I received my cutter Wednesday and have been scouring the forums for direction. To all that have posted before me . . . Thank You! I have figured out that just because I see a nice design on the screen doesn't mean I will get a great cut. After reading about nodes and simplifying paths the light bulb came on.
Here is my first detail vinyl cut that I accomplished after cleaning up the graphic (Oracal 651, 45 degree detail blade, slow landing off, v 370 f 31). I started with a Silhouette design file that I copy/pasted into Illustrator. Cleaned it up and added a few modifications before sending it to SCAL 4.0. What a difference in this 5" x 7" design.
Kathy
P.S. I have had the same results with a detailed design on cardstock. That may be it for today. Stopping on a high note!