Flexi 22, am I making a mistake?

[Mata]

Hi guys

I'm still in the trial stage for Flexi 22 and my initial thoughts are not great.

Customer service weren't much help with profiles, the default profiles were poor and based on the printouts, I would have run a mile from both my printer and Flexi. I know my printer can print perfect (Epson S60600) so I know that's not a problem. I managed to create a profile and although not perfect, it's back printing but asking them any real ICC profile questions they struggle.

I've tried to do my first cut contour today. I designed the job in Affinity, sent the PDF to Production manager and it printed fine with my crop marks. My first bit of feedback: Flexi does not send the cut file to the cutter until the print has 100% completed. I know this because when I went to cut my first file, the cutter failed to cut and my file was deleted. I tried to print the file again so the cut files is added to my cutter (like i would in Onyx but in Onyx, all you need to do is click print and the cut file is there), in Flexi, it did not show until the print was complete so I ended up printing the file again just to get the cut file back.

Is there anyway to send the cut path to your cutter in Flexi without having to reprint? I don't mind clicking print then stopping it before it actually gets to the printer.

I've now set the cutter to hold the cut file after output so this hopefully doesn't happen again but i'm sure this won't be the last time I need to print a file twice to get the cut file back.

I'm still struggling to cut, it reads the first two crop marks fine, it then tries to go along the width but it fails to get to the 3rd crop mark and gives me an error. I thought this was down to the step count but both Flexi and my cutter have 0.050 mm (using Graphtec GPGL) Can anyone help with this?

Another question, is it possible to read just the two right cropmarks? I cut off the two left ones by accident and although I taped them back on, I wonder if we can just read the 1st and 4th crop marks or the first two etc. Onyx did allow you to read segments for long cuts but I don't see this option in Flexi.

I'm sure cutting master has more cutting options but it's made from SAI so surely Flexi should have the same if not more options than the free software?

 

[Mata]

Also, can you set the crop mark size in flexi when importing a pdf to production manager?

 

[natallica]

Yes, there is a selection in the top of the 'Rip&Print' dialog box tab to the right is the Cutter Settings tab, pulling down the arrow allows for sending 'Contour Job Only'

Hope this helps!
-N8

 

[Mata]

Yes, there is a selection in the top of the 'Rip&Print' dialog box tab to the right is the Cutter Settings tab, pulling down the arrow allows for sending 'Contour Job Only'

View attachment 165039

Hope this helps!
-N8

Thank you, I’ll take a look in the morning.

 

[JBurton]

Quick question, why move away from Onyx?

 

[Mata]

Quick question, why move away from Onyx?

If I'm printing a wrap, poster, board etc if was fine. When I was doing cut contour graphics such as t-shirt logos, part wraps etc I would always run into issues. I constantly spent too much time inputting a logo ready to cut, sizes up everything to the media and it still wouldn't cut due to the reg marks. I ended up doing it all in illustrator and cutting master but, 1: it gets confusing and 2: if Onyx is open, you couldn't cut from cutting master meaning I had to close down Onyx to make it work.

As Flexi is fro the same company that makes cutting master and hat plays well with my graphtec fc9000, I thought I would give that a try.

So far, both have pros and cons but one doesn't really stand out in front of the other yet!

 

[Mata]

Yes, there is a selection in the top of the 'Rip&Print' dialog box tab to the right is the Cutter Settings tab, pulling down the arrow allows for sending 'Contour Job Only'

View attachment 165039

Hope this helps!
-N8

Where is that option? I can't find it in Flexi 22

 

[natallica]

Where is that option? I can't find it in Flexi 22

When you highlight/select a Job and hit the Rip & Print (Ctrl+H) icon in the toolbar(not the desktop print icon).
When window pops up, the selections are in a pull-down at the top right of that window.

-N8

 

[Mata]

Where is that option? I can't find it in Flexi 22

Found it/ It was located in Production Manager > job properties > workflow > send. Although my layout looks different

When you highlight/select a Job and hit the Rip & Print (Ctrl+H) icon in the toolbar(not the desktop print icon).
When window pops up, the selections are in a pull-down at the top right of that window.

-N8

Thank you for your help. Any more tips that you've found in Flexi that you wish you knew when you first got it?

 

[amw]

I have all my jobs set to "hold" once it is sent to PM. We use multiple plotters, including graphtec. When we send a file to PM we get 2 files that show up. 1 is the print file and the 2nd is the cut file.
We dont have to print anything for it to have the cut file in PM. There is a setting that says "send job separate to cutter" or something along those lines. Maybe that is why yours is not showing up till you print?
Hope that made since. I have a migraine and am on about 2hours sleep.
I will also add that I have called flexi support about 10-12 times over the last couple years. Only 1 time did they actually help me.

