# GCC Cutter Issues



## Jbanuelos85 (Jan 1, 2012)

Hey Everyone,

I got my gcc cutter and have spent 6 hours trying to get this thing to cut an outline. I import my image from illustrator to great cut and when i hit preview it gives me an error. Im not sure how im going to be able to contact GCC as my normal job hours are 8 to 4 so i have no way of contacting them during business hours. does nayone know how to set up this cutter?


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## GHEENEE1 (Jan 8, 2007)

Are you setting your speed in the output dialog box, under file? For a preveiw. Also try putting a .001 mm outline on your design to be cut. Mike


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## dazzabling (Sep 21, 2011)

Jbanuelos85 said:


> Hey Everyone,
> 
> I got my gcc cutter and have spent 6 hours trying to get this thing to cut an outline. I import my image from illustrator to great cut and when i hit preview it gives me an error. Im not sure how im going to be able to contact GCC as my normal job hours are 8 to 4 so i have no way of contacting them during business hours. does nayone know how to set up this cutter?



What is the error? 

Are you using the Illustrator plug in for Great Cut?

Did you do a test cut?


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## Jbanuelos85 (Jan 1, 2012)

Thank you for the responses 

I have done a test cut using the Expert24lx in offline mode. I am able to connect to the cutter and adjust the downforce, i have been unable to locate the GCC Illustrator plugin, ive been attempting to cut using the print option in illustrator but the job will not go to the cutter.


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## dazzabling (Sep 21, 2011)

Jbanuelos85 said:


> Thank you for the responses
> 
> I have done a test cut using the Expert24lx in offline mode. I am able to connect to the cutter and adjust the downforce, i have been unable to locate the GCC Illustrator plugin, ive been attempting to cut using the print option in illustrator but the job will not go to the cutter.



Make sure you register your cutter online w/ GCC Club >
GCC CLUB - Laser Engraving, Cutting, Marking, Vinyl Cutter and Inkjet Printer

Here you will find your user manual, get an 3 month extension on your warranty, plus have access to the downloads you need. 

Did you download your VLCD monitor??


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## Jbanuelos85 (Jan 1, 2012)

I have registered and downloaded the drivers an vlcd montior, i havent been able to locate the illustrator plugin on there site however. The cutter does read on the vlcd monitor and i have been able to make adjustments and use the test cut button to make sure that its cutting at the correct depth. When i send a job to the cutter however it doesnt do anything, ive been trying to send the job to the cutter the same as the video on the gcc site where you select the artboard and hit print and then select the cutter but the cutter will not move. Can anyone also clarify the GCC USB MODE and USB MODE as the manual doesnt do alot of explaning. I tried to call gcc to see if i can get some clarification but all i get is that an operator is unable to take my call. Fustrating but i know its all part of setting up a cutter!


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## dazzabling (Sep 21, 2011)

Jbanuelos85 said:


> I have registered and downloaded the drivers an vlcd montior, i havent been able to locate the illustrator plugin on there site however. The cutter does read on the vlcd monitor and i have been able to make adjustments and use the test cut button to make sure that its cutting at the correct depth. When i send a job to the cutter however it doesnt do anything, ive been trying to send the job to the cutter the same as the video on the gcc site where you select the artboard and hit print and then select the cutter but the cutter will not move. Can anyone also clarify the GCC USB MODE and USB MODE as the manual doesnt do alot of explaning. I tried to call gcc to see if i can get some clarification but all i get is that an operator is unable to take my call. Fustrating but i know its all part of setting up a cutter!


Are you with your cutter now??


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## biggermo (Oct 28, 2011)

Hi. I've bought an Expert 24 LX a couple of months ago and I've had a few hiccups here and there, but am slowly learning. One of my problems was that an error occurred during the installation and I had to switch to Common USB mode as my laptop wouldn't recognise the cutter. So you could check that. Is your image an EPS file? Have you set the jog marks? From the GCC software are you selecting 'Output' to send it to the cutter? These are the things I'm having to remember as a new learner. Do you have the user manual? If you haven't and you want it, PM your email address and I'll send it.


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## Jbanuelos85 (Jan 1, 2012)

I believe that currently i have the cutter set up under the GCC USB Mode, my laptop does read and connects to the vlcd software, What is a jog mark? When i attempt to output on great cut, when i hit preview it gives me an error each time....


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## dazzabling (Sep 21, 2011)

Jbanuelos85 said:


> I believe that currently i have the cutter set up under the GCC USB Mode, my laptop does read and connects to the vlcd software, What is a jog mark? When i attempt to output on great cut, when i hit preview it gives me an error each time....


When you are near your cutter there is a Chat room that I can help you with your setting up your cutter. Its hard to know the problem via forum posts. But, we can come back on here and tell everyone how we resolved the issue. 

