Custom Mat for Lynx

[time2craftlady]

Any advice or has anyone made a custom mat for MTC? I have the 12x14 mat for the Lynx and am having a hard time getting the size right and what measurments to use for the margins.
Thank you!

[Retta]

I guess my first question is what material are you cutting? what kind of cutting _ print and cut? or just cutting?

[time2craftlady]

Right now just cutting. I want the mat to be like the others, showing the margin so make sure your whole design will cut. I get "pauses" because I get it too close to the edge. MTC has where you can create a mat with the no cut margins and I want to make one for my 12 x 14 mat.

[Retta]

Idont use MTC to cut. What size is your Lynx?

[time2craftlady]

It's a 12 inch

[Retta]

Okay, I know The carnage when it goes to the left side is a certain width. that is something that limits The design going overs to far. My cougar is a 13" and has the carriage length Built in. By that I mean I can do A full 12" Wide cut. as long as my mat is A bit longer so the Wheels can grip it, I can do that cut. I am sure Gigi or Penny Duncan will be able to give you better info than I can regarding MTC and the mat. And remember, vinyl doesn't need a mat so there are several factors.

[Gigi]

Thanks Retta but I don't use MTC to cut. Am sure others who do will chime in.

I haven't made a mat in MTC so cannot help. I am an Inkscape, Corel Draw, Scal gal! LOL

[PennyDuncan]

I no longer use MTC either....I'm solely a SCAL3 Pro girl!! To me that's one huge downside of MTC is the fact it IS hard to get positioning just right.... I don't have that issue at all with SCAL3 or Pro.......

[newbiecat]

HI there

Not an mtc user however just found this on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP_-G6Ojano it seems to show a limited number of mat sizes and no custom mat facility as we have in SCAL . This video was made in 2010 and so things may have moved on - I would email Rob at Scrappydew - if anyone will know how to do it he will

goood luck
pandora

[Elizabeth]

MTC has the capability for custom mats, and has for some time. The "typical" mat "no cut" margins are .25 inch. If you click on the drop down arrow of the mat section, and choose create custom mat, you can enter your mat size and margin size. You might have to experiment a bit to get your margins exact. I've never had a Lynx, so I'm not sure what the exact measurement should be.

(Have you tried Knife Point cutting, which is available with the KNK driver, which works with the BC cutters? It allows you to set the blade where you want to start cutting. For a 12" inch cut, you would just set the blade at the bottom right corner of your paper. Again, I don't have a Lynx, so I'm not sure how this works with the 12" cutting area.)

[kim]

Well, I am absolutely no help with custom mats. I never made one and just use the regular default mat. Seems like this would be one of those "play and see" kind of jobs.,...using the cheapest materials to play around with.

[sheri625]

I have a 12" Lynx and MTC. I use knife point cutting in the KNK plug-in as Elizabeth suggested and it has solved all of my positioning questions/problems.

In MTC, I created a custom mat, named it Lynx and gave it the dimensions of 16" x 12" (my mat is an orange cougar mat). When cutting designs, I place my paper anywhere on the mat and put my knife point in the upper right hand corner of my paper and hit the origin button. That is now the upper right hand corner of the design box that surrounds your image on the MTC screen.

KP.jpg

If you want a true 12" cut in both directions, are you using paper that is larger than 12 x 12? If so, try it with pen in your blade holder first and set your mat size as 13" x 16". This will give you a half inch of clearance on either side before you hit the margins.

Make sense? I hope I haven't made it more confusing.

[Retta]

Wonderful people to the rescue!

[time2craftlady]

Thank you for the replys! Sheri, I will have to try that. I do sometimes put different colored paper on the mat to cut, so knowing where it will cut can be trying. I also own SCAL 3 and could bring it in there for cutting. I had SCAL first, then got MTC and for whatever reason caught on to that one faster.

Doreen

[time2craftlady]

Penny-
What is the difference between SCAL 3 and SCAL 3 Pro? I looked at the description of both when I updated, and couldn't really see anything.

[PennyDuncan]

SCAL3Pro is for those who like to do vinyl cutting and gives you the ability for weeding lines and I also believe it will allow you to cut a longer length....

[time2craftlady]

Thanks for the info, Penny!

[PennyDuncan]

You're very welcome Doreen...another reason I much more prefer SCAL3 either regular or PRO over MTC......is that SCAL3 hands engraving files BEAUTIFULLY without crashing......MTC can't handle the immense amount of nodes involved with the engraving files and crashes if the file is extrememly node heavy.......