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How to define contour cut colors


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Hi @Jerry Squires,

Welcome to the forums. 

There is no general rule on this because different software require different setup. You would need to check the requirements on your cutting software. Usually, it's a magenta ( global and spot colour ) on a separate layer, with a specific name. 

Thanks,

Gabe. 

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It probably depends on the print/cut software you are using. With Versaworks, then in Affinity Designer you create a spot colour called CutContour and tag cutting lines with that outline colour. Then make sure spot colours are preserved when exporting to PDF.

Windows 10 Pro, I5 3.3G PC 16G RAM

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello Gabe / Mick Thanks for responding-- OK let's try this again. If you are familiar with DrawPlus the old Serif graphics package, you would be able to select an image or font ... whatever and select a contour cut menu pick from the tools tab.  It would allow you to set various outline distances and would automatically generate a trace outline around a complex  image . You could then select the trace line and change it's color by selecting the CutContour spot color in your color palette.  How is this done in Affinity????  Contour Cut screen image DrawPlus is attached for clarification. If I can't do this in Affinity the the software is virtually worthless for my needs. Thanks in advance for any help! 

Draw-Plus-Create-Contour-Screen.jpg

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How about showing us the complex shape?

You might be able to achieve a facsimile using Expand Stroke and some editing afterwards.

Just brain storming workarounds so this is a simple example but really depends on the complexity of the shape.
Screen-Shot-2019-03-01-at-10-08-45.png

 

The contour feature would be a nice feature to have though.

iMac 27" 2019 Sequoia 15.0 (24A335), iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
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Affinity Help - Affinity Desktop Tutorials - Feedback - FAQ - most asked questions

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OK Thanks guys, I'm absolutely astounded that Affinity did not provide this capability in their package. It is after all a "SERIF" based software product to begin with???

It is a really nice feature especially for printer/cutters like my ROLAND ..... NOW IM SAAAAD :O( 

SERIF dropped support for both DRAWPLUS and PAGEPLUS so even though I can still use the old software I wanted to continue to stay with new design software from SERIF

Forces me to go with COREL or some other package that has a more elegant Contour Cut capability. SERIF GODS are you listening?? Anyway thank to all responses

 

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11 hours ago, Jerry Squires said:

It is after all a "SERIF" based software product to begin with???

Just FYI, the Affinity software is based on an entirely new code base, designed from the ground up for high memory efficiency & cross-platform Mac & Windows compatibility.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.5.5 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
A
ll 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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  • 1 year later...

I'm currently running Versaworks with a BN-20, using Affinity designer for Mac and generally having no issues.  I simply take my vector work, duplicate it, and expand stroke, then convert it to a spot color.  If I need an offset, I make the stroke the width I need, expand it, and then remove the inner stroke lines, then repeat the aforementioned process. Cut contour works quite easily!

That being said, the one thing I haven't been able to find yet is any information on how to do a perf cut with Affinity.  Roland offers swatch files for Illustrator and CorelDraw, but not affinity of course.  I've tried to replicate those swatches in Affinity watching videos of people setting them up manually in Illustrator, but even setting up the same spot color it doesn't seem to work.  I'm planning to try a trial of Illustrator (Adobe lost me as a customer when they switched to subscription based), install the swatches, and then export a PDF with the swatches laid out as samples and see if I can make that work in Affinity.  Fingers crossed!

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  • 1 month later...

I'm not sure if you ever figured it out or not, but you can create perf cuts for Versaworks just by naming any spot color PerfCutContour. I hope this helps! I actually made a pallet for AD for the cut contour and the perf cut contour. I'll see if I can add it here. I know these work for Versaworks, not sure for other rip software.

 

Cut_Contour.afpalette

Edited by hummboxx
I updated the pallet to include for White, Gloss, Metallic Silver and Primer. Have not tested them however
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