Waste marks

The waste mark feature in Pandora software gives you a way to quickly identify areas where cutting dies need to be adjusted.

Pandora version 8.0: Ability to place Die Waste marks around the outside of die stations without encroaching on the bleed

When you apply the Die Waste SmartMark to a job, Pandora automatically applies unique numbers to the substrate areas that are outside the die and that will be discarded as waste when the cutting process completes. If you detect a problem with the way the job is cut, you can compare the number on problematic scrap with its counterpart on your proof or your layout in Pandora, and adjust the die as needed.

Waste marks are always located outside the bleed area and they are applied only to the front side of layouts. (On two-sided layouts, waste marks are placed only on the front side.) If you are using the Die_WasteMark.pdf mark that is one of the standard Pandora SmartMarks, it is set to registration and will appear on all separations unless you choose otherwise.

Pandora version 8.4: Ability to identify waste areas within die stations

For example, when you need to cut out pieces of board to create a locked base, the information that you can identify from the cut line type might help to select a suitable anchor for the die station mark handling. If this is difficult, you can manually place marks for this purpose.

Pandora 8.4 offers the following options for placing the mark in the different types of waste areas:

• External Area Line Type: If you want to place waste marks outside the die, specify the dieline type number that will be used to define the waste areas between die stations.
• Internal Area Line Type: If you want to place waste marks within die stations, specify the dieline type number that will be used to define waste areas.
• Both Areas Line Type: If you want to place waste marks in both the external and internal areas, specify a line type number that will be used for both areas.
• Distance from Edge of Die: Specify the distance from the edge of the dieline type to place the mark. The unit of measure is the one specified as the default in the Pandora Preferences.

Numbering scheme for waste areas

Because waste areas are typically an irregular shape, the placement of numbers may appear confusing (for example 1-1,1-2,1-3, 2-1,2-2). You can use this general rule for locating a specific waste mark:

• The first number (the one before the hyphen) identifies the number of the die station.
• The number that follows the hyphen identifies a location around the die station. 

Customizing waste marks

You can also create your own mark if you need to use a specific font or bounding box for the Die Waste SmartMark. Or, you can select any kind of standard Pandora mark and transform it into a waste mark. Whether you create your own waste mark or modify an existing mark to be a waste mark, you will need to anchor it to the Waste Area option and accept all the other settings that appear when you select the Waste Area option. 
Note: The customized marks may allow for more or fewer die waste marks on the substrate. If you use a large font, it may encroach on the artwork, but you can resolve this by placing the mark in the back of the stack order. 

After the Die Waste SmartMark is automatically placed on the layout, you can unlock it and move instances of it to other locations or delete instances that you do not want.