can anyone help with sp300 cutting problem please?

[Kevin Waite]

hi
Roland as far as I can tell do not have a driver for windows vista and do not plan to make one, but again from what I have heard it will work under vista if you print and cut from Versaworks rip that comes with the sp300v. But make sure you update it to the latest version. Versaworks also gives you much more control than printing and cutting from corel draw. If you want to draw a freehand cut path in corel draw I use the freehand tool for straight lines and the 3 point curve tool for the curved sections, with a little practice it is a fairly quick way to generate a cut line on a bitmap image.

Kevin

[Hugh Potter]

another way you could make a quick path is to make a copy of the image,

select it, on the toolbar go ‘bitmap’, in the menu go to mode, black and white 1bit, then click on lineart in the menu on the box that appears, use the adjuster bar to blacken the leaf image, but keep the background light, (that should make sense). now click ok.

select your now dodgy looking image, quicklaunch corel trace. select trace by advance outline (basically have a play about), and trace it, save your item when happy with it, then import it into your leaf window.

now, fill any holes the image may have, then effects, contour, and in the drop down window, place, say 3mm, ‘outside’, click apply. it’ll make a contour behind it.

click arrange, break contour group apart, then select the top image and discard, select the contour, then on your colour bar to the right of the scren, select wireframe (the box with an x in it at the top). you’ll have a neat outline with 3mm of clearance around the cut.

you may well still need to edit the nodes.

it takes a long time to say, but only a couple of mins to actually do when you’re used to it.

better still, though a little more time consuming, is learn to use the freehand, and shape tools. indispensable.

Hugh

[Vivienne Hennessy]

Thanks for the replies gonna try your suggestion now . Figured out the freehand one today a bit of playing but worth it when ya see the machine cutting for the first time? (after printing something about 20 times before enabling the cutter on colour rip).

I was talking to the fella i bought it off of today and he was asking me did i get sorted with my colour profiles ? can anyone enlighen me as to what colour profiles are or where would i find them in colour rip?

Thanks
Viv.

[Phill Fenton]

Don’t print directly from Corel, use the RIP software instead which will also contain profiles for the various media you use.

You need to be using the RIP software that comes with your machine. In your case this should be Versaworks.

Profiles are settings that allow you to print on a range of substrates – e.g Matt Vinyl, Gloss Vinyl, Clear Vinyl, Banner Material etc. These individual profiles ensure you get optimum conditions for each substrate your are printing on – thus ensuring that the colours produced are accurate.

I can’t advise on Versaworks as I don’t use it (my machine is a Cadet and uses the Troop Rip) – but there is probably a help file with Versaworks or a pdf manual that you can look up for guidance.

[Mark Pack]

Can you not print the image, trace over by hand with a nice clean line, then scan back in and vectorize that?

Cheers Mark

[Alan Drury]

This is one of the jobs where X3 has an advantage in as much as Powertrace is so good compared to V12’s Corel trace, moving the detail slider, merging colours and a simple weld you can obtain a very passable contour cut line. X3 sp2 is verified for Vista thats not to say the others won’t work but there may be issues you come accross. I would still export from Corel as eps and let your RIP do the work.
Alan D