CraftROBO Basics
The Pepakura Viewer for CraftROBO is capable of sending cutting data to a Craft Robo. As of Version 3, the Viewer has several features that are very useful when used in conjunction with a CraftROBO.
>The ability to hide cut and fold lines during printing.
>The "Overflow Paint" feature, which extends the model's color data past the cut lines, and helps hide slight registration errors during the cutting process.
>The ability to choose which data set to send to the CraftROBO (fold lines, cut lines, or both)
> The ability to specify whether you want fold lines to be perforated or cut normally.
Hiding Cut and Fold Lines
To hide cut and fold lines, click the Setting>Print Setting menu entry, and make sure the checkbox marked "Do not print lines" is checked. Once checked, this option will hide the cut and fold lines during printing.
Overflow Paint
To enable the Overflow Paint feature, click the View>Overflow Paint menu entry. This will show the extended color border around the model parts. To configure the size of the extended color border, click the Setting>Other Settings>General Settings menu entry, and enter the desired value, in millimeters, in the "Amount of Overflow Paint" box. A value of 1-2mm is a good starting point.
The extended color border will run through glue tabs as well, which helps hide what would normally be exposed white space.
Configuring Cutting Parameters
When you click on the File>Cut Developments menu entry, a dialog box pops up. A drop-down selector allows you to choose which page you want to cut out, the Details button allows you to configure how the model is sent to the cutting plotter, and the OK button takes you to another dialog box that allows you to configure the CraftROBO for the current cutting job.
The "Details" Button
The dialog box that pops up when you click the Details button allows you to choose the data set you want the CraftROBO to deal with.
> The "Cut Line" checkbox specifies that you want the cut line data to be sent to the CraftROBO. The CraftROBO will cut these lines.
> The "Fold Line" checkbox specifies that you want the fold line data to be sent to the CraftROBO. The CraftROBO normally perforates these lines in a dashed pattern that you can specify.
> If the "Fold Line" checkbox is ticked, the "How to do for fold line" option is enabled. If the "Cut with solid line" checkbox is enabled, the CraftROBO will treat the fold line data as cutting data.
>If both the "Cut Line" and "Fold Line" checkboxes are ticked, the CraftROBO will cut out the parts and perforate the fold lines in a single pass. If only one of the checkboxes are ticked, the CraftROBO will only cut or perforate in one pass. The best options to use vary from model to model.
For simple models, tick both the "Cut Line" and "Fold Line" checkboxes, and make sure the "Cut with solid line" checkbox is NOT ticked. If you tick that box, all of the individual faces of the model will be disconnected. Click on the "OK" button.
For moderately complex to very complex models, you may find that the CraftROBO will stop in the middle of the job, and the power light will stop blinking and remain constantly illuminated. This is because the CraftROBO has a limited amount of onboard memory, and large jobs with many lines can potentially exceed its memory capacity. In such situations, you may need to do the job in 2 passes: fold lines first, then cut lines on the second pass. This nearly halves the amount of memory needed for the job, and this will often solve the memory overrun problem.
When doing a 2-pass job, use the following settings for each pass:
> Cutting pass: Tick the "Cut Line" checkbox, untick the "Fold Line" checkbox, then click the "OK" button.
> Fold line pass: Untick the "Cut Line" checkbox, tick the "Fold Line" checkbox, make sure the "Cut with solid line" checkbox is NOT ticked, then click the "OK" button.
The "Cut with solid line" option
The only time you should use the "Cut with solid line" option is during a fold line pass. You will want to change the blade cap to yellow or blue, and dial down the thickness in the CraftROBO Controller to about half of the normal value or less. When this option is used, the fold lines will be scored rather than perforated. This often results in a somewhat cleaner appearance, but has two disadvantages:
> Scoring depth is not always consistent. Some lines may be accidentally cut through, some lines will be just right, and some lines may not be scored deeply enough.
> Unlike perforated fold lines, scored fold lines are not bidirectional, and may only be folded in one direction. This is not an issue if your model's geometry is fully convex. As an example, a sphere is fully convex, while Pac-Man is not fully convex. Pac-Man's mouth is a concavity, which requires a reverse fold (also known as a valley fold). Only obverse folds (also known as mountain folds) will work when scored.
In the majority of cases, it is better to use perforated fold lines because of their bidirectional nature and more consistent quality. You will be able to choose the parameters for the perforation after you click the "OK" button.
The "OK" Button
Clicking the "OK" button spawns a normal printer dialog. Choose the Craft Robo from the drop-down selector, and then set the size of the media. If you are using the carrier sheet, set the media size to "Carrier Sheet". If not, choose the same paper size that was specified in Pepakura Designer for the model. Make sure the "Portrait" radio button is selected.
