Rant Seeing How Everyone Else Uses Flexi

[jayhawksigns]

Just upgraded to 12, had some technical issues that I emailed SAi about, but resolved them in between emails. I ended up getting a call from them and am not kosher with what I was told on the phone. Like to see how everyone uses Flexi from a viewpoint of where do you have the design side of Flexi installed and where is Production Manager installed.

 

[TomK]

We have it mixed, our main machine runs both design and production manager, and design is used heavily on this machine. We also have some laptops and desktops that just have design station on them, but if they need to print/cut, they load it on the main machine and send to prod mgr.

I've sent jobs to the prod mgr before from a design only station without problems.

We also have it setup that all of our files can be accessed from a central location, from any desktop or laptop, including travel laptops if need be (sync'd).

 

[bannertime]

I have my main computer which I work from all day. It runs Photoshop, Illustrator, Flexi 12 Sign & Print w/ PM, Estimate, etc. The owner has a copy of Flexi and will print/cut connecting to my computer's Production Manager. I can't run both PS and AI at the same time as I Rip. So PS is typically closed. I was never able to connect Flexi 7 to the new Production Manager, over the network.

 

[GaSouthpaw]

I wouldn't think older versions (Flexi 7) would be compatible with Flexi 12.
My current employer doesn't use Flexi, but at my previous- it was set up on the C:\ drive (Programs\SaI or something like that). Production Manager was in the same folder. The files were backed up on the server, but there was only on computer running Flexi as the designers worked in Corel. I used Flexi to correct drawings (the designers were notoriously bad at doing accurate sizes), prep files for printing and/or cutting, and prepping CNC nests and files.

 

[spectrum maine]

I have flexi in 1 computer. For design work i use corel. I could never get comfortable designing in flexi. I use it for creating files for my cnc as enroute communicates flawlessly w/ it. I also use it for opening difficult to open files. I cant stand the fact that the newest versions are cloud based only. Consideringi would upgrade if i could use my dongle. My flexi computer & my cnc does not connect to the internet, so i can not upgrade. Oh well flexis loss. When i upgrade my cnc to full 3-d i will probably go another route (vectric or aspire).

 

[fuzzy_cam]

We have two custom desktops and one Mac running Windows. One desktop runs Flexi Pro with a perpetual license and PM, another with Flexi 12 and PM, and the Mac runs Flexi Designer that can send to both machines that have PM with mostly no issues, have had PM crash a couple times during RIP jobs. Both machines with PM can send to both of our Mutoh 1624's, however each computer can send to only one (USB Attached) Q64 plotters. If need be, we can easily transfer the cut file from one machine to the other via the network. All computers run Creative Cloud suite along side Flexi with no issues. We mainly do our designs inside Flexi and use CC for the really heavy design files.

 

[bannertime]

We have two custom desktops and one Mac running Windows. One desktop runs Flexi Pro with a perpetual license and PM, another with Flexi 12 and PM, and the Mac runs Flexi Designer that can send to both machines that have PM with mostly no issues, have had PM crash a couple times during RIP jobs. Both machines with PM can send to both of our Mutoh 1624's, however each computer can send to only one (USB Attached) Q64 plotters. If need be, we can easily transfer the cut file from one machine to the other via the network. All computers run Creative Cloud suite along side Flexi with no issues. We mainly do our designs inside Flexi and use CC for the really heavy design files.

If you connect one of the 64s with the serial port, you'll be able to run both at the same time. It's stupid that the VE driver will only allow one VE USB Port.

I have flexi in 1 computer. For design work i use corel. I could never get comfortable designing in flexi. I use it for creating files for my cnc as enroute communicates flawlessly w/ it. I also use it for opening difficult to open files. I cant stand the fact that the newest versions are cloud based only. Consideringi would upgrade if i could use my dongle. My flexi computer & my cnc does not connect to the internet, so i can not upgrade. Oh well flexis loss. When i upgrade my cnc to full 3-d i will probably go another route (vectric or aspire).

