Flexi 8

[jayhawksigns]

http://app.umailemail.com/media/00208-00050/flexi8_intro.jpg

Anyone know anything else about it yet??

[flexiezine]

More details should be available within the next few hours... Hoping to contact a peer at the ISA show for more details.

[Fred Weiss]

I'm more than surprised by the announcement since i am in their beta testing program and we've only been testing Flexi 8 for a couple of weeks and only received an announcement of a fresh beta to download on Monday 4-3-06.

I can only assume that they are confident the new version will test out well and can be shipped in short order and that the announcement is to generate interest to coincide with the Orlando ISA show.

[flexiezine]

I received information from a european dealer that has been beta testing the Mac version of 8... He knew of the release information a while back... Another surprise, he has Flexi 7.7v2 Mac... had no idea it existed.

[JMDigital]

I'm more than surprised by the announcement since i am in their beta testing program and we've only been testing Flexi 8 for a couple of weeks and only received an announcement of a fresh beta to download on Monday 4-3-06.

I can only assume that they are confident the new version will test out well and can be shipped in short order and that the announcement is to generate interest to coincide with the Orlando ISA show.

So being a beta test.. how do you like it..?? Should we upgrade/buy it when its out???

[jayhawksigns]

I was tempted to ask but didn't know how much Fred could actually say, especially on an open public forum like this.

[JMDigital]

I was tempted to ask but didn't know how much Fred could actually say, especially on an open public forum like this.

Well I figured if he told us he is a beta test he kida opend the flood gates for questions :biggrin: . He most likely figured that would happen.

[Fred Weiss]

More like afraid it would happen.

I am under a non-disclosure agreement and cannot comment further. I just didn't feel like anyone thinking the software was currently being shipped should operate under that misconception.

I do personally feel like when you commit an investment to a product like Flexi or Omega or SignLab that keeping up with upgrades should be a high priority.

[jayhawksigns]

It'll be nice to actually get a release date, and if they will do discounted pricing if you upgrade within a couple of months of release.

I know that there were a lot of wants for the new releases of Flexi being talked about on the Scanvec forums, be nice to get more information from Flexi about what all they included.

[Bobby H]

Flexi 8?

Dang. We just spent a couple grand on software orders this morning (an Adobe Production Studio Premium license, a CorelDRAW X3 upgrade, a 300GB SATA-1 hard disc to add into a Dell system for scratch disc work).

We have three Flexi 7.x licenses. Previous upgrades cost us around $400-$500 per dongle. Oh well, gotta sell more signs I guess!

[RiXaX]

For those of us that don't do the large format printing, and ust do designing and vinyl cutting, what features are in the version 8 that are not in my 7.6.2 pro version that would make the upgrade worthwhile?

[JMDigital]

More like afraid it would happen.



Don't worry Fred.. we wont bug you untill you can talk about it. I am glad you are testing it, I am shure we all trust your judgement when its time to decide to upgrade. I do agree with the comment that we should keep up, its better then falling 5 versions behind and then needing the new version because the old one wont work on the new computers or os. Think when the 64bit version of windows is the only version to get, Then we will all be wanting 64bit versions of our fav. software!

So ok people leave Fred alone.. we will just have to hold off a bit! :Big Laugh

[RiXaX]

I spoke with Tim at JSI and asked him what advantages ther are to the new v.8 over the 7.6.2 for us non printers. He said "none" and the price is $800.

[Bobby H]

$800 upgrade? For the features touted in that "Flexi 8" ad?

I would consider enhancements to laser engraving and other features that directly improve vinyl cutting and parts routing to be worth while.

However, features such as "on screen spell checking," "smooth preview" and "PDF publishing" don't impress me a great deal since applications like Illustrator, CorelDRAW and Freehand already offer such features (some have offered those features for years). The latest versions of CorelDRAW and Canvas have added password protection and a variety of other capabilities to their PDF export filters. Illustrator, InDesign and Acrobat Pro 7 remain to have the most impressive PDF creation capability.

[bob]

$800 upgrade? For the features touted in that "Flexi 8" ad?

What he said, with a large "You gotta be kidding" tacked on to it.

If they have straightened out their miserable contour cut mechanism and maybe added faded drop shadows and perhaps a civilized distortion envelope it might be worth considering. But release this appears to be a collection of fluff and decoration, not a lot of anything functional.

[Techman]

faded drop shadows

right on!!!!!!!! A real shadow would be relly nice..

[Bobby H]

Faded drop shadows? Such as the ones in Illustrator?

Blah. I'll just use Photoshop for creating raster-based work. The creation of raster-based drop-shadows in vector drawing programs really bloats file sizes to a terrible degree.

[Mike Paul]

"Save As" a cmyk tiff would be nice.
I've been suggesting that to them for a few years now.

[Bobby H]

Save as CMYK TIFF might be nice. But I can do that EASY in Photoshop. That exposes quite a problem.

