Cartographic Data Printed

Make Three from One

 

Christian Wittich and Volker Karnahl.

At the Thuringian State Office for Surveying and Geographical Information in Erfurt, Germany, all plans and cartographic data are printed on thirty Canon large format printers in ten different locations. Mixed print jobs are not output by means of conventional multi-roll systems, but are distributed to three printers at each location. This saves the State Office a lot of time and paper. The print management solution, Microbox CAD Station, processes the automated distribution of formats to the corresponding printer and supports the transparent handling of multiple file formats from a range of applications.

 

 

Controlled Centrally

Consequently, officials at the State Office defined the special requirements for the new solution.  According to Volker Karnahl, divisional head at the Thuringian State Office for Surveying and Geographical Information in Erfurt, “a multi-roll system with three paper rolls was required in order to cover all standard paper formats in accordance with the German Institute for Standardisation.” In addition, the printing process had to be controlled centrally by print management software to ensure maximum output efficiency, coupled with the flexibility to handle the numerous file formats. The State Office placed particular importance on low ink consumption. The solution also had to be able to process different print sizes, from A0 to A4, with less administrative cost. “We wanted to guarantee the automatic selection of paper sizes in order to minimise waste as well as to offer a central application for the preview and print of all customised plotter and image formats” says Volker Karnahl. With the integration of a colour scanner the entire solution became a modern reproduction and archive system.

 

As part of the German tender for this ambitious project, Canon’s partner, Microbox GmbH based at Bad Nauheim, was able to offer the authority at Erfurt the right software solution. “Once the requirements had been defined, it was clear to us that our ‘MultiPrint’ system, consisting of the Microbox CAD Station and several Canon large format imagePrograf iPF500 and iPF700 printers, was the ideal solution”, recalls Michael Holtij, regional manager at Microbox. Thanks to its client server structure the CAD Station, developed by Microbox, transmits all printable file formats generated by a single application to the respective printer, including print preview. The server automatically defines the correct output device, thereby minimising paper waste and rework times. “The printer will be connected to the CAD Station and will subsequently function as a virtual multi-roll system which, in many respects, outclasses conventional multi-roll systems”, says Michael Holtij.  Initially, officials at the State Office of Surveying had the opportunity to test the efficiency of the solution at Microbox GmbH’s annual in-house exhibition in Bad Nauheim, at the end of September 2006. “Subsequently, we linked a Canon iPF500 system via the CAD Station as an experiment in Erfurt. All locations could directly produce test prints via the test system”, recalls Holtij. By the end of November, the State Office had decided in favour of the Canon and Microbox solution. Up until the end of 2006, all ten locations of the State Office for Surveying had been equipped with a total of 30 systems. Today, each location has access to two Canon imagePrograf iPF700 systems and to one iPF500 system. In each case, the systems are connected to a printing server with a Microbox CAD Station. Two of these locations were additionally equipped with a large format colour scanner which allows the output plans to be scanned into an archive system in colour.

 

The State Office’s solution also has optimised workflows. Data files to be printed are opened up in diverse applications, such as GeoGraph and SiCAD, and then individually sent to a predefined print device, a process that is controlled by the Microbox CAD Station. Nowadays, experts at the State Office are able to process mixed print jobs using a single seamless process. All print jobs generated by the diverse applications are automatically distributed to the corresponding printer. The user can also define the method of output manually. In addition, the Microbox CAD Station adopts a rotation system. This allows each plan to be printed continually on the rolls, in the correct positional arrangement. The software also provides a standard cost analysis by means of detailed accounting information. As well as reducing paper consumption, the multi-print solution accelerates the print process which currently works three times faster than before.

 

“With our partner Microbox GmbH, we are able to provide the State Office with a highly flexible and groundbreaking solution.  Although the initial costs for three single Canon large-format printers did not differ from the initial costs for a conventional multi-roll system, the solution is faster, more flexible, and more economical. It removes the problem of excess paper, which is a substantial expense factor”, explains Wilko von Oostrum, product manager for LFP systems at Canon Germany.

Thanks to this “virtualisation” and the operation of three printers at each location, many processes at the State Office for Surveying and Geographical Information have been optimised. “Never before has printing been as simple as it is today”, confirms divisional head Volker Karnahl. This is proven in the everyday processes. As a result of the virtual print solution implemented in Erfurt, the user no longer has to wait until a format has finished printing during a mixed print job to then exchange the various roll formats and restart the printing process. “Of course, this would be the case when running a single multi-roll system.  And, it’s a relatively laborious procedure”, explains Wilko van Oostrum.

 

Expand the Solution

And plans are already underway to expand the Erfurt solution. In the future, the Canon imagePrograf iPF5000, iPF8000, and iPF9000 large-format machines will be integrated into Microbox’s multi-print solution. “These systems will allow us to cover all print widths, from 17 to 60 inches, providing this solution with more possible print combinations, which will be groundbreaking”, says Michael Holtij.

 

With special thanks to Canon Europe.

www.canon.com