Short introduction to the use of cutting plotter machines

This book is a very short introduction to cutting plotters, include the description and use of a cutting plotters, starting from zero knowledge about the topic.

The cutting plotter machines that this book works with are made by American manufacturer Cricut, the models worked with are: Cricut Maker (1, 2 and 3), Easy Press (Heat press) 1 and 2, Cricut Joy, Cricut Explore (1, 2 and 3), Cricut Autopress, Cricut Hat Press, Cricut Mug Press.

But the information in this book may be applied to similar cutting plotter machines such as the ones developed by Silhouette, Graphtec Corporation, and other companies.

Introduction

Plotters are machines that produce vector graphics drawings and in other cases cut the graphic on a material. They use vector graphics images to obtain the cutting routes, a software to give that information to the cutting machine and a computer to load the vector image to the software and from the software give the instructions to the cutter machine.

Vector graphic images

Vector graphics images are a form of computer graphic in which visual images are created directly from geometric shapes defined on a Cartesian plane, such as points, lines, curves and polygons. This allow machines to easily draw or cut a pattern since they follow a defined geometric shape, polygons or formula, therefore the lines represented by vector graphics can accurately be represented, modified and resized facilitating its use in printing and cutting hardware. Vector graphics are an alternative to raster or bitmap graphics, with each having advantages and disadvantages in specific situations due to the use of random lines without any patter or defined direction.

Plotters

Plotters are machines that are used to draw lines on paper using a pen, or in some applications, use a knife to cut a material like vinyl or leather. In the latter case, they are sometimes known as a cutting plotter.

Cricut a cutting plotter machine

Cricut is a cutting plotter, this is a machine that instead of drawing designed vector graphics, it cuts them in a selected material that can be vynil, paper, wood, etc. Cricut name is derived from the word "cricket" (a small, hopping insect that produces a chirping sound and "cut" since it main functions is to cut materials (paper, vinyl, metal wood, etc).

Cutting plotters can be used to create monograms, labels, text, decals, stickers, banners, decorations greeting cards and iron-on t-shirts.

Cricut heat presses allow to transfer ink into other materials, using iron on vynil or ink material.

Cricut is not a printing machine, but a printed can be connected to the software and the user can print from the software to connected printers, when a printer is available.

Design Space (Software)

The software used by Cricut to create the designs is Design Space, it is a freeware software. Many of the options in the software are free, except the options with a green icon, which is how the company gets the revenue to continue developing its machines and its software.

https://design.cricut.com/#/

Once Design Space is installed, open the software and sign in typing the email and password or create a new account. In order to save the documents users can create an account choosing a name and choosing a password and using their email to validate their account.

When pressing the option new project, user access to a new canvas or workspace... The canvas can also be accessed From the menu besides the option home. In the canvas new graphics can be used or created with the templates, shapes, image or text options, phrases or editable images.

Many icons and graphics are free, the graphics with a green cricut icons are non free but they can be buyed on the the software Design Space, which is the business model of the company.

Users can also upload their own svg files created with graphic vector software such inkscape and illustrator, or download images from sites such as freesvg, devianart and similar websites, this items will be stored in the uploaded section not in my stuff section.

In the top menu user can access the section my stuff of Design Space that is the area where all the user projects ore creation are stored and can be accessed from any computer with an internet connection.

Other options that can be modified are the text font or size, also can be added effects a background, etc.

Layers

When more than one image is used in a canvas (area of work), they can be overlaped in layers. The control of the layers are located in the right of the canvas, from it users can move a graphic to the the front and the second image or graphic or text in the canvas can be in the back or completely or partially hidden by the frontal image, or combined, etc. using the options at the bottom of the layers menu.

The eye icon will indicate what layer will be visible.

Requirements

The requirements to complete a cricut work are the following:

A computer or laptop with Cricut Design Space software installed, an internet connection is optional. A cricut machine Materials to print the work: A cutting mat, a material to cut (vynil, paper, fabric or others) A tape paper (Transfer paper) to separate, retrieve and store cutted material.

Materials

Classic materials to cut using cutting plotter machines are Vinyl in many colors with mate, glossy, metallic tones, also permanent vinyl and other materials such card stock, thick paper, wood, metals, etc. The use of the classic materials usually require a mat.

