Gemini Cutting Manager User Manual

Gemini Cutting Manager

DEVICE SELECTOR

Whenever you plug two or more units to the same pc, the device selector window will show up, and it will allow you to select which machine run. WHILE WORKING WITH MORE UNITS AT THE SAME TIME, PLEASE USE A USB 3.0 HUB (ALSO PLUGGED TO A USB 3.0 PORT)

CUTTING MANAGER SOFTWARE

OVERVIEW OF CUTTING MANAGER SOFTWARE PANEL LAYOUT
The Cutting Manager software allows you to adjust and control all the functions and parameters for the digital cutting process. The cutting manager allows you to cut lines or paths of a pdf vector graphics.

1.  This area displays a preview of your PDF cut file
2.  The offsets allow the user to align the cut to the artwork
3.  “Open PDF” and “Open last job” buttons permit the user to choose a file “Open last job” opens the last file used on the cutting manager
4.  Operation buttons to help control the cutting series
5.  “Cut test” launches a single cut
6.  Control to assist in the alignment of the camera and the pinch rollers
7.  In this area the user chooses the number of copies per job run
8.  Working perspective controls and preview
9.  “Job Library”
10. You can use these two buttons to import or export a whole set of parameters (cut force, speed, creasing parameters, sheet size, stretch/compress,…)
11.  Sheet settings
12.  Magenta lines settings (for boxes)
13.  Borderlines settings
14. Label’s or Pack’s mode switch
15. Mark mode allows you to choose how many marks you want the plotter to check. You can choose to check no marks, 2 marks or 4 marks. The more marks are checked the more cutting precision you will have.
16.  Advanced options
17.  Settings
18. Report
19.  Set the language interface
20. Restore of plotter settings
21. Shows the software version

ADVANCED OPTIONS (16)

Settings (17)

1.  Saved alignment offset values. Every time a cutting series is launched, the offset values are added to the delta.
2.  When you launch a cut, if you need to scan marks, after the plotter receives the sheet from the feeder, the plotter moves on the first mark to start the scanning process. Sometimes the plotter’s head may not move always on the mark during the mark scan.

To solve this you can:

•  Place the pinch rollers close to the mark edge
•  Set the head start scanning position with the mark constant.
• According to the graphic’s axis orientation, set a positive or negative value on x or y, in order to have the plotter’s pen inside the mark area as in the next image.
• The check button allows you to check the head position at the start of the mark scan (check this positioning with the
  cutting pen in the kiss cut position)

The check button allows you to check the head position at the start of the mark scan. The cutting pen should be inside the area as shown in the following picture (check this positioning with the cutting pen in the kiss cut position)

1.  Curve approximation determines the resolution of the curves in your file during the cut. If your curves seem too “sharp-cornered” during the job, reduce the curve approximation to low or minimum.
2. However, if you reduce the curve approximation too much, it will decrease your cutting speed, so choose the most proper value.
3.  Your artwork may be not printed straight.
4. When this happens, the cutting lines will have a different grade from your artwork. To fix this you can rotate your cut.

STEP

1.  Check the match between the cut with the print.
2.  Rotate the die-cut to find the correct inclination (until the cut lines and the printed lines are parallel).
3.  Adjust the offsets to match the cut lines to the printed lines
4.  Set the plotter’s speed during the removal of the sheet from the feeder’s roller.
5.  Your artwork may be printed with a distortion. In that case it will look more stretched or compressed than it should be. So your cut will look to don’t have the same position on all the labels.
6. To fix this you have to enable the stretch/compress tool. Once you have done it, add a positive value to correction x/y will stretch your cut on x/y, otherwise a negative value will compress the cut on the x/y.
7.  When you cut on very thin materials, your contours may not be closed completely.
8. To fix that, enable the overcut and add on “start length” how much you want the plotter’s blade to start cut before the first label’s point.
9. Instead, add on end length how much you want the plotter’s blade to delay the end of your cut after the last label’s point.
10. You can add for both “start length” and “end length” up to 0.9mm, allowing you to close incompleted contours with a gap up to 1.8mm.
11. To get more accurate results on the corners, use the overcut feature during crosscutting.
12.  DataMatrix.
13. Confirms all the changes made to the settings with the save button. Otherwise, if you click cancel or close the window, everything changed will be undone.
14. With the reset button, you can restore all the settings values to default.

When you complete a cutting series, you can find its report in this menu. If you press “Save as” you can save where you prefer the report of all the cuts done during the last session. If you go at the “C:\Gemini Cutting Manager\Report” folder, you can find the “CutHistory.txt” that contains the report of all the cuts done since the software installation.

Language (17)
You can switch between English and Italian language in this menu. If you would like to have another language pack for the cutting manager, contact us.

Init cutter (18)
The init cutter loads the plotter settings necessary to the Graphtec. This procedure has to be done whenever the plotter has been reset.

About (19)
The “About” button shows you the current software version and other additional information.