Flexi, Gerber Edge, Compound white underbase??

[pindesign]

Hi there,

I have just spent a whole day trying to get flexi and gerber edge 1 to do something I would have thought should be easy, but it's getting very frustrating.

I'm sure there must be an easy way to do this but I can't work it out:

I need to make decals, printed CMYK onto silver vinyl with a white underbase. The cmyk uses vector and raster data.

The underbase needs to be created from a layer of the eps file. It is a compound shape (has holes in it) Becuase some of the cmyk art needs to be backed, and some needs to be printed srtaight onto the silver vinyl.

Currently I am importing the file as an illustrator .eps - When I set the white layer to underbase 'with holes' - it looks fine on screen, but the edge seems to ignore the holes and prints a solid version of the shape to the gerber edge.

I thought another way would be to just set up a layer for the white, and assign this to a white spot, but I can't figure out a way for flexi to parse the white layer as an underprint under all the other art. It knocks out all the white art that is covered by cmyk art, and if i select ignore overprints, then the cmyk doesn't print at all!

A work-around I suppose would be to print the white first, then somehow re-register the printer to home point and print the cmyk over that. But I dont know how to do this, and sense this would give terrible reg errors, as the edge 1 is not the most precise of devices.

Does anyone know how to do what I am talking about? I hope I am being clear as to what the problem is! Any help would be greatly appreciated

Gareth. :signs101:

 

[Sign Works]

I'm not familiar with the operation of the Edge but I do this on my PC-600 RIPing from Flexi, I have always just set up two seperate files and sent them to the printer seperately, white first then secondly the process and or spot colors, the trick to retain the original base point is to deselect (turn off) "Advance After Print" & "Advance After Cut" options in Flexi's Production Managers Driver Options, this way after the white is sent and printed the printer resumes the original base point for the next pass, once again I'm not sure if the Edge operates in the same manner, good luck.

 

[iSign]

I'm sure there is at least one "right way", but I don't use Flexi for my Edge, so I don't know any of the "right ways", but like so many things... there are probably numerous workaround solutions. One is the idea you mentioned of running it like 2 jobs. The Edge 2 has a home key, that brings one of the patented 5-hole pattern groupings to the top dead center. I don't know if the Edge 1 has that, but if so, use it, print the white, then if you use it again before running part 2, it's easy to position that material exactly where it was. I'd usually make a square outside my image on both files that forces them to be registered to a common orgin point.

(I've gotten some real nice images printing high res images on my inkjet, onto clear vinyl, & applying them to silver vinyl with edge printed white base areas)

 

[pindesign]

Thanks heaps for the replies...

I will look for a 'home' key in the manual for the edge 1. If it has one, this would be great.

As for the 'advance after print' I did try it and actually i found that the edge 1 didn't move back to exactly the same base point! Unless I messed up somehow, I'm sure i tested this approach as part of my troubleshooting process. I will try it again when i get back to the office on monday.

Damn trying to do 21st century jobs on 20th century tech!

I appreciate the responses, but still would like to hear a more elegant solution if anyone has one???

Thanks a million!

Gareth

 

[iSign]

In Omega, The Image File Would Get Set To "overprint" And This Would Allow The White To Print First, With No "knock-out"

 

[pindesign]

Really? So you are saying that Omega will just do what I want?

Bear in mind that the cmyk stuff to overprint is not a flattened image, it is a combination of raster and vector, some of which is already overprinting within the eps itself. (if that makes sense)

I will in future have to add spot colors to this process so overprinting a flattened image will not work in future.

I suppose if the file could be 'linked' in omega AND set to overprint, then it should parse the raster/vector combo properly (the overprints in the file) then overprint the whole linked file over the white layer.

Gareth

 

[iSign]

hmm...just finished a 21 hour workday, on about 4 hours sleep... so, looks like the east Coast folks are waking up... I'll let some of them take over here. :Sleeping:
Good Luck!

 

[GARY CULY]

Doug ..why Dont You Just Print On Silver Vynle ..then Laminate It,,,your Mim Aki Will Print Great On It Reds ,blue ,greens ,,,look Like Candy Colors

 

[pindesign]

Doug ..why Dont You Just Print On Silver Vynle ..then Laminate It,,,your Mim Aki Will Print Great On It Reds ,blue ,greens ,,,look Like Candy Colors

Have you posted onto the wrong thread here? This appears to be off-topic??

 

[Service Sign Co]

The Home key is on the front console. Don't believe Edge 1 has one. The Edge le has one

 

[pindesign]

I just looked thru the manual, I am not at the office till Monday, so can't try this out, but it has a "Re-home" key.... "Re-home the Cam wheel"

Sounds like maybe what I want....

Cheers, Gareth.

 

[iSign]

Doug ..why Dont You Just Print On Silver Vynle ..then Laminate It,,,your Mim Aki Will Print Great On It Reds ,blue ,greens ,,,look Like Candy Colors

Thanks Gary, I've seen those "candy colors" with direct printing, and just as well overlaying the clear prints. As I mentioned, my job required white as wee, so I edge printed that & chose to use clear inkjet prints so I could manually registere them to my white printing.

Have you posted onto the wrong thread here? This appears to be off-topic??

whoa!!... 11 posts, and you're breaking out the big fat bold letters & a thumbs down icon? :Oops:

..not sure how it works where you're from, but in answering your inquiry, I went off on a slight tangent about using my inkjet for further exploring improved results to challenges like yours...

(I've gotten some real nice images printing high res images on my inkjet, onto clear vinyl, & applying them to silver vinyl with edge printed white base areas)

...to a point, "topics" have a life of their own, and once you start one, it's usually free to meander a little around here.

 

[pindesign]

Ok my bad on the boldies, but to me the post appeared completely unrelated... sorry!

Thanks for setting me straight about the etiquite here.

My own view is that topics that wander at random do not help anyone scanning forums for help. That is why i posted in such a manner to what appeared to be an un-related topic. But now that I know your name is Doug, and that you have an ongoing challenge using your Mimaki, I can understand what the post was about. I still think it would be unclear to viewers.

My experience from other forums is that threads that are used loosely quickly become something else - again unhelpful for someone scanning for answers. But "when in Rome"

(insert foot here)

 

[pindesign]

Ok, so the Edge 1 DOES return to the exact base point. Turns out I had a hidden object in one part of the .eps which meant that the white and cmyk layers of art weren't aligning to the same base-point.

So turning off advance after print, and running the white first, then the cmyk has worked for this job. Not the most elegant solution, I suppose, but it is quite bearable.

Thanks everyone.

 

[mbarden]

In Flexi 8 you have an underbase option under the Effects drop down menu.
Mike B
Big River Sign Co.

 

[pindesign]

Flexi 7.6 also has this option, however, it was not working properly with the edge. It was not printing as a compound path even when using 'underbase with holes' - as I mentioned earlier