Esko 24.03 Release Notes

Pin Columns for Customized Viewing

• Pin columns on your screen to keep essential information in view, enhancing workspace personalization and efficiency.

Content Sheet Approval – Discussion Improvements

• Enhanced discussion management now streamlines content sheet approvals with features like resolving discussions, disabling post-approval comments, and presetting discussion participants.

Enhanced Notification Preferences

• Manage your alert settings directly, opting out of unnecessary notifications for a cleaner experience.

Dashboard Task Creation Enhancements

• New dashboard buttons simplify task creation and customization, with immediate task start options and due date adjustments for better project alignment.

Convert on Download: Flexible Format Options

• Select allowed download formats for assets, with conversion happening in the cloud. Administrators can set this up, enhancing workflow with email notifications for ready downloads.

Search Text in Microsoft Office Documents

• Text search extends to MS Office documents for SaaS users, improving document searchability with “Live Text” search.

Variable Data Printing “VDP” Manager Module

• Streamline digital print reviews and approvals with the VDP Manager, allowing easy variant data loading and approval within artwork templates.

Faster Discussions for Large Groups

• Optimized backend checks make discussions up to 34 times faster, enhancing the experience in large projects.

Enhanced Content Sheet Render Speed

• Content sheets render up to 84% faster, offering a more responsive experience.

Improved Rendering Speed of Certain 3D Scenes

• Updates to the 3D viewer now allow faster loading of complex models, enhancing performance.

Enhanced Security with Veracode CVSS 3 Compliance

• Adherence to Veracode CVSS 3 standards marks a significant security milestone, focusing on comprehensive vulnerability assessment.

WebCenter Tasks Plug-In: Support for Structured Content Documents

• This plug-in now supports importing structured content into Adobe InDesign, simplifying artwork adjustments and template testing.

Secure Download Link with Verification

• Securely share files with external parties via download links protected by a verification code, enhancing file sharing security.

Integration Capability with GlobalVision Verify

• Support for integration with GlobalVision Verify enhances the text comparison suite, requiring a GlobalVision subscription.

Easy Upgrade to Registered Users

• Convert unregistered users to registered ones directly from the User Management page, streamlining user upgrades while retaining approval history.

Translation Filtering for Text Statements

• Translation filtering displays only relevant languages, reducing scrolling and simplifying updates.

Improved Rich Text Controls

• Formatting tools moved outside the text box, optimizing screen space for editing text statements in multiple languages.

InDesign Content Previewer

• Preview content in the Viewer using InDesign templates before generating artwork, aiding in accuracy.

• Fonto Editor Upgrade 8.6: Enhanced Language and Comparison Features
• Support for Right-to-Left languages and improved table comparison in the Fonto Editor enhances content accuracy and review.

Revert a Topic in Structured Content Editor

• Edit topics with confidence, knowing changes can be reverted to their library versions without impacting structured content documents.

Simplify Display Design

• Design in 3D around the primary products. Fill display shelves with products then select a resizable display design template from the library. The 2D structure is automatically created using 3D scene data and multiple views are auto-created, including planograms. This can SAVE HOURS of design time!

Optimize Material Usage with New Canvas Layout Tools

• New Canvas layout tools allow for finer placement of parts on a sheet. Overlap non-essential parts with automatic trimming to squeeze parts closer together and reduce the sheet size. Reducing material usage & waste can improve and help achieve sustainability goals.

Resizable Design Templates

• Create production-ready packaging and displays in seconds by choosing templates from the most extensive library of design styles. Try out 31 brand new FEFCO corrugated designs, now in the Style Catalog. ArtiosCAD now includes the complete FEFCO 12th Edition code book of corrugated design styles.

Step & Repeat Improvements

• The new ‘Static Grid’ feature facilitates working with jobs that have multiple flavors. Allowing users to mix artworks in one layout and still keep decorations simple.

Quality Assurance Improvements

• Compare your layout directly with the reference approved artwork using ArtPro+’s new feature. It highlights differences between the stations, crucial for identifying hidden quality issues. Complex layouts, special PDF blend modes, overlapping stations, or compromised artwork objects are verified against the approved reference, ensuring fidelity and quality.

• Flexo Plate Preview allows you to get a simulation of the flexo plate to find the areas that need attention.

UX Improvements

• Improved user visibility and control over handling color profiles to get to the intended color quality.

• The new ‘Scale and Rotate’ Tool and ‘Fit to border’ Tool enables fast and easy replacement of graphics, letting users to quickly select an object and align with target graphics.

Emergency Save

• Don’t lose your work anymore! ArtPro+ makes frequent backups of your open document(s). In case of an emergency, you can continue working with the recovered files

Folding Cartons in Stock Cases

• Calculate the best solution to pack knocked down flat folded cartons into existing stock cases. This Unique Value Proposition of Cape Pack enables Folding Carton Converters to optimize logistics, save on shipping costs and better protect their product. This completes the legacy Folding Carton Arrange feature on the desktop.

Multi-Dimensional Analysis for Pallet Loads

• Optimize pallet loads by up to 20% to get more product per load. Multi-Dimensional Analysis will calculate solutions with layers including multiple dimensions vertical to the pallet to increase total cube space utilization.

Integration – API Driven Workflow

• Ability to integrate with 3rd party systems (ERP, MIS, WMS) to send data to Cape Pack Cloud, automatically calculate and export graphics and information back to the source integration. Excel spreadsheet examples are available to download from the Cloud version and in the examples folder for desktop.

