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Which Cricuts Could/Can SCAL Drive Directly? I'm embedding the month and year of publication here in case for some reason I can't keep this article updated, and someone comes across it five years from now, when everything has changed again. Much of it is flat-out wrong, though it may have been correct when it was originally penned as long as twelve years ago. I wrote this article and several others because most of the information about SCAL, legacy Cricuts, and related topics on the internet right now is seriously outdated. We describe the current and - to my mind - best solution a few paragraphs down, but first we tell you what machines SCAL worked/works with and why so many Cricut users are still talking about the cumbersome and outdated SCAL2 solution. Most owners of first-gen Cricuts have at least heard about using Sure-Cuts-A-Lot release 2 ("SCAL2") with their ancient Cricuts, but it's no longer necessary to use bootleg copies of ten-year-old, unsupported software. (Don't laugh - the company that makes Cricut has been known to sue other companies out of existence.) In fact, members of discussion forums hosted by both companies have referred to this workaround without any apparent repercussions, so I assume I'm safe talking about it here.
SURE CUTS A LOT DRIVER
That only works with an anonymously developed driver and a technically illegal minor hack, but neither ProvoCraft (makers of Cricut) nor CrafEdge (makers of Sure-Cuts-A-Lot ("SCAL") seem to mind. If you want to use first-generation Cricuts to cut images and fonts that aren't on your cartridges, your best bet currently seems to be Sure-Cuts-A-Lot release 5. Using Sure-Cuts-A-Lot With Legacy Cricuts We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming. Instructions for both those issues and other potential "gotcha's" are listed where appropriate.įinally, I prominently listed the month and year of this article's publication, so if you stumble across it in five years and I haven't kept it updated, you'll know it is likely obsolete.
SURE CUTS A LOT UPDATE
So, to make this work, you may need to update your Cricut's firmware (twice, to be sure) or to update your USB drivers.
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That said, most of the problems I encountered while trying this with multiple PCs and Cricuts had to do with things that are outside the control of SCAL or of the "add-on" developers. I learned that Sure-Cuts-A-Lot 5 ("SCAL5") is a very stable and reliable program, but that the anonymous 3rd-party "add-on" that allows it to talk to Cricut does not have anyone's direct support. While writing and revising this article, I experimented with several different platforms and combinations of equipment to make certain I hadn't overlooked anything that was likely to be a problem. (Sorry, forty years as a technical writer speaking. But I've discovered that having all of these details written down somewhere helps people who run into snags trying something that everyone else seems to accomplish easily. Unlike lots of bloggers, I like to make certain I am not causing readers new and bigger problems by anything I document, so I've been careful to give you more, and more detailed information than you probably need or want. This article is also a supplement to our articles "Legacy Cricut Frequently Asked Questions" and Cricut(r) History (So Far) Thanks.Įditor's Note: - This article is intended to help the thousands of early Cricut owners who would like to cut out original or third-party designs and fonts without continuing to invest in cartridges that may, to a large extent, be worthless when their old Cricut finally dies. So if we point you to something you decide to buy later, please make certain you come back through our site and click on the link directly. This costs you nothing at all and helps offset the costs of what we do.
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SURE CUTS A LOT HOW TO
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