The Production tab holds the job's setup cards (Media, Cutter, Printer, and Press run or Costs, see Sheets, rolls, margins and equipment), the job's Order (customer, due date and priority; items without their own Customer or Due take these, see Item properties) and, under Selected layout, everything about the job's selected layout: how it is printed, how it is cut, how long that takes and what it costs.
The Order card's due date and time are in the team's time zone (see Teams, members and roles), or in yours when the team has none (your profile's, else your browser's). The card names the zone unless it's your browser's. A due date without a time means 17:00.
Reading the layout#
Open Layout key at the top of the Production tab to see the canvas symbols: margins, cut contours, bed boundaries, registration marks and print marks. The key starts collapsed to leave more room for the production settings. Roll layouts also show any bed keep-out bands and segment ranges.
The current sheet's gang group and offset inks appear here when available. They follow the sheet or plate you are viewing, including when you preview another solution. The Selected layout card below still describes the job's chosen layout.
Artwork colours and ordered quantities stay beside each artwork in the left Artworks list. An item split across several forms also shows its form count for the layout on screen. For its full breakdown, open Item distribution below the selected layout.
The selected layout card#
The card shows the job's selected layout, chosen with Use this layout (see The live Solutions list); without one it shows the best layout of the run. When the viewer previews another layout, a note above the card says "Previewing #4 in the viewer" with a button to use it. Clear selection goes back to the best layout.
The card shows the layout's sheets or length, the print and cut times from your printer and cutter, and the prices when they have rates. Its Export menu has the imposed PDF, the method's own files and the cut file (see Exports).
Badges in its header show Selected, and warn about pieces that are unplaced, a layout that was Edited by hand, a selected layout Edited since export, and pieces that overlap or sit too close. Below the card come the method's details: Trap layer: on or off (whether the imposed PDF prints the items' trap layers: on for offset, off for digital), the Item distribution of every item over the forms (see Keeping items together), and the offset Forms & inks table or the digital Groups (see Ink limits, press units and extra passes and Ganging rules: what may share a form).
N-up: cutting#
An N-up layout shows how a guillotine cuts it: its forms, lifts and knife strokes, then the cut sequence of each form, step by step.
| Figure | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Forms | Distinct sheets in the layout. |
| Sheets per lift | Sheets the knife cuts at once: knife lift ÷ sheet thickness. |
| Lifts | Piles to cut, over all forms and their copies (see lift). |
| Strokes per lift | Knife strokes for one pile, with identical piles stacked. |
| Total strokes | Strokes for the whole job. |
| Knife stages | The most turn-and-cut stages any form needs. |
Open Cut sequence for each form. Each row is one knife stroke: the pile being cut (piles split as you go: 1, then 1.1 and 1.2), the turn to give it first, the Back gauge to set, and the action: Trim (an edge off), Separate (between pieces) or Waste (an offcut). "×2" means two identical piles are cut together. Point at a row, click it or move to it with the arrow keys, and the viewer highlights that knife line.
If you move pieces by hand in Edit mode, the sequence is no longer the one the run made: the card says "Pieces were moved: run again for a new cut sequence." A layout that a guillotine can't cut any more shows Not guillotine-cuttable with the number of pieces in the way.
Strips#
A strips layout lists its strips and slits, such as "6 strips · 5 slits (dashed in the viewer)", and each strip with its form, item (or "mixed") and width.
Offset: plates and impressions#
An offset plan shows Plates & impressions: each plate with its artworks × slots, run, makeready and printed sheets, then the plan's plates, printed sheets and cost. Overrun per artwork compares each item's ordered and produced pieces. See Offset press runs.
Times and costs#
Print time comes from the printer and print mode, cut time from the cutting machine, and costs from their rates plus the material cost. Without a cutter or printer the card says so and shows no time for that step. The same figures, for every layout, are in the Report.
Warning: Sheet work is timed with wide-format equipment
Offset and N-up sheet work is timed and priced with your team's printer and cutter. Until sheetfed presses and guillotines can be set up as equipment, those times come from your wide-format printer and flatbed cutter, and may not reflect a sheetfed press or a guillotine.