Everyday more and more people are getting their eCrafts and I have been answering questions as best as I can over on the eCraft_Crafters Yahoo Group, but I decided that I would answer a lot of beginner's questions here in one place so that I am not answering the same questions over and over again.
DO THIS FIRST WHEN YOU GET YOUR MACHINE!
When you first get the machine, I highly recommend using the machine with the enclosed SD card before starting using the software. By doing this, you get familiar with how the machine works. When you get familiar with it, then you can play around with the software. Also, this will eliminate a lot of factors so that if you are having problems, you can determine if the problems you are having are related to the machine.
PAPER TEARING
One of the most common things that people are running into is that their paper is tearing. If you are having this problem, there are two things that you can do. The first is your pressure setting. Most cardstock will cut at a pressure setting anywhere from 6-8, while thinner papers use a pressure of 3-5. If you are using a thinner paper, use the cardstock stabilizer. You can see an example on using this in the video that I did on cutting vellum, located HERE. Keep in mind that pressure settings can go up or down in 1/2 step intervals, so if a setting of 6 is not cutting all the way through and a setting of 7 is tearing the paper, try using a setting of 6-1/2. Another thing that is very common has to do with the blade that came installed in the machine. For some reason, these blades have commonly been damaged during the shipping process, so try changing out that blade. Another thing that I have found that can cause these problems is paper debris on the blade itself, or in the blade safety cap. Inspect these areas and clean out any debris and try again. For the blade safety cap, I used a can a pressurized air and gave it a little squirt to clean it out. Just make sure you have a good grip on it, or it will go flying! Another thing that Tom Meeks over at Create & Cut discovered is that the grain of the paper plays a role in how well it will cut. To find the grain in your paper, fold a small piece of it in half. If you get a clean fold, you have folded with the grain of the paper. If you have a jagged fold, or see the top layers of the paper have torn, you have folded against the grain of the paper. When you load the paper into the machine, you want the grain to go into the machine. It should NOT be parallel to the cutting plate. In some papers that I have tested, this has been crucial to how well that paper will cut.
PAPER MOVING AROUND
There have been some reports of the paper moving around while it is cutting. One thing that you want to do is make sure that you are loading the paper correctly. In manual mode, you want to load the paper all the way into the machine so that the bulk of your paper is located in the tray and the edge that is closest to you is lined up with the blade. The rollers are located directly behind the blade, and the paper needs to be in the rollers in order for the machine to work. If you are doing this, and using a thinner paper, you will need to use a cardstock stabilizer. If you are still having problems, then I recommend that you contact Craftwell because there have been a few machines where the rollers weren't tight enough to properly grip the paper and your machine may be one of those. Craftwell has been really great about replacing defective machines, so no need to worry about being without a machine for a long time. Most people that I know of, have gotten their replacement within a week.
CAN'T FIND THE RIGHT SETTINGS
There are two types of setting to be concerned with. Tabs are the setting that put the microtabs in the image so that the image will remain in place in the piece of paper until you remove it. The second is pressure. The pressure determines how deep the machine needs to push the blade in order to cut through that piece of paper.
1. TABS - In my experience, I only use two different settings, and I have not really found that these affect the quality of the cut. The main setting that I use is Tab Density of 1, Tab Width of 1. Tab density indicates how often the tabs are occurring, and the tab width indicates how big these tabs are. I use the 1-1 setting for almost any paper that I am cutting without a cardstock stabilzer. The exception to this is when I cut extremely thick materials like chipboard, Grungepaper, or thick glitter paper like American Crafts. For these thicker materials, I use a setting of 0. The reason for this is that these materials are so sturdy that they are not likely to move out of place and therefore I don't use them. On these thicker materials, the tabs are more obvious and so if you can cut without them, you might as well. On the flip side of this, when I cut thinner papers, like copy paper or vellum, I use a cardstock stabilizer and a setting of 0. Because the cardstock stabilizer is there, the cut is highly unlikely to get caught up in the rollers and fall into the machine.
2. PRESSURE - I have found that thinner papers typically use a pressure setting of 3-5 and cardstocks use a setting of 6-8. HERE is where you can find the eCraft Settings Chart that I started to see how certain papers have cut. When you get to really thick papers, chipboards, glitter papers, Grungepaper, etc., one method that you can do is remove the blade safety cap. When you do this, your pressure is dramatically increased. For example, I use a lot of Papertrey Ink cardstock, which I can get a decent cut with basic shapes on a pressure setting of 8 with the blade safety cap on. When doing more complicated images, I need to remove the blade safety cap, and reduce the pressure setting down to 3, and then I get beautiful cuts.
If you don't see your paper on the eCraft Settings Chart, find a paper on there that is similar to the weight and texture of the one that you are using. Then use those settings as a starting point and adjust up or down as needed.
THE SOFTWARE
The software (as is as of this post) is filled with problems. I will go over the most common issues people have had here. You should be aware that Craftwell is expected to issue an update to the software by November 12th. My understanding is that the update will FIX ALL KNOWN ISSUES, which is great news. Most likely though, there will not be any new features added to the software with this update. Once the update is here, I will be posting information based on the update including a few videos. IF there aren't any bugs in the update, we can then ask Craftwell for some new features to be added to it. I know that I already have a long list of what I would like to see, and I am sure that other eCraft owners do too!
INSTALLING THE SOFTWARE
Don't ask me why, because I really don't understand it, but Craftwell released the software in a downloadable RAR file. What is a RAR file? Well it is a type of ZIP file, but the problem with this format is that Windows doesn't recognize it. Therefore you will need to download a program like WinZip to extract the files before you can install them. There are several programs out there that will do this, but it is just one more step and I hope that Craftwell does not use this format in the future updates. Once the software has been installed, you may need to manually install the driver. When I installed the software, the driver did not install correctly, but Windows 7 managed to find it for me and asked if I wanted to install it. HERE is a link to the driver in case Windows cannot find it for you. Also HERE is a very informative post from Tom at Create and Cut about the driver that will help you determine if the driver is correctly installed.
EVERYTHING LOADED CORRECTLY?
Here is another tricky thing that I really hope gets corrected in the next update! I am going to try to explain this as simply as I can. The software and the driver mentioned about are installed on your computer, but in order for them to work correctly they have to be able to communicate to the firmware that is installed on the eCraft machine. Most cutting software out there, look for this communication when the user tells the software to cut. Say for example, you forgot to plug in the USB cord to your cutting machine, the software would then give you a warning that it cannot cut. The eCraft software operates differently. The software looks for this communication with the firmware on the eCraft when you launch or open the software, not when you go to cut it. It does not then look for it again when you ask it to cut. What this all means is that you have to load things in a certain way in order for the software and the firmware to talk, otherwise you will have cutting problems. Follow these steps...
1. With the software closed, plug in the USB cord to the computer and the eCraft
2. Turn on the eCraft (the firmware will not be recognized if the machine is off)
3. Open the software
4. Go to the Virtual Cutting Grid menu, then Settings, then Com Ports. You should see a Com Port listed there with a check mark next to it. This means you are good to go! If you do not see this, chances are there are issues with the driver on your computer. Go through the information listed in the Installing the Software section on this post.
SVG Files
Most SVG files will cut fine on the eCraft, but there are some problems. For some reason, some SVG files will cause what I call "stuttering and dying". You will know what this means when you experience it, but basically it is when at some point during the cutting process, the blade trolley will stop in one spot, and will stutter and make some horrible sounds. When this happens, there is only one thing that I know of that can fix the problem. That is to make your SVG a little larger. For some reason, this will change how it cuts, so it is worth a shot, but there are no guarantees that that will fix it either. This is definitely something that should be fixed in the next update. Another common issue is that the machine will cut extra random circles that don't show up on the Virtual Cutting Grid.
TRUE TYPE FONTS
The issues with these are very similar to the ones found with the SVG files. Look in that section for some help.
eCRAFT SD CARD IMAGES (using the software)
There are issues reported with these images as well. This is something that should definitely be fixed in the next update, and I would also expect that all the SD cards will be added instead of just the Fundamentals 1 card. IMHO, save yourself some aggravation and just cut these images from the SD cards without the software at least until the update.
OTHER SOFTWARE ISSUES
There are other issues that have been reported, and I am not going to get into all of them now. We are (hopefully) only 10 days away from the update, and Craftwell has said that the update will FIX ALL KNOWN ISSUES. Once we have the update in place, if there are still lingering issues, I will address them at that time. If you are having an issue that is not listed above, you are more than welcome to e-mail me at Denise@PurplePaperParadise.com and I will help you if I can.
PLACES FOR HELP
Everyone is welcome to e-mail me at Denise@PurplePaperParadise.com but I thought I should mention some other sources of help.
eCraft Settings Chart
eCraft Videos (mine and few others that I found informative)
Create & Cut Blog - Tom Meeks is a welcome addition to our community. He has a very analytical way of looking at things, and he has made quite a few discoveries that I know I wouldn't have been able to come up with.
eCraft_Crafters Yahoo Group - great bunch of people here and people are quick to answer and to offer help!
Showing posts with label eCraftshop Pro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eCraftshop Pro. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
I Have Been One Busy Woman!
I have been SO very busy lately between taking care of my kids, the house, and my husband who is recovering very well from his surgery! In spite of all of that, I have found some time for crafting, just not a lot for blogging. Here is an update on what I have been working on! First off, since Halloween is just around the corner, I had to get cracking on my Halloween treats. Last year, my son and I started this tradition where we "dress up" the candy that we will be handing out on Halloween to all the trick or treaters that come to our house. Here is a look at the candy bowl...
