Preps and perfecting layouts

[InvisSoul]

I just want to know how the other people out there handle their perfecting jobs. Do you keep everything centered on the sheet, like work and flops or do you put them off-center when you need room for gripper margin?

Just curious.

Thanks

[Al Ferrari]

You can answer this by thinking through how you would do it conventionally by stripping on a light table and exposing on a frame. The same two conditions need to be met:

1. The work needs to back up properly.

2. Both gripper edges have the same requirements and limitations, no?

Al

[William Campbell]

Perfecting must be centered. It's not a choice. The same as work and tumble. If you increase the gripper margin on one side, you are pushing the form toward to the tail, which when tumbled, becomes the gripper for the second side. So any increase in margin for one side subtracts from the other. Both gripper margins should match, and the form must be centered on the sheet from head to tail.

[Mark]

Centered on sheet

[ericmadsen]

Centered. But the work wouldn't have to be centered on the form, unlike a tumble where the front and back plates have to be identical. You could set margins in Preps to off-center the work and Preps would automagically keep it backing up properly.

[pcmodem]

If you need room for a gripper margin and have to shift your work back on the sheet. You will not be able to print your job using Sheetwise Perfect. This is because your gripper on Side A will become the tail of Side B.

With that said, it is possible to not have your work centered on a perfecting job. Example:
Side A has 1 inch gripper and .5 inch tail.
Side B would then have a .5 inch gripper and a 1 inch tail

Sometimes it makes sense to not have a perfecting job centered. An example of this would be to save time at the cutter for a large job. Since there both the gripper and tail are wild, it shouldn't matter about using the side A (or b) gripper as the jog to side.