Please give me a time frame that you will be around your cutter, I am in Tampa, Florida I am not sure what time zone you will be in but anyone else is free to join in so that if there are any other questions I can help.

Also, maybe some other veterans can join in??/


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## Jbanuelos85 (Jan 1, 2012)

Thank you very much Dazzabling for your help with this issue, I really appreciate you taking the time to offer help with my cutter, After numerous calls i finally got a hold of Ruth at GCC! I told her i wouldnt be around my cutter till 4:30 and shes going to give me a call back and get the issue sorted out for me!! I will let everyone know how this goes once i talk with ruth later this afternoon! 

p.s i told ruth how great i heard she is from other post on this forum and she laughed!


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## Jbanuelos85 (Jan 1, 2012)

I was able to get someone from GCC on the phone as ruth was busy when i called back in but ricardo was awesome! he showed me how to use great cut! turns out i had to speed set at 100 and the max should have been 80! I already made my first shirt for my son! check out the pics! I want to thank everyone that replied! You guys are awesome and thats why i love this forum!


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## dazzabling (Sep 21, 2011)

Good to hear! I agree Ruth has been very helpful to many of us here on the forums. 

Looks great! 

Were you able to get the illustrator plug in to work?


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## Jbanuelos85 (Jan 1, 2012)

The expert 24 stopped working again.. When i turn it on it reads the material but stops at the last pinch roller and it wont go into offline mode... Just frozen..


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## dazzabling (Sep 21, 2011)

Jbanuelos85 said:


> The expert 24 stopped working again.. When i turn it on it reads the material but stops at the last pinch roller and it wont go into offline mode... Just frozen..


Is the pinch roller underneath the white box?


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## Jbanuelos85 (Jan 1, 2012)

Wow!.....Its fixed! Thank you dazzabling! I had the main punch rollers under the white marks but the center roller was a bit off, once i moved it! its up and running again! thank you so much!


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## dazzabling (Sep 21, 2011)

Jbanuelos85 said:


> Wow!.....Its fixed! Thank you dazzabling! I had the main punch rollers under the white marks but the center roller was a bit off, once i moved it! its up and running again! thank you so much!


You are welcome!!! Happy Cutting!!

-C


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## Jbanuelos85 (Jan 1, 2012)

Well after hours of cutting the machine is back to not working again! I have the pinch rollers under the white marks and i was cutting a design and once i finished it just stalled! i turned it off and on and its stuck at the last pinch roller again... any ideas?

thanks!


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## DivineBling (Sep 14, 2010)

Are the pinch rollers in the center of the white boxes or off toward the edge? If they're not 101% under the pinch rollers, they sometimes won't recognize that they're there.


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## Jbanuelos85 (Jan 1, 2012)

There in the middle of each white mark, i have taken 2 pics so that if theres something off you might be able to see it.


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## DivineBling (Sep 14, 2010)

Yeah, that's right. Try hitting the offline/online button twice.

If that doesn't work, then one of your sensors might need to be replaced. Call GCC in the morning and let them know what's going on.


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## biggermo (Oct 28, 2011)

I thought the pinch roller on the right had to be in the furthest right box that's half yellow/ half white, and that the roller has to be in the white half. I could be wrong but that's what I've been led to believe.


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## Jbanuelos85 (Jan 1, 2012)

Thanks for the info, i have moved the material to the front as well and still no luck! i will need to call gcc in the morning. This issue has cost me almost a 5 yard roll of white material because it kept acting up during some design cuts and i need to reset it! I might call imprintables to see if they can help as well! Thanks for all the help guys!


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## dazzabling (Sep 21, 2011)

When it stalls, is there any error light messages? Or does it just stop?


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## Jbanuelos85 (Jan 1, 2012)

It started working again, it seems that whenever it freezes i if i unplug it for like 1-2 hours and turn it back on it starts working again. Im going to call imprintables in the morning and see if they can get me a new one since its sill in therfe 15 day warranty window


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## sicwidit (Feb 27, 2012)

Jbanuelos85 said:


> Hey Everyone,
> 
> I got my gcc cutter and have spent 6 hours trying to get this thing to cut an outline. I import my image from illustrator to great cut and when i hit preview it gives me an error. Im not sure how im going to be able to contact GCC as my normal job hours are 8 to 4 so i have no way of contacting them during business hours. does nayone know how to set up this cutter?


hi jose.

i just got my gcc expert 24 lx and i am experiencing the same problem you had. i searched the forum and your post was the only one that has the same exact issue i've been having. it is so frustrating coz i waited for a long time to get the machine because it was backordered and now that i have it, i can't even get to work.

i know you mentioned you were able to talk to somebody from GCC. it's sunday today so i know it's possible to be able to talk to anybody over at GCC. i also do have an 8-5pm job.

anyway, to cut the long story short, i just want to ask how you were able to fix your error problem whenever you export an AI file on great cut?

just some info i need to add. not sure if this would help: i've read a lot of people mentioned that when i open illustrator, under File, i should see Export then Great Cut. that doesn't show on mine.

i would really appreciate a reply from you or from anybody who knows how to solve this problem.

please reply as if you are talking to a dumb person as this is my first time doing all of these lol. i don't know how to use illustrator either as my friend is the one who makes the designs. i just have the machines to do the rest.

thank you!!


