If you have accidentally deleted one of your trace settings or if you would like to create a new default, then today’s video will quickly show you how to do that. Here’s the link:
If you need the settings on any of the listed defaults, here’s a link to a pdf with all of them listed:
Accuscan Default Trace Settings
For information on the meaning of each of these settings, check out Appendix D of the User Manual OR I cover them in my video, entitled: Auto-Tracing.
Here’s a list of the various cap colors and which blade holders they apply to on a Klic-N-Kut:
The silver blade holder AND the Maxx blade holder uses these blades:
red capped 45 degree: vinyl, paper, cardstock
blue capped 60 degree OR blue capped Sliver 2 (replacement for previous 60 degree): heavy-textured cardstock, thin craft foam, thin clear rubber, thin chipboard
black capped Sliver blade: regular chipboard (up to ~1/16″), foam board, stiffened felt, Grungeboard
fabric blade: cut thin fabrics such as the cotton used for quilting
This blade holder is also used for:
green capped engraving/embossing tool
orange capped punch tool
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The original black blade holder for the KNK uses:
yellow capped 45 degree
white capped 60 degree
These two blades are identical to the red and blue, however they will NOT fit into the silver blade holder due to a difference in the “barrel” diameter of the blade.
Today’s topic covers the little things you can inadvertently click in KNK Studio or Design Master that will cause something “bad” to happen. Now by “bad”, I don’t mean anything catastrophic! lol I’m referring to those moments when something just doesn’t look right and you don’t know now to fix it! The following are some of the ones reported by users and hopefully, by reading and understanding each one, you won’t have to worry about them happening to you. 🙂
Problem: When I cut my image, the machine also tries to cut out my cardstock! Or, my KNK goes out of range when I’m just trying to cut a small image.
Cause: More than likely, you have inadvertently created a Sign Blank object, which is nothing more than a rectangle the exact same size as your Sign Blank. Because users often go to Layout>Blank Size, they might mistakenly click on the option right below that menu choice, which is Layout>Sign Blank Object.
Solution: To remove the Sign Blank object, simply click on the border of your Sign Blank and you will see the 9 little boxes appear. Click on the delete key to remove it.
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Problem: Whenever I turn on Fill, my entire Sign Blank turns black (or some other color).
Cause: Again, you may have a Sign Blank object as stated above. So check that first. But the other possibility is that you have changed the color of your Sign Blank. I’m not sure if there’s more than one way to make this happen. I was the first person to report this to Accugraphic and Chad had to ask CADLink how to fix it.
Solution: Turns out, all you need to do is drag the color White from the Shop Palette and drop it onto your Sign Blank. Thus, that’s probably how I did it in the first place, but because I keep Fill turned off most of the time, I didn’t realize I had done it. Anyhow, this comes up every few weeks, so either the users are doing this same thing or there’s some other way to make it happen that we’ve not yet discovered.
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Problem: When I type text, I can’t see anything being typed and after finishing, I have an unusual little icon with a little arrow or something.
Cause: You have typed in a TINY size of text. This first came up about a month after KNK Studio was first released and it took me another month to figure out what the user had done wrong! Finally a screen shot identified the size of the text in the text window as being 0.001.”
Solution: In the Text Smart Bar, increase the size of the text back to a reasonable size… e.g. 1.00″.
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Problem: I’m trying to edit my image but the program won’t let me drag the nodes.
Cause: You probably have Snap to Grid turned on, which applies in all modes, including node editing.
Solution: Outdent the Snap To Grid icon or go to Options>Grid>Snap to Grid and uncheck.
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Problem: When I cut, my image is cutting the wrong direction.
Cause: I’m probably to blame for this one more than anyone since I created the video on “Understanding the Sign Blank” which was before Design Master or KNK Studio GE were released. And images cut differently with a KNK than with one of the 8″ Graphtec Cutters. Note that with a Klic-N-Kut, you control Portrait vs Landscape cutting by checking or unchecking Axis Swap. With Design Master, you leave Axis Swap unchecked and cut Landscape by rotating the image -90 degrees in the Cut Preview window. With KNK Studio GE, you leave Axis Swap unchecked but change the Orientation to Landscape in the Layout>Blank Size window, unless you own a blue Wishblade (in which case, you do it the same way as with Design Master). Whew.
Solution: Check your Axis Swap setting under Cut>Plotting Defaults or check your Landscape vs Portait setting under Layout>Blank Size and modify the settings based on which cutter and which software you’re using.
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Problem: When I cut my image, the cutter returns to the start and cuts the last part on top of the first part.
Cause: The cutter is basically doing something called tiling, in which it thinks it has run out of room to complete the cut.
Solution: Go to Cut>Plotting Defaults, click on Setup and make the Machine Limits larger. Don’t hesitate to increase those values to something outside the range of what you think you’ll ever cut.
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Problem: I can no longer see the colors I’ve used on my Job Palette. I just see a yellow triangle with an exclaimation point.
Cause: You have inadvertently switched to Foil View. (This one just came up yesterday… thanks, Lynn for troubleshooting your OWN issue! 🙂
Solution: Click on the little 3 dot button on the Job Palette and then click on Color View.
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Problem: I can’t seem to create guidelines.
Cause: You have inadvertently turned off the view guidelines option.
Solution: Use Alt-W or go to Options>Guides>Use Guides.
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Problem: I lost one of my default trace settings.
Cause: If you click on Delete when you are in the Trace Settings window, the currently-selected default will be gone.
Solution: You simply need to find out the values for that setting and then re-enter them and type in a new name and save. I created a quickie video to show this, and typed up the default settings. See post on July 30, 2008.
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I will plan to add more to this list as I think of them and will announce in a new post. Hope you find this helpful and if you have some suggestions, let me know!
Today’s post is for Lynn G who requested a method for making a deckle edge. Even though Lynn posted some samples, I’m not sure I created exactly what she wanted. At first I was trying a random, sort of torn edge look to a card. But after cutting it, I decided that tearing would look a hundred times better than what my free-hand squiggle line produced! lol So, I decided to take a more formal technical approach and use some curves to the pattern and upon cutting, I liked the results. Note that in the video, the final result would look like the card below. So I took the pattern, just dragged the corner to make it MUCH smaller and then created a vertical array with several more copies and created the second look… which is much nicer and more in line with what I think Lynn was looking for (which is the card above). So, while I noted that you could do it in the video, I didn’t show that part, but it’s really quite simple. I’m also uploading the final card in .knk format that I cut and the link to it is below, as well.
