Meistergram/H2 Controller

Transcription

1 12/13/1997 Note: XGW is shorthand for the Xenetech Graphic Workstation software package. Feature changes and additions for XGW to run Meistergram Laser and Rotary machines This version of the XGW software accommodates the Mesitergram family of engravers. The features added will depend on the version of the software you are running. The version designed to run the rotary line will work with any machine currently using Meistergram/H2 version D 1.4 software, at either 2400 or 9600 baud. It will load.lay files (the D1.4 job save format) as job files, allowing the new user direct access to years of job saves. It will load.log files (the ASCII logo format) and convert them to XGW.XLG files as part of the process. These logo files are in the format distributed by national logo founderies and is the older H2 logo format. If you have XyberCAD, use it to convert your.lgo files back to DesignCAD format and use DesignCAD to save out an HPGL file. XGW will load the.plt file you create directly. Meistergram/H2 Controller Section A: Set up the Serial Port: To get XGW to talk to your Meistergram/H2 controller, you must first set up the serial port you will use in the Windows Setup: Please see attached document on How to set up your Serial Port Section B: Engraving Table Defaults... Once the serial port is configured, run XGW. Select Engraving Table Defaults... in the Page Menu. This dialog allows you to configure the system to run a variety of engraving machines. Follow the steps: 1) Under Engraving Table Size:, set the correct Table Height: and Table Width: for your machine. Remember, these two numbers should match the advertised engraving area of your machine (example, a 2412 machine is 12" high by 24" wide). 2) The Mesitergram/H2 machines are considered Table Type 15 by the XGW. If this is a first time installation, make sure the number next to Table Type: says 15. Use the help in the dialog for more info on table type. 3) Under the heading XY Steps per inch, the value displayed must read 800. If you use a different value here, the machine will engrave the wrong size, so double check this setting. Use the help in the dialog for more info on XY Steps per inch. 4) Under the heading Z Steps per inch, the value displayed must read 800. If you use a different value here, the spindle will move the wrong amount, so double check this setting. Use the help in the dialog for more info on Z Steps per inch.

2 5) Under Serial Comm Port, the communications port you will use is displayed. It defaults to Com1:. If you are using a different port (Com2: for instance), click down and click on the correct port. Failure to match the port to the one attached to the machine will make the system inoperable. 6) X LeadScrew Compensation (in Steps) : and Y LeadScrew Compensation (in Steps) : should be 0. Use the help in the dialog for more info on LeadScrew Compensation. 7) In the To Engraver Dialog, in this version, certain items DO NOT WORK yet. These are: A. Z Stroke B. Z Home C. Z Delay D. Z DN Speed E. Z UP Speed F. Z Float G. XY Speed H. Grid Speed Index I. The Engrave/Drill function J. Spindle Motor: Route/Drill K. Any of the Cutter Set at Start functions. L. Pause based on Char-Line-Plate Switch: M. Pendant Mechanical Home Switch Lock: For now, ignore these values. If you wish to make a change to Z stroke or acceleration, use the Mesitergram furnished program MPMT.EXE to modify these stored values in the controller. 8) Make sure the X and Y offsets in the To Engraver Dialog match your machines offsets. 9) See the To Engraver Dialog help on the other items to see how they work. 10) When you go to the engraver, XGW will process the job to a Spool File. Once the job is finished calculating, XGW will call its internal spooler and send the job to your controller as a background task. You are free to use the XGW software to lay out more work, or you may run other programs during the spool process. The only thing you cannot do is quit XGW while the job is spooling. To keep you up to date on the spool process, XGW will print Buffer n of nn in the status bar at the bottom of the screen, where n is the number of 1 kilobyte buffers sent, and nn represents the total job size in kilobytes. If you want to abort the spool process, press the CTRL and ALT keys at the same time. This will signal XGW your wish to stop the download. CTRL and ALT pressed together is the standard XGW method of aborting any draw or write process. If you need to initialize the Meistergram/H2 controller, you can do so by sending a blank job. By this we mean a job with no lines of text set up. The blank job will send the required initialization codes to the controller each time you send a job. Sending a job that has engraving will initialize the controller, but the machine will probably not engrave the job. The controller will be busy initializing and miss most of the job download 11) If your wish, you may export.jbs files in the D1.4 format..jbs files are exactly the same information that is downloaded to the controller. You can then use the Job Spooler function to set up a que of engraving. 12) To load a.lay file, click the Open... selection in the Files menu. This is the same choice you would use to load XGW.XOT (job save) files. Choosing this menu selection will open the Item Selector dialog. In the bottom left corner of the dialog, you may select the type of file he wishes to open. The current selections available in this pull down selection field are

