Corel X3 and Roland GX-24 Cutter?

22224 Views 41 Replies 19 Participants Last post by umeshinamdar, Apr 1, 2010

bac

Discussion Starter · Oct 2, 2006

I'm using Corel X3, and would like to be able to do "print and cut" for opaque transfer sheets. However, I cannot seem to do this through the X3 application. I can only seem to get this done via the software that came with the Roland (Cutstudio) cutter.

The Roland software really requires me to jump through some hoops, so I'd really like to do both the print, and the cut via X3, but I just can't get it to work. Can someone that has done this step me though the process? I have the Windows Roland cutter driver installed.

Thus far, I've been able to print, but not cut correctly. I print the registration marks via the Corel app, but the Roland printer doesn't seem to pick them up.

Any help is greatly appreciated!!

1 - 20 of 42 Posts

Fluid

· #2 · Oct 5, 2006

can you walk us through a typical work flow?
Are you printing color graphics to the roland and wanting to cut?
Are the graphics sent as jpeg? Need a little more info.
are your crop marks custom or through the print engine?

bac

Discussion Starter · #3 · Oct 5, 2006

Fluid said:
can you walk us through a typical work flow?
Are you printing color graphics to the roland and wanting to cut?
Are the graphics sent as jpeg? Need a little more info.
are your crop marks custom or through the print engine?

Right now, I'm really jumping through hoops to get any output, as I can't seem to get the the Corel X3 application to print AND cut.

Currently, I create the design in Corel Draw, then pull up the design in Corel Photo-print (in order to get the design into a jpg format for the Roland software), resize and save as a jpg file. Then, I pull up the Roland Cutstudio application, resize again - then print, and cut.

I would really like to "print and cut" using just the Corel Draw application. I've printed registration marks via the Corel program, but the Roland cutter doesn't seem to recognize them. When I print out of the Roland software, the cutter recognizes the registration marks, and does the cutting relatively well.

Thoughts?? ThanX!!!!

John S

· #4 · Oct 7, 2006

bac said:
Currently, I create the design in Corel Draw, then pull up the design in Corel Photo-print (in order to get the design into a jpg format for the Roland software)....

I just opened the box on my new GX-24 and X3 today. (Which means I no nothing yet) I was under the impression that the Roland liked cutting vectors.
Have you tried printing vectors and cutting vectors? The registration dots need to be exactly 10mm from what I just read.

Sorry I can't help more, I will be one week smarter next week.

DAGuide

· #5 · Oct 7, 2006

From what I have been told, Roland has a plug-in for operating Cut Studio for the latest PhotoShop CS version and Corel 12 and earlier. There is no plug-in for Corel X3 as far as I have been told. I believe that the plug-in only really takes the graphic and inserts it into Cut Studio (i.e. Steps 1-4 below), but I have never actually used the plugin. Maybe someone else that does use it can step in.

Below are the steps that I have to do. It is really not that tough when you are using a vector graphic, but a rastor graphic could take some time removing the contour nodes in the middle. It is still better than trying to cut the graphic by hand or transfering the full piece of paper. Hope this helps.

Mark

GX-24 Steps
1. Develop your design in Corel or PhotoShop
2. Save it as a jpeg or bitmap.
3. Open Cut Studio and go to File and select the Print / Cut function. This will drop your registration marks.
4. Click on the import icon on the toolbar and select your graphic.
5. Click on the graphic and size the graphic to the desire size.
6. Then print the graphic.
7. Click on the graphic and go to Image Outline function under the Object heading.
8. Slide the Alignment Image Density ruler across to the right so that it removes most of the contour lines. Click on the extract contour lines and close that window.
9. Select the icon on the left that shows all the contour nodes. Delete out all the nodes in the inside that you don't want to be cut out.
10. Align the printed transfer on the GX-24. Select the "Sheet" function and the proper downforce pressure.
11. Click the Cut button and let the cutter do its magic.
12. Weed the excess polymer and transfer.

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bac

Discussion Starter · #6 · Oct 8, 2006

DAGuide said:
From what I have been told, Roland has a plug-in for operating Cut Studio for the latest PhotoShop CS version and Corel 12 and earlier. There is no plug-in for Corel X3 as far as I have been told. I believe that the plug-in only really takes the graphic and inserts it into Cut Studio (i.e. Steps 1-4 below), but I have never actually used the plugin. Maybe someone else that does use it can step in.

Below are the steps that I have to do. It is really not that tough when you are using a vector graphic, but a rastor graphic could take some time removing the contour nodes in the middle. It is still better than trying to cut the graphic by hand or transfering the full piece of paper. Hope this helps.