Click on the "Properties" button. Another dialog box will appear with the Basic Setup tab active. Make sure the "Eject Medium" and "Prevent Overruns" checkboxes are ticked, as they make the media easier to remove at the end of the job as well as preventing the CraftROBO from accidentally spitting the media out in the middle of the job. Next, go to the "Cutline Settings" tab and configure how you want the fold line perforations to appear.
The recommended setting of 0.5mm for "Cut Line Segments" and 0.5mm for "Uncut Line Segments" is visually appealing, but has three negatives:
> The amount of memory required by the job increases significantly, as the number of dashed line segments increases when the spacing is decreased. This can cause the CraftROBO to stop before the job is completed.
> The job takes significantly longer to finish.
>Parts are more prone to accidental tearing along perforated sections.
I have found that a setting of 1mm for both "Cut Line Segments" and "Uncut Line Segments" looks almost as good, resists tearing better, and takes much less time to finish. Once you have chosen the desired cutting parameters, click the "OK" button to close the Properties dialog. You will be returned to the printer dialog, and clicking the "OK" button on the printer dialog will start the CraftROBO Controller.
The CraftROBO Controller
When the Controller window appears, there will be several options presented for handling the current cutting job. The first step is to choose the appropriate media from the drop-down selector. Note that not all paper is created equal, and the default settings for each media type may not necessarily correspond to the actual physical properties of the paper that you have on hand. For example, I have found that the "Index 90lbs" media setting to be overkill for Wausau Exact Index 90lb stock, causing the blade to gouge into the carrier sheet. Before printing any models on a new paper stock, you should experiment with the cutting settings in the Controller and find the proper settings for the paper stock you want to use. Use these rules of thumb:
> Never start with all the settings maxed out, as this will potentially damage your CraftROBO or ruin the blade. Start at low settings, do a test cut, and increase the settings incrementally until the test cuts result in a clean separation with very little evidence left on the carrier sheet. (One sure sign that the cutting settings are too high is when you start seeing deep cut marks in the carrier sheet.)
> Try all of the blade caps. Just because the stock looks thick doesn't necessarily mean it needs the red cap, and the yellow cap may suffice. Using the correct cap helps protect the CraftROBO and its blade from damage.
When the "Adjust Settings" checkbox is ticked, the settings for the current cutting job can be fine-tuned.
Speed Setting
The CraftROBO has a variable cutting speed from 1mm per second to 10mm per second. The speed can be adjusted by means of a slider control. Generally, the default speed of 10mm per second works fine, but if you start to notice a significant amount of tearing at tight corners, you may want to dial the speed down to 5mm per second or even 2mm per second. Slower speed settings can also prevent the CraftROBO from overheating and pausing in the middle of a job, and may also improve cutting quality for some intricate jobs.
Thickness Setting
As with speed, the thickness setting can be adjusted to any value between 1 to 33. The blue, yellow, and red blade caps control the amount of blade exposed, but the thickness setting determines the amount of cutting force exerted upon the blade. The default value depends on the type of media that you selected. If the blade is not cutting deeply enough, change the blade cap first. If that still does not cut through the material, increase the thickness setting in small increments until you start seeing consistent and clean cuts.
Test Cut
The "Test Cut" button is used in conjunction with the "Blade Position" control buttons to cut out a small 1cm x 1cm area. The cutting is performed at the blade's current position, and the "Blade Position" control buttons are used to move the blade around the sheet. This is the quickest and easiest way to validate the speed and thickness settings for the selected media.
Track Enhancing
When the "Track Enhancing" checkbox is ticked, the CraftROBO will move the sheet back and forth several times before cutting. This ensures that the rollers get a good grip on the sheet, which may increase the cutting accuracy. This option is not necessary when using the carrier sheet, but should be enabled when the carrier sheet is not used. Additionally, if you are doing a 2-pass cutting job, you only need to enable this option for the first pass, and it can be safely disabled for the second pass if you do not remove the media when the first pass is completed.
Design Orientation
Selecting the appropriate radio button toggles between Landscape and Portrait orientations. This should be left on the Portrait setting.
Registration Marks
The CraftROBO has a built-in optical sensor to the right of the blade. This optical sensor reads registration marks, which tell the CraftROBO exactly where to cut. If enabled, these registration marks are automatically printed on the page when you send the job to the printer. There are 3 registration marks on each page:
> The first registration mark is printed in the upper right corner of the sheet.
> The second and third registration marks are printed in the lower right and lower left corners of the sheet.
