Ink Levels in Versaworks.

[Ra33it]

Hey, so I recently started working at a Speedpro franchise in town and they use a Roland XR-640 with Versaworks as the RIP. Only ever used Onyx before, so still learning the ins and outs of Versaworks and I was wondering if there is a way to get the actual mil level of the ink cartridges? All it seems to offer you is a basic graphic with the ink levels reflected.

 

[JoeDG]

Hiya, afraid not. Just the visual graphic in RVW and on the machine menu.

 

[ams]

Fear not because it will give you a low ink warning before a print, most of the time you can still print a ton. If it stops part way through, just pop out the ink, cut the tab, stick back in and finish the job.

 

[HDvinyl]

When I first started out, I used to(for some reason) value the little bit of ink left in the cartridge, I knew the weight of empty 220's. They range from 6.125-6.195 grams.

Now I buy 440's and don't care about losing a few dollars in ink.

 

[JaySea20]

Fear not because it will give you a low ink warning before a print, most of the time you can still print a ton. If it stops part way through, just pop out the ink, cut the tab, stick back in and finish the job.

Cut the tab???? whaat does that mean?

 

[Solventinkjet]

The way the ink levels are read on a Roland is just a guess so you never know 100% how much is left. There is no sensor that reads the levels only if it is empty. It will give you a warning first however that the ink is getting low just before it is empty. the tab they are referencing is the little plastic tab on the cartridge that sticks out to tell the printer the cartridge is empty. While cutting the tab might get you a few more milliliters out of a cartridge, it's hardly worth the hassle. Once the cartridge goes empty, which ever print you are printing will have color drop out and be a waste anyway. As long as you are pricing your product properly, that last few drops of ink in the cartridge mean nothing in the grand scheme.

 

[ams]

Cut the tab???? whaat does that mean?

When the printer says you are out of ink, take out the ink from the machine, you will see a little white tab sticking out on the back of it, take a knife and cut that down flush, insert back in and keep printing. Don't print more than about 10 sq ft of that color or you run the risk of drying the line. Finish the print and then swap out inks. I've done 2 - 4' X 8' banners on a cut tab, but you never know. After a while you will get good at cutting it 1/4" and then it will still alert you when it's 99% done on ink.

If you have a bulk ink system, then you don't do the tab cutting.

 

[Ra33it]

Thanks for the responses. I'm not so worried about saving a little bit of ink, more its easier to tell if a cartridge might run if I have to leave a print running as juts happened to recently. I'll just err on the side of caution and just put in full cartridges when I gotta leave a print running overnight.

 

[JoeDG]

When you go to send a job in RVW it should say something along the lines of
'You may not have enough cyan to complete this job, do you want to continue?', this means you are low on that colour, then you can make a call as to the size of the job and the amount of ink...i.e. if I was printing 1m of yellow stickers, going to be fine...if I was printing a 6m blue banner...I may want to change my cartridge so it doesn't run out mid print.

 

[CSOCSO]

I'm not sure how good of an idea is to cut the tab and get more ink out of a cartridge.. Will the machine suck the pouch dry? Anyway, there is definitely more ink in the pouch than a couple milliliter! Actually, there are approx.; 40-50ml left in a puch after the machine says it's empty. I know. I have opened hundred of them. 8 empty one usually fills up a 440cc refillable cartridge. something to think about...

 

[ams]

I'm not sure how good of an idea is to cut the tab and get more ink out of a cartridge.. Will the machine suck the pouch dry? Anyway, there is definitely more ink in the pouch than a couple milliliter! Actually, there are approx.; 40-50ml left in a puch after the machine says it's empty. I know. I have opened hundred of them. 8 empty one usually fills up a 440cc refillable cartridge. something to think about...

It's fine as long as you know what your doing. Cutting it and forgetting about it is a bad idea. Cutting it and doing 10 more cc's is not a bad idea.

