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

Warmoth

Warmoth

New Member
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.
 
B

BigNate

New Member
... 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

Warmoth

New Member
BigNate said:
... 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!)
Click to expand...
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!
 
White Haus

White Haus

Not a Newbie
victor bogdanov said:
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
Click to expand...

Agreed, VW is actually amazing for a free, OEM RIP platform. Very easy to use and just works.

We transitioned from a 100% Roland/VW shop to running everything through Onyx a few years back. It is a big step and I understand the confusion/frustration, but once you get it you'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner.

Like Victor said, it allows you to print on ANY device and then cut on ANY other device. No other software, no complicated workflows etc.

My only warning/complaint is that I've never been able to actually run a cut only job out of Onyx CutServer. They have some sort of nonsense workflow with SVG files and it just never works. Why they can't just work around PDF files like everything else I'm not sure, but I digress. Not sure how much cut only jobs you're running on your Graphtecs but that might be something that you continue to do with Cutting Master.

Yes, it is expensive. But it is a whole other level of automation and tools that free software just doesn't offer. If you haven't yet, ask them to give you a live demo where you can ask all the questions.

I have no experience with Caldera although you don't see a lot of complaints around here about it. I'm assuming it is more expensive/better than Onyx based on the comments I've read but that's only an assumption. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong regarding pricing vs. Onyx)

I could go on and on about all the features that Onyx has, but they're all listed on their website. Spend a couple of hours watching all their youtube videos where they walk through all the features.

Regarding the ongoing expense...yes, like everything else they will continue you squeeze you until the end of time, unfortunately. Personally I just upgrade every few years when old versions stop being supported or when new major features are released. It's a cost of doing business like everything else, and in the end should (theoretically) improved your shop's efficiency and throughput.
 
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