Trace image for print n cut in SCAL 5

[wjhoverson]

I have been a longtime user of MTC but as they are no longer servicing this product I decided I had better learn SCAL. Plus I own 2 Silver Bullets and SCAL is the software that came with them. My problem is that I am having trouble getting a clean trace on some PNG files that I purchased on ETSY. I can get a good trace in MTC but I just don't know SCAL well enough to figure out why I can get a good trace and I am not able to find any good YouTube videos to show me.
This is the image I am trying to print n cut. If anyone can tell me if and how they got a good trace on this I would so appreciate it. Thank you!

[Gigi]

I am happy to send you the trace if you want it , but that won't help you learn how to do it -right? So here is what I did.

It would have helped to know exactly what issues you were having so I could address those specifically, so if I don't on your problem, let me know. I normally keep the contrast higher but for some reason, on this image, it added a wider outline on the right side of the face. I have to say I have not had that happen before. So I reduced the contrast bar until it was just showing the image. Then I clicked on the alpha channel and that omitted the extra inner tracings that I didnt want.

It was just a matter of a few clicks and there are usually a dozen ways to get the same result - this is just what worked for me now. Most of the time just selecting blackout will give me the outer trace, but this image was different for some reason.

It is usually just a matter of playing with the settings to get a clean trace. Like I said, usually selecting a higher contrast along with blackout will give me a great trace, but not with this image.

LMK if you have issues when you do it on your own.

Oh - and the image was small when the tracing was placed on the mat, so I just enlarged it so you could easily see it - you can make it whatever size you want - just leave the image and cut file grouped and make them whatever size you want.

Hope that helps.

[wjhoverson]

Thanks so much Gigi. Yes, I should have been more specific with my problem. Sorry about that. I was using single color for the mode. I had tried monochrome but couldn't get anything to work with that. However, I didn't have the alpha channel box checked and I'm still not sure what that means. My trace wasn't getting everything around the outside - like the left side of her arm but was getting all the way around the stocking which of course I didn't want. I too got that wider outline on the side of her face and could not figure out why. I actually got that on a couple of the files I purchased.

I will try this again when I get home and see if I can get it to work. I purchased a few files from this Etsy shop and it would be nice to be able to use them.

SCAL and MTC are very different and it's going to take me a while to figure it out. If you have any videos that you think would be good to watch (Scrappy Dew?) please let me know. I am usually pretty good with just trial and error but this was so frustrating.

Thanks again for your help!

[Gigi]

You are welcome, Wendy. I think it is almost always challenging to switch from one program to another because you are used to doing things a certain way and have to learn a different way. But I am confident that once you are comfortable with SCAL, you will find that it is a very easy program to use and pretty intuitive.

If you click on the help button and look at the Trace Image category, it will explain quite well why most images should be traced using the monochrome option. It is an older screen shot so it doesn't even show the alpha channel. I just used it because I have never had an image respond the way this one did - as it if had a hidden layer underneath. Just strange - but I got the results I wanted. After a little reading, I have found that the alpha channel should be checked whenever you are tracing a png image.

As I said earlier, most images will trace perfectly choosing monochrome and increasing the contrast until I get the trace I want without altering the image.

Keep me posted on how you are doing. Hopefully this will help you.