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Cut/Contour Lines Issues

New Here ,
Dec 09, 2021 Dec 09, 2021

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Bought a Roland BN-20.  Using Illustrator for my graphics.  I have downloaded and installed the Roland VersaWorks Swatch from their website.  When I save as either a PDF OR EPS, the file will not load into the queue and says the file is corrupt.  When I load a JPEG file that has ZERO cut/contour lines, the image loads perfectly fine and will print.  This tells me there is an illustrator issue, NOT a printer cutter issue.  Seems like this is the spot to ask for help.  I've had a number of "experts" help with this and nobody seems to have a solution.  All help is welcomed.  I am using Illustrator 2021 from our Creative Cloud Desktop.

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Adobe
Community Expert ,
Dec 09, 2021 Dec 09, 2021

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First of all JPEG images will not hold vector-based graphics. A cut contour line is a vector-based object.

Next issue is the CutContour swatch itself. It's not something that actually has to be downloaded. Just open the Swatches palette, click the drop-down menu and select "New Swatch". In the "Swatch Name" field type "CutContour" (with no space between the words). Under "Color Type" choose "Spot Color." You can leave the color mode as CMYK, it doesn't matter, but make the color a loud one that will stand out. Most people use a 100% Magenta default. Once created the spot color will be availabe in your Swatches palette. Apply that CutContour spot color to the line stroke of the path you want to use as a cutting path.

This procedure works for several other RIP applications and plotters, not just the ones from Roland.

Next trouble shooting step: make sure the PDF or EPS files your sending to Roland VersaWorks are compatible with it. Is this a current version of VersaWorks or an older copy? You might have to save an EPS file down a few versions older to get it to work with VersaWorks. It has been a long time since our shop used VersaWorks. I remember some issues with PDF files where CutContour lines wouldn't show up if there were things like transparency effects in the artwork.

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New Here ,
Dec 09, 2021 Dec 09, 2021

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Thank you for responding.  

I tried doing jpegs just to see if the printer would at least print...not cut...which it does.

I aleady had a cutcontour swatch in place, it was magenta, it was cmyk, and spot color.  The stroke is also 1 pt.  

As for the versaworks, its versaworks6.  I use illustrator 21 on CC Desktop.  

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Community Expert ,
Dec 09, 2021 Dec 09, 2021

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VersaWorks should be seeing the cutting path if it was set up as I described. I'm pretty sure the latest version of VersaWorks can handle more complicated PDF artwork and still allow print and cut operations from it. It wasn't like that back when we were using it; I'd be forced to make flattened high res TIFF images of certain kinds of artwork I wanted contour cut. We retired our old VersaCamm VP540 several years ago and got a pair of HP Latex printers (controlled by Onyx Thrive).

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New Here ,
Dec 09, 2021 Dec 09, 2021

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What's interesting is I'm trying to save it as an EPS in different versions of Illustrator, and the highest percentage I can get it to load is 33% at Illustrator 3.

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Community Expert ,
Dec 09, 2021 Dec 09, 2021

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What happens when you try PDF? Is there anything complicated with the artwork such as unique effects that work only with later versions of Illustrator. Does the artwork have any transparency effects in it? Are there any linked images/is everything embedded?

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New Here ,
Dec 10, 2021 Dec 10, 2021

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PDF does the same thing.  Its just a jpeg image i traced in 3 color on illustrator and put a profile around it as a cutcontour.  Nothing special.  Nothing linked, no transparency effects.

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Community Expert ,
Dec 10, 2021 Dec 10, 2021

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Your spot color swatch name should be CutContour (not cutcontour).

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New Here ,
Dec 10, 2021 Dec 10, 2021

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it is, sorry.  Good catch.

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Mentor ,
Dec 10, 2021 Dec 10, 2021

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Run a very simple test - blue square with ContourCut spot as stroke - save as pdf with Acrobat 4 (pdf 1.3) option.

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New Here ,
Dec 13, 2021 Dec 13, 2021

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Got the same results

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Community Expert ,
Dec 14, 2021 Dec 14, 2021

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This is just a guess, but make a new layer in Illustrator named CutContour and move the cut lines to the new layer, save as a PDF.

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New Here ,
Dec 17, 2021 Dec 17, 2021

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Hey all-

 

We have solved the issue.  Found out, The BN-20 does not have a driver for Windows 10 EDUCATION.  We had to find a device in the district that had  regular Windows 10 on it and it worked perfectly fine.....who'd of thought?

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