[FLEXYOURFAITH]

Hey everyone!

It's my second full day designing, cutting, heat-pressing...but I've watched hours and hours of webinars and tutorials over the past few months. There's 3 design questions that are still a big unknown though!

1) When using the WELD feature in CadworxLIVE, like on their athletic tails for varsity team uniforms, I have a contrasting color outlining (or contouring) around the team name of an order I'm working on. When I use the WELD command to combine the athletic tail to the last letter of the team's name, the entire design (tail, text, and outline) is converted to the same color. How can I avoid that so I can choose to use 2 colors when outputting to VectorCut 2.0 or MasterCut3 to create/keep the outline effect?

2) I am using: Graphtec CE6000-60, CadworxLIVE, and Vector Cut 2.0...how can I:

a. Set my media measurements within VectorCut 2.0 so I know EXACTLY how much vinyl I have to work with so I can make duplicates of logos to minimize vinyl wastage per cut
Note: My vinyl = standard 5yd rolls and technically measures 19.75 inches in width and 180 inches length; but I don't think I can set those measurements in my PC because the Graphtec will only cut to the end of the vinyl clamps

b. How can I add in several different logos to the same VectorCut 2.0 screen, so I can have logos, text, etc. on the same screen before "sending to cutter" in order to maximize efficiency of a large order

3) Our FLEX YOUR FAITH ActiveWear company logo is a 2 color design, with some holes meant to allow the clothing color to show through...but I'm not sure how to take our vectorized logo, and print it in those two separate layers, so I can load in different colored vinyl for the contrasting borders in 2 separate steps?

PRETTY PLEASE HELP! We have a huge marathon in a few days on Friday, the Pro Football Hall of Fame Marathon here in Ohio, and will have thousands of potential customers at the health expo where we have a mini-store space we're setting up!

THANKS

 

[into the T]

you will have to find somebody who actually uses this setup,
or alternatively find some video/text tutorials on the interwebs

i believe most here do their designs with their own program,
then import vectors into their cutting program

your designs are not overly complex so you could start cheap ($0 inkscape - $25 drawplus) and have your very own graphics program
then it is a simple matter of layers for each color of vinyl, welding, combining, etc.

 

[jleampark]

1.) Before welding, I would first select Shaping > Break Apart By Colors. Then I would grab the main color with the tail and weld that.

2.) There's no place in Cadworx to set the width of your vinyl; that takes place in VectorCut. What I usually do is to size it in Cadworx so that I know generally how many I can fit. When I send it to VectorCut and make the copies, I might have to play with the final sizing or the gap between each item to make sure they fit.

3.) It's easy to add multiple logos in Cadworx -- just import & vectorize or add clipart or add words while you have your first logo done.

4.) The separation of colors happens in VectorCut. (Just make sure you break apart by colors in Cadworx.) When you send the final image to VectorCut, you will see your various colors on the right side. When you click on a specific color, it brings up that portion of the image ready to be cut. Just Auto-Place in the bottom right corner (or however you have your cutter set up) and cut.

Good luck and best wishes for a successful day!

 

[jleampark]

Cadworx has good support also:

https://decopad.zendesk.com/hc/en-us

and

https://www.cadworxlive.com/index.c...onid=6918D9F2FEB3D6D29DF052B0F62AFB26.cfusion

 

[FLEXYOURFAITH]

Thanks so much for all the great help!! I've been in contact with Matt from Cadworx support, he's been absolutely amazing! I had some issues early on with Stahl's customer service, but the Cadworx department is night and day better

I believe I have most issues ironed out now... the only thing I'm working on is how to break our logo up into two layers or cuts, so I can create 100 logos of the one layer, and then 100 of the 2nd layer after loading in another color vinyl to the Graphtec. I love problem solving, just not the problem so much lol...especially since we have 3 outstanding orders now, and the 2nd largest event of the year Friday - gulp!!

 

[FLEXYOURFAITH]

1.) Before welding, I would first select Shaping > Break Apart By Colors. Then I would grab the main color with the tail and weld that.

I'LL TRY THAT TONIGHT! SOFTBALL SEASON IS ABOUT TO START, SO ONCE WE GET THE LOGO FINALIZED, I'LL BE ABLE TO GIVE CADWORX EASY TEAMS A SHOT!

2.) There's no place in Cadworx to set the width of your vinyl; that takes place in VectorCut. What I usually do is to size it in Cadworx so that I know generally how many I can fit. When I send it to VectorCut and make the copies, I might have to play with the final sizing or the gap between each item to make sure they fit.

