DrunknMonk
New Member
Has anyone moved from Onyx to Caldera RIP, if so did you have any problems, HP 365 printer, Summa S2 roll to roll, & flatbed cutter, is what im using.
-
I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...
Moving from Onyx 21 to Caldera RIP
- Thread starter DrunknMonk
- Start date
balstestrat
Problem Solver
You know you will end up spending a pretty penny doing that move.
What's your reason?
What's your reason?
DrunknMonk
New Member
the main reason is, tru nesting & adding bleed to cut files on irregular shaped artworks.
balstestrat
Problem Solver
Both Onyx and Caldera would much rather sell you their nesting software than the RIP to tackle those challenges.
DrunknMonk
New Member
I don't believe Onyx has that option, TruFit will nest but I don't think it will add bleed for doing contour cutting, that's why Im thinking of moving to Caldera.
balstestrat
Problem Solver
I think it does have it.
Anyway get the 30day Demo for whatever you are most interested in. Caldera has pretty different workflow and I've seen people going both ways from caldera to Onyx and vice versa.
You can also use Prime center with Onyx. Doesn't have to be caldera.
FrankW
New Member
Caldera does a kind of true shape nesting (is named "contour nesting") as a standard feature, without additional costs. And a Caldera Softrip for a small or midrange printer like a Latex 365 is not neccessarily more expensive than an onyx postershop. And Caldera, in opposite to onyx, allows manual nesting too in the main app. I like Onyx, but I like Caldera too.
balstestrat
Problem Solver
Yeah I know, it does the 90° turns. You forgot he also has flatbed cutter.
Pauly
Printrade.com.au
have you tried trufit?
it's just Tilla labs Griffin but watered down.
pretty sure it can offset paths etc.
tulsagraphics
New Member
60 day demo... or longer if you ask for it. Mine was 120 days before I finally purchased it.
DrunknMonk
New Member
do you find any problems with it ?
tulsagraphics
New Member
I haven't used Onyx before so I can't give you any comparison there -- just pointing out that you can get extended demo time with Caldera if you ask them (which I think is necessary for RIP software because it's hard to fully test such an application when you've already got a busy schedule -- especially if you're going to set up custom profiles, workflows and other functionality where the product really shines).
FWIW - I also have Wasatch and Flexi Pro, but do all of my printing with Caldera VisualRIP.
Caldera's features are really good, and it has some nice automated workflow functions (nothing fancy, but definitely helpful). For "fancy" automation you have to jump into their PrimeCenter app/service). VIsualRIP is the best RIP I've ever used, and it has features that I couldn't find elsewhere when I switched over to it. My complaints with it would be the same ones I'd have with any other RIP software. Price and learning curve. RIP software is expensive. I also tried using PrimeCenter (their automation product), which I would love to use, but I'm a one-man shop and don't have enough volume (the type that benefits from large automated runs) to justify the extra expense.
greysquirrel
New Member
Im not sure the juice will be worth the squeeze; especially if you are comfortable in Onyx. You absolutely can use onyx to create automatic cut boxes on pdf's and add bleed. I believe if you have a custom shape file with a cut file you can also add bleed to that. I'll try to confirm. But TruFit from Onyx would be a solution for tru shape nesting. Again, you need to be running a boatload of material to justify a rip move IMO for this issue alone. For the learning curve, time and cost I would need a whole lot more reasons then to save a few pennies on on vinyl.
DrunknMonk
New Member
(Onyx Thrive) you can add cut boxes and bleed but not to irregular shapes, the trufit trial ive used works great for nesting it won't do bleed, its not worth £1800 (uk money) its not just about saving materials, which are cheap, labour is very expensive so Its more about that than the materials, we had a job in last week that needed the designer to spend all day, adding bleed and cutting paths (55 jobs) with wages / taxes it cost me approx £100 for the day, so you do this once a month that's £1200 a year, so you reduce your time and materials with Caldera and maybe save £600 a year, I paid £3200 for Onyx in 2015, done 3 updates @ £1200 each, bought the grand format for cutting £1200 that £8k, I can buy Caldera all in for £2800, so Im saving say £600 a year in time (just on that one job) 4.5 years its paid for its self, that's my way of thinking but not sure its the correct way, been in the job 26 years and open to new ways
Pauly
Printrade.com.au
Saving $600 a year doesn't sound worth it to me.(Onyx Thrive) you can add cut boxes and bleed but not to irregular shapes, the trufit trial ive used works great for nesting it won't do bleed, its not worth £1800 (uk money) its not just about saving materials, which are cheap, labour is very expensive so Its more about that than the materials, we had a job in last week that needed the designer to spend all day, adding bleed and cutting paths (55 jobs) with wages / taxes it cost me approx £100 for the day, so you do this once a month that's £1200 a year, so you reduce your time and materials with Caldera and maybe save £600 a year, I paid £3200 for Onyx in 2015, done 3 updates @ £1200 each, bought the grand format for cutting £1200 that £8k, I can buy Caldera all in for £2800, so Im saving say £600 a year in time (just on that one job) 4.5 years its paid for its self, that's my way of thinking but not sure its the correct way, been in the job 26 years and open to new ways
You also are not factoring in learning to use the software. That will slow your production down till your prepress has a full understanding of it.
Also it run on Linux or macOS, not windows. Have you factored in either a New RIP PC (Mac)? or running you current RIP PC on Linux?
You pay your designer $100 for a days worth of labor? No wonder they take a whole day to add bleed / cut path to 55 jobs...
Asuming its vectors (Even if not) You can create an Action in illustrator to do it automatically at the press of a button. A few sanity checks/zooms to make sure it didnt mess up, and it shouldnt take more than 1-2 mins per file, unless its super complex.
DrunknMonk
New Member
the £600 a year was a rough guess on that one job, I would be more once we got use to the RIP, we can run it on the windows 7 PC, the RIP guy said he would install Linux on it so no other costs, Im still not sure I want to do this, thats why I asked on here for other peoples thoughts.
DrunknMonk
New Member
I don''t pay my designer, I don't have one thats one of my many hatsYou pay your designer $100 for a days worth of labor? No wonder they take a whole day to add bleed / cut path to 55 jobs...
Asuming its vectors (Even if not) You can create an Action in illustrator to do it automatically at the press of a button. A few sanity checks/zooms to make sure it didnt mess up, and it shouldnt take more than 1-2 mins per file, unless its super complex.
but a Designer would want £500 (UK money) per week minimum a good one would want more like £600/700 per week, and I don't have enough work for that, Ive had ago with actions before never managed to get them to work properly, thanks for your input though.Graphic Extremes
Knows To Little
I use actions all the time for everything.