can anyone advise if i should upgrade signlab please?

[Peter Normington]

Phil, it depends on what output you need, the latest versions tend to lean towards print and have a wide range of tools for digital.
If you are mainly just cutting vinyl there is not a great deal of advantage to upgrade, Have you looked at the cadlink demos on their site, gives you a good insight as to the capabilities of the latest package.

Peter

[Phil Grundy]

Thanks Peter,

I mainly use for the cutting side of things, do you use sign lab Peter.

[Peter Normington]

I have used signlab for over ten years now,
I am mostly happy with it, gots its odd bits like any other program, but I find the support very good.

Peter

[John Childs]

quote Phil Grundy:

don’t have a problem with it, but a am afraid of falling behind with not upgrading.

If it’s doing what you need – why worry? 😀

Save your money.

[Phil Grundy]

Cheers lads, like you say it handles everything i through at it.

I was more worried about falling behind and missing something.

[Gavin MacMillan]

There are some very good features on the newer versions. Mainly weld features and some of the other tools being handy to get to. If you get in touch with a supplier they should be able to give you a comparison so that you can see exactly what would be different. It may speed up things you do every day.

[Robert Lambie]

we have 5 signlabs running none are higher 5 rev12…
my main reason for staying out is general layout for text input etc we prefer the old 4.95 layout. (daft probably, in know)
we use it for designing and running cutters, have used it for many years now and would not change. in my eyes its the sign makers pencil case. 😀
we do digital printing also but use troop RIP and adobe photoshop for graphics.

i hear lots of really great features in the newer versions but not so much on the cutting side of our game… yes there is some real cool cut graphics tools also, but to benifit from them means all our guys would have to get used to the new layout format.
That said, brian hays at impact sent us a demo cd and andrew really likes it but everyone else prefers to stay on the old.

[Brian Hays]

As others have said Phil, it’s the colour stuff that has changed most since version 5.0. But there is other useful stuff if you are just cutting Vinyl, like better compatibility when importing/exporting. PDF support, & plenty of new tools etc.

If you did upgrade your Expert version it would go up to Vinyl Pro. Cadlink are doing a special deal for Sign UK whereby you can upgrade to Signlab 7.1 Print & Cut for £650+vat, it would normally be £500 to upgrade to Vinyl Pro then £750+vat to go from Vinyl Pro to Print & Cut. So a pretty could deal if you think you may in future need the Colour stuff, or later buy a Printer & need a RIP. Of course even if you don’t buy a Printer it may be very useful for originating artwork if you wanted to design any print jobs them sub them out.

Worth popping over to Cadlinks stand & having a look if you are at Sign UK next week 😎

[derek longhaven]

If you’re only cutting vinyl I can’t see the point of upgrading?

If you were printing too though, now that’s a different ball-game.

If printing there’s seriously only one choice- Flexi-sign pro would be the way to go signlab/cadlink and the competitors are miles behind

[Peter Normington]

quote derek longhaven:

If you’re only cutting vinyl I can’t see the point of upgrading?

If you were printing too though, now that’s a different ball-game.

If printing there’s seriously only one choice- Flexi-sign pro would be the way to go signlab/cadlink and the competitors are miles behind

Having made such a general statement, can you please elaborate?

Tell us in what way Flexi is ahead? otherwise your statement is not valid. its a bit like saying Ford are the best car makers…..

Peter

[Brian Hays]

quote derek longhaven:

If you’re only cutting vinyl I can’t see the point of upgrading?

If you were printing too though, now that’s a different ball-game.

If printing there’s seriously only one choice- Flexi-sign pro would be the way to go signlab/cadlink and the competitors are miles behind

Well that is all tremendously helpful Derek. And your reply makes no attempt to answer Phil’s question. A question perhaps you are not qualified to answer, unless maybe you just have a copy of Signlab 7.1 Print & Cut somewhere there going to waste.

And spending well over £2000 on Flexi Sign Pro seems a tremendous idea rather than £650. Not to mention the fact that you won’t be able to open the jobs you have built up over many years without exporting etc. And the fact you will have to learn an entirely new program.

[Rod Young]

quote Phil Grundy:

Hi, I have been pondering whether to upgrade my sign lab 5.1 rev 6.3 to the new version. Just wondering if anyone has done this.

The package I am using now is the expert version & don’t have a problem with it, but a am afraid of falling behind with not upgrading.

Would like to know what I am missing.

You’ve received some good, balanced feedback here. In particular, give Peter’s comments some serious thought wrt evaluating the sort of work that you want to add to your offerings. Once you know the extra work that you fancy, take a look at products like SignLab Print and Cut, EngraveLab, etc., and consider how the features would be applied. You can look at the online videos through CADlink InfoSource to give you ideas.