Mark

GX-24 Steps
1. Develop your design in Corel or PhotoShop
2. Save it as a jpeg or bitmap.
3. Open Cut Studio and go to File and select the Print / Cut function. This will drop your registration marks.
4. Click on the import icon on the toolbar and select your graphic.
5. Click on the graphic and size the graphic to the desire size.
6. Then print the graphic.
7. Click on the graphic and go to Image Outline function under the Object heading.
8. Slide the Alignment Image Density ruler across to the right so that it removes most of the contour lines. Click on the extract contour lines and close that window.
9. Select the icon on the left that shows all the contour nodes. Delete out all the nodes in the inside that you don't want to be cut out.
10. Align the printed transfer on the GX-24. Select the "Sheet" function and the proper downforce pressure.
11. Click the Cut button and let the cutter do its magic.
12. Weed the excess polymer and transfer.

Wow - thanX for the detailed reply!

I am doing almost the exact process that you are doing right now. I was hoping that there was more of a one, or two step process, though. I am running Corel X3, and did install the Roland plug-in, but it didn't seem to work. I e-mailed Roland asking about X3, but didn't get a reply.

Has anyone had any success doing a "print and cut" directly from Corel??? ThanX!!!!

bac

Discussion Starter · #7 · Oct 8, 2006

John S said:
I just opened the box on my new GX-24 and X3 today. (Which means I no nothing yet) I was under the impression that the Roland liked cutting vectors.
Have you tried printing vectors and cutting vectors? The registration dots need to be exactly 10mm from what I just read.

Sorry I can't help more, I will be one week smarter next week.

The GX-24 is a great cutter - you're gonna like the results. If you find a more streamlined way to cut digital transfer paper for darks, let the group know. ThanX!!

Fluid

· #8 · Oct 8, 2006

You could forego opening in Photopaint. Export the graphic as a JPEG. Just use a high resolution.

John S

· #9 · Oct 16, 2006

John S said:
I just opened the box on my new GX-24 and X3 today. (Which means I no nothing yet) I was under the impression that the Roland liked cutting vectors.

OK, I'm now one week smarter.
This won't help the X3 problem, but on a Mac using Illustrator CS, you can use Roland's Cutstudio plug-in to add the 3 dot crop marks to your vector art work, print through CS, then load the print in the GX-24 and cut the outline. I works, I've done it.

Roland has a plug-in for the older versions of Corel (9 -12). My guess is they would be able to do something similar to the Mac Illustrator CS plug-in. I have X3 on my PC so I can't use the PC plug-in.

Roland needs to get on the ball and release a plug-in for CS2 and X3.

nametags4u

· #10 · Jun 15, 2007

I realize this is an older topic but I am wanting to know if any new solutions have been found. The CutStudio software plugin will bring the vector (cutline) from (corel for example) into the CutStudio software but not the bitmap. Manually importing and resizing the image, turning on print/cut and printing from CutStudio is less than desireable. I have read that the roland gx-24 will work with other print/cut software but am still in the process of finding some.

I can print to the cutter from corel and it cuts my design with no problem. What seems to need to happen is for some additional command or info to be sent when the cutfile is printed (from corel) that will make it look for the crop marks. (in the case of the CutStudio software, the crop marks are 3 solid black circles.)

If anyone has found a solution to this please let me know.
In the mean time I am going to try some experiments to see what I can figure out. If I get anywhere with it I'll let you all know.

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mzmadmax

· #11 · Jun 15, 2007

Just to correct a bit of misinformation in this thread for future reference, Roland does have a CutStudio plug-in that works with CorelDraw X3. It has been available since August of 2006. I've personally been using it since either Oct or Nov and it does work fine.

You can download it from their website at Roland DGA Corporation - North and South America under Support - software updates section.

nametags4u

· #12 · Jun 18, 2007

Roland GX-24

So far the best I can come up with is using the information found in the reference guide under 'cutting printed material --> using crop marks'

That information allowed me to print everything from corel so that there is no need to try and manually resize and align the image to the cut line which is my main grief with the CutStudio software.

I still have to use CutStudio to do the cutting so that the machine will look for the crop marks but now it is a simple matter of clicking the plug-in button and deleting whatever lines I don't want cut.

I still think/wish there is a way to send a command to the cutter to look for crop marks through corel...has anyone contacted Roland about this?

dcurtisroland

· #13 · Jun 18, 2007

nametags4u said:
I still think/wish there is a way to send a command to the cutter to look for crop marks through corel...has anyone contacted Roland about this?

nametags,
We're looking into a plug-in that works like Illustrator. The only way to do it right now is to manually create 10mm crop marks in Corel. The easiest way for right now is to export as .bmp or .jpg from Corel and proceed using the CutStudio workflow. I disagree with the users on this forum that it's a difficult process, but they are entitled to their opinion.

