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US Cutter Copam, User Manual

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US Cutter Copam User Manual Download Page 38

- 37 - 

 

Creating a Simple Design in Inkscape  

You can create images from scratch using the various tools in Inkscape and then cut them from SignCut. 
For this tutorial, we will be drawing a simple square just to show the steps of sending files from Inkscape 
to SignCut and then making a cut. 

Select the Square tool from the left of the main Inkscape window. 

 

 

 

 

 

Now draw a rectangle by clicking and dragging the mouse in the main window, then releasing when the 
desired size is met. 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, click on the Fill and Stroke button at the top of the screen to edit the shape. 

 

 

 

 

In the Fill and Stroke panel we will edit the colors of the shape to make it more identifiable once we get to 
the SignCut program.  

To edit the Fill and Stroke properties of the rectangle make sure that it is selected. If you haven‟t made any other shapes 
or made any other changes in Inkscape it should still be selected. If it is selected you should see a dotted border 

Summary of Contents for Copam

Page 1: ......

Page 2: ...er 12 Connecting the Cutter to a Computer 12 Installing SignBlazer Software 14 Installing SignCut Software 15 Installing a New Blade 16 Replacing a Worn Blade 17 Installing a Pen Carriage 18 Preparing for Cutting 20 Step By Step Instructions 25 Starting SignBlazer for the First Time 25 Making a Simple Cut in SignBlazer 27 Importing in SignBlazer 29 Converting a Raster Image to Vector Image in Sign...

Page 3: ... 2 Cutting a Simple Design in SignCut 41 Converting a Raster Image to Vector Image in Inkscape 43 Specifications 47 Troubleshooting 48 ...

Page 4: ...nyl cutting in general Please read it thoroughly and follow the steps carefully to help insure a trouble free experience with your new machine If you have any questions along the way we have provided a few locations to go to get those questions answered You can post on the US Cutter forums at forum uscutter com submit a request for support on the support website at support uscutter com or call cus...

Page 5: ...Shown in detail on page 5 Pinch Rollers Holds the media tightly to the feed roller below Shown in detail on page 6 Feed Roller Guides Shows the location of each feed roller so that the pinch rollers can be properly positioned to make contact with the feed rollers Feed Rollers Not Pictured Located below each Feed Roller Guide Positions the cutting material during operation Right Side Cover Contains...

Page 6: ...le from the cutter to a computer Serial COM Cable Port Used to connect a serial cable from the cutter to a computer USB Cable Port Used to connect a USB cable from the cutter to a computer Power Cable Port Used to connect a power cable from the cutter to a wall outlet or surge protector Power Switch Main power switch for turning the power of the cutter on 1 or off 0 Only one of the connection cabl...

Page 7: ...Detail of Pinch Roller Back View Tension Screw Adjusts the tension of how tightly the pinch roller is held to the feed roller below Release Lever Allows you to release Pinch Rollers either so they can be moved from side to side or to allow media to be easily fed below them by pulling up on the Release Levers ...

Page 8: ...m the Measure Screen This will display the cuttable area that the machine has detected for your media in millimeters You can record the dimensions and use them as a reference on your cutting software to ensure that you are creating designs that will fit within the cuttable area of your material Left Right Buttons Selects between the Scroll and Sheet media types If you are cutting from a single she...

Page 9: ... screen when used alone Can be used with the right and left arrow keys to perform advanced functions below Enter Button Left Arrow Button When the Enter Button is pressed simultaneously with the Left Arrow Button a detailed test cut is made This detailed test cut can be used to test the current settings of the cutter when the small test pattern is not sufficient for testing and also for more advan...

Page 10: ...f the height of the backing material This will allow the blade to fully cut the material without fully penetrating the backing Once you have blade depth properly adjusted change the pressure setting until you are getting smooth cuts Offset The Offset Setting allows the cutter to adjust for slight variations in different blade sizes If your cuts are not fully closing or are overlapping you can adju...

