Titan and Titan 2 Contour Cutting Tutorial - Sure Cuts a Lot, VinylMaster, and FlexiSign

Contour Cutting: Titan and Titan 2 Series

Manual Calibration: There is no manual calibration for either of these series of cutter. These machines are strictly calibrated within the cutting software. Do not change any offset settings from stock on the machine as it can adversely affect using the known good stock offset values used when calibrating the machine within the software.

Sure Cuts A Lot 3 Pro

1. After installing, activating and setting up the cutter within the software, click on the circle from the shapes library to put it in your virtual cut mat. The cut mat should already be set to 8.5” by 11”, but if it is not, click on “cutter” on the top of the program then click “mat size” and then click on “8.5x11” to set the mat size to standard printer paper size. After this, enlarge the circle you’ve created so it’s at least 2” by 2”. Install the included pen tool that came with the cutter into the carriage arm of the unit.

2. Click on the icon that looks like a pair of scissors over a piece of paper at the to of the program to open up the cut menu and then click on “print + cut” in the bottom left of the menu.

3. Click on “Print” and send a few copies to a regular desktop printer. After this, click on “calibrate laser” and then “edit values”. This is the area where you can make adjustments to the offset to calibrate where the contour is cut during the contour cutting process. In this menu, click on “units” at the top and change the units to “mm”. Here are some stock values that should be either spot on or require a small amount of adjustment

   1. X = 26.000 mm

   2. Y = -20.750 mm

4. Once you’re plugged these values in, click on “save” to save those offset values. Please keep in mind that you may need to adjust these settings while calibrating. The more positive the value for X the further down the contour will be. The more negative the value for Y the further left the contour will be.

5. Load in one of the printed circles you printed earlier. It should have printed out 3 registration marks around the image which are numbered. Points 1 and 2 go toward the back of the machine and point 3 is closest you. Press the “laser” button on the cutter to turn the laser on. Press the “on/offline” button to put the machine in the offline mode and then line the laser up with the dot on registration mark 3 and hit enter to set the origin point.

6. Return to your computer and hit “next” in the print and cut menu. The cutter should move the laser pretty close the the dot on registration mark 1. You will use the arrow keys on your keyboard on your computer to adjust the laser so it is exactly on the dot. You can hold down the CTRL key to move it in smaller increments. Once the laser is lined up, hit the “next” button in the software.

7. The cutter should move to or be close to registration mark 2. Use the keyboard to line the laser up as outlined in step 6 and then hit next.

8. The cutter now moves back to registration mark 3. Use the keyboard as outlined in step 6 to line the laser up with the dot. Once lined up, you should be able to click on “cut” in the software. The cutter should draw around the circle exactly on the line of the circle. If it does not, please review steps 3 and 4 to make adjustments to the laser offset.

VinylMaster 

1. After installing and activating the software, click on the icon in the upper left corner that looks like the blade holder. The software should ask you to install a cutter. Select maker of “Uscutter” and then choose your model in the drop down menu for “model”. Be sure that the connection type is set to “Direct USB” and the port is set to the only thing listed in the drop down for port (usually this starts with “vid” and an amalgamation of letters and numbers). Make sure that you have the pen tool that came with the cutter installed into the carriage arm.

2. Click on the icon on the left hand side of the software that looks like a circle, triangle, and square and then click on the circle tool. Make a circle in the middle of the virtual cut mat.

3. Click on the icon that looks like an apple on the top of the software and then click on “Contour cut wizard”.

4. Within the contour cut wizard menu, there should be a button in the bottom right hand corner that says “BUILD”. Click on this. Reduce the outline percentage to “0.00” so the contour is lined up exactly with the shape then click on “accept”. 

5. In the contour cut menu, make sure your printing device is set to “Print Direct” and that it is selected to a regular desktop printer then print the document. If the shape is not in the middle of the page, you can click on the “Print Options” tab and manually adjust where the shape is going to print on the document prior to printing.

6. The print will print out with 4 registration marks around the image. Since we are using a circle, it does not matter how the print is loaded into the cutter. Be aware that on most other prints that there will be an orientation that it needs to be loaded, but the software will show you prior to starting the contour job. 

7. Click on “Cut” in the contour cut wizard. The software will open an alignment window. You will then want to tick the box for “edit offset” in order to change the offset to some known good values. The values listed below should be either exactly on with the contour or require little adjustment.

   1. X = 25.7 mm

   2. Y = -20.6 mm

8. If you need to adjust either of these settings, please keep in mind that the more negative of the value for X, the further left the contour will be cut/drawn. The more positive value for Y, the further down the contour will be cut/drawn.

9. After changing the values, click on next and the software will prompt you to align the laser up in the center of the first registration mark. To do so, press the “laser” button on the cutter to turn the laser on. Then press the “on/offline” button and use the direction arrow buttons on the cutter to line the laser up in the center of the first registration mark and then press the “enter” key on the cutter.

10. Press “next” in the menu and the laser should move roughly close to registration mark 2. Click on “use keyboard” in the software and you will be able to move the laser with the numpad on the keyboard to move the laser in the center of the mark. You can hold down the CTRL key to move the laser is smaller increments. Press “next” in the software and the laser should move roughly around registration mark 3. Align the laser and hit “next”. You will do this process again on mark 4 and then finally on mark 1. Once the laser is aligned on registration mark 1, click “cut” in the software and then “yes” to proceed with cutting.

