Activity Feed Forums Vinyl Cutter Discussions General Cutter topics My review of moving from a Graphtec to a Summa vinyl cutter.

  • My review of moving from a Graphtec to a Summa vinyl cutter.

    Posted by Martyn Heath on March 2, 2021 at 8:04 am

    Hi folks, I recently upgraded from Graphtec CE6000 to Summa D120 and thought this review might help someone making the Graphtec to summa switch.

    I would compare these both at the same entry-level with matching features.

    Build quality -they are equal.

    User friendly- generally summa wins but switching between profiles/users is quicker on the graphtec

    Cutting vinyl- they are equal

    Cutting prints/opos- summa is easier to register marks and slightly more accurate (not much in it)

    Software- this is where the Graphtec blows summa out of the water. Cutting Master 3 is far superior with features, speed/ease of use. Summa runs with winplot which gets there in the end but there are many more obstacles and steps to take to get to the same destination as cutting master. For example, documents need to be saved, colours need to be sent individually and artwork needs to be set within artboard.

    So all in all there’s not much between them but for me running with winplot is a headache. There are other software’s available such as Flexi etc which would need to be purchased separately.

    Because of the winplot software, I’m keeping the Graphtec for my everyday 610mm vinyl work. Summa is being used for all digital contour cutting and 1220 vinyl work

    • This discussion was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by  RobertLambie.
    David Rogers replied 3 years, 1 month ago 4 Members · 5 Replies
  • 5 Replies
  • Jamie Wood

    Member
    March 2, 2021 at 8:53 am

    When we were looking to buy a new plotter, we ended up going with Graphtec due to the software issue. There’s no excuse for Summa not to have Illustrator plug-ins these days, or software for Macs.

    • Martyn Heath

      Member
      March 3, 2021 at 5:36 am

      Hi jamie, winplot does run with illustrator plugin but it still seems like hard work compared to cutting master

      • Jamie Wood

        Member
        March 3, 2021 at 12:55 pm

        Only thing is, we use Macs for production at work, so Winplot isn’t an option for us.

  • Kevin Mahoney

    Member
    March 2, 2021 at 11:31 am

    I haven’t found Winplot too much of a shock to be fair, I guess it depends what you’re used to. I send the whole cut file through separated into blocks of the different colours required, select & rescale each block in Winplot & cut the job out without any more faff than my previous programme (cutline, a belgian programme that nobody’s ever heard of) I don’t have to save separate files for different colours. My only issue is the lack of an up to date illustrator plugin. Never had a graphtec, just a Roland camm 1 in the early days, then the Summas. Love the Summas.

  • David Rogers

    Member
    March 5, 2021 at 1:07 am

    Used both but bought a Summa when I have the choice. Summa Sign D1400 pro…was 10yr old when I bought it, done another 11 years so far and just serviced it with a full set of motor drive belts. By no means ‘plug and play’ but damn…what a trooper.

Log in to reply.