Friday, August 27, 2010

Setting Tab Density and Tab Width

Setting the Tab Density and the Tab Width is accomplished in the Mode Selection screen.  Now, that screen can pop up and disappear quite quickly, so it's important to know that should it get past you, all you have to do is to press the MODE/BACK button to bring it up again.  In fact, if you immediately press the MODE\BACK button as the machine is starting up it will stop at the Mode Selection screen.

I've had some questions about how the Tab Density and the Tab Width settings should work.  Here is a short YouTube video that demonstrates it.



I've had a couple of reports that some users are having difficulty getting the Width to change.  It's not been a rash of reports.  But, if you are using the techniques in the above video and are not getting the same results as you see in the video, you should contact Craftwell. 

2 comments:

Cazzy said...

Thanks for posting this Tom it is helping - I will get there in the end, bizarrely I turned it on and put it in Mode and tabbed down and it went immediately to Width which I was able to set to 1, and Density is still at 1. Now I am not certain what the settings mean, is density the firmness of the cardstock? Is width the width of the shape or the spacing between shapes if more than one is cut? Tab means marker to me in typist speak from many years ago, or even in Microsoft Office there are tabs to set. Next question is will you be posting on the pressure and what is best for which type of material.

Thanks again.

Cazzy

Tom Meeks said...

Hi Cazzy.

Good questions.

The Tab density is how close together the tabs (little connectors) are formed along the cut line for a shape. It's a bit like this, where the dash represents the cut and the dots a tab.

LOW
---------.---------.---------.
HIGH
-----.-----.-----.-----.-----.

And, the tab width is how wide each connector is.

LOW
-----.-----.-----.-----.-----.
HIGH
----...---...---...---...---...

As the eCraft cuts, the blade is pulled up to form a tab and then pushed back down to resume the cut.

Denise at Purple Paper Paradise is compiling a great cut chart.

http://purplepaperparadise.blogspot.com/