I used THIS free SVG file from SVGCuts.com. This SVG cut beautifully in the eCraft using the eCraftshop Pro software and even though I had to cut out a lot of these, it really didn't take that long to get them all cut.
The papers are from Martha Stewart and Cloud 9 Design. The ribbons are from Hobby Lobby and Michaels. To create the tag, I used a digital paper (Haunted Halloween Background Paper Pack) from Lettering Delights, and then digitally used the DB Jack o Patterns doodlebat (also from Lettering Delights) on top of the digital paper so that Frank's head had the digital paper shown through. I enlarged it so that I could use my 1-3/4" circle punch. I then used my new die set from Papertrey Ink called Limitless Layers to die cut the four different mats for my digital tag. Since this set comes with 4 mats as well as 1 plain circle, I was able to cut all 4 mats at one time, so it was really quick to get all of these cut. On the back of the tag is my personal stamp. The tag was attached with just a little bit of embroidery floss. These really turned out so cute, I just wished I started earlier so I would have time to make more. I have a feeling that I won't have enough for all the trick or treaters. The candy inside is a mixture of Snickers, Milky Way and Twix fun size bars.
Another thing that I have been working on is the Disney sweatshirts for our extended family for our upcoming Disney World trip. Here are two more of these, and I have to tell you that even though I have made several of these now, every time I finish one I am just amazed every time. They turn out so good! I just love this t-shirt vinyl! First up is another Tinkerbell. The first one was one that I made for myself, this one is for my wonderful MIL. I just know that she is going to love this!
This next one is just darling. This is for my niece, who is only 18 months old, so this sweatshirt is tiny! This just goes to show you that this stuff can be intricately cut at small sizes and look amazing! She is the only little girl in our family, so naturally she is our own Cinderella!
I still have not had a chance to play with my new eCraft SD card, but I will be doing that soon, and I will share what I create. I can't wait to do this, but I had to get these other things out of the way first!
I used THIS free SVG file from SVGCuts.com. This SVG cut beautifully in the eCraft using the eCraftshop Pro software and even though I had to cut out a lot of these, it really didn't take that long to get them all cut.
The papers are from Martha Stewart and Cloud 9 Design. The ribbons are from Hobby Lobby and Michaels. To create the tag, I used a digital paper (Haunted Halloween Background Paper Pack) from Lettering Delights, and then digitally used the DB Jack o Patterns doodlebat (also from Lettering Delights) on top of the digital paper so that Frank's head had the digital paper shown through. I enlarged it so that I could use my 1-3/4" circle punch. I then used my new die set from Papertrey Ink called Limitless Layers to die cut the four different mats for my digital tag. Since this set comes with 4 mats as well as 1 plain circle, I was able to cut all 4 mats at one time, so it was really quick to get all of these cut. On the back of the tag is my personal stamp. The tag was attached with just a little bit of embroidery floss. These really turned out so cute, I just wished I started earlier so I would have time to make more. I have a feeling that I won't have enough for all the trick or treaters. The candy inside is a mixture of Snickers, Milky Way and Twix fun size bars.
Another thing that I have been working on is the Disney sweatshirts for our extended family for our upcoming Disney World trip. Here are two more of these, and I have to tell you that even though I have made several of these now, every time I finish one I am just amazed every time. They turn out so good! I just love this t-shirt vinyl! First up is another Tinkerbell. The first one was one that I made for myself, this one is for my wonderful MIL. I just know that she is going to love this!
This next one is just darling. This is for my niece, who is only 18 months old, so this sweatshirt is tiny! This just goes to show you that this stuff can be intricately cut at small sizes and look amazing! She is the only little girl in our family, so naturally she is our own Cinderella!
I still have not had a chance to play with my new eCraft SD card, but I will be doing that soon, and I will share what I create. I can't wait to do this, but I had to get these other things out of the way first!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
MTC & eCraft Together?...A Dream Come True!
As many of you know, I love Make the Cut. It is truly great software. You also know by now that I love my eCraft! So what if Craftwell (makers of the eCraft) allow Make the Cut to cut directly to the eCraft??? Well it is a possibility. After some MTC users made a request to Andy (MTC developer) to add eCraft to the list of machines that could cut directly from MTC, he stated that he would be interested in doing it and has contacted Craftwell. As of right now, he has stated that he has opened up a line of communication with Craftwell. So what could happen from this point on...well there are a few options.
1. Craftwell could say no. Craftwell has many plans for the eCraft brand including an IPhone App and the eCraftCentral website. Would allowing Make the Cut hinder these plans? I don't think so, just because Make the Cut works with the eCraft does not mean that eCraft users would not use these applications. I think at this point, Craftwell has probably realized that the software side of this business is more complicated than they originally intended. To get all of these applications off the ground is probably going to take more time then they originally intended, and frankly they have been embarrassed by the software that was released. If they were to give users another option, then users would be more willing to wait for these other applications and that would take some of the pressure off Craftwell. The jury is still out on how much this delay with decent cutting software is going to cost Craftwell. There are countless complaints online about the software, and that is a marketing disaster! People are more likely to speak up with they are upset than when they are satisfied, and those bad reviews really do hurt a product's reputation. The longer the delay, the more complaints, the worse the reputation. Craftwell has got to take that into account when making this decision. Crafters are a community that relies on the opinions of other crafters, and they get those opinions directly from crafters on the forums and message boards. When a product is good, and the reviews online are good, crafters will flock to it! When a product is bad, and the reviews online are bad, that product typically crashes and burns! Craftwell is not crashing and burning yet, but the longer the wait for some decent cutting software, the more likely this is to happen. That would be a shame!
2. Craftwell could do a complete merger with MTC. Craftwell could completely scrap their plans for their own software and allow Make the Cut to be the "software of choice" for the eCraft brand. I think this is unlikely as that would mean that Craftwell would have to break their promise to eCraft users in regards to the IPhone App and the eCraftCentral website. I also think that since part of the eCraftCentral website revolves around users buying downloadable images (produced not only by Craftwell but also by other users), they are not going to let this go as this could be a great source of revenue for them. I for one LOVE this idea. There have been many times when I suddenly decided that I needed a certain image off of a Cricut cartridge, but would have to wait until either I could find the cartridge locally at a good price or online at a good price and then wait for it to be shipped to me. I would love some instant gratification, wouldn't you?
3. Craftwell could allow MTC to cut with the eCraft. This would be different from the merger scenario in #2. Just because MTC users could cut to the eCraft with the MTC software would not mean that Craftwell would have to change any of their plans for their own software, the eCraftCentral website, or the IPhone app. On top of that, it would offer both Craftwell and MTC some great benefits. If MTC could cut to the eCraft, there are several eCraft owners out there that want to use their machines NOW. Most of them would be willing to pay the $59 to get the MTC software even if they only plan on using it until the eCraft software is fully developed. This will produce more revenue for Make the Cut. On the flip side, there are a lot of MTC users out there that will not buy a die cutter that does not work with MTC, so that opens up a whole new batch of potential customers to the eCraft. Several MTC users have expressed interest in the eCraft, but won't buy it because they love MTC so much they are not willing to part with the software. Probably the biggest benefit that this would offer to Craftwell is some flexibility. If users have another option out there for cutting outside of the SD cards, Craftwell would then have some breathing room. With this, they could then really focus on delivering a high quality software, IPhone app, and the eCraftCentral website. So much of their effort and resources right now have got to be tied up in handling the crisis on their hands right now with the software, that this breathing room would be essential in allowing them to focus on the details and make sure everything is just right. We have seen that when Craftwell takes their time and when they listen to the crafters, they CAN deliver an outstanding product! This option would allow them to do just that with the software. On top of that, this breathing room wouldn't cost them anything (except maybe sending Andy a free eCraft), that has got to sound like an easy out for Craftwell.
In conclusion, I think it that #3 is really the only option that makes any sense for both Craftwell and Make the Cut. If you are an eCraft user, I would love to know what you think about this? Would you buy MTC to work with the eCraft until their software could be fully developed and tested? If you are an MTC user and do not have an eCraft, would you consider the eCraft when you are in the market for a new cutter if it cut with MTC?
1. Craftwell could say no. Craftwell has many plans for the eCraft brand including an IPhone App and the eCraftCentral website. Would allowing Make the Cut hinder these plans? I don't think so, just because Make the Cut works with the eCraft does not mean that eCraft users would not use these applications. I think at this point, Craftwell has probably realized that the software side of this business is more complicated than they originally intended. To get all of these applications off the ground is probably going to take more time then they originally intended, and frankly they have been embarrassed by the software that was released. If they were to give users another option, then users would be more willing to wait for these other applications and that would take some of the pressure off Craftwell. The jury is still out on how much this delay with decent cutting software is going to cost Craftwell. There are countless complaints online about the software, and that is a marketing disaster! People are more likely to speak up with they are upset than when they are satisfied, and those bad reviews really do hurt a product's reputation. The longer the delay, the more complaints, the worse the reputation. Craftwell has got to take that into account when making this decision. Crafters are a community that relies on the opinions of other crafters, and they get those opinions directly from crafters on the forums and message boards. When a product is good, and the reviews online are good, crafters will flock to it! When a product is bad, and the reviews online are bad, that product typically crashes and burns! Craftwell is not crashing and burning yet, but the longer the wait for some decent cutting software, the more likely this is to happen. That would be a shame!