Many cutting machines are able to work with smart materials, cutting mat is not necessary, such are smart polymers (smart vinyl), smart iron, among others. These materials can be also be bought in many art material stores such as: Jo-Ann, Michaels, Blic, Amazon, among others. Cricut maker started using smart materials with its third model, Cricut maker 3.

Blades

The cricut machine comes with a standard blade but other blades can be used to cut more materials, some examples are:

Rotary blades for many softer materials. Fine point blade for wood and leather non-ferrous blade for cooper and aluminum Ferrous blades for iron and stainless steel or cast iron Diamond blade for some other metals.

Cutting process

The process for to use Cricut machines is select an object from the design space software, and with it printing into the cutter machine.

Selection of the graphic(s) to cut

The objects or graphics to cut in the vinyl first need to be added to my stuff in the software Design Space.

Clic in the section inspire to see some graphic samples, open in canvas, give it a name and save it in the cloud or in the cloud and in the computer.

After selecting the object clic in the option make it to cut the object. To change the size or the position of the object, select the option customize, and change the size or the position of the object and save the project, then open the object again and make it.

Cutting the object in the material

1.- First, put the material (vini=yl, fabric, etc) on the mat, in the area intended to cut the graphic or text, tape can be added to hold the material to the grid.

To cut a graphic, it can be selected from my stuff, my collections or also created. Another way to access the collections is clicking in the home menu, and selecting a collection, my stuff icon is a envelope icon located in the upper left screen, bellow the icons discover and inspire.

2.- Click on Make it and choose an option.

3.- If you have a mat, clic the option on Mat.

In the prepare area of Design space move the graphic or text according to the position on the mat, and press continue, choose the size of the mat and press confirm.

4.- Move the object in the design space if needed and press continue.

5.- Select the machine to use and select the option continue.

If there is a message with the message "the machine is not connected" because the canvas was not correct, clic in the option customize, and make the canvas selecting the cutting machine used, clic in the option connect and then repeat this step selecting make it.

6.- Select a base material, it can be Cardstock or vynil, etc. Selecting the right material will allow the printer to apply the right pressure to the material and will be less likely that the cut of the material is done with wrong pressure taking the text or graphics out of the material.

7.- Select the cutting pressure, use the default option.

8.- In the Cricut machine press the button with 2 arrows, this will enter the mat into the cutting area, it will blink in the cricut machine, put the mat near the printer and press the button so the cutter can measure the mat.

Notes:

Use a single line of tape in both sides of the cutting material to prevent its change and avoid using excess of tape or layers of tape to allow the cutting machine to move the mat into the machine.

If maker 3 not recognized use Maker 3: 5 USB option. continue. If that does not work, unplug and plug the usb cable or check that the cutting machine is connected to a energy source and turned on, and that the USB cable is connected from the cricut machine to the computer where Design Space software is installed.

Sometimes the text or object in the canvas change from the position that was originally selected, some times the can go to the center or to the right side, in this cases users can either move the vinyl to that position in the mat or also choose the edit option or move the items to the area of the canvas where our vinyl is located in the mat.

If the tape used to hold the material is in the cutting area of the material, the Cricut machine will cut also the used tape. Use the tape in the external area of the cutting section.

9.- The play button will blink, press it to start the cutting process. Clic in the option done to finalize the work.

Take out the cut material and put it on the tape paper to used when necessary.

Other options

Choosing the correct pressure will result in better outcomes and will avoid to cut the mat.

When the materials used are stronger such wood or metal, users can modify the pressure choosing the option add more pressure, or less in case that the pressure is too high.

A margin can be added to the text to used as part of the cut, or to make the extraction of the graphic or text easier. With applications of layers changes can be made to fuse or separate margins and graphics.

Edition of works

Works previously created can be accessed from my stuff, edited and modified.

Works that have being already cut, can also be modified and edited from the edit section.

Text creation

With Design Space text can be created by selecting the option for text or letter T and typing the text.

Select the text option and type any text, then clic in the option make it, on mat confirm, continue, choose the material (vynil, etc), choose pressure (default, or more or less), the cricut machine will measure the mat. Press the button to load mat.

