cut-line organization of complex decal

[Sylvia]

Hi All,

I would love to find someone with experience in cutting complex decals.
Here is the issue:
File: multiple words in a tag cloud sort of format + contour cut lines for all individual letters (I attached it so it might be easier to understand)
Format: illustrator
Printer/Cutter: Roland VS540

Problem: the cutter is jumping all over the place to cut the words in the order they were placed into the file instead of going from one corner and cutting them from left to right. This causes problems with alignment, because the printer drags the vinyl up and down so many times.

What I have tried already:
- I have offset the print path to have bleed around the letters
- Outlined type, expanded and united it (in pathfinder). I think the letters with "holes"in them (like e, p, o, etc) are not co-operating, because they become compound shapes
- Tried grouping the words, then grouping it with the one next to it, then the third one, etc, which works for cutting, but it is very time consuming...

If someone has an idea of a better solution, I would much appreciate your help!
Many thanks,

Sylvia

 

[DSC]

If what you say is correct and the issue is the order the words were placed in the file, you can just rebuild a new file and put the words in the order you want them to be cut.

OR you could just fix your printer and get the alignment fixed..

What size is this decal? What is it going to be used for ?

 

[J Hill Designs]

http://www.signs101.com/forums/showthread.php?79745-Cutting-Order-Versaworks-Adobe-Illustrator

 

[Sylvia]

Thanks for the answers. I looked at the other thread you suggested.It has some good info.
I guess I was looking for an automatic way of organizing it - like the plugin available for coral. I could not find anything in VW, that would do that either.

Unfortunately, it looks like there is nothing like that available for illustrator, so it has to be some sort of manual work of re-organizing, which is always time consuming.
We often do designs like this (this particular one is going to wrap around a column), and it is impossible to do it in cutting order at the design stage. So it has to be reorganized afterwards.

Many thanks for your help.

 

[Sylvia]

send to back

I just did a print/cut: the "send to back" solution from the other thread seems to work well, so if there is nothing else, this is a good solution.
Thanks again.

 

[GAC05]

Looks like you are only printing 2 colors - orange and gray.
Dead simple way to do this is outline the orange blocks to give them a little bleed and flood the print with a gray rectangle behind the blocks.


When you go to cut
If you have the option to cut by color have it cut the orange squares first.
If you have some kind of data sort turn it on so it will reduce the amount of jumping all over the place.
Hitting the exact edge of the letters in the text will be a non issue.

For a very long time I had a printer and a cutter without a way to read the registration marks.
Everything was blocks of color until I got a Graphtec with ARMS.
I still do the block deal with projects like yours.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[Sylvia]

Thanks, Wayne, flooding is a good advice.
I'm trying to reduce the amount of jumping (as you phrased it) the machine does. This is what I was searching for some advice for. Unfortunately, I do not have - or I cannot find - anything in Versaworks, which will sort the cut lines. I'm using a VS 540 Roland.

 

[SightLine]

I'm surprised vw does not have anything to adjust the cutting order. Flexi has an optimize cutting order by distance (I generally set ours to around 10" to 16" or so). Its cutting in the stack order so the next choice from within Illustrator would be to rearrange the stack order "send to front, send to back" or using the Illustrator layers pallet dragging and dropping the object groups into a different top to bottom order. Maybe see if there is an option in the cutter itself as well....

Also when you 'unite' objects in Illy that make a compound shape with a hole it creates a shape for the hole which is a path that has no fill or stroke. Once you have grouped/compounded everything, make a random shape (square or whatever) off to the side, set it to have no fill or stroke. With the object selected - select menu at top, same fill and stroke, and it should select all of the blank shape paths, then delete key to get rid of them. With them still there some cutters and software will try to cut them essentially cutting the main object shape then cutting the hole a second time for the blank shape that is in the hole.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I'm surprised vw does not have anything to adjust the cutting order. Flexi has an optimize cutting order by distance (I generally set ours to around 10" to 16" or so). Its cutting in the stack order so the next choice from within Illustrator would be to rearrange the stack order "send to front, send to back" or using the Illustrator layers pallet dragging and dropping the object groups into a different top to bottom order. Maybe see if there is an option in the cutter itself as well....

This is primarily why I do not suggest cutting directly from Ai, DRAW, or Inkscape due to the manually adjusting of the layers in order to maximize production time.

I have found that 3rd party programs do a much party job at optimizing then your packaged with the machine programs. Some are better then others, but typically they do tend to be anemic when it comes to functionality.

The only thing that I can think of that might help out in the long term is come up with a script to run the reordering process for you. My scripting abilities are limited (as in never tried it, actions on the other hand...), but it might be something to look into.