3 .XOT,.JOB,.KPR and the new choice.lay. For more information on the original file types, see the XGW help..lay is the file format used by the Meistergram D1.4 job storage. To load an old D1.4 job file, select.lay as the current file type, then select the directory or disk drive where the jobs are stored. XGW will then list all the files stored on that device. Click the mouse on the.lay file you wish to load. D1.4 software uses two character names for the its fonts. SB matches XGWs Gothic.fnt. It is important for you to be able to load the.lay file and match the fonts to those used in the original layout. For this reason, the Xenetech.ini file contains a section that allows you to cross-reference the Meistergram fonts to Xenetech fonts. Use the Edit INI selection in the Misc menu to check, add or edit the chart found there. The following sample shows how this chart looks. [D14FONTS] SB= GOTHIC.FNT RB= TROMAN.FNT 6H= HELVET6L.FNT FU= FUTURA.FNT CB= DLCENT.FNT SC= SCRIPT.FNT DB= DBLOCK.FNT default= GOTHIC.FNT See the help in the Edit INI dialog, or the manual for information on locating and editing this chart. Miestergram Lightning Laser The basics: To engrave as a vector, a line must have a cutter suggestion (in the toolkit) equal to or less than the laser spot size. If the laser is producing a.003 inch spot to engrave with, setting a cutter suggestion of.003,.002,.001 or.000 will cause XGW to engrave the image in vector format. If the item to engrave has a cutter suggestion of.004 inch or greater, the item will output to the laser as a raster image. If an item has a cutter suggestion of greater than.003, but if you have Thin Line in the Line/Group menu selected, XGW will still rasterize the image. For proper appearance, you should always select Normal Line in the Line/Group menu. If your wish, you may export.jbs files in the Lightning Laser format..jbs files are exactly the same information that is downloaded to the controller. You can then use the Job Spooler function to set up a que of engraving. As a rule, when you are working with bitmaps images, you should ALWAYS be in the non-wireframe mode. If you are in the wireframe mode, XGW will vectorize the bitmap and output it as such to the laser. Section A: Set up the Serial Port To get XGW to talk to your Meistergram Lightning Laser, you must first set up the serial port you will use in the Windows Setup:

