Total Garbage!

[K Chez]

I know Flexi is supposed to be the "standard", I worked with it years ago and recently bought another sign company and got Flexi 12 as part of the deal. As same as my past experience, this program is the most unstable, utterly useless piece of garbage ever created. Had issues with not being able to cut to my Mutoh 1300, was online with SAI tech , had to reinstall the complete program to get it to work. Now, a day later, right back in the same boat. Can only leave a message for tech support, so no solution until they get back to me. So far these problems have cost me one account and another who was pissed at the delays caused by said problems who I'm now going to have to put off yet again, so there's a good chance of losing that one too. Beyond frustrated & angry.

 

[papabud]

there are a few programs that are the "standard"
i prefer my onyx
i have used flexi, onyx, wasatch.
there are a list of tools we can use to achieve the same end product.
the trick is finding the combination of tools that works for you. i would never leave myself with only one option.
your in a corner at that point with no way out of something goes wrong.

 

[bannertime]

What's the issue and what was their solution?

 

[CanuckSigns]

why don't you download a trial copy of another program to get you back on your feet until you get this issue sorted out.

 

[K Chez]

The main issue was (and still is) when you try to send a file that was printed to the cutter, is will randomly work. Usually, as soon as you drop the file into the cutter pane, you'll see the progress of it reading the file, but most of the time it will just sit at zero. Also if you abort the job and drag the file back to the holding area, now you can't send it to the cutter or delete it from the list. All these issues went away after the re-install, the computer was not shut down and the program never closed, but now, it's back to the same issues. Funny though that the tech accessed my computer and when we sent the file, it worked, but unfortunately it cut about 90% of a 54" wide x 110" sheet, so it looks like I'll have to cut the rest of a bunch of script & text by hand (real productive). So far, between wasted material, time and lost jobs, I'm in the hole over 3 grand and that not even counting the lost account(s).

I'm a full believer in back up plans, I acquired this equip and software/computer with the purchase of another sign business, and I still have my SP300 & Camm-1, but those are both 30" machines and I had 4 pick up trucks and 2 box trucks worth of stuff printed that I can't cut since it's on 54" material.

 

[GAC05]

Not total garbage but you have to protect yourself at all times. It tends to kick you in the nuts when you're not looking.
What OS are you running it on? I have Flexi 12 running on Win7 and it makes me money but I don't like it at all.
I have negotiated a truce and ask only that it RIP & Print my files. I use the Cutting Master plug-ins from Graphtec to cut out of Illustrator & CorelDraw. This gives me a lot of control and fewer unwanted surprises when I'm down to the wire on a deadline.
One setting that I found makes the PM much more stable is to turn off 'Auto load preview on add job' that is on by default.
When on Flexi would trip and face-plant every time I dropped more than 3 or 4 files into the holding area.

Not sure what else you can do to get it to settle down enough to be usable.
Good luck with this and I hope you find an answer.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[tetonsio]

After many years of working i have blamed all possible software packages and always ended the same. After resetting the whole pc erasing prior installations and reinstalling just the basics, everything is back to normal. A simple file damaged causes those random errors, besides trojans and viruses.

 

[MikePro]

onyx. never an issue.

 

[Printsol]

Onyx + Illy is a way to go. I also had problems with Flexi and even allowed Remote Desktop for Flexi support... to no avail. The only thing I miss about Flexi is a true shape arrangement of the objects.


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[NamPhantasm]

I have Flexi Pro-8 (Really Old and Stable) and Illustrator CC (Current Version), and they both works perfectly ... I make good money with them both.

Sounds like you just need to design in Illustrator CC, and cut with your RIP Software. I am using Roland RIP to print/cut

 

[SightLine]

I'm thinking there is some configuration or some other issue. Us like thousands of others use Flexi every day and really have no issues. I'm not sure what you mean by dropping a file on the cutter pane? When we run print/cut jobs the cut job is sitting in Production Manager in a hold state. When we are ready to cut the job we just right click on the cut job and choose "send". Now that I look though I see that you can drag and drop the files to the output window. Never even tried that before. We print on our Mimaki's and then cut on a Summa cutter. Maybe some cutters drivers are buggier than others? Maybe a hardware problem in the RIP computer like a flaky stick of ram (we use commercial workstations with Xeon processors and ECC memory which eliminates memory glitches) or a weak power supply (a pc can seemingly run okay but have lots of small issues with a failing or poor power supply). Another thing I've learned over the years is the RIP computer should be a dedicated machine. NO general use, no web surfing, no other no unnecessary software, do not even need antivirus on it (as long as its behind a firewall which it should be) if it is a dedicated machine that is not used for web surfing. Ours has Windows, Flexi, machine drivers. Nothing else. Typically I only even reboot the RIP computer a few times a year. I just checked and the current up time is since early October since it has last been rebooted.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

(we use commercial workstations with Xeon processors and ECC memory which eliminates memory glitches)

My main workstation is this and a setup like this, I think can't be recommended strongly enough. Especially since I do a lot of VMing for production (Linux hosts for Windows guests). However, it does even better when everything is on bare metal.

