Frustration Using Illustrator with My Laser Cutter

[Scott5F8F]

Hi, Everybody. Gee, I hope somebody can help me. 

[Scott5F8F]

Can somebody show me the button to edit my OP? For the life of me, I can't find it.

Anyway, here's my situation. I have an Epilog laser cutter, the best in the business. For years I've used AI without incident as the software interface with my laser cutter. All the sudden, about a week ago, AI began showing the screen I posted in the previous post. I've never seen it before. This appears when I click on the Setup button in the Print Dialogue box. The screen used to go directly to the Epilog settings page. Now, when I print through this AI box, the measurements are widely inaccurate -- and I'm talking six inches, not three millimeters.

My analysis is I must have hit a button in AI to do this. Can anyone tell me where to go in AI to tell it to stop doing this?

Thanks Very Much,
Scott

[Monika Gause]

Did you perhaps update Illustrator?

And now it's no longer compatible with your printer driver?

[Scott5F8F]

Monika, thanks for your response. That makes a lot of sense. Yes, I always update the AI software. That could be the problem here. But I think the root cause is likely another culprit. The tech people at Epilog (the laser company) had me update their software to their newest version. That's when the problem started. However, I've gone in and deleted that version and reinstalled my original program, but that box still keeps popping up. 

I had no choice earlier today than to get CorelDraw on a trial basis. It's working very well. I'm just too late to sit tight with my customers and risk refunds for lack of delivery.

Monika, shouldn't there be a way for me to go into AI and tell the program to stop popping up this dialogue box every time I go to print something? So frustrating.

Thank You.

[Shane33893353nd0p]

Scott can you tell me did you resolve this issue. I am a school teacher and they have just updated our laptops to W11 and I have now began to encounter the exact same problem as you and it is absolutely driving me nuts. Even the Width and Height settings of my media are reversed and appear so in the adobe print dialogue box. I cannot seem to get the corrrect setting no matter what I do and the resetting to default every time you open the Epilog pint manager is just rediculous. Any giudance would be greatly appreciated. Regards Shane

[Bobby Henderson]

I'm kind of surprised you can use a laser cutter directly in Adobe Illustrator via an ordinary print dialog box. Usually these specialty devices require their own stand-alone software to drive them, such as the software RIP applications I use with large format printers at my workplace.

I think the first trouble-shooting step to check is to see if there are any print driver updates for your laser cutter. Does the laser cutter have its own bundled stand-alone application. Or is it just intended to use via Adobe Illustrator?

[Scott5F8F]

Bobby, thanks for your post. I probably wasn't as clear as I might have been in my OP. The Epilog does have its own propriety software that meshes very nicely with AI. I've been using it for years without a hitch. However, in the process of troubleshooting this issue, I discovered that the glitch is 100% caused by AI, not the Epilog software.

The way this is simple. If I run the file and print directly from the Epilog print dialogue box, the image prints perfectly. The problem? That box does not give me control over the controls of the laser cutter, which are speed, power and resolution. In the past, 

[Scott5F8F]

My friends, I cannot find any way to edit any of my previous posts. What's the secret? I belong to dozens of discussions forums and have never seen where I could not go in and spruce up a post.

Suffice it to say for now, I was able to isolate the glitch definitively. It is the Illustrator program causing the problem, not the Epilog software. 

Thank You. 

[Monika Gause]

If you want to report a bug, please to to https://illustrator.uservoice.com 

This forum is 95% volunteers. We are not staff.

[Bobby Henderson]

To edit posts click the little three dots icon next to "More" listed underneath your posts. "Edit Post" is one of the options that appears when clicking the three dots.

If the Epilog software operates as an Illustrator plugin either the problem could just as easily be due to an problem with the plugin as it could be with Illustrator itself. I use Astute Graphics' huge suite of Illustrator plugins and they frequently release updates to fix bugs as well as introduce new features.

Since the laser cutter/engraver is functioning as a "printer" the problem may involve how the "print driver" is working with the computer's operating system. That white Print dialog box in the images you posted looks nothing like the Print dialog box I typically see in Illustrator or other Adobe applications.

[Scott5F8F]

Bobby, thanks for the info. I suppose any of these issues could be causing the problem. With talk about plug-ins and such, it's just above my pay grade to understandhe technology.

Bobby, BTW, the blue and white print dialogue box is the EPILOG box, not AI's. This is the box I MUST get to to adjust my laser settings. If you look in the lower right corner of that image, you'll see slider settings for Speed, Power and Frequency. 

The problem is, the AI dialogue box photo I posted in my OP now forces itself between the two boxes, whereas before I could hit Setup and the blue and white box would pop up automatically. To make matters much worse, the AI box does not save my print settings, so I have to reset these settings in the blue and white box every time I make a new cut. 

So I think we can safely say that the upgrading of either the AI software or the Epilog software, or a combination of both, has now made my laser cutter unusable. 

