Questions about Shuttle and Automation Engine 12

[PrintDoug]

We have a CDI FlexRIP and Automation Engine seats at a separate facility where plates are processed than where my design team is located. I want to be able to send files to the RIP either through AE or to a hotfolder but I am having trouble with the following:

The designers are all using DeskPack Tools for Illustrator and have the Shuttle client installed, is this client intended to let remote users transfer files to an AE hotfolder task even if you do not have AE installed at your current location?

If that is the case, without access to the actual AE, will Esko XMP Document distortion carry through to the RIP instead of having to distort it through AE itself?

I am curious if others have this situation where you want to prep and distort the file for flexo plates and send it to the remote FlexRIP without having to either purchase a seat for AE or even have your own costly FlexRIP on site.

Thanks

 

[PrepressDan]

The designers are all using DeskPack Tools for Illustrator and have the Shuttle client installed, is this client intended to let remote users transfer files to an AE hotfolder task even if you do not have AE installed at your current location?

If they are using Deskpack then they should have a item in the "file" menu of illustrator called "Launch Workflow". This is the shuttle plug in for Illustrator. With this, there is no need to use the shuttle client application (Stand alone application). Shuttle is designed to show workflows that Automation Engine publishes across the network. It utilizes a spool folder (usually on the DeskPackContainer) volume of the Automation Engine. So in order for this to work, they would need to be able to mount that drive on their Mac or be able to connect to it via their PC. In other words they would need to be on a WAN network or something similar to connect to the network that your Automation Engine is on.

If that is not an option you can save out the file as normalized PDF and copy it to a hot folder that they do have access to.

2. If that is the case, without access to the actual AE, will Esko XMP Document distortion carry through to the RIP instead of having to distort it through AE itself?

Yes, if you save the Illustrator file as a Normalized PDF (Export PDF -> Normalized PDF) from Illustrator.

I am curious if others have this situation where you want to prep and distort the file for flexo plates and send it to the remote FlexRIP without having to either purchase a seat for AE or even have your own costly FlexRIP on site.

I work for a large international company that has many facilities, some with plate making others without. We have all facilities on a WAN so that we can all access each others Automation Engines or RIPs.

Hope this helps.

 

[chevalier]

Jeff has most of this covered but I'll add:

If you want your remote operation to interface with the AE server you need a WAN (wide-area-network) via VPN (virtual-private-network) or MPLS connection (Multiprotocol-Label-Switching) for this to work seamlessly. While it sounds intimidating this isn't necessarily extremely expensive to do if you have a good ISP and/or a good IT/IS staff. Chances are these bits already exist and some configuring is all you are going to need to do.

 

[PrintDoug]

So I got that to work, the only thing I am trying to figure out how to do is change the orientation, surface or sub-surface for a plate. Normally it is done on the RIP but there has to be a way to add that information to the XMP data in the PDF. Any thoughts?

 

[PrepressDan]

Why not just make a workflow that has a wait for action with a public parameter on which choice to go (E up, E down). Then when you submit a file it will prompt the user for a question (eup or edown). See my screen shot.

As far as adding this to the xmp, I know the rip writes it in the xmp, but not sure if it reads from xmp. I don't think it does.

 

[PrintDoug]

I apologize if I seem ignorant but does the action alert the user on the RIP end of the workflow or is this something I can chose before sending it to the RIP on my end?
We are all using Macs remotely and I cannot see the RIP functions that are on the Eskorip server. Basically I am trying to do exactly the same process as if I were sitting in front of the RIP locally.
I appreciate the help so far, I have been having difficulty getting an Esko rep to help with this setup. I found this forum to be more helpful than many tech manuals.

 

[PrepressDan]

No it does not alert the working at the rip. The way I set it up is as a public parameter. This means when you submit a file via shuttle. The first thing that happens is that it ask the operator submitting the file whatever question you want it to ask.