Cutters and Software. Which?

[arko]

Hi guys. Im looking at purchasing a cutter/plotter and have been amazed at the vast selection currently available. My question is, which would be an ideal all-round model for starting out with? Also, Do they all use their own software or are they compatible with all the major names? It seems that whenever I am looking at models, they all have CorelDraw in common. Is this just the design software or is it also used for the cutting/plotting translation?

[WorthDoingRight]

Well, the choice of plotter/cutter will depend on a few factors the many ones being:
A) What your budget is
B) How much of a learning curve you are willing to put up with
C) How big you want to plot/cut

If you are looking for a 12" width cutter with good software and the ability to do cutting/plotting then the Silhouette cutter at around the £275 price is often the model of choice.

If you need bigger than 12" say 24" or 48" (or bigger) then you either have to buy a chinese machine if your budget is limited (from around £200) or have deep pockets for the higher quality graphtec/roland machines where £1,000+ likely to be your budget.

Trouble is chinese machines are notorious for terrible instructions and are reliant on you having a bit of pc knowledge normally to configure whatever software you decide to use with it.

Recently a lot of members have bought the Silhouette on here and seem to like the machine (and I would be lying if I said there are not days I wish I had maybe gone down this route)

I on the other hand recently bought a chinese Liyu 28"? plotter as I wanted the ability to feed larger rolls of vinyl etc through. I have not been disappointed by the machine, it cuts nicely and for me with a bit of pc knowledge it has been no hassle.

My first sign vinyl attempt was a 2' wide 6" deep multiline layout for a friends office window. This could have been cut on the Silhouette also. However he know wants some very tall single letters for his signs and this is where the larger cutter is necessary.

I am off to now try to cut a rhinestone template which is one job that I am sure the Silhouette is much better at along with the Silhouettes cutting mat that I imagine makes a lot of jobs much easier.

Coreldraw is just one of the industry standard design packages for Vector artwork along with Illustrator - however there is the free Inkscape if you need something to try. A number of cutters claim they have plug-ins for Coreldraw to cut directly from the program however I feel that most users will probably export and cut in another software package.

Anyway hope this helps.

[arko]

Well, that certainly was a great comment. Thankyou very much. I will go take a peek at the Silhouette. I have seen the Liyu advertised all over eBay (SC361) for around £250, although I thought it was a 24" model. I have around £450 budget for this so maybe I could afford some good software to go along with the Silhouette if I decided on that route. Youyr info has been very much appreciated. Cheers!
Ian.

[Paul]

If you will go for chinese cutter i would recomend flexistarter10 or older v.8
I use that and love it.
But as far as i know loads of the cutters come with the software any way...

I am off to now try to cut a rhinestone template which is one job that I am sure the Silhouette is much better at along with the Silhouettes cutting mat that I imagine makes a lot of jobs much easier.

I prove you soon that cutting mat is just unneeded gadget for rhinestones

[Dave271069]

is the cameo ok for t-shirts , hoodies etc, the main you tube video ive seen kind of shows off its card making skills, im also finding it very difficult to learn all the termanolgy for the flex rhinestone, and everything else you all go on about,

[Paul]

cameo will be fantastic for flex and flock. only limitation will be the size. but I dont think you would often cut biger then A3 any way for t-shirts.

PAul

[WorthDoingRight]

I dont think you would often cut biger then A3 any way for t-shirts.

Well not for most shirts - not too sure about those for bigj2552 and me though lol :rolleyes:

[WorthDoingRight]

Well I now have two cutters. My first is a a Liyu TC631E which is a stepper motor based 600mm cutter that I run via a serial cable and although it makes a fair amount of noise it cuts fine. The wife then bought me a SAGA-1350II cutter, this is a servo motor based cutter, is twice as big as the other cutter, looks fabulous, works perfectly on windows 7 64bit with drivers to print from coreldraw etc and flexi starter 10.5 via USB and best of all it is almost silent in operation! Never heard of this brand till the wife bought it off eBay last week but must say she seems to have found a big gem. I am not sure if this SAGA is somewhat similar to Paul's SEIKI? model but looks a similar grey colour.

[bigj2552]

Well not for most shirts - not too sure about those for bigj2552 and me though lol :rolleyes:

tell me about it.....i,m an XXL....51" CHEST LOL ..and it aint fat ...double

[Charlie_]

Back to the over 560's again I see Richard lol