Hi all, longtime Inkscape user, but new to this forum.
I've been cutting directly from Inkscape for quite a while now, but recently ran into a problem. I use one of three drivers to cut with, two are for Roland 24 inch cutters, one is for an old HP pen plotter. I have an older Roland 24 inch plotter, and an HP MXplus pen plotter. The older Roland driver, which is the one for my machine, had this 62 inch default plot length, but a bunch of other size choices, which you type in yourself. I think the HP driver also has a 62 inch length limit.
Anyway, one day I was using the Roland cutter, when it stopped at 62 inches. None of my attempted work-arounds fixed it, so I tried the much newer Roland GX-24 driver, and...it worked with my old machine! This driver has no stored plot lengths, default or otherwise. Fine with me, as I usually had to adjust a length on the old driver anyway. The newer driver worked fine, until I was in the middle of a critical job; then it too 'grabbed' the 62 inch plot length, and messed up an 80 inch job. So I deleted the older driver, but it didn't help.
I guess I have two questions:
1: Does this sound like a driver problem?
2: Does this sound like an Inkscape preferences problem? I've tried prying into document and global Inscape preferences as far as I can, but no solution, -apparently- no advanced options settings. But I hope I'm wrong about that last one, can anyone guide me to more detailed settings, and or a solution to this length problem? Thanks in advance.

Hi Raker Tooth,

Welcome to the forum!

I think eventually someone will be able to comment on your issue. The real pros in this area don't visit the forum everyday.

I'm not very familiar with cutter technology, but isn't there a software that takes the Inkscape file to the cutter machine? Like in this topic: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=4987? Could that be where the machine gets the wrong length?

Sorry, I wish I could be more helpful

Thanks brynn.
That Inkcut looks like it's for Linux-Ubuntu. I'm currently using Windows for most stuff, but I do have a decent P4 Ubuntu box with Inkscape on it. The thing that usually holds me back with Linux is drivers. The Inkcut is probably not a driver, but I'll look into it more as a weekend fun project. Signs and graphics is my day job, so this glitch is part of a regular adventure.
What I was doing to learn more about the problem was the good ol' process of elimination. I opened older software, Corel Draw v8, made a very similar file, and tried sending it to the plotter. It worked fine. I also tried it with Cut Studio, which is like simplified software for newer Roland plotters. That also worked fine (longer than 62 inches). There was one difference between the two files, The first was created in Corel; the second was copied from Inkscape, then pasted into Cut Studio. I have in the past had good results plotting direct from Open Office Draw software; so I was trying to save a file extension in Inkscape, that will open in OO draw. That's not too much of an issue with 8.5" X 11", that sort of thing, but these longer sizes get a little weird between the two types of software.
Anyway, all that is to say that I'm not only trying to test the plotter and software, but the actual saved file as well. I'm not so tech savvy as to know for sure whether the problem might just be in the way the file is saved (document properties). The whole test-problem-project is on hold right now, because...(drumroll please)...while I was working on it, the rubber of the pinch roller came off. A mere $31 and waiting for the part to arrive, people wonder why I don't work for $9 an hour. Well SILLY, somebody has to pay for all these hours of adventure! I do have some epoxy, nothing to lose by trying to adhere the rubber back on, until the part gets here. If it works, I'll try sending the file from OO draw, and let you know what happened.
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If anyone knows how to do more advanced global Inkscape properties, please let me know. Thanks.