Issue with Freeflow Core and Iridesse presets

[MikeL · Accepted solution]

ok, so according to Xerox 3rd level support there is no software fix for this. What you have to do is change the workflow. You "need to define the media stock in FFCore under "Define Job Ticket Defaults".

I have done this for each printer destination in FFCore and it appears to solve the issue. I was worried that you would have to select all of the other default settings but you do not have to. You just have to select the media and the other settings are taken from the Fiery preset chosen for that job at the Freeflow Core level. We have been running like this for a full day and it appears that the jobs have come over properly.

Initially I chose the LPR solution mentioned below but then the quantities that came over were only set to 1 and did not match the quantities that wee being sent over.

[MikeL]

To answer your questions 

- we are using the most recent version of Fiery and have all of the patches and updates available loaded.
- We are using Freeflow Core Version version 6.2.7 (build 29381)
- If the job is asked to print it wont because we do not have the 85 x 11 LEF stock loaded in the printer so it does want to use that stock.

After working on this yesterday, according to Xerox, this is the situation.

"The problem appears to be related to the "IPP" printer submission from FreeFlow Core to a Fiery Virtual Printer on the Iridesse." This is either a Fiery problem or a FreeFlow Core problem, they are not sure which.

They are investigating at level 2 & 3 support.

For now they have suggested the following work-around
"Change the FreeFlow Core Print Destination to "Use LPR" and enter the Virtual Print Queue name. This uses LPR instead of IPP for job submission."
This does appear to work but it does not use Bi-directional communication at the Queue level for status.
We are waiting now to hear back from Xerox with a more permanent fix. 

[Ken895741-XRXL]

So a question for you. I understand that in Command Workstation you are seeing a size of 8.5x11. Got it.  However, my question to you - if a job 'just comes in' to the Fiery and you select PRINT, does it print on the right media and right size of media?

Again, this most likely is 'not' a FreeFlow Core issue - most likely a Fiery issue. (I am more than happy to point at Core when the problem belongs there). The Fiery software typically 'scans' incoming PDF files to 'try' and determine the size. I have seen this be off before (even for jobs not coming from Core).

What version of Fiery Command Workstation are you running on the Iridesse? The latest version is 6.8.0.184 I believe. Updating CWS 'could' help resolve your issue.  

For lights out printing, it matters what 'actually' prints out regardless of if the Fiery CWS shows the wrong paper size - so please confirm how the jobs print.

[MikeL]

Thank you for replying, very much appreciated!

Because we are still in Instalation mode and we were told that Freeflow Core is fully compatable with Fiery Xerox is now looking after trying to get this running properly. We need to be able to run in lights out mode and this has to be fixed. As I explained, the only information that we have noticed dropping off is the actual paper size. All of the other information that we have for each paper in our Paper catalogue is coming over properly. The Preset is pulling the correct paper from the paper catalogue and all of the other specifications IE weight, coating, colour etc etc is all correct when we look at the job properties on the Fiery. Even all of the other spepcifications listed in the preset such as colour, colour profiles, layout etc. are all correct and match the preset. It even has the correct Preset listed in the drop box at the top of the page when you open job properties. Its just defaulting at the 8.5 x 11 LEF paper size.

[Ken895741-XRXL]

This is a hard one. Really the issue as I know it lives more on the Fiery side. I have created what we call SPAR (bug report) to Xerox hotline for Fiery issues like this about 6 months ago. You would 'expect' the Fiery Virtual Printer to honor what you set and lock in. However, I found that many items would 'drop' and not be set correctly. There is currently at least one Fiery (Iridesse) patch to help with this (fixed my issue). Unfortunately it is a bit of work to collect all the screen shots, settings, and Core workflow to submit to hotline. But that is probably the only way this will get fixed.

I would recommend making sure your Fiery has all of its patch updates applied (due to at least the one patch to fix issues of communication with Core).

Then work to get it escalated to our hotline. While you may submit the issue to the FreeFlow Core hotline, odds are it will end up being a Fiery patch.

[MikeL]

We just added an Iridesse printer and we use Freeflow Core to automate sending jobs to all of our printers. We also have an IGen and a Versant.

We are having issues with the jobs reading the stock established in the Fiery preset. The stock size keeps defaulting to 8.5 x 11 LEF and we have to manually go into each job and reset the stock.

The jobs come over with the correct preset chosen and the rest of the media information is correct but the size is always 8.5 x 11 LEF regardless of the size specified in the Preset. All of the media specifications, including size, in the preset are locked and the corresponding virtual printer media information is also locked. We do not understand why the stock size keeps defaulting to 8.5 x 11.

We can reset it by rechoosing the preset on the Fiery.

We do not have this issue with the Versant Fiery or the IGen Freeflow systems when jobs are sent through Freeflow Core, it just happens when we send to the Iridesse.

We are very experienced with Fiery and Freeflow Core and we feel we have exhausted everything we could think of to correct this.

We are using Freeflow Core version 6.2.7 Build 29381 and we are using Fiery  FS400 Pro.

Any suggestions?