Another thing I've learned over the years is the RIP computer should be a dedicated machine. NO general use, no web surfing, no other no unnecessary software, do not even need antivirus on it (as long as its behind a firewall which it should be) if it is a dedicated machine that is not used for web surfing.

See, I would take it a little further.

Any and all production rigs should not be connected to the internet period. "You" have your general purpose office type machines that deal with outside stuff and all production machines are local only (can be through a LAN, but that's it, no outside communication at all). Given how MS is basically treating their new OS as essentially a rolling release OS in a perpetual state of beta, this is even more important (at least in my tin foil hat covered mind). Especially if running legacy software, as any update can deprecate any service that the legacy program may hinge on.

Given my belief in that, I abhor SaaS type of programs in any shape, form or fashion for business production purposes.

 

[Printsol]

My main workstation is this and a setup like this, I think can't be recommended strongly enough. Especially since I do a lot of VMing for production (Linux hosts for Windows guests). However, it does even better when everything is on bare metal.



See, I would take it a little further.

Any and all production rigs should not be connected to the internet period.

You are damn right here, but anyway this is not a solution.


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[WildWestDesigns]

You are damn right here, but anyway this is not a solution.

It depends on the situation as to if it's a solution or not.

Both are quite possible. It could be a hardware configuration, something may be acting hinky. I've seen my share of memory issues (which led me to the setup I have now and I'm sure Sightline had the same experience or just knew better from the git go).

As to keep it online or offline, it also depends on if this is a multi-purpose machine or not. I have had far better luck with stability in isolated VMs that run nothing but the bare essential of production software (for me that's Adobe CS6, Wilcom, Blender and Krita). Nothing else. When people start adding other things, particularly for for web use, things may get hinky. I've seen it to where an anti-virus did some crazy things to people that use the same digitizing software to where they can strange experiences. This just added even more reason not have things connected.

I'm not saying that this is for sure what's going on, just a possibility.

 

[Printsol]

Too much hassle. Why should I continue using non working Flexi for 59 if I have an opportunity to use all the adobe software for 39? That was a nail in the coffin in my case.


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[ddarlak]

i have used flexisign since early 90's, it has had issues but i have been running flexipro 10 for years flawlessly. I'm thinkin the guy in the mirror is to blame.....

 

[IsItFasst]

I feel your pain but it has been mostly good for me for the last 15 years (started with the Signwarehouse LXI version). I know the software better than other stuff I run so I stick it out when I have issues. But luckily they are few and far between since support does ABSOLUTELY SUCK! If you are lucky enough to get a response from them you better hope it works because if it doesn't they won't have another solution for you. Luckily most of my issue have just been annoyances or I was able to fix the critical stuff myself.

 

[SightLine]

Printsol..... because none of that Adobe software is going to do anything for actually running a wide format printer or cutter. While I defend Flexi, we do very very little actual design work in it. The text tools are pretty nice but other than some basic text layout most anyone knows that any real design work is being done in Adobe (or Corel).

 

[brycesteiner]

I give a huge thumbs up to a virtual machine environment for Flexi! When we bought our Mutoh package, including the Valuejet and Valuecut and Flexi, from Fellers a couple years ago they told us we would have to buy a dedicated computer. it was just after Windows 10 came out and we weren't sure even what the computer would come with.

We purchased a tower computer and installed Flexi on it. It ran terrible. The computer came with windows 7 at the time. We got it to work somewhat, but it was still slow at recognizing roll widths and several other things.

While were able to use it, somewhat slow, we installed windows 7 in a virtual machine (Virtualbox) and then installed Flexi. The host is a 2011 27" iMac and guess what? It's been perfect. The responsiveness is much better than the Dell was. I don't know why it can read the Mutoh so much faster, but it does. It also doesn't take up space that the PC did and it's got VNC on it meaning that if I'm working on my Mac the other guys can still work on the PC side, RIPping and printing. We don't even know it on my desktop because it doesn't take over my mouse or keyboard in the Windows VM desktop.

It's also good because it's a sandboxed file and portable. I can take it to any machine (Windows, Mac or Linux) I want to upgrade without having to reinstall anything. It's all ready to go. There really is no downside to using a RIP in a VM especially if you have lots of RAM.

The PC tower has since become a gaming computer for my son. At least it got used.

 

[Ben Camacho]

I am a Flexisign and Enroute user. Have nothing but great things to say about both products.