I downloaded an evaluation copy of CorelDraw last night, and so far it is perfect.

Thanks Again,

Scott

[Bobby Henderson]

Bobby, BTW, the blue and white print dialogue box is the EPILOG box, not AI's. This is the box I MUST get to to adjust my laser settings. If you look in the lower right corner of that image, you'll see slider settings for Speed, Power and Frequency. 

I was referring to the white dialog box in the image attached to the first post of this thread, not the blue and white dialog box containing the Epilog controls. The white box looks like something displayed by the Windows operating system rather than the print dialog box Illustrator shows when the print command is selected. The notion the dialog box has an "add printer" option listed makes me wonder if the Epilog device's print driver is working properly.

BTW, I have a lot of experience using CorelDRAW. The application has made some decent improvements in recent years, but there are other issues that remain un-fixed. CorelDRAW is very popular in the sign industry. However, since I do a lot of large format print work and handle a lot of corporate branding assets I have to use Adobe's software (Illustrator in particular) to complete the projects.

[Jacob Bugge]

Scott,

This is only about your inability to edit posts.

There has been a serious issue with spammers creating new accounts just for spamming, and when their posts were moderated they edited the spam back in.

This led to a restriction where only posters with a certain level of participation are trusted with the ability to edit posts. Which level has never been expressly mentioned, but undoubtedly many know it.

[Scott5F8F]

Jacob, thanks for clarifying. I totally understand and appreciate that. I'm always amazed at how many people in this world try to scam other human beings. If they worked as hard at a legit profession, they'd probably be very successful. But there's something about the thrill of the chase, the adreline rush one gets from doing something naughty, that motivates them. I'll never understand it. 

Thank You,

Scott

[Jacob Bugge]

You are welcome, Scott.

I wonder how much skill scamming takes; and that is just one in a wide range of fascinations I fail to fathom.

[Bobby Henderson]

People running scams is just another form of that old human desire to get rich quick. It's human nature for people to want to take short cuts to get there. For some people the short cuts involve scams or outright stealing. The funny thing is these folks often end up hurting themselves as badly or even worse than their victims.

[Shane33893353nd0p]

Scott can you tell me did you resolve this issue. I am a school teacher and they have just updated our laptops to W11 and I have now began to encounter the exact same problem as you and it is absolutely driving me nuts. Even the Width and Height settings of my media are reversed and appear so in the adobe print dialogue box. I cannot seem to get the corrrect setting no matter what I do and the resetting to default every time you open the Epilog pint manager is just rediculous. Any giudance would be greatly appreciated. Regards Shane

[Anubhav M]

Hello @Shane33893353nd0p,

We understand that encountering technical issues can be frustrating. Would you mind sharing some more details, like the exact version of the OS/Illustrator and the exact details of your workflow, including screenshots/screen recording of the problem (https://adobe.ly/3PDQJND), so we can better assist you?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Anubhav

[Shane33893353nd0p]

Hi Anubhav, thanks for getting back to me so quickly,sorry my response has been slow. See the attached video I have taken which may explain the issue. Thanks, regards Shane

[Anubhav M]

Hello @Shane33893353nd0p,

Thanks for sharing the details. It seems the video was not uploaded correctly. Would you mind resharing the video again by uploading it to Dropbox/Google Drive/etc. and sharing a link here so we can check it on our end?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Anubhav

[Shane33893353nd0p]

Hi Anubhav

Try this link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c2Y3bngce5Pau44EvfHkQuG5--9IHSG0/view?usp=drive_link, regards Shane

[Anubhav M]

Hello @Shane33893353nd0p,

Thanks for sharing the link. It seems the link is not public. Could you change it to Public under Link Setting (https://adobe.ly/3PXj169) so that we can check it on our end?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Anubhav

[Shane33893353nd0p]

Should be able to access now, sorry about that, my organisation makes sharing difficult. Thanks regards Shane

[westdr1dw]

Have you tried sending the image to Epilog Job Manager? Once you are in Job Manager what is the image preview showing? I often use Ps when sending images to the laser. The only downside are is I can only print. The lines as I recall for vector cutting have to be .001. Ps can only go to .05. I have a copy of the Zing manual. You can also go to the Epilog website. They have awesome tech support. You also may want to try to print to Acrobat. I have also experienced problems with sending files from AI to the laser. This may be the reason Epilog uses Corel.

[lhuoe]

I am seeing the exact same issue. Windows 11, Illustrator 2024.

Setting the Epilog as the default printer helps with the switching printer issue. But the other problems remain; not retaining driver settings, switching to the incorrect orientation, etc.

As a workaround, loading the .ai file direct into Acrobat and using that to print seems to work better.

I suspect the issue is the legacy Epilog drivers. They are 10 years old now and not behaving as they should in Windows 11. The included help files are in a deprecated format and can't be opened.