Welcome to the Kodak Packaging Layout Automation Software Administrator Guide.

The Packaging Layout Automation (PLA) software enables you to automate the creation of packaging layouts, improving your shop's throughput and helping to reduce costly errors. It is a feature of the Kodak Prinergy Workflow software that works in conjunction with Kodak Prinergy Rules-Based Automation (RBA).

Use the PLA software to perform the following tasks:

• Set up your Prinergy Workflow system to automatically create a packaging layout when you enter layout information into a user-created form, or when a new job is added to your Management Information System (MIS).
• Set up your Prinergy Workflow system to validate the layout information on user-defined criteria. For example, define the width of the selected substrate as less than the width of the selected plates.
• Create unpopulated layouts with placeholder artworks.
• Open and edit layouts in the Kodak Pandora step-and-repeat software to make bleed resolution adjustments or to add specialized folding carton marks, and then use these edited layouts in the PLA software as template jobs.
• Create a new layout based on an existing layout.
• Create multiple step-and-repeat jobs in one action by simply inputting all required artworks, when creating different lot numbers for the same product family.
• Create multiple die-based layouts in one action by adding a die and all required artworks, when creating different lot numbers for the same product family.
• Use automatically sized substrates (press sheets or web widths/cutoffs) to help minimize the amount of wasted media and eliminate the need to manage the Kodak ShopMap.
• Create a substrate (press sheet or web width/cutoff) "on the fly," eliminating the step of creating the substrate in ShopMap.
• Import your existing resources from Pandora, including your substrate sizes, plates, and marks.
• Set up custom fields and custom events to create unique automated workflows with the ability to stream different jobs through different workflows based on key characteristics.

System and client requirements

See Requirements.

Limitations

• PLA does not accept edits to layouts made by the Pandora software if the layouts contain versioning layers.
• Auto Split Bleed Overlap is intended for simple bleed overlap resolution. For multiple corner joins and complex bleed resolution, the overlaps should be resolved manually in Pandora.