Page 11: ...he material was measured by the cutter Left Right Arrow Buttons Moves the Carriage Arm from side to side Up Down Arrow Buttons Moves the material forwards and backwards Enter Button pressed Pressing the Enter Button will return to the Function Select Screen but will not reset the origin of the cutter or material To reset the origin you must hold the Enter Button for 2 seconds below Enter Button he...

Page 12: ...gs If a test cut is made from the Setup Screen the current cut will be canceled Abort Cancels the current cut and returns to the Function Select Screen Page 8 When you cancel a cut from the cutter you should also be sure to cancel the cut from the cutting software on your computer Pause Button Exits the Pause Screen and resumes the current cut Left Right Arrow Buttons Selects between the Setup and...

Page 13: ...r machines with moving parts while the cutter will be operating Excessive moving of the machine can not only disrupt accuracy of cutting but may also cause electrical components inside the machine to dislodge and require otherwise unnecessary repairs and maintenance Fans located inside of the cutter can draw in outside dust from the area surrounding the cutter Excessive buildup of dust can cause e...

Page 14: ...ocation Advanced and click next 5 Choose the Search for the best driver in these locations radio button and check the Include this location in the search checkbox Now type or browse to find the location of the downloaded drivers inserted drivers disc and click next 6 When the wizard is complete click the Finish button 7 The Found New Hardware wizard should appear again When it does follow steps 3 ...

Page 15: ...hout pressing enter wait for a list to show up Click Device Manager Expand the section labeled Ports COM LPT Make a note of which number COM LPT Port is associated with your cutter You will need this information to properly install your software Installing SignBlazer Software Insert the SignBlazer Elements CD into your computer Select Run Setup Follow the on screen instructions Ignore the warning ...

Page 16: ...graphic design program then you can choose to not install Inkscape and work with your preferred software Go to www signcutpro com bundle html Fill out the form and click Register You will be directed to a page where you will be given a download link and a license number Save this page or print it for reference A copy of this page will also be sent to the email address used while filling out the Re...

Page 17: ...inst the Cap This will help keep the cap in place during operation This distance will vary depending on what material you are cutting Your blade depth should be adjusted to approximately The height of your cuttable material of the height of the backing material This will allow the blade to fully cut the material without fully penetrating the backing 1 64th of an inch is a general guide that will w...

Page 18: ...the blade carriage Carefully pinch the blade on both sides and pull it up and out of the Blade Carriage Follow the steps from Installing a New Blade on the previous page Loosen the locking knob on the carriage arm Place Blade carriage into the carriage arm Tighten the locking knob on the carriage arm ...

Page 19: ... come assembled and appear as it does in this image If it does not please refer to the pen replacement section below for assembly instructions To install the pen carriage To Replace the pen or spring inside of the Pen Carriage Unscrew the top cap from the Pen carriage Loosen the locking knob on the carriage arm Drop the pen attachment into place in the front slot of the carriage arm Tighten the lo...

Page 20: ...he pen and or spring as necessary Slide the spring onto the pen from the top and insert it back into the pen carriage Replace the carriage cap and screw into place Once you are familiar with the cutter and its basic functions install the blade carriage next ...

Page 21: ...t from a scrap or single sheet instead of a roll then skip the next step on placing a roll All other steps will be the same Place the roll of media on top of the stand rollers Release the Pinch Rollers by pulling up on the Pinch Roller Release Levers ...

Page 22: ... the material can also be fed from the front Adjust the pinch rollers so there is one roller located on each side of the material and on models with 3 or more rollers one roller near the center Only lower the pinch rollers where there is a feed roller below Use the Feed Roller Guides page 4 to determine placement of feed rollers ...

Page 23: ... Roller Guide to made sure that there is a Feed Roller below Engage the Pinch Rollers by pushing down on the Pinch Roller Release Levers If the cutter is not already on turn it on and select your media type Scroll or Sheet from the Measure Screen to find the cuttable area of your material If the cutter is already on go to the Measure Screen and select your media type Scroll or Sheet from the Measu...

