Flexi sign and print 19 to 21

[CreatedDesigns]

I called to get a quote to upgrade from version 19 to 21.
Is it worth $1800 to upgrade?

Is this a way of forcing us to go the $60month sub?

 

[netsol]

I called to get a quote to upgrade from version 19 to 21.
Is it worth $1800 to upgrade?

Is this a way of forcing us to go the $60month sub?

quick! give me a list of the things whose prices you are NOT outraged by.
there are not many on my list
the $60 for flexi doesn't even make my list

 

[Gene@mpls]

I made my first million dollars with flexi.

 

[CreatedDesigns]

quick! give me a list of the things whose prices you are NOT outraged by.
there are not many on my list
the $60 for flexi doesn't even make my list

I pay $32mo for all of the Adobe software in CC and for $60mo I can wait for the program to crash and not be productive….. I just think the subscription rate should fit the usefulness. I guess if once on the Flexi sub I can cancel Adobe CC and it works flawlessly I would have no complaints. Oh that’s right Flexi cannot do all of what all the Adobe software can do….

That last upgrade I paid for Flexi was $800. I did that no problem but for $1800 I just have to step back a second.

 

[CreatedDesigns]

I made my first million dollars with flexi.

I am 100% with you on that Flexi has made me a lot of money through the years, but also caused me to lose a lot of money also.

I love Flexi don’t get me wrong.

I may just have to sit back and either swallow the $1800 pill or jump on the Sub route like everyone else. Or I guess the other option is to just stick with the ver 19 I already have.

If I may ask what version of Flexi are you running?

 

[FrankW]

Is it worth $1800 to upgrade?

It depends. Flexi 21 has some interesting new features for printing, for example new features for printing variable data.

 

[rjssigns]

My question is why upgrade? If my copy of Flexi 7.6 pro would have driven my new printer I would still be using that.
I'm running my paid for Flexi 12 right now and that should take me into and past retirement.

As far as design software I have but rarely use anything Adobe. Started to lean on and learn Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo. Already turned out some nice work with those programs.
Best part is you can get them for less than 40 bucks each during Black Friday, and you own them outright.
Yeah, I know, but you'll get used to the interface. You had to learn Adobe products, right?

My personal opinion is I dislike anything subscription. Nothing more than little vampires clamped on to your bottom line.

Can't wait to hear what "It's just the cost of doing business" folks say when they need a subscription to unlock features on their new car.
Get used to the phrase "you will own nothing and like it".

 

[gabagoo]

I have the subscription plan so moving from 19 to 21 was included. At first I heard it was buggy so stayed away but now use it and it seems ok.
A few weird things have happened...the only one I remember was that one job printed differently than what it was showing me in the Rip & Print.. so if I was running 100 decasl 10 across and 10 high, it printed 11 across and 9 high...something like that...the issue was the the cut file sent was 10 x 10 and not the same.... Happened once so far and have not seen it happen since

 

[FrankW]

Flexi 21, in opposite to Flexi 19, has - among other things - the following new features:

- New functionality to print variable data (including variable pictures and so on)
- Multi-Layer-Print (for printers who supports it)
- Jig-Templates
- Preview of output channels (good for checking White- or Clear-Channels for problems)
- user defined names for cut contour colors
- Illustrator Layer support in Production Manager (separates Illustrator Layers in separate jobs)
- Optimized support of printing while RIPping

The update from 19 to 21 has much more new functionality than some updates before.

Of course the features are not useful to everyone. For example, If you dont do flatbed printing with a jig, you will not need Jig-Templates. If you dont have a printer with white, Multi-Layer-Printing is useless to you. Flexi has improved color management and profiling very much since the last two or three versions ... if you print everything with one or two profiles, you have no advantage from it.

But sometimes new features are very important. For example, up to Flexi 10, Flexi has used a postscript RIP module internally ... Postscript is really outdated, there were a lot of problems with newer possible effects like transparencies postscript is not able to process. With 10.5, Flexi has switched to a PDF RIP module, and since then typical problems are solved.

Other sample: I work in a company who sells Gerber Omega-Software too. Old versions of Omega have worked fine with Windows 10 too, altough Gerber only supports 5.0 and newer with windows 10. One time around March 2020 a Microsoft Windows security update results in that the cursor disappears over the working area ... lot of people stucks with their work und have needed to order an update immediately without being prepared.