11. The cutter should draw around the circle. If the contour is off, make adjustments to the offset outlined in steps 7 and 8 until the contour is spot on around the edge of the circle. Once you have your values, it is highly recommended that you write them down so you don’t have to go through the long process of calibration should you put the software on another computer.

FlexiSign

1. After installing the software, add the setup for the Titan or Titan 2 in your production manager, depending on what machine you have. To do this, create a circle using the circle tool on the left side of the program. Once you’ve made a circle, click on the icon on the to of the program that looks like the tip of a blade holder with a blade sticking out of it. A window will pop up with “select a production manager”. Make sure “on this computer (local)” is selected and then click “OK”. The production manager should then open. If you have no devices added to the manager, a window titled “add setup” will open for you to set up a device. Select “vinyl cutters” and then choose “Saga” as the brand and then select “Saga-720i” if you have a titan or “Saga-720ii” if you have a titan 2 in the lower drop down menu and then click “next”. (If you do not see the brand of USCutter, then you may be running an earlier version of flexi, in which case, you will need to download and install the SAGA flexi driver pack from our support website). **Do NOT select “uscutter” and then your model of titan. The profiles made under that manufacturer do NOT work correctly.

2. The production manager will have you choose an output port. You can set this up in one of two ways. One way is to determine which USB port the computer has assigned the cutter. To do this, open your device manager by clicking on the windows icon, clicking on control panel and then on device manager (you may need to change the view to “large icons”). In the device manager, expand “universal serial bus controllers” and then right click on “USB printing support”. (You may have more than one of these if you have a desktop printer connected to the computer or if you have a wide format printer directly connected to the computer). After right clicking, left click on properties then click on the details tab. Click on the drop down and then click on “bus relations”. There will be a very long value listed and at the end of it it will have “USB00X” where “X” is the USB number the computer has assigned to the cutter. Once you know the USB number, you will change the output port in the production manager to this value. The other way to set this up is to change the output port to “USB_Printer_0”. Please keep in mind that some wide format printers will also have their port on this so there may be duplicates when you are selecting this. Once you’ve selected the port, click on finish.

3. Go back to the design page of the program and select the circle. Make the circle around 4” by 4” and then click on “effects” on the top of the program and then click on “contour cut” in the drop down. A contour tool will pop up. On the third drop down menu, you will change the value from 0.500in to 0.00in and then click on the green check mark. This will make the vector for the contour of the circle that we will use for calibration testing.

4. Click on the icon that looks like a wide format printer next to the blade holder icon we originally clicked on when we set up the cutter. This will open up the print and cut menu. If you do not have a wide format printer of some kind installed, it should prompt you to do so or give you an error message. (wide format printers are usually set up as network devices with IP addresses, but may also be set up with a direct USB connection).

5. In the production manager, right click on your cutter profile and then click on “default job properties”. In the menu that pops up, click on the tab that has an icon of the tip of a blade holder. In the tab, click on “cutter options”. Tick the “offset X” and “offset Y” so they are checked. Input these values for both the X and Y.

X = -24.75 mm

Y = +20.10 mm

Please keep in mind that these are known good stock values that should either be spot on or just slightly off. If the contour cut is off you will need to make changes to the offset to correct it. The more positive the X value is, the higher the contour will be placed when cutting. The more positive the value for Y, the further left the contour will be placed.

6. If you have set up the contour of the circle correctly, you should see a tab in this menu that looks like the blade holder icon. Click on this and then make sure that you have your model of titan selected in the drop down menu for the cutter. There will also be another drop down menu for how you want to send the print and cut jobs. Select “as separate jobs” and then click on “send”. This will send a job to your wide format printer and spool a job in the queue for the titan.

7. The printer should print the calibration circle we made with registration marks around it which will be numbered 1 through 4. If the printer does not start printing, check the production manager to check to see if the job is holding. If it is holding, right click on it and then click on send.

8. Once the circle is printed and the material is dry/cured, load it into the cutter and then press the laser button to turn the laser on on the machine. Press the on/offline button to put the machine in the offline mode and then use the keys with directional arrows on them to move the laser roughly an inch down and an inch to the right of registration mark 1 and hit the enter button on the cutter to lock in the origin point.

9. Go back to the production manager and then go to your cutter set up. You should still have the contour cut job holding in the list. Right click on the job and then click on send. An alignment window will pop up. Make sure you have “interactive alignment (manual)” selected and then click on “ok”. You will then use the arrow keys on your computer's keyboard to line up the laser in the center of registration mark 1 and hit enter. The machine should move so the laser is close to registration mark 2. Use the arrow keys to line it up like you did with number 1 and hit enter. You will do this for registration mark 3 and 4. Once all of them are lined up the computer will prompt you to put the knife back in the cutter and then click ok to cut. Click OK and the cutter will cut the contour around the circle. 

10. If the contour is off at all, review step 5 and make the necessary adjustments so the contour cut is perfectly around the calibration circle. Once you have the values, it is highly recommended that you write them down somewhere for safekeeping so you do not have to run the calibration again if you put the software on another computer or suffer a computer crash.