 

[Ra33it]

When you go to send a job in RVW it should say something along the lines of
'You may not have enough cyan to complete this job, do you want to continue?', this means you are low on that colour, then you can make a call as to the size of the job and the amount of ink...i.e. if I was printing 1m of yellow stickers, going to be fine...if I was printing a 6m blue banner...I may want to change my cartridge so it doesn't run out mid print.

Huh, I don't think I got a warning like that when I sent my job. When I sent the print the ink levels looked like enough to get the job done, but the magenta ran out little after midway through the job.

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

Huh, I don't think I got a warning like that when I sent my job. When I sent the print the ink levels looked like enough to get the job done, but the magenta ran out little after midway through the job.

Do you keep VersaWorks up to date? From memory this feature was introduced several years ago (4-5) so if you're still on an older version that may be why you haven't seen the warning before print.
We used to see it all the time when the inks were nearly out, so it was a good warning to swap the tank out before a big print.

 

[JoeDG]

Do you keep VersaWorks up to date? From memory this feature was introduced several years ago (4-5) so if you're still on an older version that may be why you haven't seen the warning before print.
We used to see it all the time when the inks were nearly out, so it was a good warning to swap the tank out before a big print.

There's also an option that must be selected in the preferences, have a look?

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

 

[Ra33it]

Do you keep VersaWorks up to date? From memory this feature was introduced several years ago (4-5) so if you're still on an older version that may be why you haven't seen the warning before print.
We used to see it all the time when the inks were nearly out, so it was a good warning to swap the tank out before a big print.

There's also an option that must be selected in the preferences, have a look?

Yep, latest version and that option is checked, must have thought it had enough or I just missed it entirely.

Now I'm having a problem of it recognizing the magenta for the cut lines on a print/cut job due at 9am tomorrow. And already had two people look them over and say they can't see whats wrong.

I never thought I would miss ONYX.

Oh another question you guys might be able to help me with. Is cutting master 3 compatible with a roland camm-1 pro cutter? Because if it is and I can convince my boss to buy then I won't ever have to worry about hitting just the right magenta.

Either way, thanks for the helps guys, much appreciated.

 

[SignMeUpGraphics]

Are there transparencies/gradients in the file?
Those confuse Versaworks easily, and cause cut lines to disappear.
If this is the case, Roland have both videos and PDFs on how to fix it.

 

[Norman1987]

You think about bulk system ?

 

[TimToad]

Yep, latest version and that option is checked, must have thought it had enough or I just missed it entirely.

Now I'm having a problem of it recognizing the magenta for the cut lines on a print/cut job due at 9am tomorrow. And already had two people look them over and say they can't see whats wrong.

I never thought I would miss ONYX.

Oh another question you guys might be able to help me with. Is cutting master 3 compatible with a roland camm-1 pro cutter? Because if it is and I can convince my boss to buy then I won't ever have to worry about hitting just the right magenta.

Either way, thanks for the helps guys, much appreciated.

Are your cutlines on the upper most layer?

Is your swatch named CutContour?

Was it saved as a Spot Color?

Is the line .25 points with a 1 limit?

If saving as an .eps, did you select "high resolution print" in the secondary dialogue box that pops up?

 

[Ra33it]

Are there transparencies/gradients in the file?
Those confuse Versaworks easily, and cause cut lines to disappear.
If this is the case, Roland have both videos and PDFs on how to fix it.

The file I was trying to cut did have a gradient, but I think what the problem was was that when I would click the CutCountor swatch that was already setup in the library before I started working here it would fill it with just the Illustrator magenta. So somehow it got switched back to a process color instead of spot, but knowing that versaworks doesn't like gradients/transparencies is going to be useful in the future I'm sure.

Are your cutlines on the upper most layer?

Is your swatch named CutContour?

Was it saved as a Spot Color?

Is the line .25 points with a 1 limit?

If saving as an .eps, did you select "high resolution print" in the secondary dialogue box that pops up?

Yes to all that except I'm not sure if "high resolution print" was selected when saving my .eps