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Few here know the name Roger Foss but he is one of the best “sign painters” I’ve ever met, his design capabilities are second to none. I have been fortunate enough to have him as a mentor and a friend for the past 20+ years!
With some of your help I would like to give a little back to him.
He’s a Mac person and I know nothing about Mac so understand that I may not ask some of these questions properly.
He’s going from a G3 to a G4 and has Flexi Pro Version 6.4 and a Roland PC 950 cutter. Flexi loads fine in the G4, he can work in it fine, but when he shut down, the computer locks up. When he reboots and shuts down without opening Flexi the computer turns off properly.
Sometime in the coming year Roger intends to upgrade to a G5 and knows he needs to upgrade Flexi also. He and I have talked about jumping ship and not being a slave to the sign design software Nazis. I intend to go with Corel X3, he is leaning towards Illustrator.
Any insight as to what would be a good move for him in terms of file compatibility, learning curve, working with his cutter, (which by the way he knows it’s time to upgrade that too) and work in the G4 for now.
Thanks ahead of time for any advise you can give Roger.
Jeff
-------------------- Jeff's Lettering Lisa,Luke,Dara, and Jeff Spradling 5742 Shattuck Rd. Belvidere, Il. 61008 815-544-0167
Surviving another day. Posts: 626 | From: Belvidere, IL USA | Registered: Jul 2000
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I'd say Corel delivers a lot more for the money than Illustrator. What's the price of the whole Corel suite versus Illustrator alone? And then, what if you add PhotoShop and the other Adobe elements?
As for learning curve, beyond the manuals there are lots of Corel tutorials and newsgroups online. A good place to start looking is unleash.com.
And, there are folks in this BB who can tell you all about cutting from Corel. If you need to do that. Otherwise, you can export a CorelDraw vector as .eps and import it into a dedicated sign program.
-------------------- Bruce Williams Lexington KY Posts: 945 | From: Lexington, KY, USA | Registered: Mar 1999
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Probably want to stick with Illustrator since:
1. Flexi seems to work really well with AI files from my experience providing artwork for other sign shops that use Flexi.
2. The last version of Corel for Mac is version 11 so at some point there will be no more upgrade options. It's a safe bet there will always be Illustrator upgrades for Mac and not to forget a larger number of AI/Mac users than Corel/Mac users if help is ever needed.
There is a plug-in for Illustrator called MagiSign (www.magisign.com) that allows for cutting directly from within Illustrator and it has a lot of plotter drivers.
If he upgrades to a Graphtec plotter, Graphtec has software called Cutting Master 2 which works with Illustrator on Mac.
I can't help with the shutdown problems, except maybe there's a bug fix for Flexi that might take care of it if it was a widespread issue.
-------------------- "If I share all my wisdom I won't have any left for myself."
Mike Pipes stickerpimp.com Lake Havasu, AZ mike@stickerpimp.com Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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Just a small clarification Jeff. Is he quitting Flexi before shutting down? Even Illy can hang occasionally if you don't quit it first manually.
Next, there are no G5's unless he's buying a used one. Their all Intel processors now. His biggest jump will be from OS 9 to OS X. I'm assuming he's on 9 yet as it looks like he's using the same version of Flexi.
I'm with Mike as far as Corel goes. Yes, it is cheaper and a great program but face it. Illustrator is the standard vector application of the rest of the graphics world and the compatibility between the rest of Adobe's apps is just great.
-------------------- Bill Modzel Mod-Zel screen Printing Traverse city, MI modzel@sbcglobal.net Posts: 1357 | From: Traverse City, MI | Registered: Nov 1998
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Ther has been some smoke on the horizon about corel doing an update for MAC.. Dotn know the fact. just runors,, dotn know how true..
-------------------- Leaper of Tall buildings.. If you find my posts divisive or otherwise snarky please ignore them. If you do not know how then PM me about it and I will demonstrate. Posts: 5274 | From: Im a nowhere man | Registered: Jul 2001
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Bill, he says it’s when he tries to close Flexi it locks up. If he turns on the computer and does not open Flexi the computer shuts down fine.
He has a buddy that upgrades to new Mac stuff fairly often so I think that is where the G5 would come in. The G4 has 3 hard drives one with OS 9 and one with OS 10. He has Flexi on the 9 one because he thinks Flexi 6.4 is to old to operate on 10. I hope this makes sense.
I know this would be easier dealing directly with him but for now at least, he is not an online person.
The guy he gets the computers from is helpful with the Mac stuff but as you know most people don’t understand the twists the sign software throw into the mix.
Thanks again for your thoughts!!!!!
Jeff
-------------------- Jeff's Lettering Lisa,Luke,Dara, and Jeff Spradling 5742 Shattuck Rd. Belvidere, Il. 61008 815-544-0167
Surviving another day. Posts: 626 | From: Belvidere, IL USA | Registered: Jul 2000
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Jeff, If he's a one man shop, Flexi upgrade will keep him designing & cutting/printing for a long time. Need more muscle, Corel is tough to beat for the price but will require a PC box to get current. If any thoughts on growth and playing nice with others? Intel Mac 3gig quad core dual processors with 16 gigs of ram, dual 30" apple monitors, CS3 suite, Adobe font library and an ipod plugged into their cool speakers. After he's broke, talk to me about the monitors.
-------------------- Ron Helliar Marysville Sign 11807 51st Ave. NE Marysville, WA 98271 (360) 659-4856 Posts: 263 | From: Marysville, WA USA | Registered: Feb 1999
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quote: Bill, he says it’s when he tries to close Flexi it locks up. If he turns on the computer and does not open Flexi the computer shuts down fine.
It's a 99% chance it's a corrupt "Flexi" preference file. Under OS9, go to hard drive > system folder > preferences.....Once inside the preference folder look for (usually in alphabetical order) a FlexiSign folder, inside of that you'll find a "FlexiSign Prefs" file, drag that file to the trash but don't delete it yet. Also well in the preference folder, he might as well delete the "finder" preference file. Restart the computer and reopen Flexi and then try and shut down and see if the problem is fixed.
VERY IMPORTANT: after removing the old preference file, he will have to re-enter his password for the dongle key before it will allow Flexi to start. Once he gets Flexi opened he'll have to reset his Flexi preferences under the edit menu and re-choose his cutter etc.
But before resetting "his" prefs, I would try to shut down first and see if the problem is gone. If not then, just drag the old prefs. file out of the trash and put it back, then trash the new one that was made.....This way he won't have to reset his prefs. although if all this occurs, his problem is not solved but at least he won't have to reset his prefs.
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Good advice Joe. It's been long enough that I'm forgetting OS 9 stuff although the can also apply to X.
-------------------- Bill Modzel Mod-Zel screen Printing Traverse city, MI modzel@sbcglobal.net Posts: 1357 | From: Traverse City, MI | Registered: Nov 1998
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Bill funny thing is, OSX is the one I worry about but only because it's so stable. I rarely ever have to do any maintenance and when it's required, you have to think a little deeper, from lack of experience.
Where as the Classic OS was more quirky and required more diligent maintenance. It's ingrained in my brain till death do we part
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