When feeding a printout into the CraftROBO, always feed the end with 2 registration marks into the machine. By default, the CraftROBO Controller is configured to automatically search for registration marks, as the "Search Registration Marks" checkbox is ticked. If this checkbox is not ticked, the other options will be enabled. These are:
> The "Registration Mark" checkbox. If unticked, the CraftROBO will not scan for registration marks at all. Use this setting only if you are not trying to accurately cut out a printed image.
> The "Distance Between Registration Marks" input fields. 99.9% of the time, you should leave these alone.
> The "Registration Mark Reading" button. Clicking this button will result in the CraftROBO attempting to find a registration mark at its current position. Usually, you need to use the Blade Position control buttons to move the blade to a specific area on the sheet, which is marked by a green box in the graphic at the upper right corner of the Controller window.
The options listed above are largely irrelevant when working with the Pepakura Viewer for CraftROBO, and should only be used if you are having trouble attempting to cut something with the Robo Master or Cutting Master tools included with the CraftROBO, which tend to be more problematic or temperamental. The Pepakura Viewer for CraftROBO is much more stable and intelligent when it comes to finding registration marks, so you should leave the "Search Registration Marks" checkbox ticked and not worry about these other options.
The settings for printing registration marks may be accessed by clicking the Setting>Registration-Mark Setting menu entry. A dialog box will appear with a "Print registration-marks" checkbox and 4 input fields for the margins. The default margins are:
Top: 25mm from the top of the sheet
Left: 10mm from the left of the sheet
Right: 10mm from the right of the sheet
Bottom: 10mm from the bottom of the sheet
The only time you should change those settings is if your printer's margins are larger. In that case, you will see partial or missing registration marks, and changing the registration mark margins will bring the registration marks back within the printer's actual margins. This is an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" setting, so if the default margins work, leave it alone.
Blade Position Controls
An array of 4 arrow buttons allows you to manually move the Craft Robo's blade around the sheet. This is normally used for test cutting or manual registration mark searches, and should generally be left alone.
Miscellaneous Buttons
To the right of all the other items described above, there is a collection of buttons. They are:
> The "Animated Instructions" button. Clicking this displays a Flash application that walks you through the cutting process.
> The "About" button. This displays version information.
> The "Help" button. This displays the help files, which are fairly rudimentary.
>The "Calibration" button. Do not touch this button unless your CraftROBO is grossly inaccurate, which is a very rare occurrence.
>The "Cancel" button. This closes the Controller and returns you to Pepakura Viewer.
> The "Cut" button. Once clicked, the CraftROBO will begin preparing for the cutting job. It scans for registration marks, moves the sheet back and forth if you selected "Track Enhancing", and then moves the head to the ready position. At this point, the Controller window closes, and a small dialog box will inform you that Pepakura Viewer is ready to begin the actual cutting.
If you clicked the "OK" button on that last dialog, the CraftROBO starts cutting out the parts. Once it finishes, the head will move to the left side of the machine, the sheet will be rolled out towards the front of the machine, and the power light will stop blinking and remain constant. At this point, turn the feed knob backwards and remove the sheet.
The Carrier Sheet
The carrier sheet is a clear plastic cutting mat with a tacky surface. The tacky surface holds the item you are cutting in place, and the carrier sheet is fed into the machine. Over time, the carrier sheet will lose its tackiness, but the simple expedient of using a can of quilt basting spray or a low-tack repositionable spray adhesive will address that issue nicely.
When using the carrier sheet, align the side of the carrier sheet with the raised line on the lower left side of the dark gray feed ramp at the front of the machine. Snug the top of the carrier sheet against both rollers, then turn the feed knob on the left side of the machine until the top of the carrier sheet is aligned with the far end of the black cutting strip. Additionally, make sure you chose "Carrier Sheet" as the media size in the CraftROBO's printer dialog. The carrier sheet also must be used for all media that does not have a protective backing layer, and its primary purpose is to keep the parts from moving or falling out during the cutting process. For example, vinyl stickers have a release liner, which keeps things together during cutting.
When not using the carrier sheet, make sure you chose the correct paper size in the CraftROBO's printer dialog, and that it matches the paper size specified for the model in Pepakura Designer. Unlike the carrier sheet, you will not be aligning the media with the raised line on the feed ramp. Instead, center the sheet between the rollers, then turn the feed knob until the top edge of the sheet is aligned with the far end of the black cutting strip. If you do not do this, the CraftROBO may fail to read the registration marks, and will throw an error. This is because the CraftROBO expects to find the registration marks in a specific place, and the surest way of making sure it can read the registration marks is to ensure that the sheet is centered between the rollers.