Importing dies

Import die file in the Tools & dies tab of Equipment reads a die drawing from your die maker or your CAD system, finds every up on it, and keeps each distinct shape as a single-up dieline you can quote and match against. You choose whether to save only the single-ups, or also the die itself as a tool you have, with its stations. Drop the file on the dialog, or choose it; the preview appears in a second or two (a very large file is read in the background and the dialog waits for it).

Die file formats: CF2, DXF and PDF#

Native CAD files (ArtiosCAD workspace and manufacturing files, DDES) aren't read: ask for a CF2 or DXF export. The format is read from the file's first lines; a CF2 that starts with something unusual is still read when its name ends in .cf2 or .cff2. A small file that nests its sub-drawings or blocks so deeply that it would place millions of lines is refused before it is read (Too complex).

Line types#

Every line of the file comes from a source: a CF2 line code, a DXF layer, linetype or colour, or a PDF spot colour or layer. The preview lists each source with how many lines it has and their length, and the kind it maps to: Cut, Kiss cut, Crease, Perforation, Score, Partial cut, Bleed or Ignore.

CF2 codes 1 to 4 are cut, crease, perforation and partial cut; other codes wait for you to map them. DXF layers and PDF colours are read by their names ("Crease", "Rill", "Perf", "Kiss cut"…), in English and German. A source that nothing names is highlighted until you pick its kind; the rest of the die still reads. Tick Remember for CF2 files (or DXF, or PDF) to keep your choices for the next file of that format.

A PDF that draws every line in one spot colour and tells cut from crease by layer ("Dieline" on the layers "Cut" and "Crease") is listed by layer, so each layer gets its own kind; a layer named for dimensions or notes is ignored.

When no source is a cut yet (the knife is on a layer or a code nothing names), the die can't be read, and the dialog shows the line types table right there: map the source that holds the knife to Cut and the preview appears.

Imposition and prepress line types map onto these kinds: thru-cut is a cut, a reverse crease is a crease, a zipper is a perforation, a cut-crease is a partial cut, and varnish, foil, bleed and technical lines are ignored. On a label die the kiss cut is the label's outline.

Units#

CF2 and DXF files usually say whether they are in inches or millimetres. When a file doesn't, the size of the die board decides when it clearly can, with a warning; otherwise you pick the units before the die is read.

Drawn from the die side#

Some files show the die as the die maker sees it, from the knife side, which is the mirror image of the printed sheet. Turn on Drawn from the die side (mirror) for those. When every match a file finds is mirrored, the preview asks whether the file is drawn from the die side; it never flips the file without asking.

How the ups are found on multi-up and common-line dies#

The ups come from the cut and fold lines, not from groups or layers in the file:

• Pieces joined by a crease, perforation, score or partial cut belong to one up; pieces that share only a knife are separate ups, so common-line dies (neighbours sharing a cutting rule) split correctly, and the shared rule counts once in the die's rule length.
• Stations that interlock (flaps nesting between each other, rows turned head to head) keep their exact positions.
• A knife rectangle around everything is a frame: it is left out of the ups and of the priced rule. Labels or tags inside a board outline are the ups however wide the border is, and a crease drawn a little past the knife doesn't turn the frame or the scrap into an up.
• Scrap between cartons and window slugs are waste pieces; they are priced as knife but aren't ups.
• Combination and tag dies keep every closed shape, small tags included.
• A knife two ups both draw, even a hair apart (two outlines sharing one edge, or a curve drawn twice), counts once: it is a common line and is priced once.

Identical ups (turned or not) are one shape; a mirrored twin of an asymmetric up is a shape of its own. The preview shows "6 ups · 1 shape · 3 across × 2 around", the die rule and the common line. Click a piece to switch it between up and waste (or Tab to it and press Enter), and use Split at this line on two ups joined only by a fold or a perforation. While the preview is being worked out again, the drawing and Save wait for it.

Single-up dielines#

Each shape is saved as a single-up dieline: its outline, windows, inner cuts and fold lines, seen from the print side. Its card in the preview shows its size, area, cutting rule and corners, and a chip when it matches a die you already have ("Die on hand: D-2001 · 6-up", or "Near: … · 0.8 mm" for a die within a millimetre that you should check first). Give it a name and a family, and for cartons the Box facts the file can't tell: gluer, glue points, grain and caliper. A shape that is another shape of the same file mirrored (a left-hand version) is kept as that shape's twin, not as a second single-up.

Then save:

• Save the single-up dielines only adds them to the Single-up dielines tab of Tools & dies.
• Save as a die we have also adds the die as a tool: its number, type, status (on hand, or at the die maker with the date you expect it), owner and customer, the press sheet it runs on and where it sits on that sheet (centred, or a distance from the lead edge; the press gripper and the die-cutter lead edge must be the same sheet edge), stripping and blanking, and the die-cutters it mounts on.

Opened from an estimate's box row ("Import a die file…"), the import saves the single-ups unlisted and gives the row the shape you pick under Use for this part (a folding carton or corrugated single-up); Also save the die as a tool on hand adds the die as well (see Cartons and boxes). The dialog says the row took it only once the estimate's tab answers; if that tab was closed or reloaded, Add it to the library lists the single-up so the row's "Use a CAD dieline…" finds it.

The file itself goes into Files, under Tools & dies: into the die's own folder when you save a die, or next to the single-ups otherwise. If Files can't take it there (the folder was put in the trash meanwhile, say), the die and its single-ups are still saved and the file stays in Die imports. Single-ups open in the Box designer from their page and export as PDF, DXF, CF2 or SVG.

Near-identical shapes#

When a shape is already in your library, the import links to it (Use the existing single-up, the default), even when the new file is in another format; choose Save as a new single-up to keep a copy anyway. When a shape is within a millimetre of one in the library, you choose Different die: keep separate (the default) or Same die: link; a pair you keep separate is remembered as different dies, so the next import of that shape doesn't ask about it again.

Attach a file to a tool#

Attach die file… on a tool's page reads a die file into that tool: its stations, shapes and rule, keeping the tool's number, cost, history and status. It is offered on active dies with stations only (steel-rule, rotary and label dies), not on plates, counters or archived tools. If the file has a different number of ups than the tool, the preview says so and you confirm before it is saved. Attaching again replaces the stations and shapes. See stations for what the tool's page then shows.

Messages#