2. Craftwell could do a complete merger with MTC. Craftwell could completely scrap their plans for their own software and allow Make the Cut to be the "software of choice" for the eCraft brand. I think this is unlikely as that would mean that Craftwell would have to break their promise to eCraft users in regards to the IPhone App and the eCraftCentral website. I also think that since part of the eCraftCentral website revolves around users buying downloadable images (produced not only by Craftwell but also by other users), they are not going to let this go as this could be a great source of revenue for them. I for one LOVE this idea. There have been many times when I suddenly decided that I needed a certain image off of a Cricut cartridge, but would have to wait until either I could find the cartridge locally at a good price or online at a good price and then wait for it to be shipped to me. I would love some instant gratification, wouldn't you?
3. Craftwell could allow MTC to cut with the eCraft. This would be different from the merger scenario in #2. Just because MTC users could cut to the eCraft with the MTC software would not mean that Craftwell would have to change any of their plans for their own software, the eCraftCentral website, or the IPhone app. On top of that, it would offer both Craftwell and MTC some great benefits. If MTC could cut to the eCraft, there are several eCraft owners out there that want to use their machines NOW. Most of them would be willing to pay the $59 to get the MTC software even if they only plan on using it until the eCraft software is fully developed. This will produce more revenue for Make the Cut. On the flip side, there are a lot of MTC users out there that will not buy a die cutter that does not work with MTC, so that opens up a whole new batch of potential customers to the eCraft. Several MTC users have expressed interest in the eCraft, but won't buy it because they love MTC so much they are not willing to part with the software. Probably the biggest benefit that this would offer to Craftwell is some flexibility. If users have another option out there for cutting outside of the SD cards, Craftwell would then have some breathing room. With this, they could then really focus on delivering a high quality software, IPhone app, and the eCraftCentral website. So much of their effort and resources right now have got to be tied up in handling the crisis on their hands right now with the software, that this breathing room would be essential in allowing them to focus on the details and make sure everything is just right. We have seen that when Craftwell takes their time and when they listen to the crafters, they CAN deliver an outstanding product! This option would allow them to do just that with the software. On top of that, this breathing room wouldn't cost them anything (except maybe sending Andy a free eCraft), that has got to sound like an easy out for Craftwell.
In conclusion, I think it that #3 is really the only option that makes any sense for both Craftwell and Make the Cut. If you are an eCraft user, I would love to know what you think about this? Would you buy MTC to work with the eCraft until their software could be fully developed and tested? If you are an MTC user and do not have an eCraft, would you consider the eCraft when you are in the market for a new cutter if it cut with MTC?
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Craftwell Communicates!
Since the eCraftshop Pro software was released on September 1st, there has been A LOT of talk about it. It has not been good either. eCraft owners like myself have been waiting for an update, and we have been getting frustrated about not hearing any kind of communication from Craftwell about the update. Really, we just wanted to be reassured that we did not make a bad purchase. Yesterday, the following message was posted on Facebook, the eCraft_Crafters Yahoo Group, and also sent via e-mail to registered users. Here is the message in case you have not seen it.
To our valued customers,
We at Craftwell want to thank you for your support and feedback. This company was founded on the principle that the products we build will be guided by the needs of the customer. We followed your recommendations when we built the eCraft and are listening to you as we improve the software. We are working on an upgrade to eCraftshop and should have it available by the end of this month. That is later than planned but we want to be certain that it addresses the reported issues. In future upgrades, we will continue to improve functinality and incorporate new features that have been suggested by eCraftshop users. Additionally, as per your requests, we have started posting eCraft 101 video tutorials on our site. More eCraft 101 videos are being created and we will also be posting videos created by other enthusiasts. We thank you for your patience and assure you that we are committed to our users and making sure that all Craftwell products meet your expectations.
Sincerely,
The Craftwell Support Team
Shortly following this message, there were several responses on the eCraft_Crafters Yahoo Group. Personally, I do not share the same view that so many have. Several people are upset that the update is taking so long. In regards to this, I have to say that I am not surprised. Since there are so many things that needed to be fixed in the software, it makes sense that the update is taking longer than expected because they are trying to fix everything that has been reported. Personally I would rather have the update fix everything rather than mess around with another sub-standard version of the software. If the updates were released with only a few changes at a time, then we would all be asking when the next update is coming. Frankly, I have enough drama in my life right now to have to deal with this. I can understand why so many people are frustrated. I am in the position where I do have another machine that I can use to cut my SVGs and TTF Fonts, so I am not missing out on anything. It sure would be nice to be able to do it with the eCraft though!
If anything, I think that maybe Craftwell has learned a valuable lesson from all of this. Their customers need to hear from them. Once they have the software update done, I encourage them to get the forums and messageboards online so that there is one central location where users can look to for information. I would also like to encourage them to appoint a representative to check in with those forums and messageboards regularly.
Here's hoping that the update is jam packed with fixes, and that it comes sooner rather than later!
To our valued customers,
We at Craftwell want to thank you for your support and feedback. This company was founded on the principle that the products we build will be guided by the needs of the customer. We followed your recommendations when we built the eCraft and are listening to you as we improve the software. We are working on an upgrade to eCraftshop and should have it available by the end of this month. That is later than planned but we want to be certain that it addresses the reported issues. In future upgrades, we will continue to improve functinality and incorporate new features that have been suggested by eCraftshop users. Additionally, as per your requests, we have started posting eCraft 101 video tutorials on our site. More eCraft 101 videos are being created and we will also be posting videos created by other enthusiasts. We thank you for your patience and assure you that we are committed to our users and making sure that all Craftwell products meet your expectations.
Sincerely,
The Craftwell Support Team
Shortly following this message, there were several responses on the eCraft_Crafters Yahoo Group. Personally, I do not share the same view that so many have. Several people are upset that the update is taking so long. In regards to this, I have to say that I am not surprised. Since there are so many things that needed to be fixed in the software, it makes sense that the update is taking longer than expected because they are trying to fix everything that has been reported. Personally I would rather have the update fix everything rather than mess around with another sub-standard version of the software. If the updates were released with only a few changes at a time, then we would all be asking when the next update is coming. Frankly, I have enough drama in my life right now to have to deal with this. I can understand why so many people are frustrated. I am in the position where I do have another machine that I can use to cut my SVGs and TTF Fonts, so I am not missing out on anything. It sure would be nice to be able to do it with the eCraft though!
If anything, I think that maybe Craftwell has learned a valuable lesson from all of this. Their customers need to hear from them. Once they have the software update done, I encourage them to get the forums and messageboards online so that there is one central location where users can look to for information. I would also like to encourage them to appoint a representative to check in with those forums and messageboards regularly.
Here's hoping that the update is jam packed with fixes, and that it comes sooner rather than later!
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Updates to the eCraft Video Page
Debbie on the eCraft Yahoo Group mentioned that she had trouble finding Tom Meeks' videos on the Create & Cut blog. He decided to put in some links to his videos, and it got me thinking...why don't I add his videos to my eCraft Videos Page. So I did. I will also add any other videos that I find, so check the page out often.
On a personal note...I have not had a lot of crafting time the last few days. My husband is going to be having back surgery in a few weeks and we have several preparations to get ready for it. Since he is on some very strong pain medication, I have to drive him to all of his appointments, as well as take care of the house and our boys. As scary as it is for him to have a surgery like this, it is a blessing. He is in so much pain 24 hours a day, that even if the surgery doesn't completely eliminate his pain, any relief will be monumental. I do have some crafting time planned with my friend Desiree tomorrow as we undertake a rather large project. Hopefully we can make some good progress so that I can share some pictures.
I will be making time to create some videos once we have the eCraftshop Pro software update...I am anxiously awaiting this update. I today tried to cut out an SVG really quick and ended up with the infamous random circles. Argh! I hope that Craftwell realizes how important it is to get this software functioning better, as the ability to cut SVG files was a big selling point for them. I would not have (and I know most other owners) bought the machine without this ability. I certainly hope that this is their top priority with this update!
On a personal note...I have not had a lot of crafting time the last few days. My husband is going to be having back surgery in a few weeks and we have several preparations to get ready for it. Since he is on some very strong pain medication, I have to drive him to all of his appointments, as well as take care of the house and our boys. As scary as it is for him to have a surgery like this, it is a blessing. He is in so much pain 24 hours a day, that even if the surgery doesn't completely eliminate his pain, any relief will be monumental. I do have some crafting time planned with my friend Desiree tomorrow as we undertake a rather large project. Hopefully we can make some good progress so that I can share some pictures.
I will be making time to create some videos once we have the eCraftshop Pro software update...I am anxiously awaiting this update. I today tried to cut out an SVG really quick and ended up with the infamous random circles. Argh! I hope that Craftwell realizes how important it is to get this software functioning better, as the ability to cut SVG files was a big selling point for them. I would not have (and I know most other owners) bought the machine without this ability. I certainly hope that this is their top priority with this update!
Monday, September 13, 2010
Moving Forward...
Over the weekend, I got several e-mails and pleas for help in regards to the eCraftshop Pro software. Right now, I think everyone is in agreement that the software is not what we were hoping for. As I stated before the software was released, this software was not going to be great right off the bat. No software is. A lot of us, myself included have made lists for Craftwell on what we experienced with the software. We know that an update is coming, and so with that, we need to prepare ourselves for what we are likely to see in this update, and what we will not see.
