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Summa Cutter and ONYX Cut Server Assist. Cutting off center

MithosTheHero

New Member
I have ONYX X10 and a Summa D75. Everything had been working fine for a while after we got it up and running. But as of late its been acting strangely. If I try to cut something using winplot there is no problem at all. It cuts right where the blade is sitting. However if I print someone on my printers (HP 9K or HP L26500, don't matter which) the cut path will be properly set, onyx with detect it and send the cut path off to cut server, but as soon as it starts cutting it will typically cut about 1/16" off to the right and about 1/8" lower. Problem is that this sometime randomly changes so it's a pain to adjust the cut path to make it match up.

Things I've tried:
Reinstalled ONYX
We are using the COM port as our RIP pc is already loaded to the max with USB
Reset cutter to factory defaults
Cleared RIPs caches
Tried to use cutter's offset settings but they don't seem to effect anything at all.

If anyone has experienced this, any help to a solution is so dearly appreciated. This thing still cuts great but this has now become a big PITA.
 

AF

New Member
There is nothing you can do to get it perfect. It is an issue in the way Onyx is coded (the infamous logic error). I spent a month working with Onyx specifically on this issue and in the end they acknowledged the problem and promised to address in a future release. There are forum posts spanning several years regarding the issue, if you do a search you will find there is no resolution. I do not use Onyx specifically because of this issue.

To minimize the effect of the problem, make sure you carefully calibrate your knife on your Summa. This will ensure that your Summa is not introducing its own margin of error. Also, do the length calibration for safe measure. Use larger bleeds than normal to make the results passable. It can help to make sure you have your rip optimized for your media (straightness opt in particular). If you call Summa tech they will also recommend to calibrate OPOS (if your machine is so equipped). This doesn't hurt and may improve results slightly.

The "best" workaround suggested by numerous tech support individuals is to layout your print-and-cut job entirely in Illustrator and then use the Summa menu to add registration marks. Send this file to Onyx and cut in Winplot. I have not tried this since it defeats the point of using a RIP in the first place.

Onyx has a setting called "cut splines", try toggling this on and off. It was suggested by Onyx tech to mess around with this setting. It didn't work for me, but maybe it will for you.

Other RIP software does not have this problem at all (Caldera, Colorgate etc.). Something to consider if the cut issue is costing you a ton of money.

Good luck.
 

MithosTheHero

New Member
Solved.

Apparently machine was setup with 45 degree blades and my CPO and the former print manager bought 60 degree blades and I didn't notice. Morale of story... always check your packaging and your offset :)
 
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