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Vinyl Sign Cutting Software for Linux?
prpplague asks: "a large but often over looked business in the United States is that of making vinyl signs. A Windows application to do the layout and run the plotter/cutter will cost you at least $250. I've been unable to find a Unix based application that does the same thing. Anyone out there working on something to replace this business sector's dependency on Microsoft based products?"
My aunt works for a sign company in California. They usually just print cardboard forms, then stack up a rather large amount of vinyl sheeting and use a laser to cut 50+ sheets at a time. the system works the same way one of those old mechanical pencil enlargers works to guide the laser. I know I am over-simplifying things, but thats basically it.
I am assuming you are doing vinyl cuts which will then be glues to metal. You didn't leave much info.
Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
I'm not trolling, but I'm not sure I see the point here. I used to do a lot of vinyl sign work, and I don't really see the 'dependency on Microsoft products' being an issue in this sector.
... but instead to get sign software for free. Maybe you can get in touch with the maker of a piece of cheap sign software ... and offer to partner with them to do the porting to linux for them.
Typically, the sign design stations are dedicated boxes as when they're not in use designing, or driving the plotter, they're not making money. Your typical setup will cost you thousands of dollars for a good plotter - so the OS really doesn't add a lot to the total cost.
If your problem is that there isn't any free sign design software - that has nothing to do with MS. MS doesn't make ANY sign software - but most sign software is written for Windows (some Mac too).
The Roland cutter I used to work with would accept HPGL files that were sent to the serial port, so you may want to start there, but the problem isn't just getting data to the cutter. It's in having a good design program to work with to generate the information.
If your purpose is to get rid of the 'reliance on MS' then maybe you can get an older copy of FlexiSign, CASmate, or CADLink Signlab (which all started as Win3.1 apps) and get them to run under Wine.
If that doesn't suit your purpose, then it means your question was mis-stated and that your care isn't in removing a dependence on MS software
The client that I installed the Dell Notebook for bought it before XP was released. (But during the free upgrade period. I advised them to install W2K on it, instead of ME, which they accepted. The only problem was that a few of their applications did not run on W2K. So Dell swapped the W@K license for ME, and everything was well except for the crashes. XP did run those apps, so they upgraded as soon as they cool. It was mostly the same for them except that had a few less crashes.
-Brent