sold'.
Great machine Howard.. truly was a painless install.
-------------------- Mike O'Neill
It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value. - Arthur C. Clarke
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Mike...Glad to hear that you were able to be up and running so fast. A side benefit is..you now know that no matter whether a dongle/security key goes bad you can always be productive with Corel!!
Gawd I love it!!!!!!
-------------------- Dave Grundy retired in Chelem,Yucatan,Mexico/Hensall,Ontario,Canada 1-519-262-3651 Canada 011-52-1-999-102-2923 Mexico cell 1-226-785-8957 Canada/Mexico home
I too was a "dongle guy", and then I lurked and read about Corel. Thanks to Dave an' Old Paint and Don, I switched to Corel and a Roland.
I was going to buy a Graphtec (SP) and Flexi-sign for about $7,000.00 (CDN). I researched past threads through "search" and because of Dave, Ol' Paint and Don, ( miss your point of view ), I bought a Roland and already had Corel and Illustrator, scanner and printer.
To make this simple... My cutter and software cost $3,400.00. I still find Corel "clunky", but can't help but think about saving $3,500.00.
Dave Grundy had me up and running in an hour due to his "how to". He also helped me when my Roland was delivered with the wrong driver.
I owe Grundy and alot of others for changing my point of view!
P.S. I miss a good Gerber system and I miss sproket fed plotters and I miss "1" shot "one shot". Goood to see you back Dave. Mark
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you can say with all earnisty....corel is "clunky" and in the same breath say you miss gerber? i will hand cut befor i ever mess with gerber softwear..drove me crazy the few times ive worked with it......
-------------------- joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-637-1519 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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Mike, you won't be sorry with the Graphtec, they are the Mack trucks of plotters. They even sound tougher than Roland as they run, no tinny noises!!
-------------------- Drane Signs Sunshine Coast Nambour, Qld. dranesigns@bigpond.com Downunder "To err is human, but to really foul things up requires a computer" Posts: 965 | From: Nambour, Qld. Australia | Registered: Nov 1998
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Yeah, she's a little noisy, but my little Roland PNC 1100 has been kickin' butt and takin' names since '92 and I couldn't be happier. Took it to a fellow who works on them in Atlanta over a stupid problem that left me saying 'why didn't I think of that' and he told me to never let it go. Metal parts and built like a tank. I also switched to Corel from a dongle app a couple of years ago and have never looked back. Runs like a top, and this in spite of the two system changes, AND OS change (XP). (First time I've ever seen Roland write another driver since about the time I bought it) I know Graphtec makes a great machine, but I love my Camm1.
-------------------- Ed Harris Designs&Signs Lexington, TN
"Give me chastity and give me continence, but do not give it yet." -- Saint Augustine" Posts: 213 | From: Lexington, TN USA | Registered: Feb 1999
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I use an Anagraph cutter. I really like this one. Extremely quiet. In fact so quiet I use it in my office, answer the phone and listen to the stereo all at the same time. The noise i do hear is just the cooling fan, and sometimes the servo motor when it runs at full speed.
Old paint gave me some great pointers on cutting from corel. Thank you Joe.
-------------------- 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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ed i bought a pnc-1100 off ebay...i bid a $1000 on it some other guy over bid and got it. well the owner emailed said the guy with hi bid backed out...and did i want it i said yes but for my bid price so he sold it to me. i have a pnc-1000 which i bought in 92 for $1600. all i can say is these thing are just as tough as gerbers...and are way more versitile. the big difference in these old PNC model plotters is that....they are now now called ROLAND PRO MODELS such as the cx-300, cx-400. these pnc's were built with ALL timken/federal type bearings at every rotation point(these are the same type bearing that are in the hubs on the wheels of your car)ive had my pnc-1000 open, and cleaned it couple times now. if you can grab a PNC-1050, 950, 960 or the 1100/1100A you wont be disapointed. ive been cutting to mine from 3.11 and corel 3!!!!!!!
-------------------- joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-637-1519 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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Gotta agree with you there Joe.. My 1100a worked great for 8 years and I'm determined to fix it now. The problem with it now isn't mechanical, it's either a firmware glitch, or a board failure, and believe me, I will find and fix it. She was/is a tough old bird... On the other hand I gotta say the Graphtec is a Cadillac by comparison .. cuts at least six times faster, 54" capability, holds 8 rolls of 24" vinyl ready to load, instantly recalls up to 4 presets for different media's or cut types and the optical alignment system is extremely accurate for aligning print & cut work.. It's very solidly built, (mack tough) and the programming/user interphase is a generation or two friendlier and is much richer in features. I't ain't cheap, but I'm convinced I made a good buy.
BTW Shaun> I received demo today, It's not USPS that's slow, Its the Australian postal service that is slack . I'll be looking at the Vinyl Master Pro demo in depth over the weekend. I took a quick peek at it today and what I saw gave me a good first impression, I will undoubtably have questions on Monday.
-------------------- Mike O'Neill
It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value. - Arthur C. Clarke
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