Mimaki/FineCut - Decrease Space Between Marks

[wrkalot]

This is a carry over from my last thread.

So, I am printing some stickers in batches and coming to back to cut later (no laminate). So, 4" round stickers at about 5' per batch. When I go to cut I get the first batch to cut it's fine but on the second one it fails to find the mark. It's like the marks are too far apart. It looks for the first one in the next batch but can't find it.

Is there a way to get these marks closer together?

 

[Zoogee World]

I haven't done exactly as you are doing because I only have printer/cutters, but it might be easier for your plotter to cut a single sheet at a time. I believe you can tell your printer to cut the sheet after output, so that each sheet for the plotter would be 5', I know it's more loading, but it might be the easiest way for a beginner. This is all my opinion though.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

I haven't done exactly as you are doing because I only have printer/cutters, but it might be easier for your plotter to cut a single sheet at a time. I believe you can tell your printer to cut the sheet after output, so that each sheet for the plotter would be 5', I know it's more loading, but it might be the easiest way for a beginner. This is all my opinion though.

There's no way. You'd have to do with detection and wait for it to set the pinch rollers for on every sheet. Worst case is that you'll have to do crop mark detect on each group, not a real big deal

 

[ewded]

but but why did you print the cutline???

 

[wrkalot]

but but why did you print the cutline???

I didn't. These are already cut. Pic is just for reference.

 

[Solventinkjet]

I was thinking about this yesterday because I know I have a customer who does this exact type of workflow everyday with no issues and was wondering why two of you have the same issue. One thing that might be the difference is that I don't train my customers to use Finecut almost ever. To me it seems much simpler to make a spot color CutContour for the cut line and open it directly in Rasterlink. Then I setup the copies and layout etc. Then I send the print only, laminate, reload, set the registration mark reader, and then send the cut only job over. All in Rasterlink. Have you tried that?

 

[Notarealsignguy]

I was thinking about this yesterday because I know I have a customer who does this exact type of workflow everyday with no issues and was wondering why two of you have the same issue. One thing that might be the difference is that I don't train my customers to use Finecut almost ever. To me it seems much simpler to make a spot color CutContour for the cut line and open it directly in Rasterlink. Then I setup the copies and layout etc. Then I send the print only, laminate, reload, set the registration mark reader, and then send the cut only job over. All in Rasterlink. Have you tried that?

I don't use Finecut either, I export it as pdf to rasterlink

 

[Saturn]

I tried Googling to see if there was a Rasterlink option and couldn't find anything either. On a Summa it would require setting the "recut offset" to whatever distance the regmarks are between jobs, but I just can't find anything about cutting identical jobs in Rasterlink.

I'd be tempted to just print them as individual 4'-5' sheets and power through it. It's not that huge of a job that I'd want to fuss too long, even if there was potential for great time and material savings. Unlaminated you should be making pretty okay money.

I think what ewded is referring to is your sheet looks like the client delivered it with their anticipated magenta cut line in the art file, but your designer assumed it was part of the design and just moved the actual cut line out beyond it. My gut is be telling me that you should be cutting on the magenta line, not printing it. I receive files that looks exactly like this all the time. I've also heard feedback from customers about how the last shop printed their cut lines...

 

[wrkalot]

I tried Googling to see if there was a Rasterlink option and couldn't find anything either. On a Summa it would require setting the "recut offset" to whatever distance the regmarks are between jobs, but I just can't find anything about cutting identical jobs in Rasterlink.

I'd be tempted to just print them as individual 4'-5' sheets and power through it. It's not that huge of a job that I'd want to fuss too long, even if there was potential for great time and material savings. Unlaminated you should be making pretty okay money.

I think what ewded is referring to is your sheet looks like the client delivered it with their anticipated magenta cut line in the art file, but your designer assumed it was part of the design and just moved the actual cut line out beyond it. My gut is be telling me that you should be cutting on the magenta line, not printing it. I receive files that looks exactly like this all the time. I've also heard feedback from customers about how the last shop printed their cut lines...

This client know nothing. The magenta is part of the design (confirmed)

I think you are right. I'll stick with 4-5' sheets.

 

[Saturn]

I think you are right. I'll stick with 4-5' sheets.

This is how I did everything until I had enough work to warrant nailing down a barcode and roll-to-roll workflow.

People scoff at doing mere stickers versus more expensive signage, but there's a lot of money to be made once the process is streamlined.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

This client know nothing. The magenta is part of the design (confirmed)

I think you are right. I'll stick with 4-5' sheets.