FIX THE ISSUES
Clearly Craftwell's priorities are going to be in fixing the known issues that exist in the software as it is currently designed. Don't expect to see any major re-design in the software, but I will expect to see some of the features already in the software to be functioning better if not completely functional. For example, the shapes menu. There are 12 shapes available in this menu that do not cut correctly. I would expect that this is something that can be fixed in the first update. In fact, I believe that a lot of the problems that we are having with the software are due to a rendering issue that is also causing problems with SVG functionality. I believe that this is most likely Craftwell's priority and if they get this fixed, a lot of the problems we are having will be resolved. I hope that this underlying issue can be fixed with this first update, but be prepared that it may still be a bit sketchy. It will be even more important that all of us, report the issues we have after the update, because that will direct future updates.
ENHANCEMENTS
With this first update, I think it is important that we all understand that Craftwell will probably not be adding any additional features. Whenever you are working with software, it seems like the best course of action is to focus on fixing what is there before adding anything new to the mix. I have stated that I believe this program should have a split/breaking feature, but I don't expect this feature to happen in this update, and it may not happen in the next few updates. I will lobby for these enhancements, but for the time being we need to let Craftwell focus on fixing what is there.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I look forward to the update with much anticipation. I stand by my original statement that the software has good bones. When the update comes out, we will see what Craftwell does to those bones. I would have to think that Craftwell is not going to give us an update that doesn't correct a fair amount of the issues, because that would severely hurt their reputation. Based on how well the eCraft is designed and manufactured, I would have to believe that they intend to give it their all in the software. Right now in the crafting community, users are viewing the eCraft machine and the eCraftshop Pro software as ONE product, and if they do not deliver a great end result on the software, it could hurt the success of the eCraft machine. That would be a big shame! I have so thoroughly enjoyed the machine, and I really want to be able to open up the horizons on this product. I plan on sticking with it through thick and thin, but I will always be honest and truthful on my opinions.
FIX THE ISSUES
Clearly Craftwell's priorities are going to be in fixing the known issues that exist in the software as it is currently designed. Don't expect to see any major re-design in the software, but I will expect to see some of the features already in the software to be functioning better if not completely functional. For example, the shapes menu. There are 12 shapes available in this menu that do not cut correctly. I would expect that this is something that can be fixed in the first update. In fact, I believe that a lot of the problems that we are having with the software are due to a rendering issue that is also causing problems with SVG functionality. I believe that this is most likely Craftwell's priority and if they get this fixed, a lot of the problems we are having will be resolved. I hope that this underlying issue can be fixed with this first update, but be prepared that it may still be a bit sketchy. It will be even more important that all of us, report the issues we have after the update, because that will direct future updates.
ENHANCEMENTS
With this first update, I think it is important that we all understand that Craftwell will probably not be adding any additional features. Whenever you are working with software, it seems like the best course of action is to focus on fixing what is there before adding anything new to the mix. I have stated that I believe this program should have a split/breaking feature, but I don't expect this feature to happen in this update, and it may not happen in the next few updates. I will lobby for these enhancements, but for the time being we need to let Craftwell focus on fixing what is there.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I look forward to the update with much anticipation. I stand by my original statement that the software has good bones. When the update comes out, we will see what Craftwell does to those bones. I would have to think that Craftwell is not going to give us an update that doesn't correct a fair amount of the issues, because that would severely hurt their reputation. Based on how well the eCraft is designed and manufactured, I would have to believe that they intend to give it their all in the software. Right now in the crafting community, users are viewing the eCraft machine and the eCraftshop Pro software as ONE product, and if they do not deliver a great end result on the software, it could hurt the success of the eCraft machine. That would be a big shame! I have so thoroughly enjoyed the machine, and I really want to be able to open up the horizons on this product. I plan on sticking with it through thick and thin, but I will always be honest and truthful on my opinions.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Glitter Papers & T-shirt Vinyl on the eCraft
So in exploring the eCraft's capabilities, I would be remiss if I did not cut up some glitter papers. All of these glitter papers cut really well. They are all different thicknesses so the pressure settings vary. I did find that as long as you are not cutting intricate shapes, you will do better to cut these without tabs. I also found that it was better to cut all of these with the blade safety cap off. I think that the glitter cuts better with that extra bit of blade clearance. I tested out four different glitter papers.
Light green - top left - American Crafts, pressure 8, tab density 0, tab width 0, blade safety cap off
Red - top right - Doodlebug Design, pressure 5, tab density 0, tab width 0, blade safety cap off
Silver - bottom left - Paper Studio, pressure 5, tab density 0, tab width 0, blade safety cap off
Pink - bottom right - Colorbok, pressure 4, tab density 0, tab width 0, blade safety cap off
Next up, t-shirt vinyl (aka heat transfer vinyl). I don't know the brand name of this vinyl, I got this from http://www.craftvinyl.com/. I did a couple of test cuts and this one was a little tricky. The "backing" paper on this vinyl is actually a shiny piece of acrylic. Whenever I fed it into the machine, it would slide all over the place. I then determined that you need a cardstock stabilizer for it, but it would also slide all over the cardstock stabilizer. The thing that finally worked with this is to use some removeable adhesive and adhere it to the cardstock stabilizer before trying to cut it. This vinyl is thicker than a traditional vinyl so therefore I needed to use a pressure of 6 to get a kiss cut on this vinyl. Of course I used no tabs on this. This vinyl does cut extremely well, and weeded without a problem. I absolutely love this product!
I decided to go ahead and make a project to show you using t-shirt vinyl. I found this SVG in my stash, and imported it into eCP. First I cut it out of cardstock to make sure that this file would cut correctly, which it did. With t-shirt vinyl, you need to cut on the dull side and cut your image mirrored or flipped. eCP does have an option to flip an image, and so I tried it out and it worked fine. I cut both pieces, the background in gold, and the DAD in red. I then placed the gold background on a sweatshirt of my husband's and placed a teflon sheet on top of it, and then ironed away. This paticular t-shirt vinyl is a "cold peel" product which means that after you iron it, you need to let it cool down before peeling away the acrylic backing which acts like your transfer tape. I have found that it needs to cool for 3-5 minutes for best results. If the vinyl does not stick to your t-shirt, iron it again. Most likely this happens because your iron is not hot enough. Once I had the gold background in place, I layered the red DAD piece on top and then ironed that piece into place. Everything worked great, and I love how this looks. My friend Desiree and I plan on doing a bunch of t-shirts for our kids, we just need to put together our order and plan out what exactly we want to do.
Light green - top left - American Crafts, pressure 8, tab density 0, tab width 0, blade safety cap off
Red - top right - Doodlebug Design, pressure 5, tab density 0, tab width 0, blade safety cap off
Silver - bottom left - Paper Studio, pressure 5, tab density 0, tab width 0, blade safety cap off
Pink - bottom right - Colorbok, pressure 4, tab density 0, tab width 0, blade safety cap off
Next up, t-shirt vinyl (aka heat transfer vinyl). I don't know the brand name of this vinyl, I got this from http://www.craftvinyl.com/. I did a couple of test cuts and this one was a little tricky. The "backing" paper on this vinyl is actually a shiny piece of acrylic. Whenever I fed it into the machine, it would slide all over the place. I then determined that you need a cardstock stabilizer for it, but it would also slide all over the cardstock stabilizer. The thing that finally worked with this is to use some removeable adhesive and adhere it to the cardstock stabilizer before trying to cut it. This vinyl is thicker than a traditional vinyl so therefore I needed to use a pressure of 6 to get a kiss cut on this vinyl. Of course I used no tabs on this. This vinyl does cut extremely well, and weeded without a problem. I absolutely love this product!
I decided to go ahead and make a project to show you using t-shirt vinyl. I found this SVG in my stash, and imported it into eCP. First I cut it out of cardstock to make sure that this file would cut correctly, which it did. With t-shirt vinyl, you need to cut on the dull side and cut your image mirrored or flipped. eCP does have an option to flip an image, and so I tried it out and it worked fine. I cut both pieces, the background in gold, and the DAD in red. I then placed the gold background on a sweatshirt of my husband's and placed a teflon sheet on top of it, and then ironed away. This paticular t-shirt vinyl is a "cold peel" product which means that after you iron it, you need to let it cool down before peeling away the acrylic backing which acts like your transfer tape. I have found that it needs to cool for 3-5 minutes for best results. If the vinyl does not stick to your t-shirt, iron it again. Most likely this happens because your iron is not hot enough. Once I had the gold background in place, I layered the red DAD piece on top and then ironed that piece into place. Everything worked great, and I love how this looks. My friend Desiree and I plan on doing a bunch of t-shirts for our kids, we just need to put together our order and plan out what exactly we want to do.
Friday, September 10, 2010
One More Question...
Here is what Carolyn posted on one of my posts...
I am glad to say that I am within your first 50 followers. Have a ? for you. I have been planning on buying the MTC software but do you think I should hold off until you get through the eCraft demos? Which is easier for a beginner of the software and pc downloading and cutting?
