Craft Edge

I am interested in purchasing either SCAL or MTC and would like to know reasons why one is better than the other. I have read that MTC is easier to work -I need your help.

Mac user... so SCAL was the only way. I am loving it!

I down loaded he trial version of Design Studio, MTC, and SCAL.Then made my decision to buy SCAL and have not regretted one moment of it.

I own DS, SCAL2, and MTC.
DS only lets you use what is on the carts and is a pain.
Scal has been out for a while and is not bad at all just was not all i was looking for and going from version 1-2 you have to pay to get each verstion.
MTC is very easy to use you can import svg,png, vector pdf's, true typefonts without having to load them and can import scut and scut2 files for you own use,it will work with many cutters not just the cricut machines, you can export as a svg, vector pdf, eps, or AI and as a png. you can print to a printer either full color or colorbook lines, you never pay for any further updates or versions after the first purchase.there is also the online forum and weekly webinars of questions and answers .

I think I read that you choose MTC but just in case you haven't made a decision....

Download the trial versions of both software programs and see which one you like better. MTC can trace PDFs which is cool. But SCAL still wins for me because of it's superior font interface and a couple other issues. I have both - they are both great programs. What works best for you will depend on how you are planning to use it and which one "feels" better to you.

I also have DS MTC & SCAL and I must say that I do like MTC a little better than the rest. We have been waiting for quite a while now for the update on here and there is still no sign of it. I like the webinars MTC have. I also like to see what part of the design is cutting as you can with MTC. I bought it when it first came out and it had a lot of problems so I got a refund but now it seems stable so I bought it again
Just my point on the topic

i have only ever had SCAL2 and a trial of DS.

I really like SCAL, but 99% of the time, I design my layout in Inkscape.

I have watched a lot of the utube videos of SCAL and like what it can do for designing, but by now I am stuck in my ways with Ink.

From my experience, if you learn Inkscape, it really doesn't matter which program you cut with.

And you can learn Inkscape long before you ever decide to purchase either MTC or SCAL.

One other advantage to SCAL is this wonderful forum. The folks on here are super friendly and will help anyone out, usallly within a day, if not 4 hours, and sometime within an hour or so.

So folks complain about having to pay for the upgrade from SCAL Version 1 to 2. I feel the upgrade costs were justified as it was a whole new product with a whole new set of features, a major overhaul. But since the SCAL2 release, there have been 12 revision, and those updates are FREE.

From what I have read, the folks on MTC are very passionate about their software... and seem to defend it to the bitter end how wonderful it is. This forum is not like that. We don't seem to need the pep talks or rallies, and we all get along and play nicely.

The forum is a major selling point for me.

Like you, I Design 99% of my artwork in Illustrator, so I use Versions 1 and 2 of SCAL. Version 2 has some great features (Layers) that I use once in awhile, but I still find myself using version 1 quite often. I never downloaded the MTC trial. For me there was no need to even bother as SCAL does everything I need and it's very easy to use.

I agree about this forum. I love it. Everyone is so sweet.

I love the layout of SCAL. It is very simple and to the point. I do a lot of my design work in other programs. I love how I can just jump over to SCAL and cut easily.

I love the Trace Image function in SCAL. Another simple and to the point feature. I love how we can save our trace as an SVG. The traces are very accurate.

The shapes in the Shape Library are so cute. There are also many useful ones like buttons, tags and my personal favorite the Weather category.

It's very easy to load an SVG with this program. I like neat and tidy. SCAL is neat and tidy.

My favorite I can fit the mat to Window size. There is no scrolling. The zoom function works perfectly. I can actually see what I am doing.

Well, I must admit, I own SCAl 1, SCAL 2 and now MTC. Let me start by saying that I like both programs, but as only a normal computer user, I find MTC easier to use. I dislike the interface of SCAL...I could never get the boxes to line up right on my computer and it drove me nuts..to many boxes all over..., plus the text shadowing issues aren't perfected in SCAL 2 and issue that wasn't present in SCAL 1. Haven't played with it yet in the latest version of SCAL 2.021 yet but... Often, many of my fonts wouldn't shadow right after version 2.08 or something so.... I prefer MTC over SCAL for these issues. However, SCAL 2 cuts faster and cleaner than MTC plus you you can use both TTF fonts and OTF fonts. It's actually nice to have both programs for different reasons, but if you won't to do most of your designing in 1 program without using Inkscape, then I would recommend MTC. Todd is super fast with his tech support on SCAL2 and that is also a fantastic feature to consider.

So...the bottom line is I would play with both versions in the trial version and see which one you like best. However, make sure you have time to play before downloading SCAL's trial version as you only have 10 days. I downloaded it but didn't really play with it at all and when I went to try it out, my trial period was over....so I bought it blind and by everyone's recommendation because I didn't realize I only had 10 days to give it a try.

Heidi