You could push it more than 4', we get accurate cuts over 6-8' especially if it's coming off of a roll. There's no border either so a little skew wont be very noticeable.
After you cut, the takeup reel doesnt roll it all of the way up. Hit end to go to the next crop mark, it will start up again and once the slack is out, do the crop mark detect and start cutting the next group.

 

[Solventinkjet]

This one's been bugging me because I know I've seen it work before so I did some tinkering and I figured it out. What I did was make an Illustrator file the width of my material and how long I was willing to go, stepped and repeated the graphic to fill the area, used FineCut to add the registration marks, sent the file to Rasterlink using the FineCut send to Rasterlink button, and once it was in Rasterlink I could make copies of that file, print, remove the vinyl, re-load, set the mark sensor, and then send the cut only job from Rasterlink. It worked perfectly. It's more work but might be worth it on larger jobs.

I also called Mimaki and asked if it's possible to do it the Execution method I mentioned above but they said no so not sure where I picked that up. Hope that helps!

 

[Notarealsignguy]

This one's been bugging me because I know I've seen it work before so I did some tinkering and I figured it out. What I did was make an Illustrator file the width of my material and how long I was willing to go, stepped and repeated the graphic to fill the area, used FineCut to add the registration marks, sent the file to Rasterlink using the FineCut send to Rasterlink button, and once it was in Rasterlink I could make copies of that file, print, remove the vinyl, re-load, set the mark sensor, and then send the cut only job from Rasterlink. It worked perfectly. It's more work but might be worth it on larger jobs.

I also called Mimaki and asked if it's possible to do it the Execution method I mentioned above but they said no so not sure where I picked that up. Hope that helps!

That's way over my head. Rasterlink will do the crop mark search in multiples, the problem is the spacing between prints is a little too much and it doesn't catch it. Mine did it 1 time, not sure how but I forgot to change execution to 1 on the cut (like always) and it cut twice. I'd bet there's a way, I just don't know what it is.

 

[ewded]

Yes you did, noticed and reprinted. Didn't you?

I didn't. These are already cut. Pic is just for reference

 

[wrkalot]

This one's been bugging me because I know I've seen it work before so I did some tinkering and I figured it out. What I did was make an Illustrator file the width of my material and how long I was willing to go, stepped and repeated the graphic to fill the area, used FineCut to add the registration marks, sent the file to Rasterlink using the FineCut send to Rasterlink button, and once it was in Rasterlink I could make copies of that file, print, remove the vinyl, re-load, set the mark sensor, and then send the cut only job from Rasterlink. It worked perfectly. It's more work but might be worth it on larger jobs.

I also called Mimaki and asked if it's possible to do it the Execution method I mentioned above but they said no so not sure where I picked that up. Hope that helps!

I think I can see how this might work. Set up the file in AI with an art board the width of the media and the length you want to print, repeat the art to fill the artboard, send to rasterlink, set the mark to individual instead of whole, print multiple copies, come back and cut?

 

[ChicagoGraphics]

This is a carry over from my last thread.

So, I am printing some stickers in batches and coming to back to cut later (no laminate). So, 4" round stickers at about 5' per batch. When I go to cut I get the first batch to cut it's fine but on the second one it fails to find the mark. It's like the marks are too far apart. It looks for the first one in the next batch but can't find it.

Is there a way to get these marks closer together?

You need to put how many copies your sending to the cutter

 

[Solventinkjet]

I think I can see how this might work. Set up the file in AI with an art board the width of the media and the length you want to print, repeat the art to fill the artboard, send to rasterlink, set the mark to individual instead of whole, print multiple copies, come back and cut?

You have to add the crop marks in Illustrator using FineCut. Otherwise it won't let you have two groups surrounded by crop marks. So exactly like you said except you just need to add the crop marks in Illustrator.

 

[wrkalot]

You have to add the crop marks in Illustrator using FineCut. Otherwise it won't let you have two groups surrounded by crop marks. So exactly like you said except you just need to add the crop marks in Illustrator.

Well, sumbitch. It worked! Thank you!!!

 

[wrkalot]

Notarealsignguy This worked for me.

1) Create an art board in illustrator the size you want to print. Say, 54" w x 36"h.
2) Duplicate your image to fill the art board.
3) Create your marks in AI using Finecut
4) Send to Rasterlink
5) Print as many copies that you need. Lets say 6.
6) Laminate
7) Put back in the machine and find your first mark.
8 ) When you go to cut, do not increase the copy amount. Go to the Execution tab and set the amount of times you want it to execute the cut. 6 in this case. So one copy of the cut, executed 6 number of times.

When printing I set the feed space to .25" so the marks are closer together. Presto!

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Where is feed space? Is that in finecut? I have never tried to use that