What is Make-The-Cut (MTC)?

Questions, tips, workarounds, etc., related to Make-the-Cut Software
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Paul
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Joined: Sat Apr 17, 2021 10:17 am

What is Make-The-Cut (MTC)?

Post by Paul »

Make-The-Cut (MTC) is a third-party program that drives many craftcutters and similar devices. You can use it to design cuts, though it's not as powerful as free-standing vector graphics programs.

MTC was developed during the early days of Cricuts. Like the first generation of Sure-Cuts-A-Lot (SCAL), it enabled owners of Cricut Personal Cutter, Expression, Create, and Cake to cut designs without cartridges. Because they were dependent on cartridge sales for revenue, ProvoCraft threatened both companies with massive lawsuits and forced them to change their software so that it would no longer drive any Cricut devices.

As I understand it, MTC owners who had working MTC programs before the lawsuit and avoided upgrading them could continue to use MTC.

According to ProvoCraft, even end users who were continuing to use MTC with Cricuts were criminally liable for continued use of the program. According to MTC, ProvoCraft demanded that MTC would give them their customer list so ProvoCraft could prosecute them individually. MTC refused, in case you were worried.

However MTC hasn't upgraded the version that worked with legacy Cricuts to work with later versions of Windows, so they expect it will eventually be rendered useless by Windows upgrades. Mac operating system upgrades have already rendered it useless on the Mac.

As I understand it, MTC currently works with almost everything BUT Cricut. You can even use it to create .svg files that Cricut's Design Space can open and use; some folks are using it that way.

At the same time, MTC folks are actually recommending anyone who wants to drive the old Cricuts directly - the way MTC did before the lawsuits - try SCAL with the (slightly illegal) third-party add-ons that let it drive Personal Cutter, Expression, Create, and Cake.

If you DON'T have Cricuts, MTC is pretty useful, though they don't seem to have the budget for continuous improvement. It does drive some pretty obscure devices. If you have a sign shop or such and you use multiple devices, it's not hard to use the same software to drive them all (except for Cricuts, of course).

That said, most of the folks who are using MTC today are early adopters who want to stick with what they know. If you haven't invested in either SCAL or MTC yet, you may want to try the demo versions of both to see which one you like better. As far as I can tell, SCAL has better support at this time (June, 2021).
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