"Stained Glass" mat

[Bill Henry-]

I got a request from a fellow who wants a “stained glass” mat cut. Since I don’t have a CMC, I told him I would ask you guys if something like this could be done.

I do not have the outside dimensions yet, nor whether he wishes this to be a double mat or not, but is someone out in Grumbleland willing to give this a shot?

He did the mock up on Photoshop, so I assume he made selections which could be turned into paths. Are the Bezier curves generated in Photoshop or Illustrator convertible into those used in CMCs?

I told him I would ask around to see if anyone might be interested. Clearly without dimensions, mat colors, etc., you could not give me a quote, but can someone do this?

 

[Bob Doyle]

Call DonMar or Armel. Find out if you give them the photoshop if they can cut it on their CMC for you. They both offer CMC service to their customers (DM through Sara Graphics but if you hassle Dave they may put it on the truck!)

If you go down to DM on a Monday maybe you can con Dave into showing you how to cut it for you on their machine! He does demos every Monday.

 

[Bill Henry-]

Bob,

Although their prices are terrific, I’ve had mixed results with Sara Graphics cutting oversized or multiple-opening mats for us. The outer dimensions always seem to be just a little off and I don’t think they change their blades nearly often enough.

I don’t think SG want to be involved in shipping mats ‘cause they always make me wait for the truck delivery.

I'll ask Joyce if they can accept Photoshop paths, though.

 

[BUDDY]

Bill I don't see the measurements anywhere . However if your customer can be satisfied with a bit less than perfeection.LOL you can definetly use the segmnts to draw templates and then use a compass set at 1/8-1/4 in. smaller , and cut that witha Dexter hand cutter . Even if you need doublesin matching mtas you just use your compass and set it for the 1/4 inlarger and cut the next mat. Secret is use new blades ,set just to score the slip sheet and cut very slowly. I know I have done it before. Look i the archives at my Bride mat for examples. If i can do so cn anybody.
BUDDY

 

[Bill Henry-]

Buddy,

I’ve never been good with “freehand” cutting with the Dexter, so I really want to farm this one out. (But, the guy hasn’t called me back, so all this may be academic.)

Bob,

I heard from Sara Graphics:

Hello Bill. Our matcutter may have the capability of cutting this mat by setting up CAD with it, but we haven’t seen the volume needed to offset the cost and training to do that. So, sorry, but we cannot cut a mat with this intricacy.

Joyce

Even if you don’t want to tackle this particular mat, can anyone answer the underlying question: Can Bezier curves (paths) generated in Photoshop or Illustrator be converted into those used in CMCs??

 

[D_Derbonne]

Why don't you contact Wizard and ask them?

 

[WizSteve]

At this point it is merely academic, but can the Bezier curves (paths) generated by Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator be used or converted into a format which The Wizard can use?

Yeah, should be no problem, as Illustrator can save the path as a DXF file, which then can be brought up in our PathTrace tool for CMC prep. It just really depends on how Illustrator (and what version of Illustrator) saves the curves - the DXF format allows programs to do the same thing several different ways and some of them involve some fine tuning.

Regardless, if you did outsource this design to someone else with a CMC I would highly recommend taking the artwork to them or sending a copy of it with the design so the CMC operator can double check the cut.

 

[Bill Henry-]

Thanks, Steve.

My versions of PS (7) and Illustrator (10) do not appear to support saving to the .dxf format, so if this project ever gets off the ground, it will have to be done entirely on his end (assuming that .dxf format is something that Photoshop Creative Suite can handle and export).

 

[Dani]

What I usually do, is to load the image (.jpg, .bmp, .tif) into PathTrace (Wizard), tell it what size it is, then draw over it using 3pt arcs and straight lines. Most customers wanting a custom mat only send the image, and for most things, it's faster for me to draw over the image than to find a way to make it a .dxf.