Summa F-Series & SummaFlex Workflow
Summa F-Series Print-and-Cut Workflow With Flexi you can easily create one or more Contour Cut lines around objects, either vector or bitmap. This allows you to output an image to a printer and then cut its contours using a cutting plotter. This document illustrates the print-and-cut workflow with the Summa F Series, a flatbed cutting table capable of cutting sheet and rigid materials as well as roll stock. You will learn how to setup the device, add contour cut lines to vector design, trace the outline of objects in a bitmap and make the background of the image transparent, assign cutting tools and generate the output files.
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1|
Configuring your devices ............................................................................................................................2
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Adding the SummaFlex colour swatches to Flexi’s design interface ..........................................................3
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Adding a contour cut line to a vector design in Flexi 12 ............................................................................4
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Adding a contour cut line to a bitmap file in Flexi 12 .................................................................................6
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Nesting the Contour ...................................................................................................................................8
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Outputting the Print-and-Cut job: ........................................................................................................... 10
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Adding a contour job directly to Production Manager............................................................................ 12
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Summa F-Series & SummaFlex Workflow
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Configuring your devices
In Production Manager, first set up your printer: • Choose “Setup > Add Setup “ • Select the manufacturer and model • In the next window select the correct connection type (USB, network, …)
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Go to your printer’s Default Job Properties:
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In the second tab “Workflow”, activate the “Send cut job” checkbox and choose “F SERIES (SummaFlex)”
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In tab 6 “Labels and Marks” select “F SERIES (SummaFlex)” as print mark:
In the same way, set up your cutter “Summa > F SERIES (SummaFlex)” • NOTE: do not choose the regular “F SERIES”, make sure to specify the SummaFlex model
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Choose “FILE” as port and point to the appropriate folder by clicking on “Browse”
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Click on “Options” and set them to your preference:
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Click OK and confirm the next steps.
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Adding the SummaFlex colour swatches to Flexi’s design interface
Add the SummaFlex color table to the design interface: • choose the menu “View > Color > Open Table” and browse to “….\SAi Production Suite\Swatch\Library\Summa” • Choose the “SummaFlex (F-Series)” file and click “Open”
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Now you will see the SummaFlex swatches at the bottom left of your design interface (they have the colours named Pen, Drag Knife, Cut Out Knife, Cut Out Knife Multipass, …:
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3 | Adding a contour cut line to a vector design in Flexi 12 •
Design or import the vector object you want to print.
Select the object and then add a contour cut line using “Effects > Contour Cut”
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Use DesignCentral to customise your settings: • A contour, rectangle or ellipse shaped contour cut • The line type • The distance from the object (can be zero, positive or negative) • Include holes (such as the inside of the letter O) or not • The join type (rounded, bevel or square) • The line colour name (Cut Out Knife, Kiss Cutting Knife, Oscillating Knife, …)
>> TIP! You can add multiple contour cut lines to the same object, so you can define different cutting tools to each line (Kiss Cut,Cut Out, V-Cut 45, Crease, …).
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Example: this log has 2x CutContour lines, one as a blue contour (for kiss cutting) and another red rectangle (for thru-cutting).
4 | Adding a contour cut line to a bitmap file in Flexi 12 • •
Import the bitmap (jpg, bmp, tif, …) you want to print-and-cut. When the bitmap image has a complex background you can use our “Photoshop-like” tools in the Bitmap-Edit toolbar: o Magic Wand o Lasso o Eraser o …
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If the bitmap has a white background or a uniform background in another colour, you can very easily remove the background using “Bitmap > Make Transparent”
If you are getting unwanted outlines around your bitmap elements, increase the Tolerance setting in DesignCentral.
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Click on the green ‘V’ to apply.
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Then you can easily apply one or more CutContour lines to it using “Effect > Contour Cut”
5 | Nesting the Contour True shape nesting is a feature that nests objects based on their actual shape to fit even more objects into a specified area. In DesignCentral, set the area (plate size, sheet size, roll size) you want to nest to: Select the shapes you want to nest, and choose “Arrange > True Shape Nest”:
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Summa F-Series & SummaFlex Workflow
DesignCentral will now reflect the True Shape Nest options: Sets the height of the panel into which the objects will be nested. Sets the width of the panel into which the objects will be nested. Sets the minimum space between objects after nesting. Sets the amount of rotation to be applied to the objects while nesting. Specifies the number of copies of the nested objects that will be created. If more than 1, the extra copies will be duplicates of the first set of nested objects. Compress ratio
Displays the compression percentage of the current nested area compared to the original unnested area.
Break text
Allows text objects to be separated into individual characters before nesting in order to fit the text into a smaller amount of material. If cleared, each text object will be nested as one big object.
Use holes
Allows smaller objects to be nested inside the holes of larger objects. (A period might be nested inside the letter O, for example.)
Click Redraw to re-nest the selected objects after making changes. After Nesting:
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6 | Outputting the Print-and-Cut job: Click the “RIP & Print” icon. In the last tab “Contour”, make sure “F SERIES (SummaFlex)@FILE” is selected as cutter with the “F SERIES (SummaFlex)” registration marks.
Click “Options” to change the registration mark specifications (size, barcode, …).
Click OK to apply.
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Summa F-Series & SummaFlex Workflow
To change the cutter tool, choose the drawing color and and click on “Edit”.
Now you can change the cutter options for each CutContour line:
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Click OK to apply. Select “As Separate Jobs” and Flexi automatically generates both the print job as well as the cut job.
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Summa F-Series & SummaFlex Workflow
The Print Job in Production Manager:
Click “Send” to send the job to the Production Manager: • Depending on your settings, the print job will start printing or will stay on hold • The cut job will be waiting in the queue until the user sends it through • If not launched automatically (“Hold in List”), select the job and click ‘RIP’ (= RIP only) or ‘Send’ (= RIP + Send)
The Cut Job in Production Manager: •
You can already select the job and click on ‘Send’ to send it to the SummaFlex software.
7 | Adding a contour job directly to Production Manager When working with a 3rd party design application such as Adobe Illustrator® or CorelDRAW®, you can add print jobs with contour information directly to the Production Manager. So there’s no need to pass via the Flexi design interface. For a path or line to be recognised as a contour cut line, it has to be: • a spot color • named CutContour, CutContour1 upto CutContour5 or PerfCutContour • which has to be applied to the stroke of the object • and the file needs to be saved as PDF, AI or EPS
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Summa F-Series & SummaFlex Workflow
Drag and drop the file into the Production Manager queue, or simply choose “File > Add Job”. Double click the job to change the parameters: • Tab 2 “Workflow”: make sure the “F SERIES (SummaFlex)” is selected next to “Send Cut Job” and that the checkbox is ticked
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Tab 5: Cut > change the cutter tool (choose : “Edit”)
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Summa F-Series & SummaFlex Workflow
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Assign the correct tool form the drop down menu
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Tab 7: Labels and Marks > Choose F SERIES (SummaFlex) and click “Options”.
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Summa F-Series & SummaFlex Workflow
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Set the mark options to your preference and click “OK” to confirm
Hit “Send” to send the job to the printer. Production Manager will automatically generate the cut job after the job has been RIPped.
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You can send the cut job straight to SummaFlex by selecting it and clicking the ‘Send’ button
That’s it!
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