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Summa + Manual barcodes

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ikarasu

Active Member
So I ran into my first snag with Summa -

One of our workflows is setting up 20-30 different Label files with barcodes... then we print the barcoded files, usually 10ish rolls at a time with however many of each # we need, then load them into our graphtec and run it as a cut. The files never change, so we do it this way to keep the length under 10 FT.


I can't seem to find a way in Goproduce to manually add barcodes in illustrator... I can have onyx print them, but I'd prefer them to be in the files so onyx doesn't make 1 big 150 FT file (I know I can set the length of onyx prints to 10 FT, but hoping not to have to do that).

Does Summa provide any software, whether its an illustrator plugin or not that will put the barcode right in the pdf? Or does Summa handle it through rip only?
 
balstestrat

balstestrat

Problem Solver
Summa doesn't provide any manual way for barcode.
Someone was offering a illustrator plugin here on forum, that's the route if you want that.
 
I

ikarasu

Active Member
Do you happen to remember who was offering it or where the thread was? Search can't seem to find anything, been through 20-30ish of the top threads when searching.


Its funny .. the goproduce software is so customizable and advanced, then the illustrator plugin summa provides is very basic.... Pretty much only throws fiducials on the sides and front and back, and thats it. No option to do inside fiducials or modify it in any other way.... It's simple enough that I dont even need to use the plugin, can just throw my own fiducials in via illustrator and the software reads it.
 
I

ikarasu

Active Member
Thanks guys!

$200 for the plugin isn't bad... the OP's one seems very basic, just generates a barcode and doesn't place it in a spot. The video at the bottom seems better -


Posting here incase someone else googles or stumbles on this thread...


Looks like this one places it in the correct spot, as well as generates the registration marks, seems worth it

[Edit] I only need to do it to like 20-30 files. I might screw around and get onyx to print to PDF, let it generate the barcode... Then just manually copy it from illustrator, depending on how much the second plugin is. For $200 or under it's not too bad of a price to pay though.
 
Last edited:
I

ikarasu

Active Member
balstestrat said:
Not really. Barcode is the same but marks by default are different type.
Click to expand...
They can both read the same marks if you change it though, cant they? Part of their whole twin workflow thing.

I could care less if they're square or circles, so long as it works
 
C

CanuckSigns

Active Member
ikarasu said:
So I ran into my first snag with Summa -

One of our workflows is setting up 20-30 different Label files with barcodes... then we print the barcoded files, usually 10ish rolls at a time with however many of each # we need, then load them into our graphtec and run it as a cut. The files never change, so we do it this way to keep the length under 10 FT.


I can't seem to find a way in Goproduce to manually add barcodes in illustrator... I can have onyx print them, but I'd prefer them to be in the files so onyx doesn't make 1 big 150 FT file (I know I can set the length of onyx prints to 10 FT, but hoping not to have to do that).

Does Summa provide any software, whether its an illustrator plugin or not that will put the barcode right in the pdf? Or does Summa handle it through rip only
Click to expand...
As far as I know, there is no native way to do this with any summa plug-in.

I have to ask though, why not just set your page length in onyx to 10' and let onyx handle it? Is there some benefit to doing it manually I'm not seeing? Onyx will do this with 3 clicks of the mouse.
 
balstestrat

balstestrat

Problem Solver
ikarasu said:
They can both read the same marks if you change it though, cant they? Part of their whole twin workflow thing.

I could care less if they're square or circles, so long as it works
Click to expand...
No because only camera can do round ones and it has to be used with Gosign and paid pro pack. Otherwise it's always square marks on roll cutters.
Flatbed is more flexible.
 
I

ikarasu

Active Member
CanuckSigns said:
As far as I know, there is no native way to do this with any summa plug-in.

I have to ask though, why not just set your page length in onyx to 10' and let onyx handle it? Is there some benefit to doing it manually I'm not seeing? Onyx will do this with 3 clicks of the mouse.
Click to expand...
Long explanation coming! Were doing a range of 1" x 3" decals, .5" decals, 3" decals, probably 10 different "setups" over 40 or so different decals. We kiss cut them over night with the roll up option, then perf cut them into sheets during regular work hours, then Sheer them down.

