Need Help -- HP 54 Plus Vinyl Die Cutter cutting die line twice

[islandwide]

Hey folks,

I have an issue with a label file I've created print and cut on our HP Latex 315 Print & Cut system. For some reason, the die-cutter keeps trying to cut the square twice which is causing it to be torn up and rough on the edges. I thought it had to do with me using an old file and somewhow duplicating the dieline layer so I created a brand new file in InDesign. The design itself was a pdf sent from a client created in Canva - no dieline included. The new file with a single 0.25 magenta spot-coloured line called 'CutContour' continues to cut twice. Any idea why this is happening and what I can do to correct it? Can I salvage the print I made or will the solution requiring redoing?

Printer: HP Latex 315
Vinyl: 3M IJ35C-20
Cutter: HP 54 Plus

Thanks in advance,

 

[BigNate]

.... not sure if it is your issue, but I have imported files into Illustrator that do this... some lines import as very very skinny rectangles - we generally only use the stroke for a die-line so it only gets a hairline. When some 'lines' are imported they can become skinny objects (the fill is hairline, and there is a stroke outside it....) - if you use the stroke for the die-cut color, then you will have double hits as the stroke is actually a skinny rectangle... on my artwork I just changed the color of the object to the fill and left a blank stroke and it only had a single hit on the die-line.

 

[JBurton]

What are you using to make marks and print, hp flexi? If so, I believe you need to set the width of the cut contour line to hairline (whatever flexi calls it, corel calls them hairline vs stroke)
I don't use flexi, but I've dealt with double cuts on files that come from a flexi user to me.

 

[MelloImagingTechnologies]

The software makes a cut at the edge of anything named Cutcontour.
So if you have a small line who’s color is Cutcontour, it will cut both sides of the line.
So you have to fill the box made by the line with Cutcontour color, not the line.
Bruce

 

[islandwide]

Thank you all for the really helpful replies. I think I may have found why it was happening in my instance...

I either use Adobe Illustrator or InDesign to make my CutContour lines. Normally, I have the stroke position to be on either the inside or outside of the line. In this instance, I went back and realized it was 'centered on line'. When I imported the file into Flexi to examine it, it became clear that there were, in fact, two lines created. Once I switched the stroke to "outside the line", the problem disappeared. I see how the fill option would also work well, so thank you all for your insight.

Andrew

 

[BigNate]

The software makes a cut at the edge of anything named Cutcontour.
So if you have a small line who’s color is Cutcontour, it will cut both sides of the line.
So you have to fill the box made by the line with Cutcontour color, not the line.
Bruce

yes, that is what I said... if the line turns into a box, you have to use the fill, not the stroke as the stroke runs around the perimeter - it will look like 2 cuts in the same place....

 

[Sky Bryan]

Make cut line a hairline and ensure there is no fill. A .25 outline will always cut twice, it must be a hairline. If you still have the problem ensure there is no fill in the cut line path.

 

[BigNate]

Make cut line a hairline and ensure there is no fill. A .25 outline will always cut twice, it must be a hairline. If you still have the problem ensure there is no fill in the cut line path.

in principal you are correct - however, there is an exception some of us have found: some files when imported have their lines converted into verry skinny objects that have hairline stroke and a fill that must approach a 0 thickness - these imported objects will cut twice as the hairline was transformed into a rectangle with 4 sides (2 with length approaching 0)... on these specific objects that imported wrong, I found a quick and dirty way to just plot them is to make the fill the die-cut color and the stroke set to none... the "fill" is not a "hairline" and cuts in a single pass.

 

[islandwide]

Thank you all for the help on this one.