Quality Assurance Improvements

• The new version introduces Quality Assurance enhancements to prevent unintentional changes, including the Compare Auto-Rotate feature. This automatically aligns the reference file’s orientation with the artwork, eliminating manual rotation adjustments.

Die Ganging

• Ability to generate plans with two or more existing dies on a layout to utilize smaller die cutters on larger presses

Reusing Generated Dies

• Auto-generate plans with the same newly generated die utilized across layouts to reduce die making time and costs

Image Tracing

• Automatically generates precise cut tool paths around artwork content in cases where no shape paths have been specified in the artwork. Image Tracing is designed to be very fast while producing high quality shape tracings and works equally well with artwork imported from image- and PDF-based formats.

User Experience

• We’ve added a floor grid and an orientation indicator to Studio Toolkit so you can instantly identify the scale and front of the 3D model. This was one of the most popular Esko Ideas requests from customers

Increased Performance

When creating assemblies or displays with many repeated models, performance when editing and viewing could be slow and exported files could be quite large. Adding support for “instancing” of repeated objects delivers the following performance improvements:

• In Adobe Illustrator, faster rendering in both Designer and Visualizer Quality, resulting in 3x faster frame rates in the Studio window.
• Exported 3D PDF, ZAE and GLB files with repeated objects are now significantly smaller.
• Smaller files will load faster in Share & Approve 24.03 and WebCenter 24.03.

Enhancements

• When panels of a carton occupy the same plane, flickering can occur in some 3D viewers. We’ve added “hints” in the Fold Tool of Toolkit for Boxes and in the Export dialogs that tell you when there are coincident panels. Fixing these situations will deliver faster rendering and avoid these artifacts when viewed in 3D. See the Studio documentation for more details.
• All Esko plugins have improved support for user interface (UI) scaling on higher resolution screens.
• Offloading ray-traced rendering to Esko Cloud for Apple Silicon processors is now officially supported.

Realistic Interactions with Animation

• Create interactive actions for an even more immersive virtual experience. Examples include doors or gates that automatically open when you approach or lights that turn on or off using a wall switch

Usage Dashboard

• Understand how you and your team use Store Visualizer with a personal usage dashboard to ensure you’re getting the most out of your software investment. Sharing your usage with Esko helps us learn about your configuration and use of our products and enables us to focus on the features that matter to you most. Your data is protected and only available to you, your colleagues and Esko should you choose to opt in.

Greater Performance on Apple Silicon

• Store Visualizer now natively supports Apple Silicon processors for 15-35% greater performance over Apple computers with Intel processors. Performance depends on project size and complexity; the more complex the project, the higher the performance gain.

Enhancements

• The brightness of materials can now be adjusted.
• Self-illumination can now be added to any material, for effects like backlit objects.
• Spring-type joints were added to physics, allowing the easy creation of automatic doors, self-closing doors on freezers, etc.
• Movie scene events will now handle layer changes better.
• Model light and shadow settings were moved from the material editor to the model browser.

Support for Viewing DXF and CF2 in the Viewer

• Never leave the Automation Engine viewer again, when needing to view DXF and CF2, structural files

View Processing Steps in the Viewer

• Ensuring your pre-press document has the correct processing steps applied to the correct objects and separations

Improved Products View

• Viewing and running your favorite workflows on products without leaving your favorite product view

High Quality Product Thumbnails

• Essential for viewing finer details on Automation Engine product previews

Convert Color for Digital Print

• Convert Color for Digital Print (PDF+). Converting color in a PDF whilst maintaining all metadata is essential for Native PDF workflows

New PDF Action Lists Added

• Select Artwork Separation will select all separations used in objects in artwork layers (=not processing step layers).
• Select object by attribute can now select object according to screening (screening is/not applied, screening set with given name is used)
• Select separation used in processing step, will select only separations used in specified processing step (e.g. select separation used in processing step White regardless of name of this separation)
• Remove separation from object will remove selected separation from object (both stroke and fill)
• Select separation by printing method can use wildcards to define the printing method. Makes sense mainly for custom printing methods but it works also with the pre-defined ones. The real string used inside PDF file is used for comparison (without translation). These wildcards can be used also in Optimize PDF task in AE.
• Remove color profile tags action can discard or apply color tags applied directly on objects. This avoids confusing situation with color profile assigned to documents
• and different color tags assigned to some objects.
• Exporting and importing tickets will now include not only the used PDF action list but also the used (called) sub action lists.
• New possibility: Specify mark type was added to select object by attribute action.
• New action Fit to Page box was added
• White underprint action was extended to allow selection of custom ink for white color. It is now also possible to generate white below marks.

PitStop 24.03 Synchronized

• As of now, PitStop will release together with the Esko products. Automation Engine 24.03 comes with PitStop 24.03.

Upload Structural Design to Share & Approve

• The ‘Upload Files to Share & Approve’ task now has an option to upload the linked ARD/ZAE along with the PDF+ or Normalized PDF file
• This allows the approver user in Share & Approve to view a file in 3D (without having to browse for the structural file)
• The structural file cannot be downloaded by the approver.

Pack Proof

• PackProof on Automation Engine SaaS. Adding the capability for an Automation Engine SaaS User to be able to use PackProof solution. This helps expand the usage, or adoption, of Automation Engine SaaS

Color Pilot

• Cloud Color service API update – ColorCert & Applications. Expanding on our Cloud connectivity story. Converters will now be able to import Esko color resources i.e. inks. directly into the ColorCert software.
• Color Preflight – Equinox. Users can now run Equinox color preflight in AE.