(see also: RIP and Print Overview)
This tab will appear only if your file contains contour cut paths.
The output of a design with contour cut involves several steps as follow:
- Create your design in your software and add one or more contour cut lines.
- From the File menu, select RIP and Print.
- Select the Contour tab in the RIP and Print dialog box.
- Set the contour cut options.
- Print your design.
- Cut the contour.
Setting Contour Cut Options
| The plotter that will be used to cut the contour. | ||
| Send |
Specify how the job will be sent to the output device: | |
| As hybrid job | Sends both printing and cutting data as a single job. This option is available for hybrid printer/cutter devices. | |
| As separate jobs | Sends printing and cutting data as separate jobs. This option is available if you use different devices for cutting and printing. This is also known as virtual hybrid output. | |
| Print job only | Sends only the printing job. This will ignore all settings on this page and will not generate a cut job. | |
| Contour job only | Sends only the cutting job. This will only generate a cut job and no print output; it will still require the relevant registration marks. This is especially useful for recutting a job or sending two colors to the same print as separate jobs. | |
| Media size | ||
| Poll Size: polls the size of the media loaded in the plotter. This feature only works for compatible devices that are capable of two-way communication, such as serial or USB devices. | ||
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Registration mark |
Select the type of registration mark to help you align the printed media in the plotter for contour cutting. Most plotters are equipped with sensors that detect the registration marks automatically. | |
| The Print Marks Color setting in the Advanced tab of the RIP and Print dialog box determines the color of the registration marks. | ||
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Cut page crossings |
Cuts the borderline of a page when the output is tiled into several pages. | |
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Rotate Cut job |
Allows you to print in one direction and cut in a 45 degree rotation. | |
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Auto-weld |
Removes intersections of overlapping objects of the same color. | |
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Passes |
Determines how many passes will be made over the contour cut job. The Passes value sets the number of times the tool will follow a path before moving onto the next path. | |
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Weed border |
Cuts a border around all objects in the selected color. Specifically, this will cut the rectangle around each object. A new cut color in black named "Weed Lines" will appear in the Drawing Color List that you can edit. | |
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Panel Margin |
For a single object, Panel margin sets the amount of space between cut lines. Only works while outputting more than one panel. (see: Panel Tab) | |
| For multiple copies, Panel margin sets the amount of space between cut lines. Only works while outputting more than one panel. | ||
| Overcut | If selected, when the software is cutting around closed curves, it will continue cutting around the curve a second time, for a specified distance. This ensures that the curve is cut out completely, eliminating any small tabs that might be left over. | |
| Extra cut length | The distance the tool will overcut. In most cases, 0.1 inch is enough to eliminate the tab. | |
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Optimize Cutting Order |
When this option is not selected, the objects are cut or plot in the order they were created. When selected, the software looks for the next object within the distance specified by the Optimize Distance field. | |
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Optimize distance |
The specified section of length before moving to the next section. |
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Eliminate line segment overlap |
When two objects have a contour cut path that overlaps, the overlap will only be cut once. | |
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Use same driver options for all colors |
Check this option to force all of the contour cut colors to use the same plotter driver options. | |
| Edit | Opens driver settings for before and after the job. You can change the values so that the settings will be sent to the output device, overriding the settings in the output device. | |
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Advance after plot |
Check to lift the knife and advance the media after output, then reset the origin. This keeps the plotter from rolling the media back to the home position after cutting. | |
Driver Options
This table will list the Contour Cuts set up in the design and allow you to apply specific settings to each of them. It will also let you pause between colors.
Contour Color Toggle |
Turns the respective color on or off, putting a red X through it if it is off. if it is turned off, the contour job will ignore that color in the list. |
| Contour Color | Corresponding contour cut color in the design |
| Contour Color Name | Name of the color used for the contour cut color in the design |
| Cut Type | Type of cut your plotter will make along that contour. These names are specific to each different device. |
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Pause Before Cut |
This pauses the plotter before making that particular cut. This is useful if you need to switch or adjust the blade before making that cut. There will be a prompt on Flexi that will resume the cut job when you are ready. These are set to "Play" by default, so they will run unless you click to pause. |
| Edit Contour Color Settings |