The thing with rasterizing it (or saving it as a PDF) is that it will only let me know if they built it to our die & NOT modified it.  Before I get it into our workflow, I still have to replace it with an Illy version.

I was thinking I'd be able to save time, but now I'm not so sure.  Either way, I'm re-opening it, checking, replacing.  I guess I just open & replace.  If they DID change it, it gets re-worked then.

The only advantage I see is in Preflight.  At least then someone up front will know that extra time will be needed (not that we'll get paid for it) and our Structure Dept. will kow they have to do a new design.

Thanks to all for letting me bounce this off you.

beck

Yea, if I had a dollar for every time I've heard "We cannot replicate your problem here on our system.", I'd be rich.

More often than not, we develop our own work-around by the time AWS Support figures it out.

Merry Christmas,

beck

Jetzer,
Yea, we're supposed to do that as well.  But when we see our legend box on the die line layer, we usually skip that step.  Last week, though, we got burned.  She altered the die line and did not tell us, and did not delete/alter the legend box.

Zimmy,
Our structure guys saved it as a PDF, and it places in Illy fine (just like a CT).  The only problem is you CAN open it in Illy, thus allowing modification.

LoganBlade,
That is something I may run by the boss.

I think what we are going to do is start sending out the die lines as PDFs, with specific instructions to PLACE, not OPEN.  When the art comes back, we'll check to see if the die was PLACED or OPENED.  If placed, we know our die is OK.  If opened, we'll replace.
It looks like the safest way is to just replace EVERY die on EVERY piece of art that comes in.  Slower, yes, but it will cover our ass.

Thanks, and have a Merry Christmas,

beck

Did the PDF thing, here's how it went....

Placed OK, out Structure guy made sure to save it to 100% size.
Tried to password protect the PDF on his end.  I needed the password to place it in Illy.  Defeats the purpose.

The only good thing I can see is it will be a quick visual check to see if the artist "Placed" it, thus no modification of our die.

If anyone has ideas on the protection thing, I'd love to hear them.

beck

I agree...they are designers, and they will F _ _ _ with it, not knowing/caring that a die has been created.

Zimmy3, when we send out a die line, sometimes it is a die on hand (if a re-run job).  If it's a new job, we do not build the die until we get a P.O..

I'm going to try the PDF/Password protected & see how that goes.

Thanks.

I work at a folding carton manufacturer.  When we send out die lines for customers to build art to, the die is in Illustrator format.

The problem we have is customers making subtle changes to the die line, building art to it, but not notifiying us that they changed it.  It goes to press, then die cutting before we realize they made a change. 

My question is, is there a way to "Lock" the die line so they cannot modify it?  Or possibly, add some kind of a watermark so at least we'll know they screwed with it.

Thanks in advance,

beck

Unless the job is a real bi+ch (trapping, effects, stuff like that), we'll just start the job over from scratch.  That way there is zero chance that we'll miss something in the revising.

It's usually quicker doing that than waiting for an answer.

beck

You could also try Select > Object > Stray Points, then delete.

Sometimes the Designer will not clean up their garbage B4 giving it to you.

beck

We have a couple of Macs we are considering upgrading.  What we have now is...

Power PC G5, Dual 1.8 GHz processors, 1.5 GB RAM.  We work off a server, so our HDs are not full up.

If we increase the RAM to 6 GB (we have 4 open slots - buy (4) 1 GB chips), will we notice much of a difference?  If we update to a high end video card also, will it help?

We won't be getting new computers for at least a year, but my supervisor could proably get these purchases thru.  Or is it a better idea to just save the money & put it towards the new stuff in the far future?

We don't do a lot of intense Photoshop work.  Mostly Illustrator & Artpro, but as we all know, some of those files are getting large & complex.  There have been some rare Illustrator files that have taken 5 minutes or longer to save, LONG redraw times.  Some Artpro files have LONG redraw times as well.

Thanks in advance,

beck