Help with Production Manager Ripping

[awelty]

Printer: Mimaki JV3-130 SPII
Design Software: FlexiSIGN-PRO v8
Output Software: Production Manager

I will preface with, new to these printers and the software, only been using them for about 5 months and have yet to learn all the intricate details.

Scenario: We have a 4'x7' banner to run, no crazy images all vectorized/line art and fonts and two gradiated shapes. No reason this should RIP/Print any differently. Well it doesn't even RIP it just stays at processing and nothing happens. I aborted it and ran another banner from another file and it RIP'd and printed just fine.

I'm really at a loss here. Any help would be great.

Thanks.

 

[fozzyber]

What are you riping from, flexi design? or add job > .XXX? what file type.
flexi does not like CS3 files.
did you import from XXX into flexi then rip?

 

[awelty]

I've tried RIP and Print in Flexi and also tried adding job via Production Manager

 

[awelty]

My apologies, everything was done in Flexi, I listed Photoshop because we have it if a solution needed it.

 

[awelty]

Ok, i went through and took out every single peice and then sent, it has something to do with my gradients. any help?

 

[P Wagner]

How long did you let the file process in the RIP before aborting? Depending on the processing horsepower and resources of the PC, it can take a while (I've personally seen it stuck on Processing for over 15 minutes before showing any RIP progress). Vector data can take a long time to RIP, particularly with gradient fills.

One note: If you have fewer programs running, more resources can be dedicated to the math-inensive RIPping of the file. This includes closing FlexiSIGN itself - the file can be saved in Flexi, and then brought into the RIP (Production Manager) directly via the File menu in PM.

Bob

 

[awelty]

Well I'm at home now, before I left the shop I closed everything except "PM" and set it to RIP at least this way I can see if it just takes a long time, or maybe I'll get an error message. It has something to do with my gradients though, maybe tomorrow i'll try just tweaking the color a hair and see what we get.

 

[luggnut]

your settings in the RIP can have an impact on how long it takes... like FMxpress diffusion or LX diffision smooth blends Normal ,enhanced , or super

 

[SignsOfMaine]

Gradients can throw a lot of programs for a loop. Flexi's gradients don't usually bother it, but a flexi pattern fill will straight up crash it every time.

The usual fix to gradient issues (whether it's a gradient that prevents a PDF from importing, or prevents you from printing to PDF, or prevents you from ripping properly) is to rasterize them. Because there are no sharp details in a gradient, it's the safest thing to rasterize and usually 150 dpi resolution is just fine. Just gotta keep an eye on the color to make sure it didn't shift. Flexi's pretty good about that.

 

[Idea Design]

... is to rasterize them...

 

[Biker Scout]

We use PM here, only because it came with the machine. However, I flat out refuse to use Flexi.

But what I can tell you is that we print almost everything as a .tif file now. Even if it's created in Illustrator, and it's a beautiful vector. I came from a print background and everything was .eps this, .pdf that. Well, in inkjet land, it's just the opposite.

On our set-up, the .eps files print crisp, but the color is off. If I print a .pdf file, I get weird anomolies that only occur in .pdf files. Color shifts, white boxes behind drop shadows, outlines moving from the outside of a letter to the inside. Gradients weird, and green. Strange stuff. Oh, I even get pretty nuetral grays when I output as a .tif too.

But if I take the same .eps file or .pdf file and open it in Photoshop, and save as a .tif my colors are perfect, and I never get a suprise on the output. I always print at 200 dpi, full size, and never have I had a job leave the shop pixelated or fuzzy. Yeah, it sucks to have to wait for a 4x12 banner to rasterize, before I can even import it into PM, and then wait for it to RIP over there. But my output speaks for itself. Everything is just awesome! 200 dpi, probably overkill... but that's a huge stretch for me. I hail from the land of 200+ LPI, and 2400 dpi.

 

[awelty]

Update: Just so everyone knows, I let it RIP over night and sure enough it ripped and is printing now as we speak. I am very happy, thanks to everyone who helped. I'm really new to all this stuff and what to learn how to have everything running smoothly and great. I have to admit though the support is really not there, not from SAI or from Mimaki. Does anyone know of any other good resources (Other than you fine folks of course) that I could use to reference any questions?