I will continue to be in contact with our software developers on this issue. But, rest assured, we care and we know about it.

-Dana

nametags4u

· #14 · Jun 19, 2007

You are right, it is an easy process and not too significant time wise if you are going to do any kind of volume production runs, but if each piece is custom and has to be ganged together with other orders in CutStudio, it slows down workflow quite a bit, especially if it is already setup and aligned in another program.

But like you said, printing the crop marks in corel works fine, I just need to get practiced, and get some templates refined.

And to be sure I am not missing something, can Illustrator signal the cutter to look for the crop marks? Or only the CutStudio?

I read that the gx-24 will work with other print/cut software, but I'm not familiar with the industry enough to know what's available...will Flexi7.6 work like CutStudio? That is one program I have seen mentioned in some other forums. Still, I would prefer to do everything within one program and keeping one file per job.

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Heaven1

· #15 · Jun 20, 2007

bac said:
I'm using Corel X3, and would like to be able to do "print and cut" for opaque transfer sheets. However, I cannot seem to do this through the X3 application. I can only seem to get this done via the software that came with the Roland (Cutstudio) cutter.

The Roland software really requires me to jump through some hoops, so I'd really like to do both the print, and the cut via X3, but I just can't get it to work. Can someone that has done this step me though the process? I have the Windows Roland cutter driver installed.

Thus far, I've been able to print, but not cut correctly. I print the registration marks via the Corel app, but the Roland printer doesn't seem to pick them up.

Any help is greatly appreciated!!

You are really doing this in a very difficult way. You need to utilize corel to crete the graphic (or waht ever program) and then use the CutStudio print and cut feature. It (cut studio) will print reg marks that IT recognizes.

customsigncenter

· #16 · Jun 20, 2007

I don't know if this will help becuase I use a different print & cut RIP program (Wasatch) but in order to cut I have to change the hairline stroke to a CutPath (spelled exactly like that) pick a brite, easy to see color (CYAN for instance) from the Spot User Palette & adjust the color slightly so it is different from the original and then name it CutPath.
I don't know if this will work in other cut programs but it is flawless in mine. I use the Publish to PDF option as well as EPS to export to my print & cut. JPEG & files of the sort won't read the cut lines.
Hope this helps.

LincSigns

· #17 · Oct 22, 2007

OK - I am a newbie at this so take care of me please. I don't want to print only cut at the moment. I have just got a new Vista PC and also bought CDX3 to use with my CutStudio - however it does not appear in CorelDraw - there was no GMS folder beneath Draw so I created a new one called that and copied the files in. When going into Macros in Customization however there are no options to select? Anyone help me on this one?

Panhead

· #18 · Oct 22, 2007

LincSigns said:
OK - I am a newbie at this so take care of me please. I don't want to print only cut at the moment. I have just got a new Vista PC and also bought CDX3 to use with my CutStudio - however it does not appear in CorelDraw - there was no GMS folder beneath Draw so I created a new one called that and copied the files in. When going into Macros in Customization however there are no options to select? Anyone help me on this one?

I am using windows xp and cannot find the plug in within the macros, and I have the same setup? Can mzmadmax help here?

mzmadmax

· #19 · Oct 25, 2007

Hi Dave and Panhead,

Not sure if I can help, but I'll try. Here's what I did:

1. Create a folder on my computer called CutStudio_Updates.
2. Download the "CutStudio plugin v1.10 for Windows" from the Roland DGA support site here:
Roland DGA Corp. - Support - Technical Support and Services for Roland Products
3. After downloading, I extract the files using WinZip or some other utility software.
4. Next, I clicked on "pluginsetup.exe" file to install the CutStudio plugin into CorelDraw X3.

No manual intervention was required within CorelDraw (i.e. manually installing or configuring the macros or plugins). The next time I opened CorelDraw, there was a new tool bar that contained an icon (the letter "R" in a box) for CutStudio. If you don't see it after the install, then try right-clicking on the menu bar or a visible tool bar and look to see if the icon is possibly on a tool bar that is not currently selected to be visible.

If this doesn't work, you may want to uninstall CutStudio and try again from a clean install. I do remember that it took two tries to get mine working. Possibly the first try failed because of changes I'd made? I'm not sure, but it did work the second time around after reinstalling. Also, for the record, I'm running on Windows XP.

I see that there is now a new update that was posted on 9/21/2007. I don't know if this one is cumulative or not, so I'd suggest installing the update above first and testing to see if it works. If it does, then you can install the newer update afterwards.

I hope this helps.

~Maxine

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charles95405

· #20 · Oct 25, 2007

Are there any operators using Ditigal Art Solution's CoCutPro X3? or am I ust one voice in the wilderness of cutting?

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