With respect to new cutting features that would be of benefit, someone had asked about that last summer and people seemed happy with the additions. Unfortunately, searching didn’t turn up that post, though I did find this one where it was a similar question to yours about upgrading SignLab. Perhaps this sort of summary will help you.

https://www.uksignboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=24182

Cheers,

Rod at CADlink

[derek longhaven]

quote Brian Hays – Impact:

Well that is all tremendously helpful Derek. And your reply makes no attempt to answer Phil’s question. A question perhaps you are not qualified to answer, unless maybe you just have a copy of Signlab 7.1 Print & Cut somewhere there going to waste.

And spending well over £2000 on Flexi Sign Pro seems a tremendous idea rather than £650. Not to mention the fact that you won’t be able to open the jobs you have built up over many years without exporting etc. And the fact you will have to learn an entirely new program.

Guess who sells signlab and not flexi… hmmmm , unqualified biased advice from a dealer? thats ever so helpful. I answered the question perfectly, why upgrade if cutting vinyl, something you selectively chose to ignore of course only because you sell the product.

[Peter Normington]

Derek,
I doubt if you will get a reply from Brian, as he will be busy at signuk.

A brief outline of the advantages of flexi over signlab would be useful though, especially regarding print.

Peter

[coolinshot]

quote Robert Lambie:

we have 5 signlabs running none are higher 5 rev12…
my main reason for staying out is general layout for text input etc we prefer the old 4.95 layout. (daft probably, in know)
.

Not daft in my opinion Rob – 5 is great for vinyl work and I too preferred the 4.95 mode because you had lots more control over individual lines.

I once showed a file to a Signlab Rep and challenged him to reproduce it in Signlab version 6 and in one paragraph but he couldn’t.

His method was to ungroup the paragraph then adjust each line to match my file (all very well until the customer decides he wants a different font and you have to sweep over every single line to change it)

We now use version 7 and I think Signlab have got back on track but I never use it for printing – initial layout maybe then export to Illustrator and print through a RIP

Stick with 5 if you don’t intend to print but I think you will eventually go into printing in the same way that most of the old school threw away their brushes (reluctantly I know) in favour of vinyl

Col

[Brian Hays]

quote derek longhaven:

quote Brian Hays – Impact:

Well that is all tremendously helpful Derek. And your reply makes no attempt to answer Phil’s question. A question perhaps you are not qualified to answer, unless maybe you just have a copy of Signlab 7.1 Print & Cut somewhere there going to waste.

And spending well over £2000 on Flexi Sign Pro seems a tremendous idea rather than £650. Not to mention the fact that you won’t be able to open the jobs you have built up over many years without exporting etc. And the fact you will have to learn an entirely new program.

Guess who sells signlab and not flexi… hmmmm , unqualified biased advice from a dealer? thats ever so helpful. I answered the question perfectly, why upgrade if cutting vinyl, something you selectively chose to ignore of course only because you sell the product.

Your opinion is as biased as mine, if not more so. You obviously have a dislike of Signlab. I don’t have a dislike of Flexi. They are both excellent programs, they both do the same thing, if sometimes slightly differently. As it happens we can supply Flexi so you are wrong there as well. It’s rare people switch software they have used to for years, for many reasons. Not least having to learn a new program.

And I suggested Phil actually had a look at the program & make his own mind up. I wouldn’t push unnecessary software upon people. Anybody that knows me would know that.

Suggesting Flexi is the only choice is laughable. I am sure there are many people out there that are able to produce results as good with Signlab as you can with Flexi. Is the person holding the mouse that’s more important than the software.

[Gavin MacMillan]

Can all later versions of signlab not be set to use the 4.95 text layout? I remember having this problem years ago but thought it was solved by ticking a box? Like I say it was years ago so I can’t really remember.

G

[Peter Normington]

if I remember the 4.95 text layout was dropped after version 5.

Peter

[Nigel Hindley]

I used 4.95 for the first few years of signmaking I found it easy to use and excellent – I was very wary of upgrading as time had passed and that many new issues it was going to be a major task to switch.

I bought an upgrade but didn’t actually install it for over a year when I did it was very different, at first, I thought not as easy to use but after a while – I honestly don’t know how i got by with the old one. It is superior in so many ways one of the main things as mentioned above is the importing and exporting of files you just cannot do some files with 4.95. It is simple with the later versions.

I would say it is beneficial to upgrade every now and then so you dont fall behind and it becoming a fear of all the new tools to learn. However this is exactly what software manufacturers rely on its a case of do you want to play the game or not. If you can save time however which we do, bundles of it – it was worth upgrading for us and I’m sure we do not use all the new tools.