I'm pretty sure if you have the perpetual license it doesn't need to connect to the internet. Only the subscription based ones have to re-download the license every month. There have been times I was disconnected from internet and it still worked without issue, I think.

 

[tulsagraphics]

All design work is done in Adobe Illustrator CC (with a wide array of Astute Graphics and other custom built scripts). Never did like designing in Flexi, even though I've been using Flexi-Pro ever since v7 (now up to v12) -- $4,300 + $600 per upgrade. The interface always felt archaic and limited. I still keep it up to date even though I ONLY use it for cutting vinyl. Flexi does a far better job at nesting / relief cuts / layered registrations than any other app out there. On occasion I will use it for basic lettering jobs if I need specific letter heights for DOTs or something. Printing? Meh. I can create far, far better media profiles in Caldera. (the automated workflow options in Caldera are amazing, and being able to RIP all types of Adobe files without any fear of losing data in the conversion is awesome. Caldera natively supports all major Adobe formats AI/PSD/etc . since it's interpreter is based on Adobe's rendering engine). And occasionally I will use Wasatch, but only for certain medias that I created for it a long time ago (which I haven't bothered to convert over to Caldera yet). As for Flexi printing -- it does okay -- but there are better apps out there for printing, and certainly better apps for designing.

 

[jayhawksigns]

Since a few have responded I figured I should through out my setup as well too.

For as long as I can remember, we have always ran Flexi and PM on separate machines. Reason being? Primarily location. We run a dedicated design station in my office and have another computer running PM in our print room. Also nice not having a big file you are ripping effecting you working on the next project. Since we started doing this it was never a problem, and in the last actually printed manual I have (Flexi 7.5) it even states it as a feature.

So we are upgrading to Flexi 12 (perpetual, never the other option) as well as setting up a new rip computer. I upgraded my design station and installed PM on the new computer and it wouldn't load. Ended up being that I still had the old rip computer still running and PM open. Contacted tech support and ended up getting a call and was told that doing what we do was never a feature, it was a bug and it was fixed in version 12. Well, its now working as I want, and according to my 7.5 manual it was a feature, at least at some point in time.

It apparently looks like my usage case is in the minority at the moment, but for larger shops I don't see someone sitting at the same computer to design that is also running multiple printers and plotters.

 

[myront]

We have a designated pc workstation for our print tech. Uses PM only for all printing needs for 1 printer. All design work is done with CorelDRAW 7 from various pc workstations. We just drop the print files into the shared hot folder and let the print tech sort them as needed. We use Corel with a cut plug in for plotting

 

[GaSouthpaw]

Wait- just so I understand... they're telling you that using a separate station for your PM is a bug? What the blazing #$%^?
Or are they saying you have to buy a key/dongle/whatever for for both stations so you can install the program on one PC and the PM on another?

 

[myront]

GaSouthpaw, not sure if that was in reference to me. We have Flexi on the print workstation but have no need for it. Just PM for holding/sorting printing

 

[jayhawksigns]

Wait- just so I understand... they're telling you that using a separate station for your PM is a bug? What the blazing #$%^?
Or are they saying you have to buy a key/dongle/whatever for for both stations so you can install the program on one PC and the PM on another?

Basically both is was I was told on the phone. But as it has been since v7.5, I am happily running Flexi (design side) on my design station and PM on the rip computer. Honestly, felt like they were just baiting me into buying another FlexiDESIGNER license.

Will say though, their response time to emails to tech support have been phenomenal, one I sent in this morning about another issue ended up being returned with a phone call in under ten minutes.

UPDATE - Just got off the phone with tech support for my second issue and he saw the previous emails and wanted to be sure I got it straightened out. Apparently, the environment where you can't do what I am doing now is coming, eventually.

 

[GaSouthpaw]

I get it now- they want you to pay for a separate seat, even if you're never, ever going to use anything other than the PM on the computer.
I swear, for every improvement Flexi makes, it seems like they screw up five other things. I mean, I get it- from a money-making standpoint, but it's freaking ridiculous from a logical standpoint.

