SCAL 4 Print and Cut Problem - RESOLVED

[kcjb]

Hello All!

I'm still figuring out my new machine (18" Silver Bullet) and the software (haven't yet resorted to throwing it out the 2nd story window yet ). I just upgraded to Scal 4 and have attempted to print and cut. I was able to print my design along with the registration marks. I go through the steps to align my laser for registration marks 1 and 2 but when I click "next" to align registration mark #3, the SB shoots my mat out of the back of the machine! What am I doing wrong? I'm certain that the design is well within the printable margins (watched a lot of YouTube vids) and countless other tutorials on the actual print and cut process. Help! Thank you for any suggestions you might have!

Jennifer

[Angel135612]

Have you calibrated the laser on your machine yet? That needs to be done before you do any cutting, or your cuts will be off. Not sure what would cause it to spit the mat out of the machine like that during a Print and Cut... so hopefully someone else will be along shortly that may know.

[kcjb]

I did calibrate the laser and think I have it partially figured out after some trial and error. I changed the orientation of the piece I'm cutting and was able to set all three registration marks! My problem now is that my cuts aren't lining up with my design/image. Does this have anything to do with setting the origin or do the registration marks negate the need to set the origin?

[Elizabeth]

That sounds like a calibration issue. I would redo the calibration step with your new orientation to see if that solves the problem.

[kcjb]

Hi Elizabeth. Yes, I've re-calibrated the laser several times with the same results. I've posted a picture below to show what's happening. I don't have a clue why it's doing this:



Also, when I attempt to "repeat" a cut (in the case of the cutter not making a complete cut), the re-cut isn't consistent. It won't repeat the exact cut and my object is ruined. I'm just so upset that my pile of wasted cardstock is growing And to add insult to injury, when I DO get a good cut (with a shadow layer behind an oval), the shadow looks proportionate on the screen yet the cut object is not proportionate. It's difficult to explain but the shape that I designed (a rather simple oval) is not what the machine is generating on paper.

[Gigi]

First of all, please don't use your good cardstock when you are learning how to do something - I would be frustrated too!! Work with some copy paper until you are sure that you have it working correctly. Print and cut can be one of the most challenging things to learn and once you have it exact you will love it.

It's hard to judge from what you sent what the problem is. It could be calibration, or could be where you are setting your origin. Are you putting your paper in so that the #1 and #2 are at the top and the first part to go into the machine and the #3 is in the lower right? Just trying to take it a step at a time.

Can you do a screen shot of how you have your mat and file set up in the software? Also be sure your numbers for calibration are holding. Always write the calibration numbers down and be sure that those numbers are the ones appearing.

Also - try doing a print and cut with a simple square - that is what I do when I am resetting as it is easy then to see if my numbers are off vertically or horizontally easily and then I can adjust and try until it's as perfect as I can get it.

[kcjb]

First of all, please don't use your good cardstock when you are learning how to do something - I would be frustrated too!! Work with some copy paper until you are sure that you have it working correctly. Print and cut can be one of the most challenging things to learn and once you have it exact you will love it.

Hi Gigi! Yes, I am now cutting with "regular" paper!

It's hard to judge from what you sent what the problem is. It could be calibration, or could be where you are setting your origin. Are you putting your paper in so that the #1 and #2 are at the top and the first part to go into the machine and the #3 is in the lower right? Just trying to take it a step at a time.

Yes, I figured that part out after quite a while. Should I be (re)setting the origin as well?

Can you do a screen shot of how you have your mat and file set up in the software? Also be sure your numbers for calibration are holding. Always write the calibration numbers down and be sure that those numbers are the ones appearing.

As far as the calibration numbers, are your referring to the settings for the three registration marks? What would cause the the calibration settings to change?

Also - try doing a print and cut with a simple square - that is what I do when I am resetting as it is easy then to see if my numbers are off vertically or horizontally easily and then I can adjust and try until it's as perfect as I can get it.

I will play around a bit with those settings. I've posted a few screen shots below. Thank you for taking the time to look at this for me! The first one is my mat set-up and the second is the detail for the registration marks.

[Gigi]

Forgive me in advance for not answering all of your questions right now -but wanted to share what hit me first. Your right hand registration marks are barely on your mat. I would move the design over a little to the left to be sure they are registering well. I dont think that's the problem, but it's awful close.

When you go to print and cut, you need to close the text layer or your machine will cut out all of the letters in the text (ask me how I know that! The only thing you want showing are your ovals, and you really don't want those showing - be sure your stroke is off. Never mind - I see that it is and that is your print preview. If it was me I might slightly decrease the size of the tags so you have a little more room to register the marks as it looks like they are barely printing on the page. Just judging from your screen shots - I could certainly be wrong. I know my printer would not print registration marks that close to the edge so be sure those are printing where they should as that could throw everything off.

And you are sure you followed the directions for calibration and are using the laser light not the blade tip - right? Not trying to insult - just checking so we don't overlook anything.

On the origin, be sure that when you set it it is outside of the bottom #3 - in other words you want it a little below and to the right (at least) so you have room to adjust. Is that what you mean?

We will figure it out and others will weigh in. I think if you do a simple square that will really help you see how close your calibration is and may shed some light on the other issues.

I didnt mean to imply that the calibration numbers will change, but it's worth checking just to be sure that the numbers you have at the beginning are the numbers that the software is registering consistently. It's just one of those things I check periodically.

