I Need Clarification and/or Review Please!

[Sassycutter]

I am not getting it through my thick noggin which cut is what....

When I place the blade at the bottom right of my cutting mat and paper edge, and two inches to the left for MTC and hit the origin key to set x and y at 0, I am doing what kind of cutting?

Then, if I want to cut something in the middle of the same piece of paper and I put the blade where I want it to cut, again setting the x and y to 0, is that cut the same as above?

If I ever get my machine calibrated for laser cutting, that will be when I turn on the laser to read the registration marks for a print and cut. Right???

Is any of this making any sense? I know this has been discussed and I apologize for taking time with it again, but I still don't understand. Perhaps there are some tutorials I can read or watch that will clarify this for me. Thank you!!!!

[Angel135612]

In MTC when you put your laser 2 inches in from the right edge, you use the laser calibration button. This will cut your image in the same place on the mat that is showing on your screen.

If you put your blade on the mat anywhere you want to cut, that is knifepoint cutting. This will cut your image where you place your blade, no matter where you have it placed on the mat on your screen. The blade will be in the lower right corner of the bounding box that is around your design when you have it selected in MTC, so it may not start cutting exactly where you blade is.

If you use the registration marks, lining up your laser on 3 marks, that will be for Print and Cut.

[Phyllis]

I love the knifepoint for normal cutting. Hope you will soon be doing your PNC.

[MeFlick]

I am not getting it through my thick noggin which cut is what....

When I place the blade at the bottom right of my cutting mat and paper edge, and two inches to the left for MTC and hit the origin key to set x and y at 0, I am doing what kind of cutting?

Then, if I want to cut something in the middle of the same piece of paper and I put the blade where I want it to cut, again setting the x and y to 0, is that cut the same as above?

If I ever get my machine calibrated for laser cutting, that will be when I turn on the laser to read the registration marks for a print and cut. Right???

Is any of this making any sense? I know this has been discussed and I apologize for taking time with it again, but I still don't understand. Perhaps there are some tutorials I can read or watch that will clarify this for me. Thank you!!!!

On the first example, you would be using the Black Cat Cougar's Plugin file to cut with and it is "WYSIWYG" (What you see is what you get). As Angel said, It's going to cut what you see on your screen on your mat on the real paper on your real mat. (You still need to understand the "orientation" of the paper on your scren versus on your mat in your machine. For example, if you are using MTC in Landscape Mode (the default) what you see on your screen is turned "sideways" on the mat being feed "head on" into the machine.

On the second example, you would be using the KNK Plugin File and choose the "knife point" option to cut to your Cougar and as Angel stated, it will start the cut right at that point on your mat (no matter how it looks or is placed on your screen).

Finally on the last example you need to understand that the "laser" DOES NOT read the registration marks on your paper to do a print and cut. YOU use the laser to move it over seperately to the 3 registration marks to tell the machine - here are the boundaries you (the machine) needs to know the location of in order to do an accurate Print and Cut. The main flaw with this is that it is dependent upon your eyesight to accurately line those up! (Not my best skill as I get older!) Only the silhouette has a true "optical eye" that "reads" registration marks. However, it has many LIMITATIONS including size it can cut (not very big) as well as thickness of material it can cut (not very thick - not much more then regular cardstock!). It is great (and easy for a small PnC though!) HTH