XPRES CUT LITE ® Instruction Manual gem tec™ Sales: 01332 855 085 Tehcnical: 01332 858 333
Index Contents Xpres Cut® Lite Overview Overview of cutter p1 Xpres Cut® Lite Installation Installing and setting up the Xpres Cut® Lite System VLCD Connecting via the VLCD (32bit) p2 p5 p5 CorelDRAW Overview Introducing CorelDRAW and its toos Common CorelDRAW tasks p7 p8 Operation LCD layout & Blade installation Loading the media Creating transfers Checking blade force p9 p10 p11 p17 Troubleshooting Troubleshooting and Warning indicators Contact p18 p19 Instructions in this manual refer to Window
Xpres Cut Lite Overview ® Thankyou for purchasing the Xpres Cut® Lite system. Cutter Overview Object Description A Primary Pinch Roller To help hold the media during cutting. B Slicing Groove To help slice off media. C Alignment Ruler To align media with clear guideline marks D Carriage To help perform cutting job with installed blade or pen. E Blade Holder To hold the blade. F Platen The surface for holding and supporting media in operation.
Installation To begin, unbox and place your cutter on a stable surface. Plug in the supplied power cable and turn the cutter on (power button on the left hand side). Important: Before beginning the following installation guide make sure that the USB Cable is NOT connected to the PC. You will be prompted to install the USB cable later.
Installation 1. Insert supplied installation CD which will autorun and show the following screen. Select the ‘Expert 24' Option and choose the relevant 32bit or 64bit Windows Driver from the menu. 2. You will be prompted with the following screen, Connect the USB device and click ‘Next’. Note: If installing on a Windows 64bit system please skip to step 6. 3. You will be prompted with the following screen, click ‘OK’ to continue.
Installation You will now see the screen shown below, select the ‘Expert 24' option and click ‘OK’. You will be prompted with the screen shown below, you do NOT have to disconnect the USB if prompted however this does not effect the install. Now click ‘OK’. You will be now see confirmation that the driver has installed correctly.
Installation VLCD What is VLCD? VLCD is a small piece of software that allows you to connect the Xpres Cut® Lite system with your PC. the VLCD Software is your control panel to control certain parts of the cutter, such as Force, Media weight, Offset etc. The Xpres Cut® Lite system will not operate without the use of the VLCD. To use the VLCD we click on the accessories option from the installation CD menu (Under ‘Expert 24'). This will open up a new folder as shown below: Place the VLCD2.
Installation Connecting the Xpres Cut® Lite sytem with VLCD Double click the VLCD2.EXE on your desktop, you should see the window below: Click on the drop down list, select the USB or Expert 24 option and then click ‘Connect’. You should now see the window below, the Model and Version should be visible and the options are now active: Select the relevant force required for the material you intend to cut and click ‘Update Setting’ (a guide for forces can be found on our website at www.xpres.co.uk).
CorelDRAW Overview Introducing CorelDRAW and its tools 7
CorelDRAW Overview Common CorelDRAW Tasks 8
Operation Below shows the layout of the control panel and the relevant functions: Power On/Off Line Pause Repeat Data Clear Cut Test Origin Set Error Key Function POWER LED To indicate the power status ( light up: power on; light off: power off ) ERROR LED To indicate the error status ( light up: error; light off: normal ) ON/OFF LINE To switch modes or stop cutting job( light up: on-line; light off: off-line ) While in on-line mode: only ON/OFF LINE and PAUSE keys activated While in off-line mo
Operation Loading the media 1. Lift the 2 levers at the back of cutter to raise pinch rollers. 2. Load your media on the platen and slide it under the pinch rollers from either the front side or the backside. 3. Move the pinch rollers manually to the correct position. Be sure the pinch rollers are positioned below the white marks as shown below. Always move the pinch rollers by hand from the back of the cutter. Once in position use the clamps to lock the pinch rollers in to position.
Operation If using a roll of vinyl, you can position the roll on the Support Bracket shown below to allow the vinyl to unroll freely. Creating transfers Now the vinyl is loaded in to the cutter correctly you can begin to create your transfer ready for cutting. 1. Open CorelDRAW and select a new page. Now click on the Text Tool ( ). With the Text Tool Selected click once on screen - you will notice the cursor flashing on screen awaiting input. Enter your text and select the relevant font.
Operation 3. Draw a weed box around the text using the Rectangle Tool ( ) as shown below. This gives us a start point for weeding once the transfer has been cut. (With the Rectangle Tool selected, Left click and drag the cursor around the desired objects). Weed Box XPRES 4. With the Pick Tool ( ), left click in a blank area of the page and drag the cursor over the text and the weed box whilst holding left click, this will allow you to select both the text and the weed box as one object.
Operation 7. Now mirror the image by clicking on the horizontal mirror button on the property bar ( will now be mirrored on screen. ). Your text SERPX 8. Before sending the image to print you need to make sure that the image you intend to cut will fit on the vinyl within the cutter. To do this you will need to open the VLCD software which was earlier placed on the desk top. Make sure the cutter is turned ON and open the VLCD2 software.
Operation You now know that the width of the page layout in CorelDRAW matches the vinyl loaded in to the cutter. This allows you to maximise the use of the vinyl.
Operation Now the design is positioned correctly, you need to rotate the design so that the bottom edge of the design faces towards the left hand side of CorelDRAW. Rotate 90° or 270° (depending on how the design is layed out) by highlighting all objects and entering ‘90/’270'' in the ‘Angle of Rotation’ ( ) tool on the property bar. Your design should be rotated as the below shows. . Note: This step allows us to position the cut correctly in the print preview page in the following steps 9.
Operation You will see the layout below (the print preview page will always show a pre determined page layout regardless of the page size set in CorelDRAW beforehand). Click ‘Bottom Left Corner’ from the drop down list within the Print Preview screen to position the design along the left hand edge of the print preview ready to print. The area above highlighted in red shows the leading edge of the roll of vinyl placed in the cutter.
Operation Note: Always check the force using the ‘Test Cut’ button before beginning to cut your transfer. To do this press the ‘On/Off Line’ button to turn the cutter Offline (On/Off Line LED will be off). Whilst the cutter is Offline press the ‘Cut Test’ button once. The cutter will now cut the pattern below: If you weed away the square, you should be left with a lightly visible crosshair scoring in the backing of the vinyl. This shows you have the correct force.
Troubleshooting What if Expert 24 cannot operate? If your cutter does not respond, please check the following items first: Is the power cord plugged in properly? Is the power cord connected to the power connector properly? Is the power switch turned on? If the above has been checked: If the POWER LED lights on, the cutting should be in a normal condition ready to cut. In this case double check that the information being sent from the PC is set to a ‘Hairline’ Outline.
Troubleshooting Warning 2 Command error If the cutting cannot recognise the commands from your computer, please check that the information being sent to the cutter is set to a ‘hairline’ outline. Warning 3 Lever up or no media Check that you have lowered the lever down and make sure that you load the media before cutting. Warning 4 Cannot repeat cutting There are two possibilities: - There is no data in the buffer: please resend the job from your computer.
