# illustrator vs. craft robo



## Eclipse (Dec 26, 2006)

Ok, I'm having the fight of my life here. No matter what I seem to do to get this Craft robo to work with illustrator it just won't work the way its supposed to. 

I'm sure someone here has either been through a similar problem with another machine.

Basically my problem is this. I can print through my printer, and Cut using the craft robo. I can't get the craft robo to recognize the registration marks. Ive tried various ways to figure this out and is just seems I'm stuck. Now I don't believe asking for to much here. The products are designed to work, and nearly everything communicates perfectly. 

Anyone have any idea how I might get this monster to work? Its holding up this whole project for me and I'm getting extremely frustrated with it.

anyone?


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## numski (Dec 26, 2006)

Eclipse,
There are a lot of good forums out there for the craft type cutters.

Paperthreads Forum - Index
UKScrappers - managed by x3InternetSolutions.com

also, if you are using Illustrator CS2 they have some updates to their plugin software, and some basic info at CraftROBOstore.com: Craft ROBO Desktop Cutting Plotters by GRAPHTEC. Portable, Affordable Media Cutters

CraftROBOStore.com - Desktop Cutting Plotters by GRAPHTEC - Access Denied

Hope this helps!

mark


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## numski (Dec 26, 2006)

Eclipse,
What version of Illustrator are you using? I just got my CR Pro 2 last week and am using CS2 to make cuts. Is the CR yelling at you about the registration marks when you send to the cutter? Did you set up your print/shape/whatever and make a box to convert to registration marks? I am very pleased with the quality of the cutter using Illustrator.


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## Eclipse (Dec 26, 2006)

I'm using illustrator 8. Its old i know but it says its supported. It sets up the regestration marks on its own. The problems the optical eye just wont read in illustrator. When i use the craftrobo software it works fine. However I don't want to have to always go threw the hassle of trying to make cut marks in the carft robo software.

It sucks. I don't want to shell out for illustrator cs so I'm not sure what

eclipse


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## T-BOT (Jul 24, 2006)

Eclipse said:


> I'm using illustrator 8. Its old i know but it says its supported. It sets up the regestration marks on its own. The problems the optical eye just wont read in illustrator. When i use the craftrobo software it works fine. However I don't want to have to always go threw the hassle of trying to make cut marks in the carft robo software.
> 
> It sucks. I don't want to shell out for illustrator cs so I'm not sure what
> 
> eclipse


Hey TdoT  

What is the output speed for the Craft-robo ?


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## numski (Dec 26, 2006)

Eclipse,
I had problems with it reading the registration marks initially also. You need to make sure that the marks that are created out of illustrator are within the same bounds/restraints that come out of the Craft Robo software. I'm probably telling you something you already know, but it does make a difference. If you want I can give you more detailed instructions on how I did this. Good luck!

-mark


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## Eclipse (Dec 26, 2006)

-Numbski please clarify.
-t-bot, im from t-dot, i use the lower speed (i felt it might give it more time for finding the marks) did you get my pm?


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## numski (Dec 26, 2006)

Ok, so here is what I did. I may seem a "little" involved, but once you set up some templates it becomes an easy task. My first attempt put the registration marks all the way to the edge of the paper, bad because the Robo is looking for about 1/2 inch before it finds the reg. marks - and a couple inches from the back, unless you are using the carrier sheet. Ok, so this worked for me, I was using an opaque transfer sheet 8.5x11 and to set it up I started the Craft Robo Master software, made a new document - reg marks, letter size, made sure the full document was in the screen and took a screen shot. Then I went to Gimp (Any image editing software should suffice), and made a rectangle selection of the sheet with the reg marks from the screen capture. Saved this and placed it onto a new Illustrator document, again 8.5x11. I sized the placed image to fit just within the document space in Illustrator and then created a rectangle that fit over top of the reg marks from the screen capture. Select the newly created rectangle and go to File->Cutting Master->Create Registration Marks... and make sure in the cutting master configuration you have Use Registration Marks selected (I assume you have this already). This creates a new locked layer for the reg marks. You can now delete the screen capture image. Save this as a template, make sure you have three layers, one with the created reg marks, one for the cut marks and one for your image (if you have one). That should be it, I hope I explained it well enough. Good luck!!! I'll probably make templates for all my output settings, i.e. 8.5x11, 11x17, 13x??... and carrier sheet based sizes also. Let me know if you have more specific problems as I might try to reproduce them with mine. Also, keep in mind I have the Pro II so you probably only have to set up 2 templates.

-mark


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## Eclipse (Dec 26, 2006)

wow, thats really quite overly complicated. Ill try to sit down this week sometime to figure it out. Thanks for the instructions!

eclipse


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## vlcnmstr (Jan 5, 2007)

glad I found this forum-- I am considering getting the craft robo pro II tomorrow. I live close to ordways so figured with a tight budget and a dealer nearby, it would be the best bet.... don't want to shell out 1500 for the next level up so am hoping that the CR is a good choice-- any thoughts? caveats?
thanks
djl
LA


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## Moo Spot Prints (Jul 16, 2006)

It's been working great for me. Once I figured out a few of the quirks it's been pretty much trouble-free.

The illustrator plugin works great. I could never get their software working properly but I didn't spend too much time on it as I use illustrator for everything.

So far I've used Spectra EZ-Weed and Orcal 651 with very good results. 

I'm not making signs so 24" was overkill.


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## vlcnmstr (Jan 5, 2007)

thanks,
I'll have to see if I have the old illustrator cd.
I have been working with corel mostly as it is the standard for the laser engraving industry. 
djl


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## dglen (Feb 14, 2007)

I work on a Mac. It's a new Intel chip unit. The Craft Robo I use doesn't work with the new unit. I think it's the USB driver (or lack thereof) for and Intel Mac.

Does anyone know where to get a new driver? I'm lost on this one.

BTW I see a lot of posts on getting a Craft Robo up and running, in particular in relation to the unit recognizing registration marks from Illustrator. This drove me crazy until I realized that my media was moving up and blocked the light sensor that recognizes the marks. I just keep my finger lightly on teh media while the Craft Robo does it's thing with the registration marks. Works great.

Any thoughts on the USB driver for an Intel Mac?


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