Any suggestions on improving Flexi's rasterizing performance?

[os101king]

I understand a little about the processes involved but IMO knowing a little is much more dangerous than knowing nothing at all. I'm attempting to rasterize a bunch of transparent layers in a 4'x10' sign I have to print to translucent. It sat about 40 minutes on 0% (when I was finally patient enough to let it go!) and I really need to know if there is anything I can do to step up that particular aspect of the speed of the program. I'm not thinking I can do anything about it right this second.... but my production has nearly doubled recently and the handicap of a substandard system is starting to affect me in a real way.

I'm running XP sp3 (32 bit... yeah I know) and the full 4G (3.2 useable) of memory. I've got an Intel Core 2 running 6400 @ 2.13 GHz. What would be most effective if I stick with this operating system? What kind of issues will I run against if I try to switch to Seven? Would Flexi-Pro 8.1V1 even work on a 64 bit installation of Seven? I've got a huge thermaltake case, hell at this point I'm not abject to tossing the mb and starting over with a brand new processor... just worried about being able to run my multi-thousand dollar investment in Flexi.

Obviously a multi-faceted question, I'll take my answer off-the-air (NPR joke).

Thanks everybody. All suggestions (excepting ones like "your computer sucks, buy a new one") would be appreciated!!!


Have a good one y'all!

 

[Fred Weiss]

A couple of questions ...

Do you have your Photoshop selected in Flexi as your bitmap editor?

What happens if you rasterize each image directly in Photoshop?

My setup is nearly identical to yours but I'm not in the habit of rasterizing directly in Flexi. I work with some very large files in Photoshop and processing time is usually measured in seconds. 40 minutes would indicate to me that FlexiSign had entered a phase of being choked and had become unresponsive.

 

[os101king]

Hmm. No, I don't believe I do! How do I change that setting? I'll look in the manual (I am a self-taught user.. admittedly not the best way but I'm attention span-challenged) but if you could drop me a tip on that it would be awesome.

Thanks, Fred!


Ian

 

[Fred Weiss]

:Oops: Flexi Pro automatically finds Photoshop. There is a setting in preferences for setting the path to Adobe Plug-Ins ... which is what I was thinking of.

 

[os101king]

Ok, so if it automatically finds PS and rasterizes using that software I have a question. Does it run PS inside "app"? If I'm rasterizing and I open task manager I don't see any photoshop running. Just curious, maybe I have something set wrong or a bad path or such.


OOPS myself. I think I misunderstood what you'd posted. sorry!

 

[Fred Weiss]

Again, what happens when you rasterize the same job in Photoshop?

 

[thewood]

I'm probably as big a Flexi advocate as anyone here. But rasterizing is just not something Flexi does well. I would recommend exporting the file(s) as an .eps and rasterizing in Photoshop.

Even if you do get Flexi to rasterize the file, the quality will likely suffer. For instance, I can take simple vector text (or any object) and rasterize it in Flexi at 300ppi. If I export the same text as an .eps and rasterize it at the same ppi in Photoshop and compare it to Flexi's bitmap, the Photoshop file is superior in quality. Both files are of the same ppi, but Photoshop's will be cleaner and smoother.

 

[LittleSnakey]

Plus one for this method!!! If you need it transparent saveas a psd file and import that into flexi.

I'm probably as big a Flexi advocate as anyone here. But rasterizing is just not something Flexi does well. I would recommend exporting the file(s) as an .eps and rasterizing in Photoshop.

Even if you do get Flexi to rasterize the file, the quality will likely suffer. For instance, I can take simple vector text (or any object) and rasterize it in Flexi at 300ppi. If I export the same text as an .eps and rasterize it at the same ppi in Photoshop and compare it to Flexi's bitmap, the Photoshop file is superior in quality. Both files are of the same ppi, but Photoshop's will be cleaner and smoother.

 

[Conor Knoxx]

another option I find myself often using these days is Xara software.

Technically speaking, its a vector based program (probably a closer cousin to Corel Draw than any other..) but it does an extremely smooth job of converting transparencies, gradients and other "effects" to high res raster files (tif or jpg ) which I then import into flexi.

I'll still use flexi for the text portions, quite often, just because its sooo darn good at it!

Even at that though, Flexi still has to rip it before printing, which can still be quite slow. I've seen it spend as much as 3 hours ripping a large raster file (my computer performance is on the low end, to be fair..) and I've never heard of any way to improve this.

I know I've looked at my "performance" window while its ripping, and neither cpu cycles, nor memory are max'd out - so I'm not sure what the bottle-neck is really.

Xara can be bought online for under $100 ($69 if I'm not mistaken) and has some really unique "tools" with it.

 

[Conor Knoxx]

regarding another question on your original post os101king,

I don't think Flexi 8.1 works with Windows 7 - 64 bit, I think you need one version up from that... which of course, ain't free

(and don't get me started on THAT little point..)

but others here would know for sure....