CAD Dies for Cartons, Labels & Tags

[Stephen Marsh]

As the topic thread is titled "CAD Dies for Cartons, Labels & Tags" - I would appreciate feedback or discussion on this topic, including:

* File format - what die/knife CAD formats are common? .ai/.eps/.pdf | .cf2 | .ds2 | .dd3 etc.

* Presuming that the press sheet size can handle multiple jobs, are you supplied 1up or step and repeat CAD artwork for the sheet size in question?

* Do you send off final art 1up or fully stepped and repeated.

* Do you send off or output the final art including the knife/die separation in the file, or without the knife/die and only the printing inks?

* Software for imposition/step and repeat - Esko, Kodak etc? What is the product name, module etc? What do you like and or hate about it?

Anything else that you think should be discussed in such a topic thread?


Thanks,

Stephen Marsh

 

[jlee]

Stephen,

Our organization has structural/die design along with prepress for cartons, labels and tags. I'll give you our scenarios below.

* File format - what die/knife CAD formats are common? .ai/.eps/.pdf | .cf2 | .ds2 | .dd3 etc.
We use Esko Artios Cad ".ard" for 1 up structural design and step and repeat layouts. but for die design we switch that over to CIMPAK and their format to drive our die making equipment. We commonly recieve .ai/.eps/.pdf from customers as the die format that they have used and when customers request a dieline we generally supply to them in .eps format exported from Artios CAD.

* Presuming that the press sheet size can handle multiple jobs, are you supplied 1up or step and repeat CAD artwork for the sheet size in question?
Steven, we generally do not run combination sheets due to pharmaceutical GMP compliance rules. but in all cases our customers provide 1-up which we step into our requirements for best efficiency/profitability. None of our customers provide any step and repeat data and I've never heard of anyone doing that in North America at the printer facility. When I worked for a prepress giant our printer customers would provide step and repeat specifications which we would execute on their behalf. I suppose in the case of nested folding cartons a printer could provide a CAD layout to accomodate considering you can't really provide nesting information with just text based specifications.

* Do you send off final art 1up or fully stepped and repeated.
All of our art proofing is sent as 1-up only, and in the case where the customer would like their art files back we only send 1-up data. the step and repeat data isn't that transferable even to another printer due to how our steps are based on how we manufacture dies. On the folding carton side their is a lot of variation regarding how printers design and use their dies on their own equipment.

* Do you send off or output the final art including the knife/die separation in the file, or without the knife/die and only the printing inks?
We always communicate with dieline information for various reasons but they are always part of our final art files.

* Software for imposition/step and repeat - Esko, Kodak etc? What is the product name, module etc? What do you like and or hate about it?
We use Plato from EskoArtwork, the reason for this is that once we have layouts provided as .mfg files from Artios CAD it allows us to essentially perform step and repeat automatically. The .mfg file contains stepping and sheet information, Plato will take this and use the .ard cad file embedded in the normalized PDF to automatically place the items in the correct position. Our operators set parameters to ensure that bleed overlaps are respected properly and then Esko Automation engine adds auto generated marks and RIPs the plate files.

I hope this helps in your request for discussion, it's always interesting to find out what colleagues are doing and why.

JL

 

[chevalier]

* File format - what die/knife CAD formats are common? .ai/.eps/.pdf | .cf2 | .ds2 | .dd3 etc.
These are the standards but ARD (ArtiosCAD), DWG (AutoCAD) and DXF (AutoCAD Interchange) are also common formats we encounter.

* Presuming that the press sheet size can handle multiple jobs, are you supplied 1up or step and repeat CAD artwork for the sheet size in question?
Shops generally generate layouts themselves that fit the printing and cutting equipment they have.

* Do you send off final art 1up or fully stepped and repeated.
As a convertor we receive 1ups then impose them to the layout (step and repeat). In the case that we order coating photopolymer (flexo) plates, embossing dies, foiling dies, etc. a fully imposed layout is sent.

* Do you send off or output the final art including the knife/die separation in the file, or without the knife/die and only the printing inks?
We retain all of this data in our prepress workflow with the cut/score/etc. set to spot colors and with overprinting or multiply attributes. Some times a plate is generated of the die line for press operators to cut pockets out of coating blankets for ink/coating free glue knockout areas.

* Software for imposition/step and repeat - Esko, Kodak etc? What is the product name, module etc? What do you like and or hate about it?
There are a number of products out there for this. Esko Plato and Heidelberg Signa Station seem to be the most common in my observations.

Anything else that you think should be discussed in such a topic thread?
Not sure what the goal of your post is but I would be glad to share as much knowledge/experiences as I can.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

Not sure what the goal of your post is but I would be glad to share as much knowledge/experiences as I can.

Thank you for the replies JL and chevalier. I used to work in packaging prepress, there has been a lot of change, so I was hoping to get some feedback on what is common today.


Stephen Marsh

 

[Stephen Marsh]

Does anybody know of the Esko .ACM file format?

http://printplanet.com/forums/esko/30035-esko-dfs-acm-file-format-conversion


Stephen Marsh