I think real pressure is building against companies like Scanvec/Amiable, Gerber and others who have traditionally made "CAS" type applications over the last 15-20 years.

The pressure that is building is for those specialized, and very expensive, applications to justify their purchase price and outright existence.

I remember a decade ago getting into a slight argument with one of the prominent editors of Sign of the Times Magazine at a large format printing seminar held at an ISA show in Las Vegas. He was talking about the need for shops to buy all sorts of specialized software being sold by Gerber and others. I simply asked, "how are these applications any better than Adobe Photoshop?" He seemed a little put off, responding, "how long has Adobe being creating graphics software?" My shot back was, "Adobe has put down the cornerstones for everyone else with technologies like Photoshop and Postscript." I wanted to throw in a "DUH!!" in there but thought that would be a little too rude.

The combination of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and a good page layout application like InDesign or QuarkXpress is more than enough for many to put together all the creative work on a large format or giant format design.

The creative tools in other vector drawing programs like CorelDRAW are every bit as mature as the drawing tools in Flexi or Gerber's apps. In some cases they're even more mature. I've been doing a lot of my electrical sign design work pretty much all within mainstream applications like CorelDRAW, Freehand and Illustrator rather than using the "CAS" type apps just from the simple standpoint of avoiding BUGS.

I'll give you an example. How many folks in this forum used CASmate a lot? As powerful as it was in some respects, it really sucked in others. If I had a series of long rectangles used as ruling lines and wanted to weld them into another object, I would always run into trouble. The long rectangles would lose a point on the lower right end and turn into long triangles. The code modules in the program really really sucked in their floating point function. Some welding actions would send CASmate careening into a destructive "infinite undo" lapse, where it would keep undo-ing everything in the drawing until there were no objects left to undo. I am NOT making that up. Other times you might just get hit with the drastic Windows white box of death message: "floating point: square root of negative number." That means save if you can and reboot immediately. I would try doing the same design functions in CorelDRAW. Lo and behold, every welding attempt was fully successful. Even with the drawing board expanded to full scale and welding objects hundreds of inches in length.

Mainstream graphics applications like IllustratorCS2 and CorelDRAW X3 are now more powerful than ever. Their creative capability far outstrips that of just about any CAS-type application in existence.

Obviously that leaves behind the one thing the CAS-type applications have some focus: cutting vinyl, preparing G-code files for CNC routing and software-based RIP functions for large format printing. Actually, that's the area where companies like Scanvec-Amiable and Gerber are going to make their last stands on relevance. Either they need to do more to specialize those functions, make them a lot more powerful and productive -and maybe more affordable- otherwise they're going to get put under.

How hard would it be for Adobe or Corel to put together a large format printer software RIP? It would be pretty easy for Adobe, considering these are the guys who own the Postscript standard as well as PDF. It wouldn't be hard for either to put together a vinyl cutter front end either.

The way I see it both Scanvec-Amiable and Gerber have huge bullseyes painted on their backs. Both Adobe and Corel have rifles at the ready.

Wow. Long post. Felt like ranting. Felt good. Hehe.
:tongue:

[JMDigital]

Well I can see Corel and Adobe adding a RIP in their software. That would be something to see... Built in RIP in COREL X4 haha. Not a plugin but a real rip..

It could happen.

[Bobby H]

It wouldn't be hard for them to accomplish. Then one has to examine popularity of dedicated 3rd party RIP applications like Onyx PosterShop Pro and vinyl cutting plug-ins like CoCut that graft into the mainstream drawing programs.

I think Flexi and applications like it have their place in the sign industry. But the companies selling those applications are going to have to do a lot more to make a compelling enough case for people to buy.

[Mike Paul]

Save as CMYK TIFF might be nice. But I can do that EASY in Photoshop.
Lots of thing can be done easier in Photoshop, Illustrator or similar programs. They all have advantages and disadvantages. Sign software is a mixed bag of them all but if I have a detailed logo with masks, simulated gold leaf fills & gradients, it would be nice to save as a cmyk tiff. There is a nice market out there for sign companies selling offset printing. Business cards, postcards, brochures need to be converted to cmyk files for this. It would be a nice option in Flexi and eliminate the additional steps of saving as a eps file then opening and converting it in Illustrator or Photoshop.

I looked at the new features in Flexi 8 and didn't see anything enticing me to upgrade. The only worthwhile addition looks to be support for 64-bit windows XP but I doubt many users need that right now.

[Bobby H]

On 64-bit, I'm not going to even begin to care about that until all the mainstream applications from Adobe, Corel and others are compiled to take advantage of it.

Currently WinXP Pro x64 Edition only gives graphics people a lot more trouble with all the applications and devices it breaks and next to no benefit at all. We were offered the 64-bit version of Windows for a new system we built and I refused it, opting for the standard XP Pro SP2 32-bit version that actually works.

[Cadmn]

I expect software to be released with bugs, winblows has done it since day ONE.
why would any other company digress to a higher standard