is there training available for signlab E6?

[Robert Lambie]

hi dave.. sorry to hear the bother your having. i cant compare mate.. i hate corel 😮 in fairness i didnt take the time to try and understand it.
i always look at corel as a printers package so opted for adobe photoshop for that type of thing.
sign software. well again im ignorant to many. signlab in my eyes is the signmakers pencilcase. having said that i cant see by signlab 5. even on 5 i revert to the 4.95 setup.

im sure some others with a bit more knowledge on the newer versions will chip-in with comments 😉

[Henry Barker]

Its abit like the devil you know!

I have run Gerber GA and Omega here for 12 years, and a few years ago did a crossgrade here at Sign Scandinavia, keeping my old package but getting Signlab Colourmaster 5, Tony Winterbottom who worked for Cadlink at that time showed me all the “advantages” over the Gerber programme and I was impressed….its taken me over 3 years to start using it!

I upgraded when E6 was launched and found the interface to be better, but never really got into it….then having bought a router, from AXYS who are using an OEM version of Cadlink/Signlab Profilelab, as their Toolpath Studio (version5) I thought this was an ideal oppurtunity to start using it, so I have E6 loaded in the router computer, and export files to Toolpath, so far I have found it really good, with loads of really sensible features built in.

Like making a sign blank the total size of the router (as the head travels outside of the vacuum area) then using guidlines to mark the “active” area, and by deselecting all and then right clicking you get a little window with how much you want to set up your giudelines by, rather than in Gerber dragging them in and guessing….there are lots of little things like that.

In the set up I made a mistake of sending the page to cut rather than the blank, but there is also an option for selected too.

Its more a case of getting used to its differences.

I bought Rob Ivers training CD’s (3) for Colourmaster 5 and the lastest for E6 (1cd) he uses masses of small tuition video’s to guide you through everything you need to know, there is also one for the thermal side.

His CD was just under $200 which I thought was great. http://www.robivers.com

Not sure if its sold in the UK by Cadlink.

Persevere I’m sure you’ll see the brighter side! 🙂

[Robert Lambie]

regarding the router & sigblab6. i beleive it has a nesting feature also that is excellent if you have to fit loads of differnt flat cut letters automaticaly to a sheet size with minimal waste. or to simple see if you have enough perspex to cut a certain amount of letters from. 😀

[Henry Barker]

I am coming over to Sign UK next week, wednesday, and maybe thursday, flight back thursday night, but want to talk to Stuart, and Chris at AXYS as well as catch up with a few familiar faces 🙂

Was abit doubtful about buying Toolpath Studio to go back to Signlab 5, but will look abit closer to see the diffrences and here when they are to introduce it based on E6

[Robert Lambie]

i am there wednesday thursday too henry. ill be at AXYZ stand also for a bit. i want to look at the type 3 software again. maybe see you ther.. if so your welcome to a pint mate 😉

[Rodney Gold]

I also find the screen resolution appaling , and have searched for ways to improve this with no success. We use Profilelab to run our big CnC machine with , and only use signlab as a convertor. (Profilelab is a sort of a subset of signlab)
I use Autocad for highly precise designing and Corel 11 for just about ANYTHING else , we send to lasers , cnc engravers , thermal printers , large format inkjets and cutters using Corel as a front end. (I must admit , I do very little actual vinyl cutting , so I would imagine some features in signlab might be a lot better for this)
We got a dongled legal copy of signlab 5 with all the bells and whistles and add ons you can think of and never use it – The Badges feature is quite usefull tho , I doubt I would have bought it had I had to pay for it, I needed to load it on another machine for design and cant do so , so have to do everything on the computer with the dongle and that’s very inconvenient which is another reason I hardly use it , I really hate dongles , they generally cause a LOT of problems with peripheral devices.

[Alan Drury]

I use Signlab and Corel together, finding that the pitfalls in Corel are Signlab’s strengths and vice versa. If you use some of the scripts from http://www.oberonplace.com & http://www.isocalc.com with Corel many signmaking features are enhanced. For menus or anything with loads of text I use Corel to set – Signlab to cut. For type setting Corel only – Postscript output for imagesetters etc Corel only. Digitising – Signlab takes some beating, so use BOTH to get the most flexible sign package.
Robert give Corel another go, perhaps I’ll see you on the Wednesday at the sign show.

