Centraized Rip

[cameronstruthers]

We are a shop that produces a wide range of items. And with that our rips have become a bit unruly.
We currently run onyx AND flexi, to manage printing / cutting with both flatbed and roll hp's, rolland, and summa.
We also now have grown into the apprarel world, and are running cadlink for dtf, and dtg.
And also another piece of software for film output for screen print.
Also across two locations.

Dream scenario... a centrally hosted rip that handles all methods and is accessed via a web interface and its respective station. Possible? I doubt it but thought I would ask around here...

If thats not possible, is there one road that handles all / most those things well but on the same platform?

Flexi is and always has been buggy as hell for us... but Onyx is more difficult for print and cut work, especially for just cut work. Onyx has better color and processing.

Cadlink seems fairly good for the dtf, dtg items.

Would love some input from others.

 

[Pauly]

You **Can** do what you're saying, It depends how you want to set it up.

Are users designing and using the RIP with no file mods?
or using the RIP to edit files?
or ideally quicksets?

Since you run onyx, You'll want to upgrade to thrive if you dont have it.

There's 2 methods.
1. if you want the full onyx experience you can pay for extra job editor and RIP licences. This will add up and you can dedicate workstations to each or a number of printers/cutters.
2. Onyx has a webUI which can be accessed over the local network. Users can only post jobs to the main RIP using quicksets and some settings.
https://help.onyxgfx.com/21/ONYXGo/Content/Using the Production Manager.htm

You can do cut only on onyx, it's not to difficult. you do it in cut server you can open files directly into it. I forgot the file type it needs as it's been a long time since ive done it and over a year since last using onyx.
Pretty sure you can have unlimited cut servers so you could install it on any PC.

We do similar with Caldera, except we mostly run it headless with a ton of automation. But we have another client for our Summas so users can jump right into caldera and interact with the summas.

 

[cameronstruthers]

We can pre design everything.. sometimes we do use flexi to add some cut paths but thats just out of some habits... we could easily do that in graphics before hand... its really just about whats the most efficient.
Pretty sure cut server wants an SVG, but it can be a little particular about what version you save to. I will have to double check that.
I dont think onyx handles direct to film or direct to garment for apparel... which is really not a big issue.. we can have one rip driving our wide format department and one driving our apparel. Just was curious. They are also in two different locations, so it would be a vpn setup to have everything appear together locally anyway. Just one of those 'this would be nice' scenarios.

 

[Pauly]

We can pre design everything.. sometimes we do use flexi to add some cut paths but thats just out of some habits... we could easily do that in graphics before hand... its really just about whats the most efficient.
Pretty sure cut server wants an SVG, but it can be a little particular about what version you save to. I will have to double check that.
I dont think onyx handles direct to film or direct to garment for apparel... which is really not a big issue.. we can have one rip driving our wide format department and one driving our apparel. Just was curious. They are also in two different locations, so it would be a vpn setup to have everything appear together locally anyway. Just one of those 'this would be nice' scenarios.

The fact you're in 2 different locations, I wouldn't even bother.

It's also way more difficult to automate shops that do a lot of different things.
You'll need to put in procedures. If Onyx server is what you use to cut, then instructions would be to use only SVG XYZ version etc with rules.

 

[cameronstruthers]

The fact you're in 2 different locations, I wouldn't even bother.

It's also way more difficult to automate shops that do a lot of different things.
You'll need to put in procedures. If Onyx server is what you use to cut, then instructions would be to use only SVG XYZ version etc with rules.

Yes definitely more complex.
Was a curious question rooted mainly in theory, but would have been an interesting capability.

We do have both flexi and onyx. I think our reluctance to walk away from flexi really has to do with lack of cutting knowlege with onyx.
Experience with creating the quicksets etc. But not sure it has any functions for sorting the vectors etc.
The rest of the question was seeing what was capable on covering the other types of print DTF, DTG, etc. As to have consistancy in workflow, color, processes and controls.
Either way some good feedback.. thanks!