@ rjssigns:

Even if you pay one time for your software, you don´t "own" software. You own only a licence.

 

[Dale D]

With 19 (was 32 bit) i had a lot of crashing when I had a ton of nodes. Since 21 is now a 64 bit version, that issue went away for me. I ran beta versions of 21 for 6 months and they have definitely improved since then. They also finally fixed the driver issues with Summa plotters. There's 1 more issue i want them to resolve then I feel like I could purchase it in full myself.

 

[CreatedDesigns]

With 19 (was 32 bit) i had a lot of crashing when I had a ton of nodes. Since 21 is now a 64 bit version, that issue went away for me. I ran beta versions of 21 for 6 months and they have definitely improved since then. They also finally fixed the driver issues with Summa plotters. There's 1 more issue i want them to resolve then I feel like I could purchase it in full myself.

I have been running a summa plotter(S2 T140) for 5years and no problems yet. What was the issue they fixed?

 

[Dale D]

If you have Summa set to ignore Flexi's pressure and speed settings, you will never see there was an issue.

Once I changed it to allow Flexi to determine pressure and speed (which I had to do if I was doing a perf cut) Flexi would always default to 60 and 3 ips speed no matter how it was saved. I would have to fix it on every job sent. This past summer it got better where only time Id have to fix it was after I shut down Flexi. This last update that came out in December finally fixed it. They claimed they knew it was an issue and that Flexi and Windows had conflict. I have both a S2 75 & S2 T160 Opos.

 

[Retro Graphics]

With 19 (was 32 bit) i had a lot of crashing when I had a ton of nodes. Since 21 is now a 64 bit version, that issue went away for me. I ran beta versions of 21 for 6 months and they have definitely improved since then. They also finally fixed the driver issues with Summa plotters. There's 1 more issue i want them to resolve then I feel like I could purchase it in full myself.

the upgrade to 64 bit was a welcome addition. it's actually a shame it took them so long to come around. being how memory intensive graphic rendering software can be, to limit yourself to 32 bit was asinine to say the least. you would have to work in 1/20 scale for wrap work then size it all up at the end to be able to price and print/cut. now i can just work at full scale all the time.

 

[netsol]

I am 100% with you on that Flexi has made me a lot of money through the years, but also caused me to lose a lot of money also.

I love Flexi don’t get me wrong.

I may just have to sit back and either swallow the $1800 pill or jump on the Sub route like everyone else. Or I guess the other option is to just stick with the ver 19 I already have.

If I may ask what version of Flexi are you running?

THE WORLD is of the opinion that everything is going to be software as a service (SAAS)
microsoft started this when they realized that everyone was resisting pushing windows xp and office 2003/2007 over the edge

this was a great help for microsoft's cash flow & other software companies learned from them

in truth, if i took my old amiable software flexicut 5.6 out of the box, i could still run almost everything i need from that. (i like the new features as much as everyone else, but x-y code is x-y code)

 

[Retro Graphics]

THE WORLD is of the opinion that everything is going to be software as a service (SAAS)
microsoft started this when they realized that everyone was resisting pushing windows xp and office 2003/2007 over the edge

this was a great help for microsoft's cash flow & other software companies learned from them

in truth, if i took my old amiable software flexicut 5.6 out of the box, i could still run almost everything i need from that. (i like the new features as much as everyone else, but x-y code is x-y code)

I actually ran off Flexi 6 via VM for many years and had to add a serial card to my system at the time to use my dongle. I actually just upgraded to Flexi sub last year when I bought my first wide format printer b/c the VM would crash so often and I'd constantly have to reinstall the USB adapter driver, but yeah it is possible but damn if the crashing wasn't brutal.

 

[CreatedDesigns]

If you have Summa set to ignore Flexi's pressure and speed settings, you will never see there was an issue.

Once I changed it to allow Flexi to determine pressure and speed (which I had to do if I was doing a perf cut) Flexi would always default to 60 and 3 ips speed no matter how it was saved. I would have to fix it on every job sent. This past summer it got better where only time Id have to fix it was after I shut down Flexi. This last update that came out in December finally fixed it. They claimed they knew it was an issue and that Flexi and Windows had conflict. I have both a S2 75 & S2 T160 Opos.

Well that explains why I never saw it, I always adjust pressure/speed from the touch screen.