The image came in as an ai file.  I have included it in this post.  It has to go on a blue banner, in white.  Is there a way to separate the elements or reverse it so it comes out correctly?  When I send it to my "Cutting Master" plugin in Illustrator (CS3 for the graphtec CE5000), it doesn't show up.  I've been working for a couple of days now on my quest to get this to print.

Any and all ideas and guidance are so GREATLY appreciated.  I have to have this banner ready by Friday morning.

Thanks,

Blake

so do you need the interior of the elements to print in white?

I output to a Roland plotter and have to make a cut line in AI w/ a swatch called CutContour. If my cut line isn't stroked with that swatch, it won't see it.

or, you need the interior to be clear so that the black outline prints in white (and the blue banner shows through the interior)?

like this

Quote from: Clever Endeavor on June 29, 2011, 10:13:10 AMThe image came in as an ai file.  I have included it in this post.  It has to go on a blue banner, in white.  Is there a way to separate the elements or reverse it so it comes out correctly?  When I send it to my "Cutting Master" plugin in Illustrator (CS3 for the graphtec CE5000), it doesn't show up.  I've been working for a couple of days now on my quest to get this to print.

Any and all ideas and guidance are so GREATLY appreciated.  I have to have this banner ready by Friday morning.

Thanks,

Blake

Not exactly sure what you are trying to do but the logo is already a vector, you should be able to save it out as a DXF or DWG and plot it.

Sometimes vectors with no stroked like don't always come into CAD software, maybe try stroking the lines first?

If everything that's black is white vinyl and the rest gets punched out, this is how I would set it up. Pink strokes are the cut lines.

if so, use the pathfinder
select all the objects and do a "minus front". You will be subtracting the front white objects from the back black fill.

good to go.

Rename the swatch whatever it needs to be named. We had to call our CutContour as well.

Thank you so far!

I tried the Pathfinder yesterday, and it didn't have any affect. You are all correct - the black lines will be white vinyl, and the white will be punched out.  I'm going to open the ai in CS5 and see what happens. Maybe 3 doesn't let me do what I need to do.  All I know is I have to use 3 to get the Cutting Master Plugin to work.

If anyone can create a plottable ai file before I can, I would gladly take it off your hands.  :smiley:

Thanks, I'll update when I have more info.

I used CS5 to do the screen cap of what I posted and it did it in about .5 seconds.

Quote from: Skryber on June 29, 2011, 10:37:53 AMRename the swatch whatever it needs to be named. We had to call our CutContour as well.

This is awesome, but I need the white channels to be filled in Black.  When I put that into the the cutting/plotting program, it has gray lines, which denote nothing will cut.  I'm going to open it in 5 and see what I can come up with.

Thanks!

Here's a CS4 AI with the cut lines. You may need to rename the swatch for your printer.

Thank you so much for the help so far.  David, I think your image is closest to what I need.  I just can't use a png (or any image file) as the plotter won't recognize it.  I just want to keep the black lines so the cut out on white vinyl.  Gnuber, I used your file, saved it as a dwg, and tried to see what happens.  I have two screen shots attached to show what happens.  I get a solid fill for everything as a dwg file, and no matter what cut lines or style I I go with, I end up in the plotter screen with gray interior lines - meaning it's not going to cut those.

This is exhausting.  The other 2 banners are done and the vinyl has been applied. This last image is stopping everything.

what I posted was just a screen capture to see if that was what you were needing.
here is the .ai file