Here is my opinion at this point in time. As far as the eCraft machine goes, I really really like it. I have been able to cut things that I never would have even attempted on my Cricut Expression. When it comes to the software, it is not up to snuff...yet. The software has a good structure, but there are so many things that this software is either lacking or is not functioning the way it should. The software has only been with us for a little over a week right now, and I would guess that right now Craftwell is probably going through all of our e-mails and putting together a master list of things that need to be added and fixed. The next step for them will be to prioritize this list. We know that Craftwell has hired a software development company in India to write the program. So they will need to communicate with them what they want to be fixed first. My guess would be that the first issue would be to make the import of SVG files function better. I have had great luck with importing SVGs, but there are issues. One of these issues is that if you were to import an SVG where everything has not been set to a path, eCP does not have converting abilities to make these paths for you. There are some reports online of files where everything is set to a path, but it still is not cutting correctly, even on simple shapes. Now the big question is when will the software be updated to fix this problem? Since Craftwell has hired an outside firm to write the program, we and Craftwell are basically at their mercy. It could be a matter of maybe a few weeks or even longer. The next question we have to ask is, how long until the eCP software is what we want it to be? That is not so easy to answer, one possibility is that it will never be what we want it to be. I highly doubt that that will be the case, because Craftwell has shown that they are determined to make a great product and the software is what is going to make the eCraft a GREAT product. I hate to tell you this, but from the little experience I have in developing software, I believe that it could be several months before we get there. I would have to guess 6 months at least. Now that doesn't mean that 6 months will go by before we get an update. I suspect we will get updates along the way, but they are going to fix sections of the software one at a time. I could very well be wrong about this, only time will tell.
It is not a secret that I love Make the Cut. I think that Andy (the developer), did an amazing job. I kind of wish that Craftwell just went to him and asked him to include the eCraft as one of the cutting machines that Make the Cut supports and then they could just offer each eCraft owner a copy of MTC. Make the Cut is not a perfect program, but it is the best out there that I have worked with. Andy is a big reason why the software is so great, he really listens to what we want. He is constantly updating the software and adding features to it. The MTC forum is outstanding, so many wonderful ladies and gents there that are willing to help. I have seen cases where someone goes on there and says I need this type of file, and someone will go and design it for them. How great is that? Andy and some of the others there also do webinars where they teach us how to use the software. They record these webinars so that they are available to watch at any time. I have been able to do everything that I have wanted to do and more with MTC. Another great thing about MTC is that there is a gallery available that users can post files that they have created online for others to download. There are thousands of files available with more being added every day.
Since most likely the software is not going to be a good software for at least a few months, and Make the Cut right now is priced at $58.36, it is definitely something that I would consider doing. I purchased MTC about a month before I decided to pre-order the eCraft, and I have not regretted it at all. I should tell you that I am NOT an affiliate of Make the Cut. I do not make one red cent should you decide to buy it. I will only make recommendations of products that I personally love and cannot do without. Make the Cut is one of those products! If I were in your position, I might wait until after the first eCP update to see what gets accomplished in that update. I believe that the first update will give us an idea of how dedicated and determined the software development firm is. It will give us some big clues as to how long we might have to wait to get all the features that we want. If you want to get the feel of MTC, you can download a free trial version and see if it is something that you might like. One of the biggest features that MTC has is the ability to export your designs as an SVG file. Should eCP get the SVG issues resolved, you can always use MTC to do all your design work and just import those designs into eCP to cut with. This is what I anticipate that I will do until eCP is completely fixed.
I am glad to say that I am within your first 50 followers. Have a ? for you. I have been planning on buying the MTC software but do you think I should hold off until you get through the eCraft demos? Which is easier for a beginner of the software and pc downloading and cutting?
Here is my opinion at this point in time. As far as the eCraft machine goes, I really really like it. I have been able to cut things that I never would have even attempted on my Cricut Expression. When it comes to the software, it is not up to snuff...yet. The software has a good structure, but there are so many things that this software is either lacking or is not functioning the way it should. The software has only been with us for a little over a week right now, and I would guess that right now Craftwell is probably going through all of our e-mails and putting together a master list of things that need to be added and fixed. The next step for them will be to prioritize this list. We know that Craftwell has hired a software development company in India to write the program. So they will need to communicate with them what they want to be fixed first. My guess would be that the first issue would be to make the import of SVG files function better. I have had great luck with importing SVGs, but there are issues. One of these issues is that if you were to import an SVG where everything has not been set to a path, eCP does not have converting abilities to make these paths for you. There are some reports online of files where everything is set to a path, but it still is not cutting correctly, even on simple shapes. Now the big question is when will the software be updated to fix this problem? Since Craftwell has hired an outside firm to write the program, we and Craftwell are basically at their mercy. It could be a matter of maybe a few weeks or even longer. The next question we have to ask is, how long until the eCP software is what we want it to be? That is not so easy to answer, one possibility is that it will never be what we want it to be. I highly doubt that that will be the case, because Craftwell has shown that they are determined to make a great product and the software is what is going to make the eCraft a GREAT product. I hate to tell you this, but from the little experience I have in developing software, I believe that it could be several months before we get there. I would have to guess 6 months at least. Now that doesn't mean that 6 months will go by before we get an update. I suspect we will get updates along the way, but they are going to fix sections of the software one at a time. I could very well be wrong about this, only time will tell.
It is not a secret that I love Make the Cut. I think that Andy (the developer), did an amazing job. I kind of wish that Craftwell just went to him and asked him to include the eCraft as one of the cutting machines that Make the Cut supports and then they could just offer each eCraft owner a copy of MTC. Make the Cut is not a perfect program, but it is the best out there that I have worked with. Andy is a big reason why the software is so great, he really listens to what we want. He is constantly updating the software and adding features to it. The MTC forum is outstanding, so many wonderful ladies and gents there that are willing to help. I have seen cases where someone goes on there and says I need this type of file, and someone will go and design it for them. How great is that? Andy and some of the others there also do webinars where they teach us how to use the software. They record these webinars so that they are available to watch at any time. I have been able to do everything that I have wanted to do and more with MTC. Another great thing about MTC is that there is a gallery available that users can post files that they have created online for others to download. There are thousands of files available with more being added every day.
Since most likely the software is not going to be a good software for at least a few months, and Make the Cut right now is priced at $58.36, it is definitely something that I would consider doing. I purchased MTC about a month before I decided to pre-order the eCraft, and I have not regretted it at all. I should tell you that I am NOT an affiliate of Make the Cut. I do not make one red cent should you decide to buy it. I will only make recommendations of products that I personally love and cannot do without. Make the Cut is one of those products! If I were in your position, I might wait until after the first eCP update to see what gets accomplished in that update. I believe that the first update will give us an idea of how dedicated and determined the software development firm is. It will give us some big clues as to how long we might have to wait to get all the features that we want. If you want to get the feel of MTC, you can download a free trial version and see if it is something that you might like. One of the biggest features that MTC has is the ability to export your designs as an SVG file. Should eCP get the SVG issues resolved, you can always use MTC to do all your design work and just import those designs into eCP to cut with. This is what I anticipate that I will do until eCP is completely fixed.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Answering a few questions...
I have received a couple of comments here and on the eCraft_Crafters Yahoo Group, and I thought that I would address them here since they could be helpful to others as well.
Question 1
One reader (Kate Smith), mentioned that she is having trouble cutting some things in paper, but that they will cut in vinyl. I have had some great luck cutting some intricate things on the eCraft, even when cutting from the software. I have tried to cut a few things that I thought for sure would give me the stuttering problem, and they did not. The first thing that I would recommend to Kate to try is changing out the blade. When the eCrafts shipped, one blade was already installed in the trolley. For some reason, these first blades have been affected by shipping. I hope that Craftwell changes this for future machines so that no blade is installed. The next thing that I would recommend is to cut your image from a thinner piece of paper using the cardstock stabilizer. For more information on how to use this cardstock stabilizer, check out my post about it HERE. If you are still having problems Kate, let me know and we will figure it out!
Question 2
Linda from the Netherlands asked me if the cardstock stabilizer is just a regular piece of cardstock or if you needed to use a special piece of cardstock. I use just a regular piece of cardstock, similar to the Recollections cardstock from Michaels. I don't see why any piece that you have lying around won't work.
Question 3
Tom Meeks mentioned over at the eCraft_Crafters Yahoo Group that SVGs should probably be labeled as cuttable or not. The main reason why SVG files are not labeled as such is that most of the cutting softwares will convert a non-cuttable SVG into a cuttable file. For example, the file that was posted on the eCraft_Crafters Yahoo Group that was not set to a Path, imported just fine into Make The Cut. This is something that Craftwell should be fixing with eCraftshop Pro, and hopefully in the very first update. The other thing to keep in mind is MOST of the websites that crafters go to for SVG files are cuttable files. This information is really key for creating our own SVG files. Kay on the eCraft_Crafters Yahoo Group gave us a guide that she was using when SCAL 1 was released and this problem existed with that software. Here is the link to her GUIDE for you if you are interested. You may need to be a member of this group to access it. If you are not a member yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? This is a great group of people and a lot of really useful information, so don't hesitate! Even if you are just thinking about getting an eCraft, this is the place to find out alot about it! And there is one more thing that I forgot to mention in SVGs 101 post. If you have an SVG that won't import correctly into eCP and you have Make the Cut, you can try to import it into MTC to see if everything there shows up correctly. One of the great things about MTC is that you can EXPORT any file into an SVG file. That means that if that troublesome SVG imports OK into MTC, you can turn around and export it as another SVG file that should import into eCP better for you.
If any of you have any other questions, please let me know. I am more than happy to help, and I love having an "excuse" to play with my eCraft.
