Triple Triangle Inc. on Wednesday released Mechanical Cubed, a trio of InDesign CS plug-ins — Job Spec Cubed, Slug Cubed and Crop Cubed and — aimed at graphic studios that want to automate the creation of advertising mechanicals. Job Spec Cubed creates and updates entire mechanicals based on information in a database or on a PDF form. Designers can use it to decide which slug should be employed for a job, with the ability to modify it before deploying it, as well as use Job Spec Cubed to automatically update mechanicals based on document changes and convert comps into mechanicals.
Slug Cubed enables users to set up a document with bleed, trim, live and fold information once and then use it to automatically populate future projects. It supports more than 60 automatically updating fields and can turn any InDesign layout into a slug.
Crop Cubed works off the information created with Slug Cubed to create crop and fold marks, measurement and fold distance arrows and fold and gutter guides. Users can still review and modify those marks, arrows and guides — either individually or in groups — before proceeding with a project. Crop Cubed supports both the InDesign and Quark workflows: in the former, page size equals trim size and the marks are on the pasteboard while in the latter, page size is larger than the trim and the marks remain on the page. Users can switch between either as needed.
The Mechanical Cubed bundle is US$329 while Job Spec Cubed, Slug Cubed and Crop Cubed are $79, $199 and $129, respectively, per seat. InDesign CS is required.
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