Should we transition to a dedicated RIP (Onyx vs. Caldera)?

[Warmoth]

Looking for opinions on dedicated RIP software like Onyx and Caldera.

Our shop currently runs 5 Roland roll to roll printers, and 6 Graphtec plotters. We like Versaworks (free) and we like Cutting Master (free). We do a lot of print/cut jobs utilizing the Roland/Graphtec combo, and it's great.
I really don't WANT to change anything, but it seems that it will become necessary if we ever decide to get something other than Roland for printing. We're looking into flatbeds and it seems unavoidable.

So far I've only looked closer at Onyx and I honestly have a huge issue with their business model. Subscription, upgrade, upgrade, upgrade, upgrade. You have to pay extra for additional concurrent RIP processes - Seriously? I've reached out to their sales and was told it'd be "In the ballpark of $13k", most of which is a one-time pay, and "There would be an optional annual cost of roughly $1,800 if you would like support, version and driver updates, and a couple of additional subscription features for Thrive".

Coming from the Roland / Versaworks ecosystem (free), I just don't see how that much money makes sense at all. How does it translate? It seems as though everyone has accepted this huge cost - why?

Is Caldera any better? Does anyone feel passionately about recommending we switch to a dedicated RIP? What are we missing out on?!

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[BigNate]

... so are you an amateur or are you a professional? the freebies seem to be best for the amateurs... though occasionally you find a tinkerer who works professionally as a sign maker and wants to tinker with the freebies - Onyx is very good, (so is Flexi). Get a good subscription with enough rips (I have 4 and rarely wish there were more - for as many devices as you have, maybe 6?).

Then once you have Onyx, figure out how many more man-hours you have from the more efficient workflow - then calculate what you had been paying an operator to work without a rip -- I'll bet you gain more time than the $1800 subscription fee.

IF a RIP costs more, then pass the little bit on to the customer.... (if it costs less, just don't tell anyone and let the production worker crank out a few more paying jobs in the same time and take the extra profit to the bank!)

 

[Warmoth]

... so are you an amateur or are you a professional? the freebies seem to be best for the amateurs... though occasionally you find a tinkerer who works professionally as a sign maker and wants to tinker with the freebies - Onyx is very good, (so is Flexi). Get a good subscription with enough rips (I have 4 and rarely wish there were more - for as many devices as you have, maybe 6?).

Then once you have Onyx, figure out how many more man-hours you have from the more efficient workflow - then calculate what you had been paying an operator to work without a rip -- I'll bet you gain more time than the $1800 subscription fee.

IF a RIP costs more, then pass the little bit on to the customer.... (if it costs less, just don't tell anyone and let the production worker crank out a few more paying jobs in the same time and take the extra profit to the bank!)

I'd consider ourselves professionals, we've been at it for over 30 years.

I guess what I'm trying to figure out is how does Onyx affect efficiency? What exactly does Onyx offer? (their website is truly a convoluted vague mess).

It takes like 5 seconds to setup a job using Versaworks. I don't see how it could possibly be any easier or faster than that? I haven't spent time in other shops, so I am very open to enlightenment on this. If we're missing out, I love advice!

 

[victor bogdanov]

What exactly does Onyx offer?

Can run just about any cutter/printer combo.

VersaWorks is very good but can only run Roland equipment.

Get whatever flatbed printer you are looking at and use the recommended/bundled rip for the flatbed and then decide if you want to switch all the printers to that RIP. No need to make the switch ahead of time