Onyx not recognising CutContour text layer

So, we do loads of jobs that tend to have unique numbering. This particular job is a run of 400 labels that are essentially two parts, the bottom part is the same throughout all the labels, the top part is a unique strap of text comprising of numbers and letters.

I do the setup part in indesign then export to PDF.

The bottom half has a cut contour round the flattened text and picture. That part is not an issue and is seen properly in onyx as a cut layer.

The top half however, I’ve set up to be merged and is just white text so it’s just an empty fill with a 0.5mm CutContour spot colour stroke (the same one used for the bottom half, that works fine).

The trouble I’m having, is that when I load this into onyx (18.5) it’s only recognising the bottom half of the job as a cut line and actually trying to print the top CutContour line and not recognising it as a cut line at all.

is this a known thing in onyx? All text needs to be flattened before it will recognise it as a cut layer? Assuming the easiest way would be to then flatten the PDF? Anyone else do similar jobs and have a workaround?

 

I believe if you have between a 0.1mm and 1mm stroke set to the centre then it works as intended with no double cut - has worked for me for a year or so since switching to onyx - perhaps that’s a terminology thing? I know not to convert strokes to outlines or you’ll get the double cut either side of the line.

I’ve actually just found the issue, the other designer filled the text with a white fill in order for it to work for a mock up. That must be where the problems arose, I have since set the white fill to none, then re-merged as is and it’s now working properly.

when I opened the white fill PDF in illustrator it showed the text color and stroke colour as “?”. When I merged it with the fill set to “none” and opened in illustrator, everything was working as it should be. Solved!