Question 1
One reader (Kate Smith), mentioned that she is having trouble cutting some things in paper, but that they will cut in vinyl. I have had some great luck cutting some intricate things on the eCraft, even when cutting from the software. I have tried to cut a few things that I thought for sure would give me the stuttering problem, and they did not. The first thing that I would recommend to Kate to try is changing out the blade. When the eCrafts shipped, one blade was already installed in the trolley. For some reason, these first blades have been affected by shipping. I hope that Craftwell changes this for future machines so that no blade is installed. The next thing that I would recommend is to cut your image from a thinner piece of paper using the cardstock stabilizer. For more information on how to use this cardstock stabilizer, check out my post about it HERE. If you are still having problems Kate, let me know and we will figure it out!
Question 2
Linda from the Netherlands asked me if the cardstock stabilizer is just a regular piece of cardstock or if you needed to use a special piece of cardstock. I use just a regular piece of cardstock, similar to the Recollections cardstock from Michaels. I don't see why any piece that you have lying around won't work.
Question 3
Tom Meeks mentioned over at the eCraft_Crafters Yahoo Group that SVGs should probably be labeled as cuttable or not. The main reason why SVG files are not labeled as such is that most of the cutting softwares will convert a non-cuttable SVG into a cuttable file. For example, the file that was posted on the eCraft_Crafters Yahoo Group that was not set to a Path, imported just fine into Make The Cut. This is something that Craftwell should be fixing with eCraftshop Pro, and hopefully in the very first update. The other thing to keep in mind is MOST of the websites that crafters go to for SVG files are cuttable files. This information is really key for creating our own SVG files. Kay on the eCraft_Crafters Yahoo Group gave us a guide that she was using when SCAL 1 was released and this problem existed with that software. Here is the link to her GUIDE for you if you are interested. You may need to be a member of this group to access it. If you are not a member yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? This is a great group of people and a lot of really useful information, so don't hesitate! Even if you are just thinking about getting an eCraft, this is the place to find out alot about it! And there is one more thing that I forgot to mention in SVGs 101 post. If you have an SVG that won't import correctly into eCP and you have Make the Cut, you can try to import it into MTC to see if everything there shows up correctly. One of the great things about MTC is that you can EXPORT any file into an SVG file. That means that if that troublesome SVG imports OK into MTC, you can turn around and export it as another SVG file that should import into eCP better for you.
If any of you have any other questions, please let me know. I am more than happy to help, and I love having an "excuse" to play with my eCraft.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
SVGs 101
Earlier today, there was an SVG file posted on the eCraft Crafters Yahoo Group, and several people tried to cut it without success. When I started to see all of these posts, I decided to investigate, and I realized that some of the things that I know about SVG files, I took for granted that everyone already knew this! How silly of me to assume this? I apologize, because if I realized this earlier I would have posted all of this information earlier.
I am going to reference a program called Inkscape in this post. Inkscape is a program that can be downloaded for free HERE and it is one of the programs that can be used to create SVG files.
Here is the most important thing to understand...not all SVG files are the same! SVG stands for Scalable Vector Graphic, meaning that this is a file that when it is enlarged it will not pixelate. SVGs are very common in the graphic design industry for this very reason. You kind of need to think of an SVG file as a graphic file. When you compare an SVG to a JPG, a JPG will pixelate if you make the file too large. You can make a SVG into a JPG pretty easy, but it is not quite as easy to make a JPG into an SVG file.
When we reference an SVG as a cutting file, we are ASSUMING that this SVG will cut, but we can't really make that assumption. Since an SVG is a graphic file, there could be several shapes and these shapes can overlap, which means that a die cutting machine, doesn't know what to cut unless we tell it what to cut. The way that we can tell the cutting machine what to cut is by putting those shapes on a PATH.
Tom Meeks over at Create & Cut, kind of stumbled on this information earlier today and posted about it here on his blog. I am impressed that Tom figured this out so fast, as it took me quite a while to figure it out when I was trying to create my first SVG file! Great job Tom! I am going to elaborate a little on his post, so make sure you read his first.
SHAPES & PATHS
You can use Shapes to create your SVG files, you just have to make sure to set those shapes to a path before they can be cut. In the picture below, you will see that I drew an oval using the Circle, Ellipse Tool (located on the left hand side tool panel with the pink circle icon). For this example, I have chosen to have no fill, and a red stroke line. The stroke line is what we really need to be concerned with, so when you are creating an SVG, I recommend that you make sure to have a stroke color on to see where the die cutter is going to cut.
The next thing that I am going to do, is select the oval by clicking on the mouse pointer icon located on the left hand side tool panel, and then clicking on my oval. When I do this, notice that there are now handles located on the bounding box on the oval. This indicates that the oval is now selected.
Now I want to point your attention to the very bottom of the screen, under the color selection bar. When you have a shape selected, you will see this.
Notice that is says Ellipse in layer Layer 1. This is what I am going to refer to as the information bar. This will let you know what is currently selected, and will also confirm to us when something has become a path. Next up, we are going to go to the Path menu on the menu bar. Shown here highlighted in yellow.
Now when we click on the image, we get a bounding box that surrounds all three scalloped ovals. And if we look in the information bar, we see this.
A group, means simply that there are more than 1 shapes grouped together so that they can be selected as one. When we see this, there are two things that we can do, and I will show you each way.
I am going to reference a program called Inkscape in this post. Inkscape is a program that can be downloaded for free HERE and it is one of the programs that can be used to create SVG files.
Here is the most important thing to understand...not all SVG files are the same! SVG stands for Scalable Vector Graphic, meaning that this is a file that when it is enlarged it will not pixelate. SVGs are very common in the graphic design industry for this very reason. You kind of need to think of an SVG file as a graphic file. When you compare an SVG to a JPG, a JPG will pixelate if you make the file too large. You can make a SVG into a JPG pretty easy, but it is not quite as easy to make a JPG into an SVG file.
When we reference an SVG as a cutting file, we are ASSUMING that this SVG will cut, but we can't really make that assumption. Since an SVG is a graphic file, there could be several shapes and these shapes can overlap, which means that a die cutting machine, doesn't know what to cut unless we tell it what to cut. The way that we can tell the cutting machine what to cut is by putting those shapes on a PATH.
Tom Meeks over at Create & Cut, kind of stumbled on this information earlier today and posted about it here on his blog. I am impressed that Tom figured this out so fast, as it took me quite a while to figure it out when I was trying to create my first SVG file! Great job Tom! I am going to elaborate a little on his post, so make sure you read his first.
SHAPES & PATHS
You can use Shapes to create your SVG files, you just have to make sure to set those shapes to a path before they can be cut. In the picture below, you will see that I drew an oval using the Circle, Ellipse Tool (located on the left hand side tool panel with the pink circle icon). For this example, I have chosen to have no fill, and a red stroke line. The stroke line is what we really need to be concerned with, so when you are creating an SVG, I recommend that you make sure to have a stroke color on to see where the die cutter is going to cut.
The next thing that I am going to do, is select the oval by clicking on the mouse pointer icon located on the left hand side tool panel, and then clicking on my oval. When I do this, notice that there are now handles located on the bounding box on the oval. This indicates that the oval is now selected.
Now I want to point your attention to the very bottom of the screen, under the color selection bar. When you have a shape selected, you will see this.
Notice that is says Ellipse in layer Layer 1. This is what I am going to refer to as the information bar. This will let you know what is currently selected, and will also confirm to us when something has become a path. Next up, we are going to go to the Path menu on the menu bar. Shown here highlighted in yellow.
From here, we are going to select the option titled Object to Path which is the very first option. You can also use the keyboard shortcut of Shift-Ctrl-C. Once we do that, when you go back to that information bar, we see this.
We now have a cuttable SVG file. If you have downloaded a file from the internet, and you are having trouble cutting it, it could very well be that the objects, strokes, etc. are not on a path.
Is there an easy way to tell if everything in the file is on a path...YES! Here is how you can tell. First off, here is a file that is similar to what you may see when you download SVG files.
A group, means simply that there are more than 1 shapes grouped together so that they can be selected as one. When we see this, there are two things that we can do, and I will show you each way.
1. Node Editor - On the left hand side toolbar, you will see an icon directly below the mouse pointer that looks like this.
What this tool does is allow us to alter the nodes (or the points where our lines or curves meet). Nodes are only available with something is on a path, and this is what the software uses to measure out the information between points. When you click on this icon and then hover over a shape (even when it is in a group) you will see a red outline. When you click on the shape you will see this.
Each one of those gray boxes are a node. When you see this, you know that your SVG is on a path, and that this is a cuttable file. I will explain more about node editing on another post because this is a very powerful tool for us crafters to have in our arsenal, and it is essential to create your own SVGs using Inkscape.
2. Ungroup the Group - This is going to be crucial with this paticular SVG (especially cutting in eCraftshop Pro since it does not have a Break or Split feature). Right now if we were to import this file into eCP, all three scalloped ovals will import in, and all three would have to cut. What if you only want to cut one of these ovals, which is the case 99% of the time? Since I have these ovals grouped, the first thing we would need to do is ungroup them. To do this, make sure you have your selection tool on (the mouse pointer icon on the left hand side toolbar) and have the group selected so that you see Group in the information bar. Now go to your menu bar and select the Object menu and from that menu, select Ungroup. Now we will see this.