Doing it via onyx and 10 ft panels we have to disable the perf cut on 15+ files in cut server and manually send them over.... Do the kiss cut, then disable the kiss and re-enable the perf and resend and hope we didn't miss one. Not the end of the world, but a pain, and more potential for screw ups.


With graphtec we have a kiss cut usb and a perf cut usb. All 10 template cuts (for all 40 different decals) / barcodes are on each usb. So we can print xx copies of each decal, and we just put the kiss cut usb in and hit barcode.... No worrying about disabling perf cuts, etc.

I'd like to use the summa the same way - do all kiss cutting overnight, as it takes 5-6 hours to kiss cut, if not longer when it's smaller 1" labels.... And only 5 mins to perf cut a roll into sheets.... Weed away the "matrix", then sheet cut them in stacks of 50. So it ends up not tying our machine up for weeks at a time when We're doing 30+ rolls of labels.


This customer is very specific, can't print on our roll label printer as they have to be stacked in 50s, on a specific material, with a .2" border weeded out around the decal so they can weed the decal easy, etc. perf cutting them out is slow, not just in the cutting portion but also counting and packing into 50s. Much easier to cut into sheets... Stack them in 50, and sheer cut them... Then they just go into a baggy in groups.

Its a weird set of steps, and very specific to what we do. But it works great, and tying the machine up overnight vs tying a person up while the machine kiss cuts then perf cuts is a much better use of resources for us. So ideally I'd like to find a way to have a kiss cut Fidler and a perf cut folder.... And so far it looks like the only way is the custom illustrator addon.


For 99% of our stuff we run it through onyx no issues. Just makes more sense for this one customer, and the thousands of times were repeating their labels to spend the extra time pre-setting up the files to run it through this work flow.
 
I

ikarasu

Active Member
balstestrat said:
No because only camera can do round ones and it has to be used with Gosign and paid pro pack. Otherwise it's always square marks on roll cutters.
Flatbed is more flexible.
Click to expand...
Good to know. We plan on getting the summa with camera eventually for the roll cutter to work with our flatbed once we get rid of our graphtec.... If I can figure a way to use the same workflow as we currently do with our graphtec, otherwise might need to keep the graphtec around for awhile longer.
 
I

ikarasu

Active Member
Here's an example. These are .5" x .5" squares.... There's a few hundred thousand of them. Its going to take 20-30' minutes to kiss cut a bed worth.... So rather than have an operator stand here and waste hours watching it kiss cut so he can grab the perf cut sheets off.... Its much easier to send all the kiss cut through roll to roll option, the. Swap the roll back to the back end and perf cut.


With onyx that means printing 15x 10 ft segments, clicking each one to turn perf off.... Sending just the kiss cut, then going back and turning kiss off and sending just the perf cut.

If I get barcodes working in the pdf file.... I waste an inch between each 4-5 ft for a new barcode, but I can setup a kiss cut action pointed to a folder with all the kiss cut files, and a perf cut action pointed to a folder with all the perf cut files.

It'll get us an extra roll of cutting per day since we can do it at night time, and won't tie up our machine.


I started to make my own illustrator addon because I don't like the 2 plugins, they're also basic. If I get it working.... I may integrate it into the summa plugin, or just make it its own plugin... Then I'll share it without charging hundreds like those guys.

We just got our take up reel installed so the printers busy doing its first roll to roll test, but I'll play around with it next week and see if I can come up with something. So far I got it to generate the barcodes and place it in the far corner in illustrator... Should be easy enough to get it to generate a line, then I just need to figure out how it's differentiating from front and back with the barcode... But shouldn't be too hard.
 

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I

ikarasu

Active Member
balstestrat said:
You can see from the codes. On the numbering one is always either 6 or 9 depending which way it is.
Click to expand...
Finally got past 10 ft of kiss cutting these tiny decals....

I'm generating summa marks with onyx, looks like onyx did the front barcode as
35521116230... The back decal is 35521116235. And the filename onyx generates is "0KUHGMZ24BQ_03552112623"

When I manually grabbed files I always wondered why the last digit was missing... I'm guessing the last digit is the way onyx dictates if its mirrored or not.

The scripts need winplot to generate the file - so my plan was to put a barcode on the front and a diff barcode on the back, then just save 2 files.... A bit more work, but once I do it to 40ish files I'll probably never have to do it again.
 
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