Other options: offset to cut a surrounding area to easy the removal of the area or in to create an sticker to paste first take thee external area out of the vynil, then transfer the text and surrounding area, and finally remove the surrounding area or use it as part of the work.

Choosing the right material will allow the cutting machine to cut the material without removing while cuttin, mixing the pieces or damage the final work.

The text can be resized by clic on the text and expanding or reducing its size from the corner of the text area, this will allow to select the proper area for the vynil. If the cutter cannot cut small text, it can be resized to a size that the cutting machine can work properly.

The use of layers will allow to create different ways of cutting, the layers can be combined, one can be in the back one in the front, etc. For example when using a surrounding area, if the text is not shown in the canvas, the cutting plotter will only cut the surrounding area.

The different layers can also be cut in different times, for example the text can be cut first and after it the surrounding area, but it can also be done at the same time in order to not need to calculate the correct area in the mat that match with the previously cut text or surrounding.

Fixing the vinyl to the mat with the use of vynil will also allow to prevent movement of the vynil during the cutting process.

Removal of the object or text from the material

Once the material is cut in the mat, remove the material or vinyl from the mat bending the mat, while leaving the material flat or not bending it, the tape used to hold the material to the mat. In small object the mat may not need to be bended.

The same tape used to hold the material can be used to remove the letters from the vinyl or can be used to separate object from the mat. This will keep the object pieces in place. Or if is desired, can be removed the external area and left the object in the material.

When text is removed, since it is cut from the vinyl, it will stay in its position when taking the rest of the vinyl. Some times it may need to be removed slowly or taking the vinyl out from 2 different positions.

When using tape to remove the vinyl, bend the vinyl not the tape that is taking the text out of the vinyl, some of the shapes in the center of the letters may be attached to the vinyl, they are not necessary. If the text is not coming as desired, can be removed also using the other extreme of the tape.

Once the text is placed in the tape, place the tape in the desires surface to be added and leave it for a few seconds, then remove the tape, and remove the tape bending the tape close to the rest of the tape, but do not bend the surface where it is placed (even it is a circular surface), this will prevent the letters to be separated from the surface and will allow its separation from the tape. This will keep all the letters of the text in the areas as spaces that were designed.

Note: If the pressure used is excessive and vinyl is used, it may cut the vinyl close to the other size, this can difficult the process of separation of both layers, less pressure may be needed. This is also a reason to select the correct material, for instance, vinyl instead of cardboard.

When the material is removed from the mat, separate the upper and bottom part of the vinyl and then place the cut object in the desired area to be placed, this will keep all the parts of the object aligned.

In case of using vinyl, it could be convenient to separate a corner of both sides of the vinyl before the cutting, to have an area ready to separate both sides of the material.

Tape can be used to remove the objects from the vinyl and place in the initial place as they are in the same position, pressed into the desired surface and removing the tape, leaving the object or text in the desired surface.

Software for vector graphic creation

There are many free and commercial software used to design or create vector graphic images, among them can be named Inkscape, sK1 and Adobe Illustrator, with them can be created graphics and text.

Addition of created graphics into Design Space

After creating a graphic or text, save the graphic in .svg format into a a computer or usb memory stick, it can be uploaded into Design Space, for this go to the home window, start a New Project, Clic the upload option, clic upload image and click the option browse to select the file, continue and upload. Clic in the option make object to make the object, and proceed to cut the object.

Once the object is added to my stuff or collections it will be available on the cloud to be used or selected by the user or creator from my stuff section or from the downloaded section.

Note:

Cricut does not use .ai format, when using Illustrator save the objects in .svg format or other format recognized by Cricut.

In order to cut text made in illustrator, the text beed to be united (menu type, outline), and working in outline mode (ctr+Y or cmd+Y), when seeing the layers menu, can be seen that each word has it's own layer, unify or compound the layers of the words, a compounded path text can be used by Design Space, unify the text layers with the shortcut ctr+8 or cmd+8. A color can be added to the text. For script text it need to be united in the. path menu, unite.

See also

• Short introduction to the use of sewing machines
• Short guide to printing objects using 3D printers
• Short introduction to the use of cutting plotter machines/Use of Adobe Illustrator for cutting plotter machines
• Short guide to the use of laser cutting machines

External links

w:Plotter#Cutting_plotters

w:Vinyl_cutter