Historical FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Question: The plotter cuts the first characters cleanly and then begins to draw indefinable curves.
Answer: This is a typical buffer overflow problem when the plotter is driven serially. This occurs when the flow control is not properly set up for serial transmission. For serial data transmission most plotters are driven with the following parameters: 

Bits per second9600
Data bits8
Stop bits1
ParityNone
Flow controlHardware

You can change these values under Windows 3.x over program manager / main group / control panel / ports / COMx / settings and under Windows 95 over start / settings / control panel / system / device manager / ports (COM and LPT) / COM port (COMx) / port settings. If your plotter is set to other communication parameters, you can generally find the values in the display under the interface or communication menu and enter them in the Windows control panel.

24.07.2001
Question: If the object height exceeds e.g. 70cm CoCut and EuroCUT are changing right into the segmentation dialog.
Answer: As default setting the Roland PNC 950 and 960 have their origin point at lower left. Nearly all other plotters have their origin point at lower right. So you have to press the Rotate button on your plotter panel, before you press the Setup button.
24.07.2001
Question: How can I set the plotter´s origin point to the lower right position required by CoCut/EuroCUT?
Answer: Turn off the plotter and set the dip switch 6 to on. This activates the plotters Rotate function which will set the origin point to lower right and the X axis in the foil running direction.
24.07.2001
Question: After 70cm (27.5in) the vinyl is transported back and the plot continued at the origin point.
Answer: Open the driver editor as described above, change the value for ‘framesize’ to 68cm and save the driver.  
24.07.2001
Question: The output size of my graphics is more than twice as large as the original size.
Answer: The default setting for the resolution of the Mimaki CG series is 0.025mm, although they can work with a resolution of 0.01mm. The drivers from EuroCUT and CoCut are set to 0.01mm, because of the higher speed and accuracy. To change the setting, press the "<"-key on the plotter panel. After the initialisation press the Function key as long as Step size is displayed. Change the value to 0.01 with the "^"-key and confirm your selection with the Enter and End keys.
24.07.2001
Question: The plotting output is about 20% too small.
Answer: As the Gerber plotters of the HS series have a very high plotting resolution (plotting point size 0.000254 mm) and such a low figure was not originally planned by the driver, older drivers have a rounded-off plotting point size of 0.0003 mm. A solution to this problem has meanwhile been found by using a special initialisation string, which is entered as follows:

 
In CoCut the driver editor (PLOTEDIT.EXE) is to be found in the CoCut directory. Start this program and as password enter the word ‘SERVICE’ (complete in capitals). Load driver HS15.CCD (CoCut 3-5) or HS15.EDV (CoCut 6/7). 
In EuroCUT press the key combination Ctrl-Shift-P-Key. In this way the driver editor is loaded with the most recently used driver (in this case the Gerber HS 15/750 driver).

 
Change the value for the plotting point from 0.0003 to 1 and in the initialisation string enter the command (PP:3937) in front of @HS (in cutting mode) or @HZ (in drawing mode), save the driver and quit the driver editor again.

 
This enables the cutting module to work with a plotting point of 1/3937 (=0.000254) mm so that output is of the correct size.

24.07.2001
Question: Although Ive activated the read back button in the cutting dialog the returned value is 0. How can I adjust my plotter so the right foil width value is returned?
Answer: The plotter has to be in the so-called host-mode. If you want to change the plotter settings, you first have to switch on your device. Now please press the <-button on the panel. After the plotter has made its initialisation, please press the function button as long as you can see priority in the display. Now press the enter-key and then the ^-key. In the display you will now see Host. Press the Enter button for confirmation.
24.07.2001

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