signlab: I'm seeking a command for logical, or efficient cutting order

[iSign]

Hi all, I bought Signlab to replace CasMate when I hired a 3 yr. veteran of Signlab & wanted to take advantage of his abilities. I learned enough to cut the odd rush job in his absence, but never really looked through the training video or really explored it much.

One issue that always drives me nuts, but I have surpressed the desire to get help on until now, is the seemingly erratic cutting order. I just grouped to medium sized shapes I needed cut & they left lots of waste in all four corners, so I placed some small text I also needed in the same color. I just cut the job & it went from corner, to corner, to corner, to corner cutting one letter, going around the world cutting that leter elsewhere & returning to start the same senseless trip another 12 times. If this were a longer job.... this is exactly the kind of crazyness that would increase the likelyhood of a snafu about 12,000 percent

So, since my resident Signlab driver is no longer with us... where's the logic button?

 

[Mardi]

I was wondering that too.

 

[geb]

me too.

 

[Rod]

Set the Sort option within Plot dialog options

I just cut the job & it went from corner, to corner, to corner, to corner cutting one letter, going around the world cutting that leter elsewhere & returning to start the same senseless trip another 12 times.
If this were a longer job.... this is exactly the kind of crazyness that would increase the likelyhood of a snafu about 12,000 percent

So, since my resident Signlab driver is no longer with us... where's the logic button?

Sure thing. What's happening is that you essentially have sorting turned OFF, which means that objects are getting cut in the order they were created. You have various options to resolve this, and the fastest method for you is the following:

1. Go Cut menu >> Plotting Defaults.
2. The Plot dialog will open.
3. Tick the Sort button, and the Sort dialog will open automatically.
4. I recommend that you click the Nearest sort option.
5. The Sort within paragraphs option will cause individual letters to be evaluated, as opposed to entire paragraph (e.g., if this checkbox is OFF, then a given paragraph will be cut in one go).
6. Click OK to close the Sort dialog.
7. On the Plot dialog, click the Save Default button!!!
8. Then click OK to close the Plot dialog.

The software isn't meant to be a struggle. Please let me know if there are any other issues.

Regards,

Rod at CADlink

 

[bob]

Expanding upon the original query...

Using Flexi 7.6V2 and a Graphtec FC7000. In Flexi's cut/plot dialog there's a selection on the Advanced tab to enable cutting optimization within an arbitrary area, default is 10". The plotter also has a sort option to optimize X axis media motion with pen up moves.

The question is; which is the most efficient combination? Flexi's optimize on or off and Graphtec's sort on or off.

I haven't the wherewithal to experiment with all four combinations but I do recall cutting an 8' panel with double border and a rather involved decoration in each corner. The Flexi optimize was on, the plotter's wasn't. The media did about 2 miles back and forth as one part of a corner decoration would cut, then the media would charge down to the other end and cut a part of the decoration in that corner. Repeat seemingly ad infinitum. By the time it was all done it was hopelessly out or registration and I had to toss the whole thing. I got around it by being devious and changing the border to one color and each of the corner decorations to a unique color and then invoked 'Cut All Colors'. While that worked it would be nice to have some basic understanding of the ordering capabilities of both Flexi and Graphtec.

 

[geb]

Thanks for the tip Rod. I've done some plots before where the cutter would cut one character, then go all the way to the other end, back and forth. This tip will save time and less chance of vinyl getting screwed up or off line from all the back and forth through the cutter.

George