Page 24: ...irections for changing menu screens are located in the Control Panel section of the manual starting on page 7 Adjust the vinyl to where you want the cut to start by using the Up and Down Arrow Keys on the Control Panel Now adjust the Blade to where you want the cut to start by using the Left and Right Arrow Keys ...

Page 25: ...er that the process will start in the bottom right area of the design Please leave enough room to the left of and above the starting location to finish your cut If you would like to make other adjustments to the pressure speed or other settings you can do so now If you are setting up for your first cut with the machine then the default values should be a good starting point ...

Page 26: ...r the First Time Open the SignBlazer Software The Default location will be in the Programs Folder under SignBlazer Elements for USCutter Navigate to this folder and select SignBlazer Elements for USCutter SignBlazer will attempt to download update files ...

Page 27: ...rt regularly To override the update process in the future refer to the Troubleshooting listing titled When starting the SignBlazer Software it fails to find updates located in the Troubleshooting section of the manual starting on page 48 We will be working in Trial Mode Select Trial Mode from the following screen then select Yes from the confirmation window ...

Page 28: ... screen Making a Simple Cut in SignBlazer You can create images from scratch using the various tools in SignBlazer For this tutorial we will be drawing a simple square just to show the steps of making a cut from SignBlazer Select the Square tool at the top of the window ...

Page 29: ... square desired and clicking a second time Now to cut this simple shape from the cutter Select Cutter from the top selection menu This will take you to the cutter screen of SignBlazer Elements where you can see a representation of how your cut will be made when sent to the cutter as well as various cutter options ...

Page 30: ...selection menu Importing in SignBlazer Drawing images from scratch in SignBlazer may prove to be somewhat different than imaging software that you are more familiar with If you would rather create the images to be cut in another software or you already have designs finished that need to be cut then you can just import the finished artwork into SignBlazer and cut from there Most major raster and ve...

Page 31: ...to SignBlazer by selecting Clipboard Paste from the Edit drop down menu Images imported via Clipboard Paste may not retain the same dimensions that they held in another software program Using the Import Function You can import an image that has been saved from another program by first selecting Import from the File drop down menu Then navigate to the saved file by using the Folder and Drives menus...

Page 32: ...ed If the file imported is already a vector image then it is now ready to cut or be further edited within SignBlazer If you are ready to cut you can follow the steps in the previous section Making a Simple Cut in SignBlazer starting on page 27 If the image imported is a raster image then follow the steps in the next section Converting a Raster Image to Vector in SignBlazer to further prepare the i...

Page 33: ... in color though the image we chose for this demonstration has a background and is not completely darkened to demonstrate that the process is possible with a variety of images First make sure that the image has been properly imported into SignBlazer and that the image is selected You can tell an image is selected when it shows a border and square bounding boxes around its parameter With the image ...

Page 34: ...old slider will be included in the cut and anything lighter will not Since we chose an image with good contrast and separation for our example this process will be easy We simply check that our image to be cut shows up in light grey or black and that there are no areas of the background or other parts of the image that are unnecessarily included Now press the OK button on the Convert Image to mono...

Page 35: ...one another If you grab one image and drag it you will see the other image left behind You can now delete the monochrome image that has been left behind as it is no longer needed The cutting process for a vectorized image is the same as it is for cutting a simple image You can now follow the steps from the Making a Simple cut in SignBlazer section of this manual starting on page 27 to make your cu...

Page 36: ...ill be in the Programs Folder under SignCut Productivity Pro Navigate to this folder and select SignCut The first time that you run SignCut you will be prompted with a Setup Wizard Follow the onscreen instructions entering your License number that you received when you registered and downloaded SignCut ...

Page 37: ...to the main SignCut screen We can now let SignCut run in the background while we do our design work in Inkscape or another preferred vector image software We will return to SignCut once we are ready to cut To open Inkscape simple locate the icon in your programs menu and open the program No further setup will be required ...

