Flexi-Sign...who uses it? Poll??

[Ken]

I'd like to see a recent ( like this month)... who uses Flexi?...why it is so expensive?...and do they really have 75%( or thereabouts)of the sign software Market?
If a moderator here could set up this poll..I'm interested...how about you?
Thanks.
Ken
Signs That Work !
Eagle Bay, BC

 

[Stealth Ryder]

I use it...

 

[Fred Weiss]

I have used it since 1993 because of its outstanding vector drawing and editing capabilities.

Having visited their headquarters, I was impressed by the outrageous amount of equipment they have for testing their software on various sign making hardware and the expertise that exists under one roof. Being somewhat in the software business, I fully understand why the price is what it is. They are dealing with a user base that is 5% or smaller as compared to the size of the customer base for Adobe or Corel products ... so it has to cost more than the products of those companies.

 

[Ken]

I can understand that limited penetration of the sign makers market indicates a much higher price per unit..but is it really worth it?
I never downloaded a trial version..if that is available...wanting feedback about this.
Thanks...Ken

 

[iSign]

is it really worth it?

nobody can make that decision for you Ken...


are you getting by without it?
are you making money?
do you think you need it?
does it do something you can get elsewhere for less?
will it help you make more money?
are there alternatives to help you make the same money, for less cost?

if it helps make more money faster than your alternatives, doing something you can't do without investing in some new software, and you want to be doing whatever it is that you can't do.. will you make your money back before you tire of doing whatever it is that it will help you do?

 

[Fred Weiss]

I can understand that limited penetration of the sign makers market indicates a much higher price per unit..but is it really worth it?
I never downloaded a trial version..if that is available...wanting feedback about this.
Thanks...Ken

That's up to the individual. Your profile says you use Corel and WinPC. You may be quite happy with that solution and can get productivity from it that suits your needs. If you're busy enough to afford employees, you can set the employee up with the same tools for a lot less than you can a Flexi Pro setup.

What I would maintain is that more powerful software can add to your productivity, perhaps saving you having an employee or as many employees. There are too many ways to start listing them here. The one time difference of $3,000+ as compared to Corel and a bridge program is eaten up in less than two month by an extra employee.

I have Adobe CS2, Corel X3, FlexiSign Pro 8.6 and two seats of Omega 3. Each of those applications pay for themselves on a regular basis. But Flexi handles more things the others won't do and that saves my bacon on a regular basis, that I cannot imagine operating without it ... although I know I could.

 

[Rick]

I purchased mine in 1996. I believe I over-purchased at the time since I was a part-time home operation while working at a sign shop. I was a Corel user at the time and most things were done in Corel unless I had to clean up vectors or effects. I never learned the true potential of Flexi until I worked at a very high production shop where I ran a couple of plotters and a couple of printers. I would recommend it if you need more production savvy software and your main emphasis is on signs. All of my current design and sign work is done in Illustrator, I don't make the signs I design, so Flexi would be a poor choice for me now, I still have it, but only gets used for cutting vinyl.

 

[coyote]

I use Flexi for vinyl cutting and designing some print graphics and have been happy with it. I've used Gerber Omega and find Flexi easier. When you consider that the first vinyl cutting plotters made by Gerber went for upwards of $14K and that they had no screen, no memory for saving designs, that you had to lay out type one line at a time-I can go on and on, Flexi and the other sign design softwares are CHEAP. Plotters are CHEAP as well. I was stunned, actually, that I could replace my Gerber 4B with a Graphtec CE5000 and Flexi Sign for under $3K.

Competition drives pricing. As long as there isn't a lot of competition between professional softwares, prices will stay high. If Cricut can make a software that mimics Flexi for $150-Flexi's price will come down.

 

[Kevin-shopVOX]

I use it and love it. As many have said software is a personal choice based on your needs. Flexi does a lot of things that are very cool that just make life easier but I can say that I never rely on just Flexi to run my business. If you really want to get it but don't want to pay the price look for a used copy on a forum somewhere or an older version online. 7.5 is great and has just about every feature of the 8.0 and up but costs much less.

