Can anyone help please with complicated layout?

[Martin Pearson]

Might help if you went and introduced yourself in the hello forum, you tend to find you get more answers to questions that way.

What version of flexi are you running?

[Gareth.Lewis]

The company that sold you Flexisign will help.

[Jayne Marsh]

Perhaps this a job that should be printed instead of vinyl cut. The other option is to simplify the artwork so that there are fewer colours. I have done this sort of job a number of times and there comes a point when it is more suitable for printing

[sue rowe]

Martin, my version is 7.5. And Jayne, I want to actually use the cut out sheets of vinyl as stencils that’s why it is important that all the colours are cut through.

[Jon Marshall]

It still sounds like an image that is going to be tricky to get into a cuttable form purely using the trace option.

[Peter Normington]

Sue
without seeing the image its difficult to advise,

welcome to the boards though, enjoy your stay,

Peter

[Martin Pearson]

If you are running 7.5 you have obviously had it a while so should really be up to speed with things like vectorising. Have you worked your way through the tutorials for it?
You really should introduce yourself and tell us all a bit about yourself because you will find you get far more help. Most people don’t mind helping if they can but I just see it as being polite and friendly.

I’m not actually sure I understand your first post to be honest, what do you mean when you say certain colours are obliterated? How many colours does the image have to start with and are their any fades/gradiants in it?

[graham stewart]

Martin give the lady a break,you’ve told her to go to the hello form you don’t need to tell her twice.
If its so darn important it should be in the rules,, Some times when you come across new things you don’t know what the go is, And yes people can get a LOT of HELP here ,and there is a lot of nice people as well, but if that’s the most we have to worry about ,life’s good….

Happy Days
Graham

[Cabrera]

HI Sue, for I ‘m Understanding you are using " color trace" if is so I believe you are trying to vectorized by color which is right. but some time when you do that you still have to go back and clean out the color trace due to leaf behind a lot path unclosed also clean out the extra knots or point and optimize the curve then close the curves, that is the reason is keeping jumping for different colors and paths , so what you have to do use the color trace and trace the bitmap then get rid of the bitmap and go back and clean each color and close the path so you can minimize the point. after that you can send each color to the plotter

I hope this help Cheers!
Sal Cabrera

[sue rowe]

Thank you for all your interest in my problem. I have said ‘hello’ and told you a bit about myself being an artist and how I am trying to use Flexi in my artwork – of course now I will have to kill you all!!! I use the cut out sheets of vinyl as stencils and I realise that the programme is not really designed for the way I am using it and it is a lot for it to cope with. (Again not sure if I am allowed to do this on your site but if it would help you to see what I am talking about but this is my website: (mod-edit) please read boards rules I will try to explain again. I open one of my own photographs in the Flex Pro programme, I then use the ‘Colour Trace’ tool and in ‘Design Central’ choose say six colours, I apply, then I delete the bitmap. I am left with a very detailed, six colour, monotone picture. If I marquee select the whole image all the outlines of the six different colours (the cut lines) show ‘live’ but some colours are underneath others. Or if I click on one colour then ‘select by similar colours’, I can see some of the areas of the colour I have selected sitting under another colour. If I then ‘group’ this selected colour it pulls it all onto one level and obliterates some of the other colours. As I said I have tried most of the ‘Combine’ options but there is so much detail in the picture it just crashes.
Sal Cabrera made a point about unclosed paths (thanx Sal) but it is not a case of colours ‘bleeding’ into others it is that they seem to be on different levels. Basically what I need them to do is all cut out as I see them in the picture and not to have ‘hidden’ bits! Sorry to go on.
P.S. I have tried Composer and SignLab and have the same problem.

[Robert Lambie]

i could be wrong here but…

your 6 colours/sections may have too many nodes making up the vector graphics/colour sections. im guessing you are then trying to "weld" the layers so they become one flat image made up of 6 different vector paths so you can send each to your cutter. but here is where the software crashes? if this is the case it maybe… your computer doesnt have the processing power and its locking up… or there are just far to many nodes and the software is locking up….

can you not create this effect using something like photoshop to create a flat bitmap but only showing these 6 colours? then just onscreen digitise them using your node pen tool. sounds long winded but its not… from here flexi, signlab and probably even corel will do it no probs…

(thats IF i have picked you up right?) 😀

p.s. sorry, web links not allowed in posts… a suggestion would be to load some of your pictures in our portfolio section as it has upload facilities there.

[sue rowe]

I have now posted my website on my profile- sorry again – I am new to all this and I am obviously trying to run before I walk! 😳

[sue rowe]

Thanks Robert, You are right I think that there are too many nodes and the software is locking. I have tried putting my photo through Photoshop first to take out much of the detail of the photograph then taking it to Flexi thinking that Flexi would then only trace what it ‘sees’ but the colour layering problem is still there. Tomorrow I will do some more experimenting. 🙁

[Mike Fear]

Sue, I think the problem you are having is the way you are going about it. What you need to be able to do is vectorise the image properly, then split each colour into a cutting file.

I have noticed this before in Adobe ( I believe Flexi uses the Illustrator graphic tools ? ) produced vectors – the vector often looks OK on the screen, and would be OK to print, but a lot of the parts overlap, meaning they arent suitable for cutting.

What I do when I need to make complex cutting files for multicolour designs is to vectorise the image ( in Corel ), tidy it up to reduce the nodes so what I would be left with ( in your case ) is a proper 6 colour version of the vector with no overlaps – if you imagine the image as being like a jigsaw, where all the different coloured parts butt up against each other with no overlapping.

This can then easily be split into its component parts, and a seperate file produced for each colour to be cut.

Doing this you can make complicated full colour cut vinyl graphics, but only end up with one or two layes of vinyl on the finished item rather than having loads of layers on top of each other and a graphic that is an inch thick.

[Gareth.Lewis]

Hi Sue,

My earlier response sounded a bit ‘brisk’ but, seriously, if you ask whoever sold you Flexi you ‘should’ get somebody to run through it with you on the phone ‘live’and maybe solve your problem.

Just a thought, if it is possible (I know lots of people buy these software packages from a friend/an ex employee/an ex signmaker etc but they should be able to tell you where they got it)

Cheers!

Gareth

[David-Foster-]

Hi Sue

I replied before in this thread, but it disappeared. I am using similar techniques to what you describe. I use Corel Draw and a few trace programs. I can talk you through how I do it, see if we are on similar lines?

[alan flynn]

hello sue
the problem i find with color scanning is if you zoom in, say you have red green blue, with tiff and jpegs there are usually loads of color if you zoom in, try using your node tool if the logo is not to complex,
or a short term fix is try the web draw uk will vectorize it for you at a good price, if they are still charging what they used to,
by the way welcome, nice speaking or even typing to you,
regards
alan flynn

[sue rowe]

Hi, Folks, Thank you Mike Fear for your thoughts on this – I had not thought to use Adobe Illustrator on the photos before taking it over to the cutting programme! It has now solved my problem of ‘overlap’ and it was under my nose all the time! Simple when you know how! Thank you everyone for your input. Sue

[Mike Fear]

Glad you got it sorted out in the end – learning how to properly vectorise is probably the most useful tool you can have as a signmaker or graphic designer – without it you are stuffed trying to do custom work, and can only produce simple text or logo from the standard clipart CD-Roms etc…

You can email me a pint for the consulation fee 😀