Newbie Questions

[NancyCook]

Hello - I have recently gottne a 24" Cougar and so far so good. Have cut a few things, some good , some not so good! But I cant get my laser to come on. I turn it offline, then press the menu button once then the origin button and nothing. An I doing something wrong or is there a trick to it? When you press the menu button is the display screen supposed to change?

Also how do I get my SCAL2 files to open in SCAL3 and still see the Cougar mat? WHen SCAL 2 files open they are on the mat for cricut. DOes it matter?

Sorry for all the questions but I kinds feel like I'm flying blind. Also is there a manual on how to use SignCut?

Thank you--Nancy

[Thyme]

Have you looked at the quickstart manual that was linked to in the welcome letter?

To switch the laser on, put the machine in online mode, press the origin button, to switch the laser off press the origin button again.

You should just be able to open the Scal 2 files from the File open menu. And then you can change your mat to whatever you like.

[NancyCook]

Thyme--Thank you for the response. I am able to open the SCAL 2 files from the File menu but it won't open them from the icons. I just installed SCAL 3 yesterday, it is version 3.011. Is that the correct version?

Also I have read the Quick Start guide for SignCut. I was wondering if there was a more extensive manual. Do you have to design and create in inkscape then take it to signCut to cut or can you design and create in SignCut?

[Thyme]

I've never tried opening from the icons....
I don't think that is the latest version, I think it is 3.019. I am testing a version from Brandon at the moment and that is 3.02 so I think you are a little behind but you might want to wait before upgrading as we have had some problems with the newest versions

[Angel135612]

Signcut IS NOT a designing software, it is only for communicating between your computer and cutter... you need to design in another program, like Inkscape, Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator, or even MTC or even SCAL (I don't have SCAL so I'm not 100% sure) but any program you can save your work as an SVG, you can send that file to Signcut to have your cutter cut it out. What is great about Signcut is that it will allow you to send large files to your cutter, where with MTC it doesn't work with a file with a large number of nodes. (Again I don't have SCAL, so I don't know if it has the same problem or not).

I don't think there is an extensive manual for Signcut, since there really doesn't need to be one. If you search the forum for posts on Signcut, you may be able to find answers to your questions, and if not, then just ask and someone will be more than happy to answer them for you. It does take some getting used to, but once I started using Signcut, I use it almost exclusively now, and don't use MTC much at all any more.