0. Introduction

The cutting workflow involves some additional elements to those found in the printing workflow, since, for example, it is possible to associate a material with many different cutting methods:

When there is no automatic synchronization available with a cutter controller, you can associate manually materials and methods between CalderaRIP and the controller of your cutter, by applying the following steps.

Note that you will need to update this file manually every time you modify your cutter controller configuration.

1. Manually retrieve the template file for materials content

You will have to create first a Caldera materials/methods file manually. We created some template files to start faster.

In the following folder: /opt/caldera/lib/DRIVERS/MISC:

• Find the file named CutterName.materialsRaw.xml with CutterName = name of the cutter selected in CalderaRIP. If you don't find it, use the file named CalderaXML.materialsRaw.xml and rename it by replacing "CalderaXML" with the name of the cutter you have chosen in CalderaRIP.

Example

• Paste the file in the folder: /opt/caldera/lib/shared

2. Manually edit the template file for materials content with data from your controller

• Open the .xml file with text editing software like TextEdit on macOS. You will have the following default content:

• Manually replace this default content with the materials and the methods from your controller. You can use the following template as an example:

<Materials>
    <Material Name="DEFAULT" GUID="DEFAULT">
        <Method Name="Kiss-Cut" ID="1" r="255" g="0" b="0"/>
    </Material>
    <Material Name="Material_1" GUID="Material_01">
        <Method Name="Method_10" ID="1" r="255" g="0" b="0"/>
        <Method Name="Method_11" ID="2" r="0" g="255" b="0"/>
    </Material>
    <Material Name="Material_2" GUID="Material_02">
        <Method Name="Method_20" ID="1" r="255" g="0" b="0"/>
        <Method Name="Method_21" ID="2" r="0" g="255" b="0"/>
    </Material>
    <Material Name="Material_3" GUID="Material_03">
        <Method Name="Method_30" ID="1" r="255" g="0" b="0"/>
        <Method Name="Method_31" ID="2" r="0" g="255" b="0"/>
    </Material>
</Materials>

• Material_N will be such as "Vinyl", "Banner", "Dibond", "Foamboard", ...
• Method_NM will be such as "Kiss-Cut", "Thru-Cut", "V-Cut", ...
• Keep a DEFAULT material with at least a single method as in the template. This DEFAULT material will be used to catch all contours that have not been associated with another method in another material. Don't forget to save your file.

Example

3. Set up methods and materials

Now you are able to set up associations between contours and methods, as well as the printer's media and materials in the dedicated tabs. Please refer to this article for further information.