This works best when we have multiple kinds / versions that have the same size but different artwork.
Example:
Product Cards
5 versions X 10M each = 50M total
Common size = 6.344” X 6.494”
Each version printed 2PMS+K+AQ on one side
Each version has 2 unique PMS and 1 K inks, common flood AQ.
We decided to run these as follows:
Form 1 - Versions 1 and 2: 3up each on 20” X 26”, 4PMS + K
Form 2 - Versions 3 and 4: 3up each on 20” X 26”, change 4 PMS and K
Form 3 - Version 5: 6up on 20” X 26”, change 2 PMS and K
1. Start new Estimate in PrintVis. On the Case Card enter the size (6.344” X 6.494”), the # inks on the form 1 and the TOTAL quantity:
2. Click on “Product Parts”
and enter the kinds and the quantities
As you enter versions and q-ties, PrintVis will total them up and compare to the total Order quantity.
This is handy - you can make sure that individual version quantities do in fact match the specified “total” quantity.
Close the “Product Parts” window when done.
(A hint: if there are a lot of versions, you can set the list in EXCEL first and then copy and paste into PrintVis)
3. Open the “Job Card”, create 1 “sheet” (unless that is done automatically by PrintVis as a part of the template) and complete the setup for the 1st press form: choose the stock, the inks and the press.
(Note: the screenshot may not look exactly as yours, as it is customizable)
Check the layout on the “Specifications” page – make sure it is what we want:
4. Go back to job Card page and hit “Versions/Variants”:
5. This page opens. It will have all product parts you entered earlier.
We will now tell PrintVis which of these products parts should be used when PrintVis does “gang layout” calculation.
Hit the “Create Variants” button and PrintVis will assign a “variant code” to each version:
Close this window
6. On the Job Card page, hit the “Combined sheets” button.
PrintVis will present all the possible “#up” combinations – based on the layout we have.
System knows that we can have 5 press forms in total (if we choose to run each of our 5 versions separately on its own form), and we can have up to 6 available spots on the form:
7. We will need to tell PrintVis how we are going to combine our versions on the press sheet.
As you recall, we have decided to run as follows:
Form 1 - Versions 1 and 2: 3up each on 20” X 26”, 4PMS + K
Form 2 - Versions 3 and 4: 3up each on 20” X 26”, change 4 PMS and K
Form 3 - Version 5: 6up on 20” X 26”, change 2 PMS and K
Start with version 1: we will choose “3up”. Click here:
This window opens, just click “OK”. We are not doing any plate changes yet:
Notice what is happening on our “Combined sheets” page: the net run quantity for version 1 is now in bold,
and below we see that we’ve used up 3 spots on the press sheet with 3 spots remaining
Now do the same for version 2:
We have now used up all 6 available spots on “sheet 1”. We need to create another “sheet” to continue.
Click “manage” and “Add a plate change”:
Note how PrintVis added a new plate change “sheet” – in different color:
Now click on the “3,333” link across the “Version 3”.
On this page, make sure to select the new “plate change” sheet. This will assign our Version 3 to a new 6-up sheet. Hit OK.
See what happened now: we’ve started a new press form and filled-in 3 spots on it:
Assign Version 4 to our new “plate change” form:
We now need to tell PrintVis which colors are changing on our “Version 3 and 4” sheet.
In our job example, we are changing 4PMS + 1 K, so 5 colors total.
Enter “5” into “Plate-/Colorchange Front”. This will tell PrintVis to add 5 extra plates to our run.
If you wish to specify EXACTLY which colors are changing, click on this "edit assist" button:
When this page opens, place a checkmark across each color that’s changing:
You now see which colors are changing:
Note: the first step is ALWAYS entering the NUBMER of colors changing and only then selecting which colors are changing. This is always a 2-step operation!
Now, to our leftover version 5.
I add another “Plate change”:
Since we are running that version “6up”, I click here:
We now have this:
In “Plate-/Colorchange Front” I would enter “3” and then specify that we have 2 new PMS and 1 new K plate:
At this point, PrintVis knows that we will need:
Form 1: 5 plates
Form 2: 5 plates
Form 3: 3 plates
--------------------------
13 plates total
Close this page.
8. On the “Job card”, notice we now see that we have the “2” plate changes, created by PrintVis based on our entries above.
This is the number of “plate sets”, not individual plates.
Also note tat we still see only one “sheet”, so there is only one press “calculation unit”, but with a few changes…
9. If you go into “Estimating” page now, you will see that PrintVis will calculate 13 plates total:
On the “specifications” page, you will see “8,335” net press sheets calculated.
The amount of scrap will vary, depending on the setup in your system.
For example, here is a screenshot from a scrap table that allows extra "Per Shift" and / or "Per Plate Shift" scrap:
10. When this Case turns into an Order and you generate a Job ticket, you will see this info added:
This is how PrintVis lets us know that we have:
- 2 plate changes
- 1st plate change switches 5 plates and 2nd one switches 3 plates
- form 1 runs 3up of versions 1 and 2, form 2 runs 3up of versions 3 and 4, form 3 runs 6up of version 5
The “Quantity” as you see is NOT the press sheets, but the individual version quantity.
For example, our forms 1 and 2 will produce 10M X 2 = 20M pieces and form 3 will produce 10M pieces.
(“4” and “2” are a result of slight rounding in calculations).
11. As you see, we still have only one “sheet” on the Job Card, but there is more data behind it that tells us how many plates are changing, etc.
We are using a single press calculation unit, with single “setup” and “wash-up” – but separate MR time for each plate..
NOTE: if we are using the “Combined Sheets” calculator, we can no longer manually adjust the sheet “Quantity” on the job card.
PrintVis takes care of the calculations, so that window is now “locked”:
NOTE 2:
Some “sheets” can be excluded from the “combined sheets” calculations.
For example, I could have created a new “sheet” just for the “version 5” and treated it as a completely separate part of the job, while ganging only versions 1-4.
So, we would have 40,000 of versions 1-4 “ganged” and 10,000 of version 5 run as usual 6up form.
This way, I can still manually overwrite the “Quantity” on my “sheet 2” to 10,000:
This would have added a whole new press calculation unit, with its own “setup”, “washup”, etc.
NOTE 3:
There is also a way to gang different sizes on the same press sheet, and with different orientation.
We can split the press sheet into multiple “zones” and then tell PrintVis how may-up of each kind we will have in each “zone”.
This requires another article.
NOTE 4:
There is a maximum amount of “number-ups” available on the “Combined Sheets” PrintVis page – and it is 32.
That means, when you are selecting how many spots each variant takes on a press sheet, it cannot be more than 32.
If we have a 64-up imposition for example, we can do 2 things:
Split the press sheet into “zones” and use a separate zone as 32-up.
Or, we can decide to split the “large quantity” version kind into 2 “sub-versions”.
Again, this requires another article.