Written by Madison CreechFall 2014

Vinyl cutter file set-up

You must Login through the PC/Windows side. If you are logged onto the Mac side, then restart your computer.

1.)Loading your material:

  1. Start with a squared piece of vinyl. Minimum width is 10” of vinyl with 8” of cutting area.
  2. Sandwich the vinyl in between the clamps and the rollers. The two clamps must each line up with a differentroller. The vinyl must overlap at least two rollers. You may receive the error “Bad Position” Move your vinyl, and clamps around until. There will be waste of vinyl on both edges where the rollers are.

2.)Select the proper settings: If you have a roll of vinyl, touch the arrow keys until “F-edge” appears. Do not press the “Roll” button. It will cycle through most of your roll leaving you with damaged vinyl. If you have a piece of vinyl select “piece”.

3.)Setting the G-Force: G-force is the amount of pressure the cutter applies.

  1. You can change the g-force by pressing the “g-force” button.
  2. Use the up and down arrows to change the number.
  3. Press enter to save.
  4. Since this only moves in increments of 10, you can use the manual pen force at the bottom to do micro adjustments.
  5. For commercial grade vinyl use 80 g-force
  6. For Ruby lithe use 60 g-force
  7. Check with your supplierSome suppliers have recommendations for g-force settings with their products.

4.)Setting the speed: If you have small shapes with a lot of detail, you may want to change the speed.

  1. Select the speed button
  2. Use the up and down arrows to change the speed
  3. Press enter to save
  4. For large signage, 20 cm/s would be adequate. For small detailed work you can select as low as 1 cm/s.

5.)File Setup: Open Adobe Illustrator 3 (newer versions of illustrator do not sync with the vinyl cutter, you are welcome to create and save your image in a newer version, but you must operate the vinyl cutter through Illustrator 3).

  1. Note:You must use a vector-based file. Use illustrator or CorelDraw to create your file. If you use Photoshop, you need to “Trace” and “Expand” your image in Illustrator.
  2. Note 2: If you work in layers. Each layer must be saved as a separate file. The CutStudio software will pick up ALL layers even if they are not visible on Illustrator.

6.)Create file/document in illustrator to the exact size you want your final product.

7.)Skip this step if the Roland CutStudio toolbox plug-in is visible on your screen.

  1. Go to “Window” in the top menu bar
  2. Click “CutStudio Plug-in” The plug-in should appear in a small window on your screen.

8.)If you see clean preview in the plug-in box, you can skip this step. If you do not see a clean preview, try one of the following steps to trouble shoot.

  1. Select all and then click the small “A” button in the Roland cut studio box. A preview of your design should show up in the small preview box.
  2. Or select all, go to “Object” in the top menu bar. Select “Expand Appearance”

9.)Once a clean preview is visible in the Roland CutStudio box, you may click the large “R” button. This will open Roland CutStudio with your file. Roland CutStudio is the software that operates the vinyl cutter.

  1. At this time, minimize the Adobe Illustrator program.

10.)Changing the size of the cutting area:

  1. File
  2. Cutting set-up
  3. Properties
  4. Change cutting area to the size of your file (*note: cutting area width cannot extend beyond the width defined by the vinyl cutter).
  5. OR If you base your design on the size of vinyl you have loaded in the machine, then click “Get from Machine”

11.)Make sure your image is fully fitting within the cutting area shown on the screen. You may use the selection arrow to arrange your image.

  1. Be sure to select your entire image before moving, or you will move each closed vector separately.

12.) Ready to cut?

  1. File
  2. Cutting
  3. OK

11.) When finished, you can choose to cut your material on the machine

  1. Make sure your cut pieces have advanced beyond the vinyl cutter.
  2. Press and hold for 3 seconds “Cut Sheet” on the Vinyl cutter. The vinyl cutter will move all the way to the left to engage the cutting mechanism, and then it will cut your material.