Page 38: ... rectangle by clicking and dragging the mouse in the main window then releasing when the desired size is met Now click on the Fill and Stroke button at the top of the screen to edit the shape In the Fill and Stroke panel we will edit the colors of the shape to make it more identifiable once we get to the SignCut program To edit the Fill and Stroke properties of the rectangle make sure that it is s...

Page 39: ...nd click on the shape to select it Select the Fill tab from the Fill and Stroke panel Then select Flat color from the options at the top of the panel Use the R G and B sliders from under the RGB tab to select a color for the object This is the color the object will appear in SignCut Here we have chosen a dark red with values of R 68 G 24 and B 24 Make sure the alpha slider A is set to 255 ...

Page 40: ...o Paint The object is now ready to be saved so that it can be opened and cut from SignCut Select File Save As from the top menu Select a name and location for your file Here we have chosen the name rectangle and are going to save to our desktop ...

Page 41: ...ottom of the window For a simple design you will most likely not need to check any of the boxes in the Encapsulated Postscript window Uncheck all boxes and select Ok In the next section Cutting a Simple Design in SignCut we can open our file and send it to the cutter to be cut ...

Page 42: ...ile Open Locate your file in the window and select Open You will see the shape that you created in the main window of SignCut Please make sure that your cutter is on and ready to cut before proceeding See the Preparing for Cutting section of the manual page 20 ...

Page 43: ...ve many different colors Since we are making a simple cut no other settings or options need to be adjusted here We can simply click on the Cut Out button from the left menu to open the Cut Out window Then press the Cut Out button from the Cut Out window to make your cut If your design has multiple colors replace the vinyl in your cutter with the color you wish to cut select that color from the col...

Page 44: ...in the image The portion of the image to be cut should be darker than the background or surrounding area and should have a significant amount of contrast and separation from the rest of the image If possible the image should be completely separated from the background and be black in color though the image we chose for this demonstration has a background and is not completely darkened to demonstra...

Page 45: ...he Brightness cutoff button The number you select will determine how much of the image will be included in the vector conversion which is to become the image that will be cut Anything darker than the level set on the Threshold slider will be included in the cut and anything lighter will not Since we chose an image with good contrast and separation for our example this process will be easy We will ...

Page 46: ...Some images will not be easily converted directly from raster image to vector or will require extra editing during the conversion process You are now left with 1 rasterized image and 1 vectorized image This may be difficult to see as they are layered directly on top of one another If you grab one image and drag it you will see the other image left behind You should now delete the rasterized image ...

Page 47: ...ated Postscript eps from the drop down menu at the bottom of the window For a simple design you will most likely not need to check any of the boxes in the Encapsulated Postscript window Uncheck all boxes and select Ok Now that the image is vectorized and saved the cutting process is the same as it is for cutting a simple image You can now follow the steps from the Cutting a Simple Design in SignCu...

Page 48: ...ndared self adhesive vinyl film fluorescent film reflective film paper card or other materials of thickness between 0 05 0 30mm Maximum Velocity 0 025mm Step Programmable Resolution 0 05mm Step Distance Accuracy Within 0 15 of distance moved Repeatability Within 0 02mm Command Sets Compatible with HP GL Interface Centronics parallel RS 232 serial auto interface recognition Processor Memory Adapt 1...

Page 49: ... the COM Port in the device manager and going to the advanced section of the Port Settings tab Adjust your Flow Control settings to Hardware by first locating your COM LPT Port in the device manager By following the instructions on page 14 then right click the Port and select Properties On the Port Settings tab change to Flow Control option to Hardware Try a different connection method between you...

Page 50: ...truding too far from the Blade Carriage then it can score and cut material during normal operations If this is occurring the blade needs to be adjusted so that it is protruding a minimal distance from the carriage See the instructions on page 16 Plotter does not power on Check if the power cable is securely connected to the cutter and a grounded power outlet surge protector If the connection is se...

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