I have a problem with curves

Requests for finding a Font or Shape to use in Sure Cuts A Lot
bandric
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2021 5:18 am

I have a problem with curves

Post by bandric »

Hi friends im sorry to bother anyone. Im new into this and i have issues with curves. When i cut a straight line in example letters A,T,K,L it cuts smooth
and fast but if i cut letter like B,D,C,S with round circle parts or spiral, the head would produce ratatatatat and cut what seems in stepes not continous and smooth cut line. I have a Mutoh SC650 old and respectable machine.

I have it connected directly yo com port or thru usb-com cable the result is the same.

Eventualy does cut the shape even in steps ratatata, but the cut gets sometimes shredded not smooth. Here is the video of what i mean. If anyone has any idea what it could be im kinda lost and without any idea or real culprit to point: https://youtu.be/YmKNmGi_JzA.

When i run demo/test mode everything cuts fine i even produced my pen for menu setup and it prints great all the menu and settings. even small circles and it goes smooth no ratatata sound not on fonts not on the circles. Only when i cut from SCAL5 program this happens.

Thanks for your time and effort in helping me sort this out.
SandyMcC
Posts: 1114
Joined: Mon May 09, 2011 7:01 am

Re: I have a problem with curves

Post by SandyMcC »

First of all, I have no experience with your particular cutter. So, you may need to find a cutting forum or Facebook group for Mutoh. But maybe we'll get lucky with some basic troubleshooting:

Do you have a test pen that came with your cutter that you can use to have your cutter draw on paper? Seeing what will draw when you test, say, Arial font will be very helpful.

Are you using Windows 10? Or are you on a Mac? It could be the driver needs updating.

Have you read the entirety of the Mutoh SC user manual for your particular model?
Sandy McCauley
Owner of http://www.iloveknk.com/
bandric
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2021 5:18 am

Re: I have a problem with curves

Post by bandric »

First of all, I have no experience with your particular cutter. So, you may need to find a cutting forum or Facebook group for Mutoh. But maybe we'll get lucky with some basic troubleshooting:

Do you have a test pen that came with your cutter that you can use to have your cutter draw on paper? Seeing what will draw when you test, say, Arial font will be very helpful.

Yes and it works fine everything is working normal i can set everything and it writes without ratatata.

Are you using Windows 10? Or are you on a Mac? It could be the driver needs updating.
im on windows 10 these cutters dont use drivers they are HPGL/2 type and use machine thru RS232 or USB-RS232 direct com connection.

Have you read the entirety of the Mutoh SC user manual for your particular model?
Yes completely and tried smoothing.

I came to conclusion that it might be SCAL5 issue when sending data to cutter that there is something to look there.
Last edited by bandric on Wed Mar 10, 2021 4:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
SandyMcC
Posts: 1114
Joined: Mon May 09, 2011 7:01 am

Re: I have a problem with curves

Post by SandyMcC »

Are you making ANY changes at all in SCAL when using the Test pen versus the blade holder to send the same design? SCAL has no clue what you've inserted into your cutter. It could be a stick of licorice for all it cares! So, when testing from SCAL, I would like it to be the exact same file that is causing the cut issue with literally NO changes in the Cut Settings window. And then see what it draws. With Blade Offset still set in SCAL, you will see funky little corners since a test pen doesn't require Blade Offset, but being able to see what actually draws, would be helpful, as well as know if the rat-a-tat-a-tat still happens.

I'm just trying to troubleshoot the source of the problem. :)
Sandy McCauley
Owner of http://www.iloveknk.com/
bandric
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2021 5:18 am

Re: I have a problem with curves

Post by bandric »

I have found the culprit it is 100% SCAL5 i tried today EasySIGN and the cutter works as it should with smooth movement normally with the same settings - set in cutter. When i went back and tried same design basicaly some text and SCAL5 sent the same way data to cutter it started shuterring ratatata.

I found also in SCAL5 has a bug when changing from cut to draw it brakes down the program it crashes. So i guess they missed something that is not solved in the code generation for HPGL2.

To last responce you are correct but i have setup the cutter for a pen usage. I dont have issue with final draw cut the design is cut ok i have a problem how it produces it the ratatata movement in the head that was bothering me. In EasySIGN it cuts as it should.

Hope someone from SCAL5 guys reads this and fixes it there is something in GCODE something stupid that is causing this.
SandyMcC
Posts: 1114
Joined: Mon May 09, 2011 7:01 am

Re: I have a problem with curves

Post by SandyMcC »

Okay, you'll need to complete a Support Ticket using this link:

http://craftedge.com/support/support_form.php

Good luck! Hope it's fixed soon!
Sandy McCauley
Owner of http://www.iloveknk.com/
bandric
Posts: 7
Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2021 5:18 am

Re: I have a problem with curves

Post by bandric »

I have posted the second ticket this week got none of response from support. Hope they are doing well since covid and overall situation.
SandyMcC
Posts: 1114
Joined: Mon May 09, 2011 7:01 am

Re: I have a problem with curves

Post by SandyMcC »

They get hit with hundreds of support tickets because of providing compatibility with so many different brands and models of cutters. I recommend only submitting a new ticket every few weeks and being patient and then also regularly updating your SCAL5 to see if the problems are fixed.

IMPORTANT: Because the Check for Update option does NOT work in SCAL's Help menu, you need to periodically go to the web site below, select the SCAL5 version you purchased, and then download and install. It's fast and easy and doesn't require re-registering. Note that the version number displayed on the page may or may not be the latest (usually it hasn't been updated either!). But the file you download WILL be the most current.

http://www.craftedge.com/download/download.html
Sandy McCauley
Owner of http://www.iloveknk.com/
avogra
Posts: 14
Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2021 4:56 am

Re: I have a problem with curves

Post by avogra »

Bandric, after reading your post, I realized, that I see similar behaviour with my KNK Zing Air. Mine is not stuttering in those very short steps but more irregularly. For example, at the start of a cut job when the cut head has to travel to the first shape, it accelerates until full speed and decelerates before reaching the position for the first cut. Those acceleration and deceleration phases are interrupted several times and it only moves smoothly when it reaches full speed.
The same machine works very smoothly when controlled by MakeTheCut. So it seems, SCAL is doing something weird. As an engineer, I would guess that SCAL is producing far to many intermediate commands (e.g. short lines) so that the machine doesn't catch up. I will record a video too and link it here.

Since switching from MTC to SCAL, I have the growing impression, that SCAL is the far more modern and better featured software, but core cutting ability seems much better in MTC unfortunately.
avogra
Posts: 14
Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2021 4:56 am

Re: I have a problem with curves

Post by avogra »

Follow up: My machine works flawlessly with shapes that I create within SCAL5, e.g. basic shapes like rectangles and circles, but also fine with text created within SCAL. No problems at all.

Where I can observe the stuttering: I downloaded a bunch of pdfs for kids that contain just the outline and the kids can colorize them. In SCAL, I opened the PDFs. A few times, it crashed, so I opened them in affinity designer first and exported them as SVG.
Then in SCAL, I created a shadow layer with 0,5..1 mm offset and blackout enabled. the original outline was for print, the shadow layer was to be cut. In that scenario, I often saw that stuttering. It might be the case, that those pdfs contained a lot of nodes that all get transferred to the cutter. I wouldn't be surprised, if the cutter had a hard time with a large amount of small lines. To SCALs defense, I never tried that in MTC.

If your problem is with text, that you create inside SCAL, the problem is probably different from what I experienced.
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