 

[bjones]

I have flexi 8 master and tend to use it only for the rip/cut work and i virtually never use it for actual design.. It's just too buggy/unpredictable for me so I use illustrator for most of my actual design work. From illustrator I can pretty much export to anything. Flexi for print and vinyl, corel for laser work, autocad for cnc work.. that way I can just learn design in one tool and run all the others in my shop by treating their specific apps as just runtime.

Nothing really against Flexi as I do use it, but as a real day to day design app it's not anywhere near as polished and powerful as a pro app like illustrator at 1/3 the price.

 

[Wildpony]

I use Flexi Pro 8 as my main design/Rip/Cut program and supplement it with Photoshop, Illustrator, and sometimes AutoCad.
I started out on VE LXI when I was just cutting.

 

[andy]

We use Corel for just about everything; plotting, CNC work, laser cutting, water jetting.

All these machines have their own control software so there is no need for extra control software.

For delivering clean, precise vectors at large formats Corel can't be beaten (we never use AutoCad for anything because the machining files generated are horrible).

 

[Replicator]

Use it. Love it. Hate it.

 

[Steve C.]

I don't know what the list price is for it now, what, maybe 4 grand?
I got it packaged with my printer at around $1500. Worth it as
a production tool. I still have 7.6 so maybe it has been improved,
but as a design tool it really sucks. Especially if you are used
to working in Corel as I am. It is outstanding for rip/print and cutting.
Another outstanding feature is the trace tool, I use it frequently.
Attempting to edit nodes is an exercise in futility, I cannot touch
Corel. And I hate the display, it looks quite pixilated. In Corel
you have your enhanced view that makes design a pleasure.

 

[Service Sign Co]

I've used it at other shops & use it here,I like some features better than Omega.It's all personal preference,but every time I talk with someone that is looking for a job or about working part time,100% have experience with Flexi.

 

[iSign]

I'd like to see a recent ( like this month)... who uses Flexi?...why it is so expensive?...and do they really have 75%( or thereabouts)of the sign software Market?

74.07% so far... interesting!

 

[wes70]

I use Corel for all design work and use Flexi (starter version) as a bridge program to cut vinyl.

 

[luggnut]

the flexi pro includes a full featured RIP, so even though i don't use it a lot as a design tool, the RIP is nice. if you just work in illustrator/photoshop/corel you will still need a RIP. and most rips cost a few thousand or more.. flexi comes bundled with a lot of print packages too.

i like some of flexi's features such as outline, text preview, trace, ....

 

[iSign]

the flexi pro includes a full featured RIP, so even though i don't use it a lot as a design tool, the RIP is nice. if you just work in illustrator/photoshop/corel you will still need a RIP. and most rips cost a few thousand or more.. flexi comes bundled with a lot of print packages too.

i like some of flexi's features such as outline, text preview, trace, ....

My M.O. exactly...

(76.67% woohoo!)

 

[Conor Knoxx]

Yep, Flexi is my "main" program.
I started in this business 3 years ago, and at that point had never (seriously) used Corel / Illustrator / Flexi.

I started out with demo's of all of them.
Flexi was WAAAAY easier to get up and running and producing useful material.
The topic has been discussed here many, many times.
Many folks find it buggy / crash a lot. I've not found this to be true.
Flexi charges for every little update - I HAVE found this to be true..

I think a lot of folks find Corel and Illy "better" for a large part because they know the program inside and out, and have been using it for years. I really think most of those "other" programs are design for many applications and uses, whereas Flexi is specifically for the sign industry.

My experience is that for more complex designs, I often have to use several programs (not the least reason because with digital printing, rasterized elements come into play so much...) but for my fast, day to day, bread and butter work, there is just no comparison whatsoever to Flexi.

Another program that I "discovered" here actually, is Xara.
Its vector based, but has some very, very cool features - things that I used to struggle with photoshop with, I can do in seconds in Xara. My biggest problem with it, is the import/export features give me a lot of grief. It's really inexpensive too!