Graphtec 3000 – cutting curved letters text problem

[Andy Gorman]

What software are you cutting from?

[Russell Pavey]

Hi Andy

Yeah – sorry should have said Corel Draw with the freebie driver that came with the cutter (have noted in the past your concerns with cutting from Corel) – Could this be one of the said problems?

Cheers

Russ

[Russell Pavey]

Opps my mistake – I hadn’t converted to curves properly 😳

Sorted now – apologies.

Russ

[Andy Gorman]

I had the same problems cutting direct from Corel, using the plotter as a printer. Even converting to curves had no effect. Graphtec told me it was to do with Coreldraw, which seems right because it cuts from Illustrator perfectly.

[Russell Pavey]

yes – its still doing it now and again – seems to be only on small text – fine when its slightly larger text. Will try it out in Illustrator.

Thanks for the reply.

Russ

[Chris Wool]

Had this for years the problem is cheep horrible fonts and the graphtec windows driver if you look at the node structure of the fonts it will explane partly if you draw a circle in corel it cuts it fine change font and the problem will go away

chris

[Alan Drury]

If your problem is as Chris suggests, convert the text to curves in Draw and then reduce nodes – see if that improves.
Alan D

[Chris Wool]

using the same file i have cut on 3 different systems

Graphtec and graphtec windows driver
roland and rolands windows driver
roland throu colour rip

unfortunately its the graphtec windows driver that brings on the problem but only with poor fonts and if you break a few down you will see how poorly they are constructed.

i hate to say it cos it goes against the grain but if you were to drive the graphtec from a eps converter the problem does go away.

chris

[Russell Pavey]

quote :

If your problem is as Chris suggests, convert the text to curves in Draw and then reduce nodes – see if that improves.
Alan D

Thanks Alan – sorry to be a pain but how do you go about reducing the nodes?

quote :

i hate to say it cos it goes against the grain but if you were to drive the graphtec from a eps converter the problem does go away.

Thanks for that Chris – What is an eps converter.

I have just lined up all the fonts that I would like to cut, above each other, and Trebuchet, the font that was playing up, is clearly different from the others Jagged etc.

Would buying a Sign program and then sending from Draw to the program eliminate this problem?

Many thanks for your help in this and excuse the simple questions.

Russ

[Andy Gorman]

Nah, I disagree. I export as ai from Corel every day and cut via Signlab with no problems. Yet if I cut direct from Corel it cuts like poo. How does the font have any bearing on this? The export process doesn’t change the shape, the nodes are all in the same place.

[Chris Wool]

i have just had a look at the ce3000 windows driver you could try lowering the programmable resolution to .05 and test.
on my graphtec machine menu is a quality setting which i was told many years ago would remove this problem only reduced it a bit.

alan for your interest its not really to many nodes its how they are placed as if they were generated by a tracing type programme not carefully placed by a experienced digitizer.

a eps converter could be winplot or similar this also i think allows longer plots as my window driver limits to 2800mm.
programmes like signlab use some of there own fonts and there own driver.

as i only run in to the problem now very very rarefy Ive almost forgotten about it.

chris

[Chris Wool]

Andy i agree with your comments and production method but when combined with the graphtec driver and a poor font you get rubbish.

chris

[Alan Drury]

It does rather sound like a driver problem if everything else cuts it ok. Chris’s point on font quality is worth consideration ie I use Serif programmes sometimes which come with loads of fonts and although ok for print when enlarged for signs you can see how the letters are out of shape, wonky curves etc. Fonts which come with Corel Draw are good though as they are mainly ITC/Bistream or from other good foundries.

There are many programmes which will enable you to cut from Draw. WinCut comes with Summa plotters and I’m sure other manufacturers have their own, a well known one which offers many extended, sign releant features is CoCut. A google search should find it.

Just for info to reduce nodes in Draw, depending on version – click on auto reduce nodes button or on later versions move slider (button not there), both are on the top bar when nodes are selected. The button can be placed on the bar using options – customization – commands – edit, find auto reduce icon and drag onto bar. I find the button is less destructive to the shape in V10/11/12 than the slider but this has been addressed in X3 with the slider giving very good results.
Alan D