 

[Mata]

I have all my jobs set to "hold" once it is sent to PM. We use multiple plotters, including graphtec. When we send a file to PM we get 2 files that show up. 1 is the print file and the 2nd is the cut file.
We dont have to print anything for it to have the cut file in PM. There is a setting that says "send job separate to cutter" or something along those lines. Maybe that is why yours is not showing up till you print?
Hope that made since. I have a migraine and am on about 2hours sleep.
I will also add that I have called flexi support about 10-12 times over the last couple years. Only 1 time did they actually help me.

Thanks, I’ll have a look at that option.

I’ve print and cut a few jobs today and it went quite smoothly. I like how easy it is to get the width of the printer and setup the cutter. Now to play about more.

 

[netsol]

I will also add that I have called flexi support about 10-12 times over the last couple years. Only 1 time did they actually help me.
i have heard this before...

 

[Evan Gillette]

Thay have gone downhill significantly in the last few years. You used to be able to actually get a call back from one of the developers/ update team if you had an actual issue. We have received basically no substantial support sing an issue with the flexi 19 switch.

 

[JBurton]

If I'm printing a wrap, poster, board etc if was fine. When I was doing cut contour graphics such as t-shirt logos, part wraps etc I would always run into issues. I constantly spent too much time inputting a logo ready to cut, sizes up everything to the media and it still wouldn't cut due to the reg marks. I ended up doing it all in illustrator and cutting master but, 1: it gets confusing and 2: if Onyx is open, you couldn't cut from cutting master meaning I had to close down Onyx to make it work.

As Flexi is fro the same company that makes cutting master and hat plays well with my graphtec fc9000, I thought I would give that a try.

So far, both have pros and cons but one doesn't really stand out in front of the other yet!

I feel ya, have the same issue with my setup, just corel instead, running CM2, and at least I can run a registration job from corel while printing. (I'm not bragging, like you said it gets confusing as f*ck when you're running 3 different sized doors with similar but different dimensions and trying to decode what is what without unrolling a reel of material and whipping out a tape measure)
If ya have the fc9000, it's definitely worth it to get everything to jive correctly! Good luck!

 

[JamesLam]

I want to swear, but this is a family show so not today.

I somehow still have the HP Flexi version of the software running around making my life as stressful as possible. My rationale for my irrational behaviour is that the HP version does not offer features like "Find My Font" like the regular licence does (even thought they are the same price). Plus of course it configured to run their machines only, at least that is what the Flexi customer service fellow told me.

Are there any other features that I am being denied?

Maybe someone from HP has the cahones to chime in.

One last thing, who benefits from all of this BS in the first place? Certainly not the user.

See, no swearing. I'll save that for the Leafs game tomorrow.

 

[P Wagner]

I want to swear, but this is a family show so not today.

I somehow still have the HP Flexi version of the software running around making my life as stressful as possible. My rationale for my irrational behaviour is that the HP version does not offer features like "Find My Font" like the regular licence does (even thought they are the same price). Plus of course it configured to run their machines only, at least that is what the Flexi customer service fellow told me.

Are there any other features that I am being denied?

Maybe someone from HP has the cahones to chime in.

One last thing, who benefits from all of this BS in the first place? Certainly not the user.

See, no swearing. I'll save that for the Leafs game tomorrow.

See the attached PDF, it details the specific functionalities included in the various OEM and retail versions of Flexi.

 

[JamesLam]

See the attached PDF, it details the specific functionalities included in the various OEM and retail versions of Flexi.

Thanks P Wagner.


Since the HP versions do not include the "Find My Font" application can one conclude that they are not really the 'Total Solution' that they claim. I feel like I've just shaken someone's hand and now I have to count my fingers every time.

It looks like the SAI Flexi version has everything that the HP versions have but not necessarily the other way around. Is there something that would be lost by going with the SAI version?

 

[amw]

Thanks P Wagner.


Since the HP versions do not include the "Find My Font" application can one conclude that they are not really the 'Total Solution' that they claim. I feel like I've just shaken someone's hand and now I have to count my fingers every time.

It looks like the SAI Flexi version has everything that the HP versions have but not necessarily the other way around. Is there something that would be lost by going with the SAI version?

No, the SAI version works great. I switched to it a while back because of issues we had with the HP version. Been great since, no issues at all.

 

[JamesLam]

They have gone downhill significantly in the last few years. You used to be able to actually get a call back from one of the developers/ update team if you had an actual issue. We have received basically no substantial support sing an issue with the flexi 19 switch.

I haven't been around these parts long enough to know any better but you mean to tell us that Flexi support and the platform was once better? That's hard to believe.

Now I have have family and friends in the industry (finance) so no disrespect, but is it possible that the accounting department is running the show?