Regards to all
Alan

[coolinshot]

I’ve always found the jaggy edged appearance a bit annoying but became accustomed to it – Signlab, up to version 5, is a great piece of software. After that it’s filled with bells, whistles, gizmos, gadgets, (and possibly the kitchen sink). None of which work properly – Try the decorative border and see what I mean – in fact – view the tutorial cd and watch the demonstration. Signlab 6 reminds me of the car that Homer Simpson designed (-)
Col

[Dave Bruce]

Thanks for your replies guys, interesting stuff. Obviously I will be continuing with Signlab (I’m very patient) but I was hopeing someone would say, ” you must have this or that set wrongly, and try going in to x y z and clicking w, that makes all the difference”.

Interesting that you find the videos good Henry, I think someone on another thread said they were just a laugh.

Thanks again

Dave

Ahh it was you coolinshot!

[Henry Barker]

If you’ve never worked in Signlabs enviroment, which I hadn’t, you have nothing to compare with, I never liked Corel gave up at Corel 4, thats not to say its probably great today.

I read large bible type manuals for about 5 mins and then fall asleep, when you go to a trade show or have a technician here showing you the workings of a programme things work much better for me anyway, learning by doing. So to have short video lessons on different aspects of the programme has been a big help to me,like having someone that knows standing next to you, its what I used to learn Dreamweaver too.

So good or bad or good for a laugh I don’t know, its been a help for me, poeple say that the Gerber software is really hard to get your head around after using something else, that’s how I found Signlab at first.

Nothings perfect! 🙂

[Dave Bruce]

Yeah, I am like that too, learn a lot more watching someone else doing things rather than reading.

I used to use a very old version of Signlab just to do the cutting, after designing (not me) was done in Corel, and you couldn’t see the difference between the files in the two programmes. I already had Signlab Shortcut so could have continued designing in Corel and cutting in S.Shortcut (apart from getting loads of errors in the files when sending from Corel to Signlab).

Certainly that ‘batch nesting’ feature is great, use it alot, just got to watch things are grouped right or everything goes mad.

Cheers

Dave

[Gordon Forbes]

What I would like is a screen resolution like Illustrator with signlab now that would be perfect in my opinion

Goop

[coolinshot]

quote Forbie:

………a screen resolution like Illustrator with signlab now that would be perfect in my opinion

Goop

It would take more than an improvement in screen resolution to make signlab e6 perfect – personally I think they should have left version 5 alone (except maybe to make it compatible with XP). They could have brought out e6 just for the engraving / full colour modules to run separately or as an add on. I hate to keep harping on about it but Signlab e6 was a big mistake and I know from speaking to a lot of my customers (who are signmakers) that I am not alone in thinking this. If it ain’t broke then don’t fix it – I think the boffins at Cadlink lost some of the screws when they put this thing back together.

[Alan Drury]

Just a note I spoke to Cadlink the other day and apparently V5 (rev 6.3 at least) is compatible with XP
Alan

[Kenneth N]

SignLab e6 is just a matter of getting used too. To me, e6.1 build 13 seems stable enough for most and the “new” stuff are well worth an upgrade from v5 to e6. I do not think I can find many guys wanting to go back to v5 after using e6 when they have got the hang of it. As for v7 (soon to be released), I suppose we will have to wait some months before it will be reliable but the step is not as big as it was from v5 to e6.

Like some Brushman said before, v5 is fully functional with all current versions of windows (including XP) and you should make sure to run v5.0 rev 6.3.23 (or rev 12 if you are targeted to printing).

edited: admin

Regards, Kenneth

[Robert Lambie]

Hi ken
Thank you very much for your views mate.. Feel free to help anyone else with anything you can.

On the signlab issue. I’m glad to hear some very positive feedback on that version.
It seems many folk are having problems.

Could signlab 7 be the problems resolved version?

I’m a signlab user myself. 4.95 for cut vinyl and v5 rev12 colour master for other stuff.. My view is signlab is top notch. Sadly, the reports are v6 has some glitches.
Hope all is sorted now.. I hate a shadow being cast over such a great bit of kit.
😕

[Kenneth N]

Hi Robert/All,

When e6 was launched, it was a pain, really, but now most issues are fixed and it actually work well.

That said, what we all want is new releases/versions to be as stable as the latest of the old version but I guess that will never happen. When Canada releases a new SignLab version, it usually takes 6 months minimum before it works fair and 18 months before it works good. But the step from e6 to v7 is not as steep as from v5 to e6 and I guess we are looking at 6-8 months from release to get a resonable stable version. At least that is what I hope. 🙂

I quit my work at my old employer after more than 13 years in the business and have been working with CADlink softwarefor many years as well as Summa, Graphtec cutters as well as Mutoh printers . Any questions, just ask. Next week, we will go up north, a 3000km trip (minimum) I guess so I will probably not have time to check in here…

/Kenneth