by Sandy McCauley | Apr 15, 2009 | Array, Designing, File Extensions, File Import, Flourishes - Designing, Free Videos, GSD Files, GST Files, KNK, MAXX, Outlining Images, Print and Cut, Reducing Nodes, Round Corner, Sign Blank, Toolbars, Welding
Today I’m covering TWO topics that have been brought up by customers. The first is importing the GST template files that come with Craft Robo’s RoboMaster, Silhouette RoboMaster, and Wishblade Advance 3.0. The other is importing GSD files into KNK Studio.
With the GST files, we’ve had great success with the imports. I’m sure it has to do with how they are originally created but they all seem to work. Even the GST files purchased from Quickutz through their Silhouette software will import readily once the file extension is changed to a GSD. Here’s the video showing you how to do this:
Importing GST Files into KNK Studio
However, the GSD’s that are created from the umpteen different ways possible: manually drawn in various versions of RoboMaster, auto-traced in various versions of RoboMaster, imported from Inkscape, imported from Adobe Illustrator, imported from Win PC Sign, etc, all yield variations and only some will successfully import. However, it’s always worth trying the import before using one of the several conversion methods. But you have to watch out… sometimes it will import and not seem to be there or will only partially import, or will import with gaps in the vector paths.
So the following video shows you 6 different circumstances you might encounter when importing GSD’s. If you find something else quirky happening, be sure to send me the file. I’m happy to have a look and maybe I’ll learn something else to share here.
Importing GSD Files into KNK Studio
by Sandy McCauley | Aug 22, 2008 | Design Master, KNK, Shortcuts
Carolyn in Australia posted the other day and also emailed me privately to find out if I was aware of what happens when you RIGHT click on one of the 9 boxes of a selected image in KNK Studio or Design Master. She had discovered that a pop-up menu appears with lots of useful options. She didn’t remember reading about this in the User Manual and wondered if everyone else was aware of it.
The answer is yes… I was aware of it and no… it’s not in the User Manual! I remember being very disappointed that the options to Copy and Paste images were not part of that pop-up menu, as you often find in other programs and when I first discovered this in the early weeks of using KNK Studio, I basically just dismissed this Right click function for that reason.
Now that I’m looking at it again,
I think I should have made a bigger deal of this menu. Note that some of the useful functions that are otherwise buried in the menus, can be readily available to use with this Right click option. Specifically, it’s nice seeing the options for Array, Edit (takes you into node editing mode), Start Sequence by Vector (controlling the order in which objects will cut), Blank Size, Mirror, and Rotate.
So, try using this over the course of the next few weeks and you may find it to be a rather handy addition to your regular use of the software!
Thanks, Carolyn, for posting about this! 🙂
by Sandy McCauley | May 30, 2008 | KNK
KNK Studio GE was created for the owners of 8″ Graphtec cutters, specifically: Craft Robo’s, Wishblades, and Silhouettes. The difference between the GE version of the software and the regular version is minimal… but still it’s worthy noting:
(1) GE utilizes the Controller window you are already used to seeing in RoboMaster or Wishblade or Silhouette for setting the Speed and Pressure.
(2) In GE you can switch to Landscape cutting by just changing the document to landscape (like in RoboMaster). In regular KNK Studio you have to turn off Axis Swap in the defaults.
(3) GE will do print and cuts… a window was added to turn on reg marks like in RoboMaster or Wishblade or Silhouette and you switch to a Knife with reg marks tools and that tells the Controller to do the search using the optic eye. Regular KNK Studio is not designed to utilize an optic eye.
(4) Regular KNK Studio has the drivers to cut to all KNK’s, AC40/Pazzles Pro, CR Pro, and WB/CR/Silh (but without the features in 1, 2, and 3).
by Sandy McCauley | May 15, 2008 | KNK, PDF
Here’s a question I get at least twice a week: How do I tell if my PDF file is raster or vector after I import it into Klic-N-Kut Studio?
Answer: Great question!
