Suggestions Want to automate our manual sheet layouts somehow

[tedbragg]

We're a CorelDRAW based shop, and print to 4x8 coro sheets. Lately we've been swamped with yard letter and flairs. We have a TON of new products on our site, all of which were built and prepped in Corel. Here's how we do it now:
1. Order comes thru our Woocommerce site, I grab a screenshot of the listed items, paste into CD to refer back to.
2. Then I go thru file explorer to find the various letters and flairs. Thankfully, we gave them descriptive filenames. But it's a non-stop search in the explorer box. open file, copy/paste to the order's layout sheet.
3. Copy/paste Optiscout reg dots and export to PDF.
Not too bad for 1 - 4 sheet jobs, but utter AGONY with the 10 - 20 sheet orders we get.

In our haste to get everything up on the site, we skipped assigning SKUs.

These are all custom contour cut, so each sheet is a jigsaw/tetris puzzle to set up. There MUST be a better way to do this? How are other companies doing this? We're on CD2020 if that makes any difference...

 

[CanuckSigns]

Can you post a Screenshot of a typical sheet?

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

Have you used E-Cut before? You can do nesting and add your marks all in one Macro.

 

[tedbragg]

I've attached one of our less crazy ones. Everything has to be laid out a certain way, so the flutes are going the right direction. We use 96" long edge flute sheets, so that makes things even more tricky to put together. Each individual item has a 5 digit number grouped with it, so when all the pieces are on the sheets, a quick find/replace can update it with the order/invoice number.

 

[Boudica]

Deja Vu - this looks super familiar. Have you asked about this before?

 

[FireSprint.com]

Looks like you are looking for true shape shape nesting software. There's alot out there like tilia griffin, caldera prime center, or print factory.

 

[Bly]

What Rip are you using?
Onyx came out with Trufit recently which apparently does proper interlocking nesting.

 

[ikarasu]

True shape nesting would mess up his flute direction.


I think he just needs to use whatever rip / software that came with his cutter to nest, while turning rotate off... Should be simple.enough, but not familiar with that cutter.

Also sounds like op is using web software to make print ready files. In which case setting up a hot folder to auto import files would.be ideal

 

[ColorCrest]

Not too bad for 1 - 4 sheet jobs, but utter AGONY with the 10 - 20 sheet orders we get.

In our haste to get everything up on the site, we skipped assigning SKUs.

These are all custom contour cut, so each sheet is a jigsaw/tetris puzzle to set up. There MUST be a better way to do this? How are other companies doing this?

Roughly and in a nutshell, it seems you’re looking for macros or scripts to optimally place, from an order list of file names with quantity, a found set of source print files from a single* directory onto production layouts.

You might search out individual Visual Basic scripts (or whatever Corel is using these days) and Java Scripts already written for Corel and Windows users to get an idea of constructs.

*I suggest a single directory of source files in your case

 

[balstestrat]

True shape nesting would mess up his flute direction.


I think he just needs to use whatever rip / software that came with his cutter to nest, while turning rotate off... Should be simple.enough, but not familiar with that cutter.

Also sounds like op is using web software to make print ready files. In which case setting up a hot folder to auto import files would.be ideal

You can choose flutes in Trufit. And in others you can most likely choose to only rotate 180° for example.

 

[FireSprint.com]

We true shape nest all day on coro. As balstestrat said, most of your nesting software can mind flute direction.

 

[tedbragg]

I have never heard nor seen the term ‘nesting’ before. Thanks. That is exactly what I need! Dug around for Corel macros but aside from e-cut haven’t found anything else. At least I know which direction to look in!

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

I have never heard nor seen the term ‘nesting’ before. Thanks. That is exactly what I need! Dug around for Corel macros but aside from e-cut haven’t found anything else. At least I know which direction to look in!

CoCut Pro has some of these features you are requesting or you can go full standalone. E-Cut will do what you want if you can manage your own file set. If you want to go automation look into printfactory or keep your current RIP and look in to Esko's Automation Engine or OneVision.

 

[myront]

...
2. Then I go thru file explorer to find the various letters and flairs......

How many are you talking about? You could set up macros to quickly import those without searching for them then give each their own unique icon either placed on your workspace or as a separate toolbar.

I have a plethora of macros to make quick work of all kinds of scenarios.

-Crop marks, cut lines & layers
-Quick Nesting 18 x 24 & 6 x 24 coro
-banner hem/cut marks & grommet placement - also macro to delete all the grommets but leaving a printed dot either white or black
-inserting special characters - cent, degree, copyright & trademark symbols etc.
-current date
-swap shapes & swap colors

and many more

 

[Boudica]

What Rip are you using?
Onyx came out with Trufit recently which apparently does proper interlocking nesting.

We got the trial - I think it's perfect for what you are doing. It's not cheap though. I told my boss I don't think I have enough use for it to warrant purchasing it. You might though.

 

[Bly]

We use Canon's ProCut Prepress software to set jobs up for the Zund which does a similar job.
These apps can save a LOT of material.