Notice that all three shapes now have seperate bounding boxes. And when we look at the information bar, we will see this.
This is letting us know that we now have 3 objects that are Paths selected. You now know that all three shapes are cuttable. Now just because we ungrouped these shapes, does not mean that we can import them into eCP as seperate shapes that can be manipulated in eCP. Since all three shapes are in the same SVG file, all three will still import. What we now have to do is take each shape and save it into a seperate SVG file.
Seperating SVG Images
1. Select your shape using the selection tool (mouse pointer on left hand side tool bar). Look in the information bar and make sure that it is a Path.
2. Go to the Edit menu on the menu bar and from the Edit menu select the Copy command.
3. Go to File menu on the menu bar and select New followed by Default.
4. In the new file, go to the Edit menu on the menu bar and select Paste in Place or Paste.
5. Go to the File menu and select Save As. Select where you want to save the file on your computer and give it a name.
6. Repeat these steps for any additional shapes in the file.
On a Final Note...
I am NOT an Inkscape expert. Inkscape is an amazingly complex program even though it is free. I have watched numerous tutorials online to learn what I know, so I may not always use the correct terminology. I try to use language that is easily understood by the masses. I must tell you that there is one webinar that I watched a couple of months ago that was incredibly helpful. This webinar is from Bryan over at the Make the Cut forum. HERE is a link to the post where you can find it (dated 6/9/10 in 2 parts). You may need to sign up as a user on the MTC forum to be allowed to download the webinar. You do not need to own MTC to sign up for the forum. This webinar (if memory serves) is a couple of hours long, but was increadibly helpful, especially with the Bezier tool, which I will cover in a later post. If you can find the time to watch this webinar, I highly recommend it.
Help?
If you have gone through these steps and determined that you have a cuttable SVG file, please make sure that you are going through these start up steps. Since I have started to do this, I have not had trouble cutting SVG files, unless they are too small. If you want to know why these steps are important, please check out THIS post.
- With software closed, hook up the USB cable to the eCraft and the computer
- Turn on the eCraft
- Once eCraft has started, load up eCP
If you are still with me, thanks! If you have found this helpful, and would like to learn more, or if you have a certain topic in mind, please leave me a comment and I will be sure to address it in a future post.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Some Good News?
As you all know, I have been doing some testing on the eCraftshop Pro software. A few days ago, I posted that I was having an issue with cutting two files back to back. Well that problem appears to have been solved, and now I think I may be onto something else. I need all of you eCraft owners to help me test this theory out.
First off, something that I have not experienced before with my Cricut. When I was having the problem with cutting back to back SVG images, I mentioned it to my hubby. He is a computer junkie, and started messing around with my laptop, and sat there with me while I tested out some things, and he made a discovery. The driver for eCraftshop Pro does not load properly if you turn on the eCraft AFTER the software is up and running. So what we started to do was this....1) Plug in the eCraft to the computer. 2) Turn on the eCraft. 3) Start the eCraftshop Pro software. When doing this we had no problem making multiple cuts using SVGs that were created in Illustrator, Inkscape, and Make the Cut.
Here is where things get tricky again, I cut a ballerina SVG without a problem. I don't know where I got this file from, so I cannot share it, but I will show you a picture of it, so you have an idea of what I am talking about. This ballerina cut fine.
I then decided to cut the ballerina smaller, and resized it to this, and that is when I had the stuttering and dying problem. When looking at this file, you may wonder why it is having problems cutting it. When you look closely at the file, the fingers of the ballerina are very close together, and I think that may be where the problem is.
I went back to some of the other SVGs that I had trouble cutting and made them cut larger and they cut without a problem. When I made them smaller, again the same problem. I am now wondering if there is some sort of setting in the program, that prohibits the machine from cutting images that have such close cutting lines. I also took one of these images, and set it to be a draw line instead of a cut line and that made no difference.
My hubby believes that this is something in the program as well. I mentioned to him that if I did this on my Cricut, it would cut, but the end product would probably be mangled. He said that a cutting machine is basically a printer with a blade, and so there has to be something in the software that is stalling the machine. If you think about this, it kinds of makes sense that this is new to us. Since the SD cards are programmed so that it will not cut an image smaller than pre-programmed sizes, we wouldn't know how the machine would react if the lines of an image are too close together.
So I am calling all eCraft owners to test this out for yourself. I am going to try to duplicate this with an SVG from a known source so that I can direct everyone to try with the same file. Please share your results!
First off, something that I have not experienced before with my Cricut. When I was having the problem with cutting back to back SVG images, I mentioned it to my hubby. He is a computer junkie, and started messing around with my laptop, and sat there with me while I tested out some things, and he made a discovery. The driver for eCraftshop Pro does not load properly if you turn on the eCraft AFTER the software is up and running. So what we started to do was this....1) Plug in the eCraft to the computer. 2) Turn on the eCraft. 3) Start the eCraftshop Pro software. When doing this we had no problem making multiple cuts using SVGs that were created in Illustrator, Inkscape, and Make the Cut.
Here is where things get tricky again, I cut a ballerina SVG without a problem. I don't know where I got this file from, so I cannot share it, but I will show you a picture of it, so you have an idea of what I am talking about. This ballerina cut fine.
I then decided to cut the ballerina smaller, and resized it to this, and that is when I had the stuttering and dying problem. When looking at this file, you may wonder why it is having problems cutting it. When you look closely at the file, the fingers of the ballerina are very close together, and I think that may be where the problem is.
I went back to some of the other SVGs that I had trouble cutting and made them cut larger and they cut without a problem. When I made them smaller, again the same problem. I am now wondering if there is some sort of setting in the program, that prohibits the machine from cutting images that have such close cutting lines. I also took one of these images, and set it to be a draw line instead of a cut line and that made no difference.
My hubby believes that this is something in the program as well. I mentioned to him that if I did this on my Cricut, it would cut, but the end product would probably be mangled. He said that a cutting machine is basically a printer with a blade, and so there has to be something in the software that is stalling the machine. If you think about this, it kinds of makes sense that this is new to us. Since the SD cards are programmed so that it will not cut an image smaller than pre-programmed sizes, we wouldn't know how the machine would react if the lines of an image are too close together.
So I am calling all eCraft owners to test this out for yourself. I am going to try to duplicate this with an SVG from a known source so that I can direct everyone to try with the same file. Please share your results!
Friday, September 3, 2010
Some eCraftshop Pro Testing
So there have been some reports that SVGs imported into eCraftshop Pro do not cut right, so after doing some thinking, I decided that there are only a couple of factors that could be the cause of the problem.
1. The driver. Since everyone is using the same driver, there is no way for us as users to test the driver directly. As far as I know, testing will have to be done by Craftwell on the driver.
2. The source. Since SVGs can be created with a few programs, could there be something in one or more of these programs that is causing the cutting problems.
At this point, I cannot think of what else could be contributing to this, so I decided to do some testing on the source of the SVGs. I went through my SVGs and selected a couple that were created in Inkscape, a couple that were created in Illustrator, and a couple that were created in Make the Cut.
I went ahead and started to cut these files, and I noticed a trend. I would appreciate it if others could test this out to see if they came up with the same problem. First I opened a file posted by Ruthie on the eCraft_Crafters Yahoo Group, that was created in Inkscape, and that she reported cut fine. I cut that out without a problem, I then opened up a second file that was created in Inkscape and that one stuttered out and died pretty quick. I had to reset the machine, and then I tested out the Illustrator files. The first one, cut out part of the image. It did not stutter out, it just stopped cutting like the file was done. I am going to try to cut this one on the Cricut, but I suspect that there is some sort of issue with that particular SVG. I then opened up another Illiustrator file, and it stuttered and died after cutting out a small portion of the file. I had to reset the machine and then start up again. I opened up the first file created in MTC, and it cut great. The second file, stuttered and died.
This seems like more than a coincidence, why is it that the 2nd file is the one that stutters out? I then got curious. I cut out an SVG, and then tried to cut something manually with the SD card, and guess what? It stuttered and died. I am not a computer genius by any stretch of the imagination, but it sure seems like this is a driver issue. If there is anyone else out there that could test this out, I would like to know if this is limited to my machine/computer combo, or if this is more of a blanket result. I know that people have reported the stuttering and dying problem, but I would be interested to know if this is happening to some people on every cut.
I am going to do some more testing with this to see if these results are consistent with me, but I would like to hear from others to see if we are on a track to finding a solution.
1. The driver. Since everyone is using the same driver, there is no way for us as users to test the driver directly. As far as I know, testing will have to be done by Craftwell on the driver.
2. The source. Since SVGs can be created with a few programs, could there be something in one or more of these programs that is causing the cutting problems.
At this point, I cannot think of what else could be contributing to this, so I decided to do some testing on the source of the SVGs. I went through my SVGs and selected a couple that were created in Inkscape, a couple that were created in Illustrator, and a couple that were created in Make the Cut.
I went ahead and started to cut these files, and I noticed a trend. I would appreciate it if others could test this out to see if they came up with the same problem. First I opened a file posted by Ruthie on the eCraft_Crafters Yahoo Group, that was created in Inkscape, and that she reported cut fine. I cut that out without a problem, I then opened up a second file that was created in Inkscape and that one stuttered out and died pretty quick. I had to reset the machine, and then I tested out the Illustrator files. The first one, cut out part of the image. It did not stutter out, it just stopped cutting like the file was done. I am going to try to cut this one on the Cricut, but I suspect that there is some sort of issue with that particular SVG. I then opened up another Illiustrator file, and it stuttered and died after cutting out a small portion of the file. I had to reset the machine and then start up again. I opened up the first file created in MTC, and it cut great. The second file, stuttered and died.
