I received a 24" Panther vinyl cutter and was wondering if there is any way to use CorelDraw X3 or X5?
This is an old Signwarehouse cutter that was made by GCC (Jaguar).
Is there a printer driver for this cutter?
Any help would be appreciated.
Jim said: I received a 24" Panther vinyl cutter and was wondering if there is any way to use CorelDraw X3 or X5? This is an old Signwarehouse cutter that was made by GCC (Jaguar). Is there a printer driver for this cutter? Any help would be appreciated.
Your plotter is a (firmware) modified GCC Jaguar II 61 cutter. (I have the same unit, here). The way that I cut vinyl out of CorelDRAW, is that I have Eurosystems' CoCut software.
CoCut can be used as a stand-alone design and cut or in conjunction with CorelDRAW, where your design (or selected objects in your design) may be sent directly to CoCut and CoCut sends the items to the plotter.
To find out more about CoCut, you can go to Corel's main web site, here, and look under the Graphics section of the list of products, for CoCut or CoCut Professional.
So, I can't use this Panther plotter the way I use my little Stika plotter....using a printer driver directly from CorelDraw?
Is there a printer driver for the Panther plotter?
Jim said: So, I can't use this Panther plotter the way I use my little Stika plotter....using a printer driver directly from CorelDraw? Is there a printer driver for the Panther plotter?
That is what I use CoCut for. To drive my Plotter. I use the plotter to cut vinyl for signs, heavy duty thermo-xfer vinyl for garment decoration, and sand-blast masking material for rhinestone templates.....all with Corel and CoCut.
Is CoCut the same as LXi that Signwarehouse sells? It says on their web site that it works with CorelDraw. I'm asking because CoCut is $699 and LXi is $150. That's a big difference for just cutting out text.
Thanks for all your help.
Heck NO! I have the LXi cutting software, the "Master" version. The $150.00 version just about does nothing except text. You can import non-graphic text, but you can not edit the shapes, etc.
...And, yes it works with CorelDRAW, provided you export your designs as Corel CMX 5.0 for Presentations, or as an AI file, version 7.0 AI file, that is. Then you will have to "import" the CMX or AI file into the LXi package. To have any more functionality, you will pay through the nose. A full blown (as in my "Master" version) runs around $2500.00 and up!
Way back when, I was looking to upgrade my LXi software to be more current with other applications (CorelDRAW and Adobe Illy), I freaked out when I saw the going prices, even for upgrades. I found that something like a generic cutter-driver, designer/editor was much less expensive, since I already had CorelDRAW. Ergo, I ended up purchasing CoCut, when I was using CorelDRAW Ver. 11, as my main design software. (In pre-historic Internet times, I guess. . ) So far, I can not complain about the combination of CoCut & CorelDRAW.
Jim said:I'm asking because CoCut is $699
Regarding the APP Hugh is mentioning, you don't need the pro version. You could use the standard version which is cheaper and would work well for you.
PS. An update just came out too.
Also there's another plug-in style app for Draw that works similar.
PS. Stay away from the Flexi or Lxi. The file format is really "niche" and proprietary. Once you start saving files in it you'll find yourself trapped, just the way the developers of the app want. On the other hand Draw is more universal. You can have thousands of files and easily convert them to other formats or access them in other programs. Plus you'll find more friendly help here!
-John
I was able to get this cutter to work directly with CorelDraw X5. I downloaded the driver from Signwarehouse and set it up to use the parallel port.
The only drawback is I have to set up my document rotated 90° counterclockwise...other than that, it cuts fine so far. I found the driver here --> http://www.signwarehouse.com/support/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=50&nav=0,45 and downloaded the USB driver for XP. I thought I would try it and it worked. Time will tell how well it will work.
UPDATE -- Parallel was giving me too many errors so I set it up using the serial port (via USB) and it works much better. So far, no errors.