What is the best software to drive a Gerber Sprint?

[Tim Shaw]

I know that Flexisign for the Mac will cut to a GS15plus and Flexisign 6.6 on a PC will also, they will both print to the gerber edge too.

No sure about the sprint though, I dont think there can be much difference in the drivers.

SUE WRIGHT at Granthams will know on 01772 250207

[Robert Lambie]

hi ruth
im not too sure what drives the gerber machines. however i did notice in signlab 6 it can now drive the gerber edge.. so maybe just maybe an upgrade to signlab will do the trick… thats if you have signlab that is! 🙄 🙄

[Mike Brown]

welcome to the UKSignGroup Ruth! 😆

have lots of fun and I hope your questions are answered – if not, don’t be afraid to say so and we’ll dig deeper… 😉

more soon

[Brian Ellis]

Hi Ruth.

Try Vinyl Master Pro. It should be OK.

Cheers

Brian Ellis

[Robert Lambie]

quote :

Try Vinyl Master Pro. It should be OK.

hi brian.. dont you know if it is ok?

seems a bit of a time waster if you guys cant tell us for sure…

not being funning but i dont see the point saying try somthing if you arent sure yourself, specialy when it is your product…..

[ruth]

Thanks Tom, Rob and Mike,

Perhaps it would help if I explain a little more. We are not in sign making as a trade, but rather have a use for the machinery to make stencils for putting lettering and graphics onto the clothing of fencers (fencing with swords not post and rail). The process is reasonably tricky and when we sub out the work as we have done for years we are restricted in many ways and suffer lead-time difficulties. We have bought a second hand Gerber Sprint with a Graphics Advantage PC from a fellow sign group member. The machine is old but more than capable of what we need. I would like however to drive the machine from a faster PC. If you cast your mind back to the days of windows 3.0 running on a 286 then you will understand. I’m just after some reasonably simple software that will run on a windows 95/98 machine enabling us to work at normal PC speeds.

I took a look at the Flexisign software Tim suggested but I can’t be certain that it will work and it costs a lot of money (less if you buy a hacked version). What I really want is to find a professional sign maker who used to have a Gerber Sprint who upgraded and has since moved on again who has software not being used that I can buy for a small sum. Perhaps an old version of Flexisign would drive the sprint if it was a popular machine and that was popular software then perhaps they were once compatible? The new packages look fantastic and include lots of functionality that I doubt we would use but more importantly they don’t appear to support this old machine.

Did any of you more established sign makers run a sprint? If so how did you take it forward before eventually moving onto a different cutter?

Thanks in advance
Ruth

[Robert Lambie]

hi ruth
well i used to run an old gerber 4b many moons ago…
i think the sprint was a newer model than the 4b… the 4b ran itself from a tiny 2.5inch LED Screen… not a comp as such… but did run graphics.. from an apple comp. we used it to digitise the graphics and send the files…
i know this is no use to you.. but thought ide mention..

those type of machnes are work horses and seem to keep on plotting… but as far as speeding them up or advancing on the software im sorry but im clueless there. 🙁

maybe somone else will be able to help… you could call spandex and just say
i have flexi sign and im thinking of buying an old sprint… would flexi run it…
if you ask the other way round there certainly going to say no.. buy software from us..
spandex have great machines but tend to hold all there eggs in one basket… if you use spandex… then you use spandex.. full stop… doesnt mean that the other software definately wont work…

sorry im rabbling again… 😳 😳

best of luck

with my post that is 😉 😆

[Shaun Morrell]

Hi Ruth

If you have a Cadlink Fastboard or Uni-link card you can run the Gerber Sprint with any regular sign software including VinylMaster Pro… This card essentially takes HP-GL commands (from the later software) and coverts it into the Gerber emulation codes of the day (back then)…

If you don’t have this card you’re better of sticking with GA… 🙂

[ruth]

Thanks for all your help. I sold the Sprint and bought a Roland now I’m compatible with all the most expensive software on the market. I will use corel and the roland software for now.

Thanks again for all your effort. I’ve bought a load of materials and will practice, perhaps I could post some initial efforts and problems? We’re new to sign making but if we can put together some marketable product then this will provide a new avenue to our business.

[Henry Barker]

I didn’t see this post before…..shame you sold your Sprint.

Gerber software is best for thier cutters, I find Corel is longwinded against dedicated sign software, but it does cut direct to Roland I believe without bridging software.

While you may have had an old PC, and you didn’t say which version of GA software you had, you could easily obtain a more modern PC knock in the software and away you go. The nice thing with Gerber is that they support there products all the way back.

As Shaun said you could have exchanged your LMK module for a Cadlink one to run other software.

Again for what your doing you had a good set up perhaps a little unsure of what to do with it.

I have Gerber’s latest software Omega, but run an old Sprint for contour cutting my Gerber Edge prints, I also run a new Summa Sign Pro for my regular vinyl work.

I know this is all water under the bridge know but maybe useful for anybody in the future. GA was a great program for plotting with!

[Robert Lambie]

quote :

I know this is all water under the bridge know but maybe useful for anybody in the future.

exactly henry! and thanks for replying to that post mate. there will be lots from this day onwards reading the post even though its old news to ruth and some of us.. thank mate 😉

ruth i sent you a personal message vie this site about your europoint account… did you get that ok? 😕