# Great Cuts and ILLUSTRATOR (not Corel Draw)



## NinjaChickenGear (Feb 24, 2011)

Hi All! I've been a lurker for about 2 years now and greatly appreciate all they help you have given us! My husband and I have mostly done plastisol, but recently bought a GCC Expert 24. We had just a little craft vinyl cutter before, but decided to upgrade.

We've tried for days and can not figure out Great Cuts for the life of us! I find it harder to use than Illustrator! I got stuff to import, but it won't cut!

I know the drivers and everything are setup correctly because I called GCC and they took control of my computer and set everything up.

I need a step-by-step dummy's guide for taking a file from Illustrator and making it print. I have searched every thread on here, every video on You Tube, and every single Google link. I feel like there is just something about Great Cut that I am not understanding. 

I can't even find a user's manual or anything for either the cutter or the software!

PLEASE HELP! I'm seriously about to throw the vinyl cutter out my 3rd story window....


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## professaurus (Feb 16, 2008)

I just select the vector object I want to cut then go to File> GreatCut> auto export and it sends it right to greatcut for me


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## NinjaChickenGear (Feb 24, 2011)

THANK YOU! That is a huge help as we were exporting differently until then. What do we do from there? I seriously think our issue is that we don't know how to use GreatCut. We've tried every different button we can find that implies "cut" and nothing happens.


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## baddjun1 (Aug 5, 2009)

You can also import from GreatCut. File/Import and search for your file location.
To cut, you can click File/Output or click the Sword icon.


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## NinjaChickenGear (Feb 24, 2011)

That was how we were actually importing before. Maybe something is wrong with the actual device or driver then??? We've tried the File>output and the sword icon>output several times and just nothing happens at all. Not even a noise! I guess I will try calling GCC tomorrow. I just feel like a dumbass not being able to get this thing to work!


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## professaurus (Feb 16, 2008)

first I load the cutter with vinyl, then I turn it on. I let it read the vinyl and once it's done I start GreatCut and open a new file and select "read from media" and hit ok this tells me the size I need to stay within and sets the GreatCut artboart. I then start Illustrator and create a new document smaller than the media size detected by GreatCut just to make sure I don't go over. I do all my designing in this file and when ready to cut I turn everything into a stroke making sure they have the same color select the object and output it to GreatCut


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## professaurus (Feb 16, 2008)

once in GreatCut I just make sure it all fits the artboard then go to file output. I then click read from device to make sure the media size is set right and I also set my cut settings. after this I click preview just to double check. once I'm sure everything looks ok I make sure the cutter is Online then hit the output button on the top left behind the preview box and let it cut my vinyl


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## NinjaChickenGear (Feb 24, 2011)

huh, we don't have a "define by media". There is a "define by device", but when we use that with the specifications you describe it sets everything to zero.

We also aren't trying to design from scratch...just cut already established AI files. I'm starting to think the computer isn't talking to the cutter for some reason....


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## NinjaChickenGear (Feb 24, 2011)

professaurus said:


> once in GreatCut I just make sure it all fits the artboard then go to file output. I then click read from device to make set the media size is set right and I also set my cut settings. after this I click preview just to double check. once I'm sure everything looks ok I make sure the cutter is Online then hit the output button on the top left behind the preview box and let it cut my vinyl


We aren't finding a "read from device" anywhere in the output field. AHHHHH!!!!! For some reason every time we hit output or cut nothing happens.

I thought our initial issue was not getting it into great cut correctly, but now that I know we are doing that we just plain can't make it cut.


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## professaurus (Feb 16, 2008)

I didn't have the computer in front of me so the term I used might be wrong


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## NinjaChickenGear (Feb 24, 2011)

NinjaChickenGear said:


> We aren't finding a "read from device" anywhere in the output field. AHHHHH!!!!! For some reason every time we hit output or cut nothing happens.
> 
> I thought our initial issue was not getting it into great cut correctly, but now that I know we are doing that we just plain can't make it cut.


Thanks, I think I found what you were talking about, I just don't think it is working. I'm going to try calling GCC tomorrow and maybe they can figure out what is wrong.


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## professaurus (Feb 16, 2008)

in file>new it is read from device 
in the output field it is "read material"
but it sounds like you first have to start up VLCD and select the right port and hit connect. if you click Poll Size and it gives you a vinyl reading you should be able to follow my other instructions


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## Nick Horvath (Feb 26, 2010)

You aren't by chance adjusting your settings using the VLCD program are you? If you are, check to make sure that you close out of that program before you cut, or your cutter will not receive the job.


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## NinjaChickenGear (Feb 24, 2011)

THANK YOU ALL! I called GCC and it turns out there was some weird setting that wasn't right that they had to go in and fix. Looks like we were importing from Illustrator correctly. The computer just wasn't recognizing the plotter.

Thanks again!


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## bjb252r6 (Feb 21, 2011)

Do you remember what they had to fix? I'm having the same exact problem and I wanted to cut something this weekend.


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## natloc (May 21, 2007)

NinjaChickenGear said:


> THANK YOU ALL! I called GCC and it turns out there was some weird setting that wasn't right that they had to go in and fix. Looks like we were importing from Illustrator correctly. The computer just wasn't recognizing the plotter.
> 
> Thanks again!


I am having the same problem...what the heck is VLCD??? and what setting was it to get GC to talk to the cutter??? I've spent the better part of my day fiddling with this.


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