has anyone else had the same problem with signlab e6?

[Dave Bruce]

If you have seen my other posts regarding Signlab E6 you know I am not enjoying the experience 🙁 I had to get a patch fromCadlink to try and rectify some very strange happening, it did seem to do the trick. The other day I updated windows (usual downloads) and guess what, signlab comes up with strange happenings again, so I reinstalled Signlab E6 and so far (only one day) it has been OK.

I have wasted so much time with Signlab to date I am even thinking of getting Flexi (ducks down to avoid flying objects).

Cheers

DAve

[Gordon Forbes]

Stop swearing LOL. Oh BTW did you have any probs logging in to cadling It seems to have forgotten me and my e-mail addy (haven’t tried again in the last few days but it wasn’t havin it last week.

Goop

[Rodney Gold]

Recently I have had to request new usernames and passwords from Cadlink , and even ones I got a few hours ago cease to work?
I just fill in another request , which is a pain!!!
I’m bound to signlab due to the fact that it runs and has drivers for most of my engraving/CnC applications which is a major boon to us in that multiple machines run off one package (If I upgraded , I could even run my Roland Soljet on it , we already use it to our lasers sometimes) But I dont find it an amazing package overall , my big bugbear is that it does unpredictable things or wont work on certain puters (all sorts of errors) or “loses” modules and the screen resolution really sucks (and no one can tell me how to get my on screen graphics looking better??)
By far the biggest advantage is the ability to port the same graphic to just about all our machinery. How it works with vinyl cutting , I have no idea
The limited amount of cutting only (apart from print and cut where there is no reason to have to do anything really fancy) that we do is well served using Corel 11.

[Frank Droog]

Rodney
Just out of curiosity, what do you mean by the screen resolution problem.
Do vectors look bad or only bitmaps or both.
Signlab just uses whatever your display adapter is set for in Windows/Control panel. Whats your screen resolution and number of colors in Windows? Im usually in 1600 by 1200 24bit color.
Vectors have to look good even down to 640 by 480.
If its bitmaps only that look bad, try checking if you have a checkmark beside “Show Reduced Bitmaps” under the View menu in Signlab and maybe remove it. Its a way to show a low color version of a bitmap to save redraw time.
If its only bitmaps , where did the bitmap come from? Its not a GIF is it?
If you want , email me the cdl file with the bitmap and i can have a look.
Im one of the programmers at cadlink who does the cutter drivers and import filters.

[Rodney Gold]

Fonts and general graphics are not dead smooth , vector stuff does not display as well as Corel , illustrator , FH and some other graphic programs. I often notice jaggies on lets say a font with any type of outline. I run mainly proffessional type colour calibrated monitors in the 20-21″ range. I have run signlab on other computers with the same effect with All graphics signlab displays. My ver is 5 rev 12. Profile lab is also more or less the same and thats installed on another system altogether.
I looked in the ini file for some res reference and your knowledge base , but no joy. It’s not a trainsmash , but if there is a fix………:)

[Frank Droog]

can you tell me what your display adapter settings are start/settings/control panel/display/properties/settings/
Do you know what video card you have or is it built in video.

If you zoom in, do the lines appear smoother, zoom out, they are jagged.
but they cut perfectly smooth?
Or, do they cut as jagged as they appear?

Even for me at 1600 by 1200, if i look, i can see jaggies if i am zoom out to say my letters being 1 inch tall on screen, but on a zoom in to say 4 inches tall, they are perfectly smooth.

frank at cadlink

[Dave Bruce]

Hi Frank, how would you like to hear all my problems with Signlab? They are devouring my daily hours and causing no end of frustration.

I have actually recieved a patch from cadlink which has (so far) eliminated some of the problems, but created another.

I complained about the resolution and yes you can up the windows setting to improve it but then you need a magifying glass to read you’re icons. I was told that the resolution problem was known about but no fix.

Cheers

Dave

[J. Hulme]

I have problems zooming in with signlab, I cannot get close enough to see a few nodes to get it edited, flexisign is no problem zooms right in to a few nodes, so you have to zoom back out to see where you are.

[J. Hulme]

quote frank:

If you zoom in, do the lines appear smoother, zoom out, they are jagged.
but they cut perfectly smooth?
Or, do they cut as jagged as they appear?

Even for me at 1600 by 1200, if i look, i can see jaggies if i am zoom out to say my letters being 1 inch tall on screen, but on a zoom in to say 4 inches tall, they are perfectly smooth.

frank at cadlink

Which I think is unacceptable ( well, for the price of this software )
Graphics can look so jagged you re-correct them again and clean up the nodes , only when you cut can you see if the jagged(ness) actually is noticable. Signlab also has a habit of totally hiding text / graphics when zooming out, only when you zoom right back in ( well as close as you can actually get) does it reappear, maybe a patch thing, but like Dave
I uninstalled them all as they cause nothing but problems.