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## Jbanuelos85 (Jan 1, 2012)

Hey Sickwitit,

My Cutter works now and then since i recieved it but heres what i do in order to complete a job.


Get your design in illustrator and make sure to remove the color and just leave a stroke on it, the stroke must be set at .001 

Next i hit select All

Drag the design from illustrator over to GreatCut

In great cut make sure to reverse the design if your cutting on heat transfer film

Next click on output

Under the output settings adjust the pressure for the material ur using, 50G works for my cutter, i leave the speed at 35-40 per gcc

Length 15
width 15

Unless your cutting something bigger of course

Hit output and you should see your cutter begin to cut!

Make sure as well that you have your punch rollers set on the white marks!

Hope this helps, if you need any other help please send me a pm and ill be happy to teach you what i have learned so far!


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## hi-nrg-joe (Jul 19, 2008)

The left and right pinch rollers should work under any of the white boxes, not just the furtherest right one. Also, the center one(small red one) doesn't need to be under the white boxes since it's simply there to help hold down the material. Most of the time I don't even use it.


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## sicwidit (Feb 27, 2012)

Jbanuelos85 said:


> Hey Sickwitit,
> 
> My Cutter works now and then since i recieved it but heres what i do in order to complete a job.
> 
> ...


i will try this Jose and hopefully this solves my problem...i will surely be here again to ask for more questions....thank you for the quick reply.


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## hi-nrg-joe (Jul 19, 2008)

Jbanuelos85 said:


> This issue has cost me almost a 5 yard roll of white material because it kept acting up during some design cuts and i need to reset it!


When I want to test something before actually cutting(and wasting material) is to remove the blade holder and send the job. I watch the cutter go through the motions to make sure does what I expect it to do. If everything looks good, then put the blade holder back and and proceed to cut. I only do this if I run into issues.

Also, make sure the to clear any jobs that have been previously printed. I've seen issues where I had the cutter offline, sent the job, and then realized nothing happened. Then when I put the cutter online, it either does a partial cut or screws something up when I send the next job.


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## Jbanuelos85 (Jan 1, 2012)

Thanks for the tips! so far the cutter has been working good for the past few hours so im hoping the issue has been resolved! I have made a few errors where i send a job to the cutter when its offline. The past few days have been a huge learning curve but all in all i cant believe the amount of detail that this cutter does!!


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## sicwidit (Feb 27, 2012)

jose,

just to clarify...i shouldn't have any color on any of the designs i'm going use from illustrator to great cut right?

and when you say "drag it to great cut", you meant literally dragging it right? like copy-pasting?

coz whenever i try to open an AI ".eps" file on great cut i get that "CoCut Professional has stopped working" error.


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## Jbanuelos85 (Jan 1, 2012)

yes i will drag it and drop it onto great cut, the only thing you want to see of your design is the stroke as the cutter cannot read all the other colors, i will seperate each color and drag the image into great cut as i load my vinyls in.


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## sicwidit (Feb 27, 2012)

Jbanuelos85 said:


> yes i will drag it and drop it onto great cut, the only thing you want to see of your design is the stroke as the cutter cannot read all the other colors, i will seperate each color and drag the image into great cut as i load my vinyls in.


ok i gotcha...i'm assuming by leaving the design "un-colored" and just have strokes will solve the great cut import issue.

i will try this and hopefully get to start cutting too 

thanks to you and the others for taking the time to answer my newbie questions

have a good evening!


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## Blue92 (Oct 8, 2010)

biggermo said:


> I thought the pinch roller on the right had to be in the furthest right box that's half yellow/ half white, and that the roller has to be in the white half. I could be wrong but that's what I've been led to believe.


Nope. 

The roller has to be in the "white half" only if you are using registration marks to do a contour cut around a graphic. It's to make sure the registration mark is read correctly.


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## Jbanuelos85 (Jan 1, 2012)

Update: The cutter has been working fine for the past few days, cutting like a champ..I can already see this being a great investment with the orders im getting. Also wanted to mention that i even got an email from ruth yesterday checking in to see if my cutter was working fine or if i had any other concerns! Great Customer Service by GCC!!


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## Blue92 (Oct 8, 2010)

Jbanuelos85 said:


> There in the middle of each white mark, i have taken 2 pics so that if theres something off you might be able to see it.


Maybe it's just the angle of the picture but the blade holder doesn't appear to be straight up and down.


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