SightLine
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SAi has released an update to the current version of Flexi taking it to SP6 Build 2145.... Also met with them at the NBM show this past weekend and looked at it. Installed the update here on our systems yesterday. Release notes for the new update are here http://thinksai.com/releasenotes/
Most interesting to me is they have added a couple of new features. However only those who do the monthly subscription get the new plugins.
So those who pay thousands of dollars at once get the shaft. You know those of us with perpetual licenses who stay reasonably current spend just as much or more than the subscribers so that seems pretty cold and crass to me. Anyways the new plugins are a Finishing feature with is a grommet and edge treatment (fold and bleed options) for banner finishing. The other tool is a QR code generator. I see no mention of it in the release notes or anything else about perpetual license users getting it but in an email SAi sent they do have "Contact your reseller for more information on this $395 add-on". Granted Onyx has had a banner plugin for a few years now and theirs is an Illustrator plugin which places sell for $299 so they are not giving it away for free either.
The update also has some fixes as well as some other updates, and new drivers, etc. One thing I can confirm, at least the way I installed it.... a while back SAi support spent a good bit of time on our Production Manager machine working on the Summa drivers to fix the issue where polling a Summa cutter for the media width instantly crashes Production Manager. They fixed it on ours and it has worked since. After installing the update that does still work however during installation it asks if you want to overwrite your existing installation which I did choose to do. I do not see anything in the release notes about the Summa polling big being a fix. So I cannot confirm for certain that is part of the update.
I do also have some early feedback on the banner finishing plug in. I cannot and have not used it so I cannot comment on its actual functionality though. The only thing I see is that the Finishing plugin is part of Production Manager. Like many shops we have a dedicated RIP computer that just runs Production Manager. The users run the Designer end from their workstations and send the jobs from there. Our general workflow is also to almost always "send now" meaning if someone is about to print something they load the printer with the material they will be using, then in Designer on the Rip and Print dialog poll the machine for the media width and send the job. The job then immediately RIP's and starts printing. With the Finishing plugin being in Production Manager we would have to send the banner from Designer and remember to use the "hold in list" function instead of "send now". Then go to the RIP computer and open the holding job in Production Manager and add the grommet marks and edge treatment from there. I see this more as a design end feature myself and think the Finishing plugin should be in the Designer end. Either in the Rip and Print dialogs or as a menu item. We do not add a contour cut or print marks from Production Manager why would we be adding grommet marks or edge treatments there? Anyways just wanted to point out that I personally think this should be a part of the Designer interface and not Production Manager.
I'd like the plugin (we are perpetual licenses though) so I'm waiting to hear from our reseller to see what our options are. It does sound like for less money though I can get the Onyx plugin for Illustrator and have it as a design end feature which honestly seems more desirable to me. Overall I still like Flexi a lot. I know many love to hate it but they are just not using it right in my opinion. Color Profiling is built in and with an i1 and using your own custom made profiles (which is the ideal method no matter what RIP you use - stock profiles are optimized for another printer in another environment) the color is top notch excellent. It used the genuine Adobe PDF Print Engine, you can add contour cut lines to vector and raster art, rip and print and cut all from the same system.
Most interesting to me is they have added a couple of new features. However only those who do the monthly subscription get the new plugins.
So those who pay thousands of dollars at once get the shaft. You know those of us with perpetual licenses who stay reasonably current spend just as much or more than the subscribers so that seems pretty cold and crass to me. Anyways the new plugins are a Finishing feature with is a grommet and edge treatment (fold and bleed options) for banner finishing. The other tool is a QR code generator. I see no mention of it in the release notes or anything else about perpetual license users getting it but in an email SAi sent they do have "Contact your reseller for more information on this $395 add-on". Granted Onyx has had a banner plugin for a few years now and theirs is an Illustrator plugin which places sell for $299 so they are not giving it away for free either.The update also has some fixes as well as some other updates, and new drivers, etc. One thing I can confirm, at least the way I installed it.... a while back SAi support spent a good bit of time on our Production Manager machine working on the Summa drivers to fix the issue where polling a Summa cutter for the media width instantly crashes Production Manager. They fixed it on ours and it has worked since. After installing the update that does still work however during installation it asks if you want to overwrite your existing installation which I did choose to do. I do not see anything in the release notes about the Summa polling big being a fix. So I cannot confirm for certain that is part of the update.
I do also have some early feedback on the banner finishing plug in. I cannot and have not used it so I cannot comment on its actual functionality though. The only thing I see is that the Finishing plugin is part of Production Manager. Like many shops we have a dedicated RIP computer that just runs Production Manager. The users run the Designer end from their workstations and send the jobs from there. Our general workflow is also to almost always "send now" meaning if someone is about to print something they load the printer with the material they will be using, then in Designer on the Rip and Print dialog poll the machine for the media width and send the job. The job then immediately RIP's and starts printing. With the Finishing plugin being in Production Manager we would have to send the banner from Designer and remember to use the "hold in list" function instead of "send now". Then go to the RIP computer and open the holding job in Production Manager and add the grommet marks and edge treatment from there. I see this more as a design end feature myself and think the Finishing plugin should be in the Designer end. Either in the Rip and Print dialogs or as a menu item. We do not add a contour cut or print marks from Production Manager why would we be adding grommet marks or edge treatments there? Anyways just wanted to point out that I personally think this should be a part of the Designer interface and not Production Manager.
I'd like the plugin (we are perpetual licenses though) so I'm waiting to hear from our reseller to see what our options are. It does sound like for less money though I can get the Onyx plugin for Illustrator and have it as a design end feature which honestly seems more desirable to me. Overall I still like Flexi a lot. I know many love to hate it but they are just not using it right in my opinion. Color Profiling is built in and with an i1 and using your own custom made profiles (which is the ideal method no matter what RIP you use - stock profiles are optimized for another printer in another environment) the color is top notch excellent. It used the genuine Adobe PDF Print Engine, you can add contour cut lines to vector and raster art, rip and print and cut all from the same system.