Written by Madison Creech and Mary Hood February 2014

Edited by Anthony Mead September 2016

Roland Cam GX-300

You must sign in on the PC side of the computer to access the vinyl cutting program. To sign in press control+option+delete

You must Login through the PC/Windows side. If you are logged onto the Mac side, then restart your computer.

File Set Up:

1.  Create Illustrator file/document to the exact size you need (and will fit your vinyl, with an inch margin from edge of vinyl roll/sheet)

  1. Save as .ai file

Send to print (Illustrator):

2.  Open file in Illustrator CS3 (Roland CutStudio should be open in a tab under layers if not go to Window > CutStudio Plug-in)

  1. Click “Redraw” under Roland CutStudio
  2. Click the large “R” to output the paths to CutStudio (This should
  3. automatically open CutStudio)
  4. load vinyl

To Load Vinyl:

3.  Loading your material:

  1. Start with a squared piece of vinyl. Minimum width is 10” of vinyl with 8” of cutting area.
  2. Sandwich the vinyl in between the clamps and the rollers. The two clamps must each line up with a different roller. The vinyl must overlap at least two rollers. You may receive the error “Bad Position” Move your vinyl, and clamps around until. There will be waste of vinyl on both edges where the rollers are.

4.  Select the proper settings: If you have a roll of vinyl, touch the arrow keys until “F-edge” appears. Do not press the “Roll” button. It will cycle through most of your roll leaving you with damaged vinyl. If you have a piece of vinyl select “piece”.

5.  Setting the G-Force: G-force is the amount of pressure the cutter applies.

  1. You can change the g-force by pressing the “g-force” button.
  2. Use the up and down arrows to change the number.
  3. Press enter to save.
  4. Since this only moves in increments of 10, you can use the manual pen force at the bottom to do micro adjustments.
  5. For commercial grade vinyl use 80 g-force
  6. For Ruby lithe use 60 g-force
  7. Check with your supplier Some suppliers have recommendations for g-force settings with their products.

6.  Setting the speed: If you have small shapes with a lot of detail, you may want to change the speed.

  1. Select the speed button
  2. Use the up and down arrows to change the speed
  3. Press enter to save
  4. For large signage, 20 cm/s would be adequate. For small detailed work you can select as low as 1 cm/s.

Send to print cont. (CutStudio):

7.  To make Cut Studio canvas size same as vinyl piece size:

  1. File
  2. Cutting set-up (double check printer name: Roland GX-300)
  3. Properties
  4. Click “Get from Machine”
  5. Click Ok (to get out of properties)
  6. Click Ok (to get out of Cutting Setup)

Note: at this point if your image will not fit inside the canvas size in CutStudio you will need to return to Illustrator CS3 and edit the image to fit inside the dimensions of the canvas. Then repeat from step 2.

To Print:

8.  File

  1. Cutting
  2. Ok

9.  When finished, feed material past cut line

  1. Manually move the vinyl cutter all the way to the left to engage the cutting blade.
  2. Pull vinyl cutter to the right over the vinyl material to cut the vinyl.