[MeFlick]

Also, to tag onto what Gigi noted - making sure that your printer is NOT scaling down the project tot fit on the page any. It needs to print at true size or 100%. Some printers will do this even without asking so you might set your printer default setups to make sure yours is not automatically scaling to fit the page. If yours is doing that, then this can cause some of the problem you are seeing in regards to the cut not lining up with the printing. I also agree with Gigi, that my printer would not print those registration marks completely on my paper if they were off so close to the edges like all 3 of yours are. You need to be able to see and completely have it print all 3 registration marks clearly on the paper. (Confirm if your printer has or doesn't have default margins that must be there, all of mine do.) This unfortunately means that usually you have more "waste" on your paper when trying to do a "print and cut" - you cannot try to "squeeze" a lot onto one page. Try reducing the number of tags or resizing if you can to get those registration marks moved fully in away from the edge of the paper.

[Gigi]

Thanks Melanie - great thought on the scaling. Didn't even occur to me- duh!

[Gigi]

Just thought I would share..... have been working with Jennifer and the problem has been resolved two different ways. Figured I would share as I learned something new along the way (probably not new to many of you, but was to me!)

I tried her file last night and it cut perfectly so at least we eliminated the file issue. The reason the ovals were cutting off was basically because she was closing the oval stroke layer when printing rather than choosing none (it took me a long time to figure that out too when I was learning). I think it was Tyler who taught me that one years ago when I could NOT figure it out.

But........ thanks to Lisa I learned a MUCH easier way to do print and cut. I saw it in SCAL 4 but apparently it was in SCAL 3 too - I just never fooled with it. You know how it is - when you know a way to do something you just do it that way! I just never tried anything else.

So.... if you group what you want to print and choose "PRINT AND CUT PRINT" - and then select what you want to cut (close the other group) and choose "PRINT AND CUT CUT" then you dont have to worry about your layers or anything. Save the file and it will show print and cut cut in the box, but when you send it to print, it will only print the "print layer" (how awesome is that?? ) LOL - and when you cut it will just do the cut layer. I don't have to remember to turn my text off anymore (you don't want to know how many times I have started a cut and it not only cuts the shape but the text as well!! )

This takes so much user error out of the equation and makes life incredibly easy. Am I the last one to learn this??

The other way still works, but this way (new to me!) is a breeze! Hoping that there is someone else out there who this will help as well. Thanks Lisa for enlightening this old lady!! Maybe there is hope!!

[kcjb]

Hello Everyone! Thank you to all those involved in solving this monumental achievement There WILL be Christmas this year! (And Christmas cookies to go into my nicely labeled treat boxes!)
A special thank you to Gigi and all of her patience with this newbie! She is such a gem!
Thanks Ladies!

[Gigi]

Yippee - cookies all around!! LOL

Was happy to help and learn something new at the same time! Thanks for YOUR patience with me and the process!

Now would someone please send me some motivation to get my baking done! have zero motivation..... ugh!

[pigtailpat]

Cookie? Did someone say cookie?

I'm the ORIGINAL cookie monster (remember him???)

Pat

[Angel135612]

Gigi, thank you for posting how you solved that problem. It is new to me also, the way you explained it. I am going to have to give it a try when I can get to my machine. And now it is documented in the forum, so we can refer back to it when someone else has a problem, or we need a reminder on how to do it.

If any of you baking cookies, have any leftovers, or more than you can use.... you can send them my way. I'm not doing any baking this year (haven't done any baking in ages actually... ) But will gladly take them off your hands if you have too many.

[Gigi]

Cookie? Did someone say cookie?

I'm the ORIGINAL cookie monster (remember him???)

Pat

ROFL laughing Pat - I could hear the voice of the Cookie Monster the way you wrote that!! LOL I believe you! Cmon over to CA - just figured out which variety I am making - this is about my fifth list of ideas - sticking with this one now...... I think!

[Elizabeth]

You are not the last one to learn this Gigi. I still can't figure it out. Where do we choose Print and Cut-Print and Print and Cut - Cut? I accidentally cut out the text at least 1 out of 5 times. As a matter of fact, I just did it this morning when helping DD with a project. I would love to learn an easy way to avoid this. (I know, turning off the layer IS easy! It's just the remembering that seems to be hard!)

Thanks!

[Gigi]

Oh I have so been there with you - MANY times!!!

I tried to get a screen shot of the whole drop down menu but couldn't seem to grab that. So here is part of it - just click on the down arrow and all of the options are there. After you group it in the two different layers, it will show print and cut cut - but whatever you set up as print and cut print will be there.....

Does this help?? And I am SO glad I am not the last one to learn..... I feel better!! So grateful to Lisa for educating us!

[Angel135612]

Elizabeth I think what Gigi is talking about in SCAL 4 when you open the window for Cut with... your machine. Under Holder, if you have blade selected, in the box right below that, you can select to cut cut line or cut cut and draw lines. I haven't tried sending anything to my machine to see how that would work, but I think that is what is being referred to. (Unless it was put into 3 in a later version than what I have installed, I didn't see this option before 4)

Under the Pen option, you can draw just the draw lines, or draw the draw and cut lines. (That would come in handy to see how something would draw out, and how it would cut, with out actually changing out the pen/blade before you were ready to use your project paper).

Okay... I was off on what I was thinking... so neither one of you are the last to learn this... LOL

[Elizabeth]

Ahhhh- Found it in the "wrench" menu. I have used that menu for flipping images, but hadn't explored any of the other options. I can't wait to try this out. Thanks Gigi and Lisa!

Diane, the new pen tools look really cool as well. I will have to experiment more with drawing and cutting in the new year. Mostly now I just use my pens to write sentiments when I don't feel like printing and cutting.