 

[Alphonso]

I have two design computer and one with pm. I just had a conversation to subscribe to flexi and they want me to pay two design station and one full version even if I only need pm on this station. They should sell the pm alone, ripping with a design computer is really not a good idea.

Envoyé de mon LG-H915 en utilisant Tapatalk

 

[fuzzy_cam]

I have two design computer and one with pm. I just had a conversation to subscribe to flexi and they want me to pay two design station and one full version even if I only need pm on this station. They should sell the pm alone, ripping with a design computer is really not a good idea.

Envoyé de mon LG-H915 en utilisant Tapatalk

I (respectfully) disagree. If you have computer you call a design station, it should be more than powerful enough to RIP alongside any designing that you are doing. The PM RIP process is hardest on the CPU over most programs I have ever seen. Of course, this all depends on how intensive the designs are. We sometimes deal with very large illustrator files that (as usual) aren't very friendly with Flexi. We have built two custom PCs (as I mentioned above) that handle heavy, heavy design files along side RIPing files at the same time.

Side note, I have PM set on both machines to RIP a max of 3 files at a time. Anymore, it'll lock up any computer no matter the processor.

Just my two cents. Hope it helps!

 

[Bradley Signs]

Corel for design, LXI for trace and cut.... Lxi is basically Flexi, but way cheaper. All on one computer.

 

[Alphonso]

I (respectfully) disagree. If you have computer you call a design station, it should be more than powerful enough to RIP alongside any designing that you are doing. The PM RIP process is hardest on the CPU over most programs I have ever seen. Of course, this all depends on how intensive the designs are. We sometimes deal with very large illustrator files that (as usual) aren't very friendly with Flexi. We have built two custom PCs (as I mentioned above) that handle heavy, heavy design files along side RIPing files at the same time.

Side note, I have PM set on both machines to RIP a max of 3 files at a time. Anymore, it'll lock up any computer no matter the processor.

Just my two cents. Hope it helps!

Well I prefer the stability of a ripping/printing computer alone, I always had very powerfull computer and I still happen to crash for any reason. When your at 80% of a large print and it crash because of another program it is painful. Also a rip and print computer alone can be operate by other user that can scroll and repeat jobs without having to ask to the guy that have the pm on is station.

Envoyé de mon LG-H915 en utilisant Tapatalk

 

[SightLine]

All design work is done in Adobe Illustrator CC (with a wide array of Astute Graphics and other custom built scripts). Never did like designing in Flexi, even though I've been using Flexi-Pro ever since v7 (now up to v12) -- $4,300 + $600 per upgrade. The interface always felt archaic and limited. I still keep it up to date even though I ONLY use it for cutting vinyl. Flexi does a far better job at nesting / relief cuts / layered registrations than any other app out there. On occasion I will use it for basic lettering jobs if I need specific letter heights for DOTs or something. Printing? Meh. I can create far, far better media profiles in Caldera. (the automated workflow options in Caldera are amazing, and being able to RIP all types of Adobe files without any fear of losing data in the conversion is awesome. Caldera natively supports all major Adobe formats AI/PSD/etc . since it's interpreter is based on Adobe's rendering engine). And occasionally I will use Wasatch, but only for certain medias that I created for it a long time ago (which I haven't bothered to convert over to Caldera yet). As for Flexi printing -- it does okay -- but there are better apps out there for printing, and certainly better apps for designing.

Flexi has for quite a number of versions now (at least since 8) also has Adobe as the native RIP in the background.... Check your task manager while Production Manager is ripping a file and you will see APPE (Adobe PDF Print Engine) running. Works great with native Adobe files. If you take the time and have an i1 you can also create your own custom profiles as well (I have no idea how good Flexi's profile creation system is compared to other brands though).

As far as use - we also have multiple licenses. One full RIP and Print and a few Designer seats. Our Rip and Print is dongle based and one single dedicated machine just runs Production Manager. All the others connect to it over the network to send jobs.