Putting the Pieces Together - Structure (Part 1)

So you've got your first job. Now we need to put the pieces together. First part is the structure file. At some point you will need the actual cad file of the structure for the box. Most likely it is an artioscad file. The black lines denote artios_Cut, red dotted lines are artios_Crease, and you will have dimension call outs (in a spot color blue), copy safe margin (in cyan), glue tabs (green) and bleed (magenta). If you are working in folding carton the copy safe margin and bleed are inset and offset at 1/8" (1/16" will probably work, but its best to play it safe). If its corrugated its 1/2" (1/8" if you want to push it). As you start getting into triple wall it may change more.  Cut lines are where the board gets diecut. Crease is where it gets folded. Copy safe margin is the distance thats safe for copy and images to be placed without worrying about it getting cropped off or rolled over onto another panel. Glue is where the box glues to the other side and should be free of print and coatings so the box glues to same material and not ink.

If you dont have a bleed, talk to your (or customers) structural designer and have them add bleed before they export you an eps file. You can also add an esko plugin for illustrator to import artioscad files directly to illustrator. They come in locked layers. To remove the layers you then need to save it down as an illustrator 3 file, unlock and save back up to your current illustrator version. The problem with most Artios files is that when you open them in illustrator, a lot of the line segments are separated and you will need to go thru and delete all interior cut and crease lines (on a copy of the structure file) and join all the broken segments. Then offset (say .125" for folding carton) to get your bleed and inset (offset -.125" for folding carton) to get your copy. In artios they can add a bleed and copy safe margin thats joined. Then you all you need to do is reverse the bleed from stroke to fill and change it to its appropriate color. Or delete if there is no bkgd color.

Once you have your structure file cleaned up, copy and paste it into your illustrator template file in the structure folder. Then separate the dimensions, glue and copy safe into another layer (called dimensions callout) and move the bleed to the bkgd layer. I then leave the dimension layer turned off (be sure to turn it back on when moving the structure file) and lock the structure file. Now all my editable layers will be the image and lineart layers.