Loading LOTS of files into Versaworks?

[ashleighfiddler]

Hi folks! Hoping someone can help me out with what I feel should be a fairly simple thing but it's stumping me. I'm trying to produce art for 300+ apartment unit numbers that will be reverse printed and applied 2nd surface. I've done a lot of digital printing but never had a job using this many individual files so i'm not sure the best way to handle this.

I sent a multi-page PDF but the printer says it 'isn't working" - says things are appearing as black squares when he loads the PDF. I batch-autosaved the files as cmyk jpg files and combined them in Acrobat into several PDFs since versaworks will import all pages of a multipage file. I can send good individual files but he will have to load them 1 by 1 which will take forever.

Is there a way to load a whole lot of files at a time without selecting them one by one? Or is there a more efficient way to package & RIP these that I'm not aware of?

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

Not sure if versaworks has this feature but.... in flexi you can create your one design. and then auto serialize the different numbers or letters. Create a couple different batches. Rasterize all of them together as one image. Send him that file. YOu will have to preset it up for his printer though.

 

[oksigns]

Versaworks does do variable data; however, you are hitting the limits of Versaworks. You can gang projects together in advance if the workflow is the same or just do multipage PDFs

 

[ashleighfiddler]

i used variable data in illustrator to create all the files already. placing them all together is what i'm going for- my question i guess pertains to placing all those files into a single document that's print-ready.

Is there a way to automate the imposition in Flexi or illustrator to create the print file?

Or is there other software the pros use? I can't fathom that jobs like this are done individually by hand each time.

 

[oksigns]

depending on what your workflow is like in regards to batching similar jobs and the software you have at hand, you ought to just combine pdfs in to a single PDFs and let versaworks take it from there. I mean, ideally, all these projects are similar dimensions, but will work and can cut as expected. If you have acrobat pro, you can just batch select a mess of files and generate one pdf. Yes, it can take awhile to rip, but you don't have to touch each and every file.

 

[Mike F]

Go into Windows Explorer and open the folder the files are in, ctrl+a to select all, then drag and drop right into the Versaworks queue.

 

[Baz]

I would set all of the signs in one file (or more depending on how much material the job takes).

Print them all, cut them all through one file in the job list.

For small signs like that i would set up an area of 6'x4'

 

[Malkin]

Go into Windows Explorer and open the folder the files are in, ctrl+a to select all, then drag and drop right into the Versaworks queue.

This for loading multiple files.

Also, I think Versaworks limit for multipage PDF's is similar to it's limit on copies: 250
Try making PDF's with 250 or less pages...

 

[ashleighfiddler]

Yeah, that's what I already did created a multipage PDF... but it's quote-unquote "not working" per the printer... just thought there might be another method i'm not familar with.

depending on what your workflow is like in regards to batching similar jobs and the software you have at hand, you ought to just combine pdfs in to a single PDFs and let versaworks take it from there. I mean, ideally, all these projects are similar dimensions, but will work and can cut as expected. If you have acrobat pro, you can just batch select a mess of files and generate one pdf. Yes, it can take awhile to rip, but you don't have to touch each and every file.