Illustrator for Vinyl Cutting Questions

[black cloud]

Hi All.
I just got a Graphtec 5000-60 and want to use it with Illustrator. I have an older version (CS3) and I installed the Cutting Master2 plugin from graphtec. I have things at least working if not perfect. After going through all the parameters and making sure that things are cutting properly (right blade force, cutting steps etc) I seem to be having a problem with my knowledge as it pertains to creating graphics for cutting. So far all I've been doing is importing line art but I've had a problem where some objects are cutting roughly. Some are smooth and the cutter motion is as expected so I don't think it's a setting problem on the cutter side. Some objects however are cutting as if they were a large number of short segments and instead of cutting a smooth outline the cutting blade seems to cut segments in random order. Does this make sense? Is there something in illustrator I can do to make these outlines one contiguous line or spline? Is there a way to check to see if the are not? I admit I don't use illustrator very often. What is the best practice for working with outlines that are to be cut (limit the nodes? Smoothing? Tangent if possible?)?

Sorry if this question is all over the place.

Thanks

Pete-

 

[chartle]

What's the line look like when you zoom all the way in?

It could be that these are files that are vectorized and instead of getting smooth curves you have short straight line segments. Most lines will have only a few points along it using math to make the curves.

 

[black cloud]

What's the line look like when you zoom all the way in?

It could be that these are files that are vectorized and instead of getting smooth curves you have short straight line segments. Most lines will have only a few points along it using math to make the curves.

I did zoom in and they are splines. now that said there are multiple splines in an object but their endpoints seem to be merged. If they aren't how tell if they are merged or how do I merge endpoints? Can two splines be merged to create one spline and simplify the control points?

 

[AF]

The splines are the problem. If you can join all the splines, the smoothing tool should clean it up. I would opt out of fixing bad art though, it is a major time sink.