Taipan RIP 3.01 and PC Front-end upgrading

[SaccAnto]

Hi everyone,
I'm a newcomer on the board even if I've been following the forum for months!
After many years of succesfull working I have to upgrade the Front-end Pcs for my business company.

At the moment I have 2 Front-end PCs :
G4 with OS 10.4 G4 with OS 10.4
A server with windows NT 4.0 with the RIP installed (TAIPAN)
And then a Imagesetter Accuset 1500 connected to the server.

For the first installation of all these components an Agfa technician connected the whole device in the following way:

G4 are connected via ethernet and I suppose they use Appletalk. Accuset is “recognised” as a printer and I can only set the format and other little elements.There is no Agfa,AGFASET,RIP PILOT or RIP PREVIEW software installed on them.Whenever I want to change the RIP setup I have to use the server and then use RIP PILOT,I'm not able to do that by using the Front end Pcs.

Server runs the following pieces of software:
AgfaSet
Preview Pilot
Rip Pilot
TAIPAN 3.01
Taipan preview server
Taipan tuner
There are no shared printers.

I would like to change the 2 G4s with 2 new Snow leopard Mac,keeping the RIP and the server.
I'm aware there are some difficulties in connecting them with the RIP since in that Mac OS there is no Apple talk.
For that reason what “Linking channel” should I use?
1)Should I use everything by sharing the HOT FOLDERS?
2)Should I create a spool queue and then use the channel NAMED PIPE,”turning” the server into a
LaserWriter?

About the 2nd point I've read something on the official Agfa guide and then I found a thread on this forum in which people said I could connect the 2 Macs in that way.
Are these brief guides enough in order to setup the whole system in the proper manner?

When I'll share the printer will the Front-end Macs need some drivers to connect themselves with it?

Are there any compatibility problems with Adobe Design Standard suite?I would like to upgrade also the software I'll use.

 

[chevalier]

WOW! It has been a long time since I have seen this configuration with a Agfa Phoenix 2250.

Hotfolders are going to be the cleanest and most effective route to utilize this system with any version of Mac OS X. Share the hotfolders on the NT box and connect the Snow Leopard computers (or any versions of Mac OS X) via SMB. You also probably want to set up a share for dropping fonts into.

If I remember correctly the Agfa software almost will not load on any version of Mac OS X but will run in OS 9. OS 9 can be ran emulated. How to run Classic (pre OS X) apps on Intel Macs - Mac OS X Hints

You are only going to be able to utilize Postscript files from any Adobe Creative Suite applications or imposition software. I believe this system will also accept TIFF as well as the SEP format from PageMaker. The last version of Preps I used with this configuration was 4 or 5, it worked really well once I got everything configured on the Preps side.

 

[SaccAnto]

WOW! It has been a long time since I have seen this configuration with a Agfa Phoenix 2250.

Hotfolders are going to be the cleanest and most effective route to utilize this system with any version of Mac OS X. Share the hotfolders on the NT box and connect the Snow Leopard computers (or any versions of Mac OS X) via SMB. You also probably want to set up a share for dropping fonts into.

If I remember correctly the Agfa software almost will not load on any version of Mac OS X but will run in OS 9. OS 9 can be ran emulated. How to run Classic (pre OS X) apps on Intel Macs - Mac OS X Hints

You are only going to be able to utilize Postscript files from any Adobe Creative Suite applications or imposition software. I believe this system will also accept TIFF as well as the SEP format from PageMaker. The last version of Preps I used with this configuration was 4 or 5, it worked really well once I got everything configured on the Preps side.

thanks chevalier!!

So you suggest to me to set the hot folder in stead of share a windows printer with named pipe channel?
I read this topic as a guide:

http://printplanet.com/forums/agfa-systems/19629-appletalk-communication

Unfortunately we don't use imposition software like Preps.

 

[BillJ]

If you can set up and share Windows printers, you can also just use Windows printer sharing in OSX. It's quick and easy. I do it with Harlequin Rips all the time.

 

[chevalier]

Yes, hot folders will be easier to configure and should also be faster.

 

[SaccAnto]

Today i tested hot folders method and he works fine!


Is It possible to have 4 folders with different Print Configuration??

 

[chevalier]

I'm not sure what the limit of different hotfolder configurations is but I would bank on it being >4.