Need help outlining for cutcontour

Question

Hello,
CS3/PC - I use Roland VersaWorks to cut our vinyl/sign/stickers, adding a cutcontour line (which the printer/cutter uses to cut the final art) is generally pretty easy, especially when we have created the artwork and know that we need to eventually add this line.
However, I can't seem to get my head around this particular client submitted art.  Basically all the red will go (except for a thin line) around the image which of course will be the "cut contour."
I appreciate an assistance with this. - Cheers, Chris

Answer 1

Petkri,
I'm not familiar with your specific device. But generally speaking:
Vinyl cutters are just plotters that follow simple vector paths, usually requiring the paths to be described in the HPGL plotter language. Programs like Illustrator describe shapes as Bezier curves, and record them in the PostScript language. So most devices require a software that translates the PostScript curves into HPGL, and then sends the HPGL commands to the plotter.
Few cutter manufacturers provide software for their devices in the form of OS-level drivers which can be accessed directly from programs like Illustrator. So typically, you use a separate software (it may have come with the device, or it may be one of several vertical-market softwares which cater to the sign industry) to open the artwork created in Illustrator (or similar programs) and send it to the cutter.
The capability of the softwares which "talk" to the cutters varies. Most can open a file saved as EPS, or one saved as Illustrator's native file format (.ai), so long as the .ai file is a "simple" (early) version. That is fine, because all the cutter can do is follow a path. The cutter can't do diddly with recent-version content, such as raster effects anyway. (How would a cutter "cut" a blurry airbrush effect, or a multi-colored vector blend from a solid-colored piece of vinyl?) Most cutter software can open and work with .ai versions 8 or earlier.
Now, when you think about it, ordinary text itself is a "live effect." When you use a font in any program (be it Illustrator or a simple text editor), the program calls the font from the OS and the characters are "painted" onto the screen according to vector outlines that are contained in the font file, not in the program using it. Some graphics programs are able to "go get" those vector outlines from the font file and draw them right on the page, and then delete the live text object. That, in effect, "nails down" the text as normal paths. That's what Illustrator does with its Type>Create Outlines command.
Your vinyl cutting software may very well be able to do that too--or it may not. But it has to be done before the artwork is sent to the cutter, because again, all the cutter can do is follow a path.
So typically, it goes something like this:
1. Use your drawing program (Illustrator or whatever) to draw your artwork.
2. Use your drawing program to optimize the artwork down to ordinary simple paths that correctly describe the shapes that you actually want the cutter's blade to follow. That means no unnecessary overlaps, no masks, no unwanted cross-cuts within areas of the same color, only solid fills, no strokes.
3. Back-save the file to an earlier version of .ai.
4. Open the .ai file in your cuting software. Make whatever additional settings, adjustments, arrangements your software provides.
5. Use yoru cuting software to send the file to the cutter.
JET