THE EXACT WIDTH OF MY VINYL ROLL IS: 19 3/4 INCHES (that's obsessively precise lol)
SO WHAT SHOULD I SET MY VECTORCUT MEASUREMENTS AT FOR WIDTH IN ORDER TO BE CERTAIN WHETHER OR NOT MY SIDE-BY-SIDE LOGOS ON MY LAPTOP SCREEN WILL PRINT SIDE-BY-SIDE BY THE GRAPHTEC SINCE THE ROLLERS FACTOR IN SOMEHOW?

3.) It's easy to add multiple logos in Cadworx -- just import & vectorize or add clipart or add words while you have your first logo done.

PERFECT! I WAS OVERTHINKING IT. SO I CAN ADD SEVERAL LOGOS OR TEXT ITEMS IN CADWORX, AND THEN WHEN EXPORTING TO THE VECTORCUT, I CAN MOVE/RESIZE/ROTATE THEM AS NEEDED INDIVIDUALLY TO MAKE THE MOST OF EVERY SQUARE INCH OF VINYL?

4.) The separation of colors happens in VectorCut. (Just make sure you break apart by colors in Cadworx.) When you send the final image to VectorCut, you will see your various colors on the right side. When you click on a specific color, it brings up that portion of the image ready to be cut. Just Auto-Place in the bottom right corner (or however you have your cutter set up) and cut.

MY START POINT IS BOTTOM LEFT, BUT EVERY TIME I CUT THE LOGO IS CUT IN THE BOTTOM RIGHT, LOL, IT'S PROBABLY JUST REVERSE. ANYWAY, OUR ACTUAL LOGO IS 4 LAYERS WITH THE OUTLINES, BUT TO SIMPLIFY, SAVE TIME AND VINYL, I'D LIKE IT TO BE 2 LAYERS. SO ALL I DO IS BREAK IT INTO 2 LAYERS, THEN SHOULD I DELETE THE OTHER LAYER IN VECTORCUT, AND JUST CREATE 100 COPIES OF THE FIRST LAYER ON BLACK VINYL, AND THEN SWAP VINYL ROLLS AND REPEAT THE PROCESS FOR THE OTHER LAYER - OR IS THERE A MORE EFFICIENT WAY?

Good luck and best wishes for a successful day!

Thank you so much for your help and kindness!

 

[jleampark]

2) Yes, you definitely need to account for the outside rollers. I usually decrease my width by 1.5 inches for that reason.

3) Yup! Just add whatever text, images, etc. in Cadworx and then you can move, resize, mirror, etc. in VectorCut. Yes -- I always cut all the images in one color and then swap rolls. You have time to weed the first color while the second is cutting.

4) My cutter always starts in the bottom right also. There's probably a way to change that but I'm used to it. You can either delete the extra layers in Cadworx or in VectorCut.


While it's a little late to mention this, I don't think I would spend the time cutting and weeding 200 images. Another method would be to send this design to a company like Seay Graphics, Semo Imprints, F&M Expressions, or Versatranz. They will screen press the designs onto special release paper and mail you the designs. You press the paper onto the tees, peel the paper, and you're done.

I will use vinyl for ~35 tees or less. Anything more than that and I will lean towards plastisol.

 

[FLEXYOURFAITH]

4) my cutter always starts in the bottom right also. There's probably a way to change that but i'm used to it. You can either delete the extra layers in cadworx or in vectorcut.

still don't understand why there's such a gap in the vinyl even if i am showing edge-to-edge within vectorcut 2.0

i'm going to enable the "expand" feature i think it's called where the cutter goes to the very edge of each left-and-right grip rollers.

The distance, exactly, between roller max width on my graphtec ce6000 is: 18.75'' from middle of grip-wheel to grip-wheel

send this design to a company like seay graphics, semo imprints, f&m expressions, or versatranz. They will screen press the designs onto special release paper and mail you the designs. You press the paper onto the tees, peel the paper, and you're done

wow that sounds amazing...i could probably choose full color as well. Is there a price-break when i should definitely look into outsourcing graphic prints, for example like you mentioned anything over 35-50 it would be economically wise to have another company create the print?

Also, out of the above mentioned providers, do you have a preferred vendor regarding quality, cost, and service?

i will use vinyl for ~35 tees or less. Anything more than that and i will lean towards plastisol.

thanks so much!

 

[jleampark]

I'm not sure why there is a gap. Either play with the width or experiment with just one row of images -- maybe you can fit 5 per row instead of 4?

I use all those vendors, and vinyl. They are like tools in my toolbox; not all situations are helped with a hammer.

Semo and F&M are very good with 1 color designs ($.75 and $.15 with a $20 setup, respectively); Versatranz is great for ganging images as they have the biggest sheet; Seay does great work and is quite quick; Transfer Express has a ton of nice templates.

For me, ~35 is my break-even in most cases, based on the time it takes to cut and weed and in price. Of course, if it's a rush job, I might just cut and weed anyway.