And here are some general guidelines I use to figure it out:
(1) Select the image and go to: Arrange>Break Path. If it’s grayed out, then you definitely don’t have a pure vector image. It’s either raster or a hybrid.
(2) If you double click and it brings up the Accuscan window, then another good sign it’s a raster. Go ahead and try tracing it.
(3) If you double click and see nodes, you pop open a bottle of champagne… it’s a vector pdf! lol
(4) If you double click and it brings up the Group Viewer, then you go to Layout>Ungroup. Click away so that nothing is selected and start over. If you STILL get the Group Viewer, then it’s a hybrid and dealing with those is going to take a video or two! Which I promise to make and they will be free due to the source of the samples I’ll be using 😉
by Sandy McCauley | May 4, 2008 | Belkin, Dongle, KNK, Toolbars
Thanks to Sharon M who discovered this USB adaptor
Philips Dongle Protector
that would be perfect for those dongle owners who need even more protection from small children or curious pets! This dongle protector has an extension cord, thus you can hide the dongle behind a computer or a desk or just some location completely out of site. 🙂
For those using Klic-N-Kut Studio, you might want to save your toolbar configurations if you’ve performed any customization. We’ve had some reports of toolbar changes vanishing and I’ve experienced some problems with this, as well. To save your current setup, go to View>Toolbars>Save, type in a file name and your settings will be saved. Then, if you ever find your toolbars suddenly defaulted back to the original settings, you can simply go to View>Toolbars>Load and retrieve. This is also a nice feature if someone else in your home or work location use KNK Studio and prefers their own custom setup over yours! As far as I can see you can save as many different configurations as you need.
Also, spend some time looking at the customizing choices! I bet you’ll find some of YOUR most common functions in that list and you’ll enjoy having them right on your screen, rather than buried in a menu tree. 🙂
by Sandy McCauley | May 3, 2008 | Blade Length, Craft Robo, KNK, Silhouette, Wishblade
A HUGE thanks to Lynn B for emailing me and pointing out that when you go to my profile and check out my interests (and the first three were cutting, cutting, cutting), they were all LINKS that took you to blogs where people were into… well… stuff that none of US would want to look at! Yikes! But I think I fixed it! I got rid of my “cutting, cutting, cutting” words. And surely my interest in cardmaking, scrapbooking, and mathematical puzzles won’t lead any of you to bondage sites? lol
So… let’s get to a tip of the… weekend? I can’t commit to frequency… lol These free tips/videos/tutorials will always be based on inspiration and not the calendar! 🙂
Don’t expect your blades to always be the same length! Heck… don’t expect your bladeholders to be identical. And that’s okay. With the KNK system, you simply back off or increase the blade length, as needed, to match the thickness of your cutting material. With the WB/CR/SIL replacement blades, check carefully when you install a new one and just assume you might need one LOWER colored blade cap than usual. If you previously needed the pink cap to cut your favorite cardstock, then you might find you need the yellow one now.
As I always preach at the Yahoo groups and to my WB/CR/Sil students, more blade never equals better cutting, so the KNK owners shouldn’t be extending that blade out all the way and, for the WB/CR/Sil owners, don’t ever think that the pink cap is the key to perfect cutting for ALL materials. Nope… that’s just not right! I even found the other day that I could easily cut Sam’s Club white cardstock with the blue cap on my Craft ROBO! This is something that I would NEVER have even thought to test a few years ago. My guidelines were always what was being said at the Yahoo groups and I would read posts from these super-confident, supposedly expert cutter owners who would post such absurd comments as, “I ALWAYS cut all materials with the the pink cap” or “I always cut using the fastest speed but no O Rings.” Those comments are really sad because, unless you ALWAYS cut the exact same material, then you are just WRONG about using the same settings every time.
So, get that blade length just right so you aren’t using the most important part of the blade to etch your designs into your mat, and you’ll find that you get much better cutting. And if your blade tip isn’t cutting into the mat, then you can use more pressure or even multi-pass cutting and not worry about damaging that blade. Instead, you’ll be getting better cutting and that’s what it’s all about! 🙂
