New to all this, need some help please?

[Airbrushkid]

Ok don't really know how to explain this. But here I go. I was trying to make a bunch of 3/16" x 3/8" Blocks out of vinyl mask. So I start making these squares in Flexisign pro. The problem I'm running into is, when I draw or create these blocks. I try to line them up side by side. But some to seem to be overlapping the others and some are not. I zoom in and fix but I don't seem to be getting anywhere. I tried printed them on paper to see what they look like and again theres dark lines from overlapping. I'm lost here. Can some help with this?

Thank you.
Airbrushkid

 

[dynawg]

Do you have some kind of snap on? Or, select them and then enter the X,Y location manually.

 

[Fred Weiss]

Do you have strokes applied to the blocks? If this is just for vinyl cutting then you should not use strokes. Are you seeing the problem with preview on or off?

If you zoom in with preview off you will have a more accurate representation of what you have.

Flexi has a distribute command if you want to position them with even space between each block. You can also use the justify commands to line them up or you can use the absolute position command to accurately position them.

 

[Airbrushkid]

When I get home tommorrow I'll post a picture of what I'm talking about. Righjt now I'm at my paint shop working and don't have Flexi on my laptop.. I'm amazed how fast the replies showed up. Thank you guys.

 

[Airbrushkid]

Heres a picture of the blocks. As you can see I hope. Is the gaps between the blocks.

 

[HSG]

All the overlapping lines will be cut twice when it's exported to cut manager. This can result in the plotter cutting thru the release liner. Lay out your grid of blocks, draw lines and lay them over your blocks. Delete all the blocks. I'm assuming you just want to cut a bunch of uniform blocks? I was able to place the blocks in perfect alignment when I zoomed in on the drawing surface. My version of Flexi is not currant. I don't usually do any work in Flexi other than cutting layout and measurement. Invest in Illustrator if you can. It takes some time to learn, but it's much easier to use and more accurate for designing in.

HSG

 

[Airbrushkid]

I just tried to use the grid. And draw lines on the grid. I get the lines. Lined up with the grid. But when you zoom in or out the lines are true to the grid. I straighten it out then zoom out again and its messed up again. I just losing my mind here.

 

[Fred Weiss]

From your drawing it appears that each of your blocks has been drawn individually and with the pen tool. My suggestion would be to draw just one, using the rectangle tool and then step and repeat for the rest. I would turn off any preferences set for snap to guides, grids or points.

The other way to do it is as HSG suggests. Draw one large rectangle and then draw cut lines. Then use your "Cutout" command to use the cutlines to cut the block into small blocks.

 

[gcljlamb]

Like Fred mentioned, "Step and Repeat" makes the world a beautiful place. Again, as he mentioned, learn the Distribute functions as well as Align.

I've been right where you are now; done exactly the same things and wondered why it wasn't working properly. Fortunately for you, you found this website resource to help you.

Good luck,

George

 

[Airbrushkid]

I just about losing my mind here. I use the rectangle tool to make up the blocks so each block is the same size.. Id the first row and line them up side by side. Lock them so they can't move apart. Select them and copy them. Paste the set of blocks down. Go to line it up against the first row. Damn there for some reason the program copied them but not exact then same. They don't line!! You think that something as simple as making boxes and lining them up side by side be easy!!!

From your drawing it appears that each of your blocks has been drawn individually and with the pen tool. My suggestion would be to draw just one, using the rectangle tool and then step and repeat for the rest. I would turn off any preferences set for snap to guides, grids or points.

The other way to do it is as HSG suggests. Draw one large rectangle and then draw cut lines. Then use your "Cutout" command to use the cutlines to cut the block into small blocks.

 

[Fred Weiss]

This is a screen shot of a .188" x .375" rectangle with a Step and Repeat command applied to it. The preview is off showing just wire frame. Setting was 10 x 10 with a gap of .01". The Step and Repeat command in under the Arrange menu.

 

[iSign]

when you zoom in to see discrepancies on a rectangle that small... you are literally splitting hairs. just cut them, they are fine, you could never tell by eye anyway. Unless you are working with thousandths of an inch, you are worrying too much about it.

Screen displays can play with things & the look of 2 lines perfectly aligned at one zoom level, & then lookign like they are not aligned at a different zoom level is a common occurance, so a big part of not losing your mind over it, is to quit worrying about it.

Freds solution will give you perfectly matched squares. It will take longer to cut... but far less time then what was spent in posting here, so it is a good solution. HSG's idea is what I have done & will speed up the cut time greatly. Even if you dont use a "step & repeat" function of your software, it should be easy to set up long lines that make up your grid with no double cutting. If you zoom in when you set them up, your level of accuracy should easily exceed anything visible to the eye, even if not as computer-perfect as Fred's approach.

In very long cuts, many plotters I've used will pull through 8 feet (or whatever) of vinyl while cutting a line... then it will send back the 8 feet without cutting so it can go to the next line... all this movement increases the chance for a problem... (tracking, bunching, me stepping on, or rolling my chair over the vinyl not to mention wasted time) so I would set up a zig zag deal that uses one continous line to create all the lines on the length of the vinyl. I would still use seperate lines for the shorter ones across the width of the roll, since these do not result in as much of the wasted motion or time. (at each end you can leave off the last line to avoid "double cuts" but I just cut it & the double lines don't go through the liner on my plotter... they may score too deep for easy weeding of letters, but would not hurt in this instance.

 

[Airbrushkid]

Fred,

I did what you said. Heres what I get. You'll notice the some on the lines are wider. And I did set the gap to .01". Take a look.

 

[Fred Weiss]

I'd suspect what you're seeing is just monitor error. The vector is probably hitting between pixels so the video card has to decide to select the pixel to the right or to the left.

Displays and cutting devices have predefined tolerances. It looks like you're just not used to looking at the display or else you are reaching for a level of accuracy that is beyond the capability of your system. It's probably as accurate as you're going to get it.