PC-60 issue, need help plz

[Aardy54@54-Design]

Finally hooked up my PC-60 to the new XPS system, pulled up Flexi (Running FlexiSign Pro 7.6v2) grabbed a 3 color design and hit the RIP icon.
It printed fine (a few tiny thread width lines, might be the print offset) but I have it to print and contour - BUT no contour. I did the self test where it prints the ColorCammPro logo then contour cuts...it contour cut fine for that, but not at all on the file I pushed through Flexi

Any ideas on what setting I missed to correct this and get contour cutting working.

Thanks in advance

 

[Sign Works]

Aardy 54, Flexi works great for running the Roland Colorcamms, first make sure you are assigning "Contour Cut" command from the Arrange menu to the desired path that you want to cut, also in the RIP make sure that you are selecting "Send as Hybrid Job" found in Contour Options on the Advanced Tab/Screen. These are the main thinks I can think of off hand as long as you set up Production Manager properly for your paticular device you should be fine. By the way if this is a used machine and youre getting lines/gaps in the print chances are the print head is bad, all it takes to ruin the print head is to not clean it properly after each and every print session.

 

[Aardy54@54-Design]

Thanks much - will try on next trial design I do

 

[Aardy54@54-Design]

Well, so much for that LOL - I mark contour cut in arrange and it kills off all colors of the layout I just did and then only cuts it, no print
I know I gotta be doing something wrong in Flexi but what? Starting to hate this digital printing stuff already and just started today.

 

[Sign Works]

Duplicate the path "Copy & Paste" then apply Contour cut, !! PRESTO !!
One for the fill & a seperate one for the cut.

 

[Aardy54@54-Design]

Ah so it's not a 1 click print and cut thing - 2 separate PM runs - got it. Sometimes my brain comes to visit me, this weekend is not one of those times it seems.

 

[Sign Works]

No not two seperate Production Manager Runs although you can send it twice if you so desire. What I meant is that you need two seperate paths in your layout/artwork/file, one contains the desired fill color and the other has the contour cut command applied to it. These printers are actually quite simple to operate, especially with Flexi Pro, they simply do exactly what you tell them to do, it just takes a while to familiarize yourself with the proper RIP settings & proper artwork file setup. The biggest chalange comes in learning how to achieve above average print quality from these machines time & time again, do not fear it can be done. (I probably should add that I am one out of a hundred that will make this claim, all others state that these printers are no more than a worn out boat anchor or door stop)

 

[Aardy54@54-Design]

make design - make copy of design - contour cut command the copy - overlay the colored design on the contour copy - then RIP ... ???maybe???

Not sure if thats the right way, but by sheer luck it worked LOL - now it's just a matter of getting some refills, couple few extra empty cartridges, and maybe a new print head (just to be sure)

 

[Sign Works]

Do yourself another big favor, use only Roland ribbons all others are pretty much garbage and will give you nothing but trouble and if you do get them to print sucessfully they will fade out much faster than the Roland ribbons. Beacon Graphics has about the best price on the ribbons although I have bought tons of them off e-bay when available.

 

[Aardy54@54-Design]

Will do - so ZeroNine stuff aint good huh? Any particular brand of vinyl to stay away from? Have quite a few different "metalized" type vinyls like chrome, chrome diamond plate, engine turn silver that I'd like to color print on ... thoughts?