It’s only good at cutting, ( I prefer signab for this to anything) but I’m definately not a fan of it at all, everything else its meant to do, I do not rate.

[Gordon Forbes]

Well this has opened a can of worms then.
I run XP Mome Athlon 2100+ 750 meg PC2100 ram 19″ monitor set at 32 bit colour 1280 x 1204 refresh rate 100 hz, a geforce 4 TI 4600 with 128 meg of ram.
I have no problems zooming in and out to a single node on a sign blank 2 -1/2m high by 13- 1/2 m long (artic fridge van) but I do find the that it fails to refresh when really close in unless you zoom in/out one click or apply the change.
I have the same bit mappy effect that Rodney speaks of compared to Illustrator etc on vectors or bitmaps even though anti aliasing is on.

If you are zooming in and out to the sign blank no wonder small text and graphics seem to appear and dissapear (when they are a few inches tall/long) when working at this size.

In general I find it pretty good so far.

One thing I can’t seem to get (probably my inexperience here) is the handles to appear on nodes for shifting curve shapes as in Ilustrator Corel and Photoshop. which is a boon whent copying over the top of a bitmap etc.
anyway starting to ramble

Goop

[Frank Droog]

I will pass this on to our tech guy iwho is pretty good at getting to the bottom of things.
Incidently, as i sad, i run at 1600 by 1200
I i type a lower case “a” using allegro bold BT and look at the line on the right hand side which comes down at about a 5 degree angle, I get about 8 zigzags or stairs in both Signlab and Illustrator when i zoom the letter to be about 1 inch tall on screen, and its perfectly smooth in both at about 4 inchs on screen. I know thats just the video card.
It would be interesting to know what video card gives differant results.
Could be they have built in something that can be taken advantage of.
frank at cadlink

[Frank Droog]

Rodney
I went back and checked Corel.
The 1inch zoom on the lower case “a” in allegro is better in Corel.
Its seems exactly the same in Illustrator 10 and Signlab at all levels but Corel is smoother at a 1 inch zoom.
I will log this and see if i can get one of our main engineers to have a look.
frank at cadlink

[J. Hulme]

quote Forbie:

If you are zooming in and out to the sign blank no wonder small text and graphics seem to appear and disappear (when they are a few inches tall/long) when working at this size.

Goop

Not when the top line of text is around 100mm high and the one that’s underneath it that disappears is 80mm high as suddenly the 80mm high ones vanish until you zoom back in.
I could understand if 100mm high and 5mm high.

Maybe a patch thing but at this price we are not beta testers, these should have been ironed out well before launch.
Patches should only be to update drivers/new hardware/printers etc, that come onto the market *after* the software has already been released

[Rodney Gold]

There has to be a trade off of program speed vs how graphics are displayed , obviously the graphics engine or the drawing database is not optimised for best display , however the user should have the option of setting this (just about EVERY vector based graphics package has this) This is not a card/screen issue.
Personally I find signlab has some very nice plotting/printing features and as I have mentioned , it outputs to most of my devices and its import is pretty good , so what I cant or dont want to do in it , I do elsewhere and bring it in , it’s a great back end to my machines. I dont do much vinyl cutting , but will say , I dont think it offers the ultimate value for that application. We manage just about everything in Corel which most ppl know a little about so for a start up co without the wherewithall , I would recommend that route. Now Im just waiting for signlab to go 3d (Artcam/mastercam?)

[James kelly]

The reason fonts and graphics look smoother in some programs than others is due to antialiasing of the screen display, ie, pixels are added and smoothed for the screen output. This has no effect on printer/plotter output as separate algorithms are used for this.

The antialiasing improves screen output at the expense of computer processing power but with today’s processors this is no longer a problem.

I agree that SignLab should have this option, especially as Cadlink push the printing capabilities so much. In defence of SignLab, the output is primarily for printing and plotting so the screen antialiasing is not a problem. If output was intended for screen output such as web pages then yes, it would be a big problem. Even so, as a design package, this lack of quality screen display is an issue, especially with photographs. I personally render all photos and intricate graphics in other programs and just use Signlab to layout and then output these.

Incidentally, a font actually consist of two fonts… a screen display font and a printer/output font.

[Rodney Gold]

We work in a WYSIWYG workflow. We have spent fortunes on flat screens etc with color calibrated displays. I can do something in Corel and what I see *IS* what I get. I dont use signlab to print to my large format Digital printer , but with what I see on screen , I wouldnt consider it!!! (it would also have to encompass an upgrade and the RIP roland supply combined with Corel cost me zilch!!!)

[John Singh]

Seems to make sense James

I’ve noticed the quality of screen display between an image in Adobe and then the same image in Signlab. Quite a difference! In adobe very clean, no jagged appearance but sometimes in Signlab the lines appear not so clean.

Having said this, when going to cut or print it does it clean and crisp.

For me that’s the crucial thing. (Although I agree it ought to be better as we are not just viewing an image, in most cases we are designing it!)

John