This seems like more than a coincidence, why is it that the 2nd file is the one that stutters out? I then got curious. I cut out an SVG, and then tried to cut something manually with the SD card, and guess what? It stuttered and died. I am not a computer genius by any stretch of the imagination, but it sure seems like this is a driver issue. If there is anyone else out there that could test this out, I would like to know if this is limited to my machine/computer combo, or if this is more of a blanket result. I know that people have reported the stuttering and dying problem, but I would be interested to know if this is happening to some people on every cut.
I am going to do some more testing with this to see if these results are consistent with me, but I would like to hear from others to see if we are on a track to finding a solution.
Disappointed, Yes....BUT!
In various places online, there has been a lot of bashing going on in regards to the eCraftshop Pro software. I understand why people feel like this, after all the software needs a lot of work. I would love to be able to rave about the software, but I definitely can't do that. I am someone that always tries to look at the positive rather than the negative. When my mind gets clouded with negative thoughts, I am less productive and in general I just don't like the way it makes me feel. So I am someone that tries to find the silver lining. So what is the silver lining here? First off, the more I become familiar with the machine, the more I like the machine. I was able to cut some things that I thought I might not be able to with the eCraft, and they cut beautifully. I LOVE not having to use a sticky (waste of money) mat. I am so happy that I am finally able to cut perfect circles! I can't tell you how much that always annoyed me with my Cricut! Now, the major issue that needs to be addressed is the software. The most important thing to keep in mind is that the software can be changed, whereas the machine could not. So, I feel like we are on the right track. Craftwell clearly put a lot of time, effort, and money into the machine, and maybe not as much into the software. We now have the opportunity to help Craftwell develop this software into something that we WANT to work with! How great is that? We actually can help them create a great software product to go along with a great machine.
As I was working on this post and trying to figure out how to put all my thoughts down in words, I found THIS post by Tom at Create & Cut, and I think that he really sums it up beautifully, so I urge you to read this.
I have not told all of you about my professional background before, but I feel like now is the time. My father in law owns a heating and air conditioning company, and several years ago, he had a vision. In the heating and air conditioning business, we work a lot on gas forced furnaces. In a furnace, there is a part called the heat exchanger. The sole purpose of the heat exchanger is to hold all the combustion gases that the furnaces creates and then get them out of the house. The key thing that it must do is keep these gases out of your home. These gases can be deadly, and most people are familiar with carbon monoxide as one of the most deadly. In the United States, roughly 200 people die every year from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by furnace heat exchanger failure. The problem with this heat exchanger is that it is extremely large, and nearly impossible for a technician to inspect for failure, including holes, cracks, rusting through, etc. At the time, the way technicians were inspecting it was with a mirror (similar in style to the mirror a dentist uses, and maybe about 3-4" in diameter) and a flashlight. Using this method, technicians can really only see about 20% of the heat exchanger. On top of that, if a technician found failure, because of the angles, it was nearly impossible to be able to show the homeowner what he was seeing. My father in law wanted to develop a better way to inspect the heat exchanger and at the same time, show it to the homeowner so that they did not have to take the technician's word for it. He developed a camera system called the Inspector. This is truly a great product, and my father in law has sold them all over the US and Canada. About 5 years ago, he added a feature to the camera that we call the DVR (Digital Video Recorder). This allows the technician to record the inspections. When my father in law did this, my husband and I realized that we would need to have software that could process these inspections and make DVDs. With some coaxing we convinced my father in law to let us work on this to make the camera even better. Working with a major software manufacturer, we developed software that would do that, as well as create discs that could be used for training purposes. My father in law holds classes now about 6 times a year where technicians can come and get trained on how to use the camera, how to record inspections, and also how to communicate what they finding to homeowners. I also teach classes on how to use the software. Although, we did not develop the software on our own, I am a little familiar with the process. I know that it can take some time to get everything just right. I also know that not everyone is going to be happy. I have clients that want to put minimal effort into it, and then are disappointed in the results. Software cannot read our minds, and the more we put into it, the more we get out of it. So with that in mind, we can now use this opportunity to help Craftwell develop a great product by reporting the facts, our NEEDS and our WANTS. We can be patient as we allow them to develop the things we NEED first, and then work on the things that we WANT.
Sorry for such a long story, but with that being said. Let's focus on what can be changed, and help Craftwell do that, because I think in the long run, it will be rewarding for all of us.
Also, I have made some progress on cutting some various materials with the eCraft, and will post some more findings either later tonight or first thing tomorrow morning. This afternoon I am going to do some various test cutting using the software and see what I can find out that may help Craftwell. Keep a lookout for my findings, and if you discover anything, please let all of know! The more people that can test out problems, the more we can help solve the problem!
As I was working on this post and trying to figure out how to put all my thoughts down in words, I found THIS post by Tom at Create & Cut, and I think that he really sums it up beautifully, so I urge you to read this.
I have not told all of you about my professional background before, but I feel like now is the time. My father in law owns a heating and air conditioning company, and several years ago, he had a vision. In the heating and air conditioning business, we work a lot on gas forced furnaces. In a furnace, there is a part called the heat exchanger. The sole purpose of the heat exchanger is to hold all the combustion gases that the furnaces creates and then get them out of the house. The key thing that it must do is keep these gases out of your home. These gases can be deadly, and most people are familiar with carbon monoxide as one of the most deadly. In the United States, roughly 200 people die every year from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by furnace heat exchanger failure. The problem with this heat exchanger is that it is extremely large, and nearly impossible for a technician to inspect for failure, including holes, cracks, rusting through, etc. At the time, the way technicians were inspecting it was with a mirror (similar in style to the mirror a dentist uses, and maybe about 3-4" in diameter) and a flashlight. Using this method, technicians can really only see about 20% of the heat exchanger. On top of that, if a technician found failure, because of the angles, it was nearly impossible to be able to show the homeowner what he was seeing. My father in law wanted to develop a better way to inspect the heat exchanger and at the same time, show it to the homeowner so that they did not have to take the technician's word for it. He developed a camera system called the Inspector. This is truly a great product, and my father in law has sold them all over the US and Canada. About 5 years ago, he added a feature to the camera that we call the DVR (Digital Video Recorder). This allows the technician to record the inspections. When my father in law did this, my husband and I realized that we would need to have software that could process these inspections and make DVDs. With some coaxing we convinced my father in law to let us work on this to make the camera even better. Working with a major software manufacturer, we developed software that would do that, as well as create discs that could be used for training purposes. My father in law holds classes now about 6 times a year where technicians can come and get trained on how to use the camera, how to record inspections, and also how to communicate what they finding to homeowners. I also teach classes on how to use the software. Although, we did not develop the software on our own, I am a little familiar with the process. I know that it can take some time to get everything just right. I also know that not everyone is going to be happy. I have clients that want to put minimal effort into it, and then are disappointed in the results. Software cannot read our minds, and the more we put into it, the more we get out of it. So with that in mind, we can now use this opportunity to help Craftwell develop a great product by reporting the facts, our NEEDS and our WANTS. We can be patient as we allow them to develop the things we NEED first, and then work on the things that we WANT.
Sorry for such a long story, but with that being said. Let's focus on what can be changed, and help Craftwell do that, because I think in the long run, it will be rewarding for all of us.
Also, I have made some progress on cutting some various materials with the eCraft, and will post some more findings either later tonight or first thing tomorrow morning. This afternoon I am going to do some various test cutting using the software and see what I can find out that may help Craftwell. Keep a lookout for my findings, and if you discover anything, please let all of know! The more people that can test out problems, the more we can help solve the problem!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
eCraftshop Pro Software Videos
The software is here, and after going through a cumbersome installation process, I have had a chance to play with it a little bit. I will be working more with it here in the next few days. As expected, this software is not great. I would love to be able to tell you that it is, but there are some significant things that need to be fixed. I will be constructing a list of the issues that I have with it, to give to Craftwell. In the past, Craftwell has been very receptive to users and their thoughts on the types of things that the eCraft should be able to do, so I anticipate that they will have the same attitude towards the software. If they do not respond and make the software something that crafters will want to use, that could spell big trouble for the eCraft. Consumers may be reluctant to purchase the machine and/or third party software developers will come into play and make software that crafters will want to use. It is really in Craftwell's best interest to address these software issues as quickly as possible.
I do have to say one more thing about the software...it has good bones. It has been developed to be user-friendly and easy to understand, which is always a plus. With updates, this software can be updated to become a more advanced software program. For a first version of a software, it isn't horrible (it could be a lot worse) and no one should take this to mean that this will be the final product. They have a decent platform here upon which to build, and those of us that use it should be offering our critiques, in the spirit of building something better.
Here are the videos, showing just a quick overview, in two parts.
I do have to say one more thing about the software...it has good bones. It has been developed to be user-friendly and easy to understand, which is always a plus. With updates, this software can be updated to become a more advanced software program. For a first version of a software, it isn't horrible (it could be a lot worse) and no one should take this to mean that this will be the final product. They have a decent platform here upon which to build, and those of us that use it should be offering our critiques, in the spirit of building something better.
Here are the videos, showing just a quick overview, in two parts.
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