Print and cut layouts (Mimaki printer to Graphtec cutter)

[Goatshaver]

Now I've got my UCJV running and have started to use it. I forgot how incredibly slow print and cut machines are with cutting. (I printed small labels with a perforation line, print area was approx 48" x 23") Took 15mins to print and 25mins to cut. Not very ideal for production in the cutting realm, the printing is what it is, but if I'm cutting on my UCJV I'm not printing which means slower production.
I know I can setup my print and cut in Illustrator but doing larger layouts seems very tedious for stepping and repeating lots of items. Until Onyx supports the UCJV330 and I can print on my Mimaki and then cut on my Graphtec, I'll have to use Rasterlink and or other methods to get what I want. For instance for 1.5" round circles I'll have my art file with the cut on it. I'll place that AI file into a PDF say 8" x 8" with 25up and then step out those 8x8 sheets in Onyx, that way I have boxes with outlines I can easily cut out by hand on a table after the plotter has cut the circles.

I know I can use the transform tool to step items out and I think there is a grid tool that does something similar. I'm just trying to make it efficient and not sure if there are layout plugins that aid with setting up layouts for print and cut.

So I'm wondering how everyone handles these thing with layouts? (IE print on my UCJV and cut on my Graphtec)

(I'm probably overthinking it but, I'm just stuck on it because I've never had to do it this way before)

 

[Solventinkjet]

Have you tried using the copies function in Rasterlink? You can just design one sticker, save it as a PDF, send it to Rasterlink, tell it how many you want to print and cut, it will nest them for you and you can choose the spacing etc. and there's an option to add a cut line which would make it easy to cut out by hand just like you do in Onyx. Or maybe I'm not understanding the process you're trying to accomplish.

 

[Goatshaver]

Have you tried using the copies function in Rasterlink? You can just design one sticker, save it as a PDF, send it to Rasterlink, tell it how many you want to print and cut, it will nest them for you and you can choose the spacing etc. and there's an option to add a cut line which would make it easy to cut out by hand just like you do in Onyx. Or maybe I'm not understanding the process you're trying to accomplish.

I have not tried that function. I want to be able to print a layout on my UCJV and then cut on my graphtec, but in order to do that I need to use cut master and apply Graphtec reg marks. I wasn't clear enough in my OP.

 

[Solventinkjet]

I have not tried that function. I want to be able to print a layout on my UCJV and then cut on my graphtec, but in order to do that I need to use cut master and apply Graphtec reg marks. I wasn't clear enough in my OP.

Oh gotcha. Yeah that complicates things. Rasterlink won't let you put those marks on for sure. Hopefully someone has a macro or plug-in they use that they can recommend!

 

[Adam Vreeke]

For setting up. Once you have 1 piece created, change your artboard size to what you want (Shift + O). Select everything on the 1 piece, hold Alt + Shift and drag over with whatever margin you want. The second piece is now selected, while selected hit Ctrl + D, this transforms the piece (the move you just did) again. Spam Ctrl + D until your row is full. Select the full row and Alt + Shift click and drag to move the next row. Ctrl + D to fill out your columns, start to finish should only take 1 minute. Make your bounding box and make your graphtec marks wherever you need them. Process Should take no more than 2 minutes per setup.

Just be sure to unlock your graphtec mark layer after creating them if you want them copied over.

EDIT** By select everything, this also means the cutline as well, too many times I have done this whole process without selecting the cutline.

 

[Goatshaver]

For setting up. Once you have 1 piece created, change your artboard size to what you want (Shift + O). Select everything on the 1 piece, hold Alt + Shift and drag over with whatever margin you want. The second piece is now selected, while selected hit Ctrl + D, this transforms the piece (the move you just did) again. Spam Ctrl + D until your row is full. Select the full row and Alt + Shift click and drag to move the next row. Ctrl + D to fill out your columns, start to finish should only take 1 minute. Make your bounding box and make your graphtec marks wherever you need them. Process Should take no more than 2 minutes per setup.

Just be sure to unlock your graphtec mark layer after creating them if you want them copied over.

EDIT** By select everything, this also means the cutline as well, too many times I have done this whole process without selecting the cutline.

Yeah I totally understand this.

I think I don't like this way because of how Graphtec reads the files. Generally I'll setup my file, say a 2" circle sticker. I save an AI file with the art and cut layers and then place that into a stepped out sheets (says sheets of 25up) then I'll repeat those in Onyx for layout. However Cut master cannot read through all the layers like other rips, etc...so I have to step out the raw file and feel like there is greater chance for something to get shifted like the cut shifting slightly from the artwork. That way when I'm finished cutting the circles I've got neat sheets of 25up with boxes around each for me to cut out on my table by hand. Hope this makes sense.

I forget how nice it is to use Onyx and have barcodes and such so easy to setup.

 

[Goatshaver]

I still have yet to find a decent solution to this. This is how I generally handle my files through Onyx. Place said artwork with cutlines into a new file, say 8.5" x 11", step it out to make a sheet of 20up of the label. Save that PDF and then step that out to whatever my order is for, 1000 labels would be 50 sheets of 20up. However Cut master cannot read cut lines in placed files. I generally don't like stepping the original artwork as there is a greater chance for something to move or shift doing that. When stepping a placed files, that chance is very slim.

I'm hoping they drop the Onyx update to support the UCJV330 soon so I can start using that with my Onyx workflow.

 

[Goatshaver]

Still looking for a layout solution. I've been setting up a sheet of 56 stickers to print and cut and it takes about 30-40mins just to setup the layout. Every time I go to step anything out it takes 5-10mins for it to process. This is very unproductive and I can't see anyone doing this daily. I could turn it all into raster graphics but that defeats the purpose of using vector artwork.

Contemplating trying Flexi since I can't see Onyx supporting the UCJV330 anytime in the near future.
If there is anyone using Flexi with a UCJV330 please let me know how you like it.