Print one Line, Cut one line..

[didital_mike]

Hi, there

Is there a way to make a Summa DC3, Print one Line, Cut one line..

I have written some software, that creates an Illustrator EPS file with Personalized Stickers in it (between 8 – 12.000 Stickers per File).

Each pass, does around 240 Stickers at a time (905 mm wide, 99.8 mm high).

If I would have a choice, I would print one Line and the cut that line before moving forward.

I tried to use “End of File Lines” like we use in Flexi.

Does not make any ods..

Any ideas how to do that?

Best regards

didital_mike

 

[dclet]

you could set this up with one pass or one row of decals, and then setting the number of copies Summa Color Control, this way it would print cut, then move for next copy and print-cut. It would resolve and contour issues...or bunching

Flexi will not do that.

Summa user forums ~ Digital-Graphica

 

[didital_mike]

Hi, dclet

After 40 Stickers, the Name, Icon and (or) the Color changes.

Each 40 Stickers, a new Order starts.

We used to build them in Flexi, do one Sticker then step and repeat 40 times = makes one Pack = One Order


If there are 296 Names, for that Product in the Database my EPS produces

11860 Stickers on the fly= 296 Packs.

First Name might be John Do next name Mike Blocks and so on..

The danger here is, I have to Print 20 feet of Media before they start to cut.

Each Label is 35mm wide and about 7 mm high. The Summa seam to have problems to remember the cut lines after rolling forward and back ward 20 feet of media.

Perhaps media slip plays a part as well?

If the Summa error's out, we lose all thats printed and not cut yet.

I call my little app "Auto-Build", and it does what it says on the "Tin".

The Illustrator EPS file is spot on, just that the Summa losses track where every thing is.

Let's be honest, if I write a 200 page word document like a manual,

and print it to a home Printer, no one would accept that latters appear all over the place on a $29 printer, why accept it from a Printer costing as much as a car?

best regards

Mike

 

[dclet]

The danger here is, I have to Print 20 feet of Media before they start to cut.

Whoa! 20 feet! have you tried using the opos to align the cut instead of sending it as "hybrid" it involves another step but I have done stuff well over 15' with no issues that way.

dc3 is indeed not perfect and I completely agree with your last statement.

Did you try going through ColorControl, flexi's support for the dc3 isn't all that great.

 

[didital_mike]

Hi, dclet

I was toying with the Idea to use this Opos thingy.

If it works in a similar way to our Mimaki Combo (Printer and cutter separate items)?

Where Onyx saves a separate cut-layout?

At the moment, we send our Illustrator EPS files straight to Color Control.

If it comes to ripping, color control is “Fast”, for a freebie.

(Still, CC is more or less a Driver extension, in my eyes).

I try to avoid all Onyx, Flexi Sign Pro and stuff.

Flexi uses OLD Illustrator technology (modules bought from Adobe, most likely to use it in something like Delphi) from the days of NT4 and sell it for top dollars.

Onyx isn’t much better.

If Onyx would have invested half as much time on the software, as they have invested on there dongle protection (and even that is bought in), we would have some workable software for our money by now.

From a Programmers view, as much as we all love to hate Microsoft,

The humble Microsoft Word 2007, is light years ahead of any of our “Professional” software packages that we use to make our living.

What I really need is;

I need to control the Printer in some way.

If I sent a “Chr13” (carriage return command) to the Printer it should do just that.

If I like my Document to end with only half the page full then it should do it.

If I go true the hassle to tell the Printer;

“Make a Green Circle of 20 mm diameter, use the spot color Leaf Green, place that Circle at 40mm from the Left edge of the Document, at the height of 60mm from the bottom of the document”

Then I do not expect that my green dot is somewhere else on that document,
10 mm up or down or a bit to the left or a bit to the right..

I told the Printer where I like my dot to be printed, full stop.


Runt over…:Oops: sorry..

Mike

 

[dclet]

I was toying with the Idea to use this Opos thingy.

If it works in a similar way to our Mimaki Combo (Printer and cutter separate items)?

Where Onyx saves a separate cut-layout?

You'll need to create that layout (Seperate Contour) yourself. Including the opos marks. the send it via Summa's Winplot or opos capable plotter software (Cocut or SignCutx2)
I have managed to script the opos marks in corelDRAW so it isn't an issue
for me anymore.

At the moment, we send our Illustrator EPS files straight to Color Control.

If it comes to ripping, color control is “Fast”, for a freebie.

CC does quite well, but a dongle on proprietary
software is an absolute waste of money, I can't even comprehend why they did that.
It does lack some needed features.
I wonder where Summa's engineers get some of their idea's from....certainly
not from any users


As for the rest I can't help ya there. Your work seems very specialized.
Maybe they could help you directly. Summa is one company I do not mind
asking for help did you try 'em?

 

[didital_mike]

Summa is one company I do not mind
asking for help did you try 'em?[/quote]

Summa.be is on a 2 week vacation, all of them..what a live he?

They do that now and then..

We are talking Europe here..

26 Public holydays per year, plus 5 weeks paid leave.

37 hour working week.

Firmware upgrade No47 is out..no wonder, if they never manage to finish the last firmware upgrade in the limited working time they have?

I have changed my software, to limit the File lenght to 3' now.

It's just sad that with a 50 meter roll of media, you are limited to 3' at a time to stop the Summa from suffering "Indigestion" problems.

 

[dclet]

Summa from suffering "Indigestion" problems.

LOL.

Summa has some wierd business practices... they have 2 locations here in the US.... west coast - east coast. I live on the east coast and try to get them to ship out of their Boston (east coast) office...ground delivery and I'll get it the next day but..... I can not order after 3 pm, even If I wanted to "over night" it...... I guess they must pack up and go home, and I can tell you on more then one occasion I was ready to flip over this BS.

firmware upgrade

heh, are they keeping that a secret. I do not get any info from them regarding stuff like that....

 

[didital_mike]

http://www.summa.be/pages/firm.html

The one to look for:

Summa DC3, DC4 & DC4 sx Firmware, Revision 4.7
(1.1 MB - Revised 25-Apr-07) — the latest internal programming for Summa DC3, Summa DC3 Plus, DC4 and DC4 sx contour cutting printers.

Watch out:

If you do your cut alignment test.

In the Old Firmware, you can go up or down from 1-8.

In the newer Firmware from 4.1 onwards there are 16 steps up or down, left or right.

But they still only Print the old boxes to weed for each parameter.

The "+1" "+2" boxes.


Just hope you know what I am on about?

 

[dclet]

thanks for the heads up with that one....

please visit the forums Mike we would love to have ya - http://digital-graphica.com/phpBB/index.php