VersaWorks 4.0 paneling problems?

[Gene@mpls]

Anyone else having problems? I have been printing a lot of paneled signs
and a couple times have gotten what looks like a barcode (see pict) and
sometimes it will only print the 1 inch overlap- not the panel that is attached
to it. Don't remember this before upgrading to 4.0. Gene

 

[Pacific Coast Sign]

Sounds like you're trying to print beyond the media width...check media width and your page settings.

 

[DRamm76]

I don't see a pic attached

 

[Gene@mpls]

You have sharp eyes my friend- and I have a dull mind- here it is. And no- it is not a media width problem. Gene

 

[flyinhawaiian968]

Well, I can almost without a doubt tell you why you got that print, although I'm about 2 months late in answering!

You have a bitmap either embedded in the eps file, or its a raster image you're printing, and it has a transparency associated with the file.

I ran into this about 2 years ago with my xc-540, still have the print to remind me never, EVER, allow anything to be sent to the machine with a transparency! And especially a transparent bitmap within a powerclip in CorelDraw, that will for sure trash your printout every single time!

To determine what caused it, the print usually goes to s*#t right where the transparency starts. My rule of thumb is to make sure the raster image is flattened if outputting file from Photoshop, or in Coreldraw as an eps file, check every bitmap to make sure they are not transparent.

Chris

 

[Gene@mpls]

thanks Chris- it has been so long that I can't be sure what I was printing
that I was having problems with- I think maybe a large concession trailer
wrap. I do remember that after a bit of fiddling with it- restart Vworks,
power down the printer- it printed correctly and I had the same problem
a couple times during a marathon print session. So I think that transparency
was not the problem- the bitmaps were photos and were masked in Flexi-
and were on each panel and treated the same in each case. I still think it
is a Vworks bug of some kind. On a later wrap I was having problems with
the preview bitmaps( that should be in the folder with the job info) showing
up in the job que and causing crashes. Vworks has come a long way but
still has issues. Gene

 

[flyinhawaiian968]

I'll definitely agree with you on that, Vworks is definitely not there yet, we still have issues here and there, but just work them out internally since our warranty is finally out.

I don't use flexi any more, so I don't know much about how it masks, but I would be willing to bet its about the bitmap! We've also had issues with CMYK vs. RGB bitmaps, although its been a while since we've come across that one. Perhaps the bitmaps are layered? I know that one bit us in the butt a few times!

All we do now is send either tiff's or eps files, nothing else. Its much easier to just finalize the tiff files in photoshop and send them off as rgb tiffs (there's a wider gamut for rgb than cmyk if vworks converts it internally).

For our eps files they are exported directly from Corel (as postscript 3, works almost flawlessly every time!) and only used if we need to hold a pms color or we have a cut line.

Hope you work those issues out!

Chris

 

[Gene@mpls]

Problem revisited

OK- having the same problem on another wrap- 10th panel of the 10 panel
cube van. Enclosing some pictures- note that the gradient (white to purple)
is wacked in VW also. I have restated VW and the printer (VP540) and it
just prints about a 4inch stripe of the panel- the addl red and black marks
are me trying several things over the same messed up panel rather than
lose more 3951RA. One time it printed what 'may' be the correct width but
a mass of streaks (separate pict). Arggggh.

 

[Gene@mpls]

Very happy to say that I have been contacted by our resident Roland
guru Robert Ozankan almost immediately! Yay! I rebooted the station
and it seems to be OK- printing the last panel now, stress level is coming
down- only an hour to Beer O'clock. Gene

 

[rozankan]

Thank you, we're glad that the problem seems to be resolved and I hope the rest of the job prints out perfectly.

Feel free to PM me again, or give Tech Support a call at (800) 542-2307 - Press '2'.
__________________
Robert Ozankan
Senior Product Manager - Color Products
Roland DGA