4 Please see attached document on How to set up your Serial Port Section B Engraving Table Defaults... Once the serial port is configured, run XGW. Select Engraving Table Defaults... in the Page Menu. This dialog allows you to configure the system to run a variety of engraving machines. Follow the steps: 1) Under Engraving Table Size:, set the correct Table Height: and Table Width: for your machine. Remember, these two numbers should match the advertised engraving area of your machine (example, the Lightning Laser machine is 16" high by 30" wide). 2) The Meistergram Lightning Laser machines are considered Table Type 9 by the XGW. If this is a first time installation, make sure the number next to Table Type: says 9. Use the help in the dialog for more info on table type. 3) Under the heading XY Steps per inch, the value displayed must read If you use a different value here, the machine will engrave the wrong size, so double check this setting. Use the help in the dialog for more info on XY Steps per inch. 4) Under Laser Comm Port, the communications port you will use is displayed. It defaults to Com1:. If you are using a different port (Com2: for instance), click down and click on the correct port. Failure to match the port to the one attached to the machine will make the system inoperable. 5) X LeadScrew Compensation (in Steps) : and Y LeadScrew Compensation (in Steps) : should be 0. Use the help in the dialog for more info on LeadScrew Compensation. 6) Vector Mode Maximum Cycles (-5 to +40): This value provides adjustment of the maximum pulses skipped when commanded pulse width is less than minimum pulse width. It is used to adjust corner density. A range of -5 to 40 (integers only) will cover almost any situation. This value is not often changed within a job. Default value is 0. 7) Vector Mode PWM Factor (-5 to +40): This value provides adjustment of the minimum pulse width for modulation of the laser. It is used to adjust corner density. A range of -5 to 40 (integers only) will cover almost any situation. This value is not often changed within a job. Default value is 0. 8) Raster Mode Maximum Cycles (-5 to +40): This value provides adjustment of the maximum pulses skipped when commanded pulse width is less than minimum pulse width. It is used to adjust corner density. A range of -5 to 40 (integers only) will cover almost any situation. This value is not often changed within a job. Default value is 0. 9) Raster Mode PWM Factor (-5 to +40): This value provides adjustment of the minimum pulse width for modulation of the laser. It is used to adjust corner density. A range of -5 to 40 (integers only) will cover almost any situation. This value is not often changed within a job. Default value is 0. 10) Use Data Compression on Color output : Yes or No. You will want to use the data compression abilities of the download software. This will decrease the size of the download significantly on 16 and 256 color bitmaps. This feature

5 has no effect on black and white (2 color) bitmaps. If it is not already selected, click on Yes next to this feature. 11) All Lines Rastered as Individual Lines: Yes or No. Choosing Yes for this option will cause XWG to create individual bitmaps for each line of a job during Raster output. Selecting No will cause XGW to create Banded Bitmaps 1 inch tall, from top to bottom of the job. The second method is MUCH more efficient when you are doing multiples. The laser will raster the entire job, left to right, top to bottom as one object. This means lines placed on the same baseline across plate boundaries will raster at the same time. If you raster individual lines, the machine will do one line at a time as a raster image, losing motion efficiency. However, the download time for a job done as individual lines is less. So, for single plates, you may wish to use this feature. If you are doing a job with multiple colors (laser power), choosing to do individual lines means each color (power) is done with the amount of preset power for that color. Section C Color/Power... Select the Layers... choice in the Color Menu to set the amount of power associated with each of the 15 base colors XGW uses. To the left of each color icon you will find an input field. The field inputs allowed range from 0.00 to percent. White is the 16th base color XGW uses and it is always assumed as 0.00 power. The percentages entered here will be used in conjunction with the base power percentage found in the To Engraver Dialog described below. The items to the right of the color icons will only have effect if you are using the vector mode of the laser. The help in this dialog explains their operation. The item in the bottom left Stamp Mode creates a job with the background completely routed out and the lettering left behind. Shoulders created by this process reinforce the lettering. This function is designed for use with a lot of small plates in the multiple process. Section D To Engraver... 1) Table X Offset: & Table Y Offset: effect where the machine engraves. If you are doing raster engraving, we have found that it is best to always have at least a 2 inch X Offset. This allows the bridge of the laser room to accelerate and decelerate, thus speeding the job process. Set the X offset value to 2 inches, and line the left edge of your plate with the 2 inch mark on the top material backstop in the laser. Note: IPS stands for Inches Per Second 2) Raster Travel Speed IPS: This is how fast the machine will move with the laser off (traveling from one part of the image to another) while in the raster mode. Allowable numbers range from.300 to inches per second. It is perfectly acceptable to set this value to If the laser has the chance, it will accelerate to 40 inches per second. 3) Raster Cut Power %: This value represents the maximum power the laser will have in the raster mode. Allowable numbers range from 0 to percent.

6 Remember, this number is the maximum. Actual output amount will be factored by the color percentage described in Section C, Color/Power.... 4) Raster Cut Speed IPS: This is how fast the machine will move with the laser on in the raster mode. Allowable numbers range from.300 to inches per second. Our tests have shown inches per second to be a good maximum value for most jobs. To apply more power to the work surface, try slowing the machine down. 5) Vector Travel Speed IPS: This is how fast the machine will move with the laser off (traveling from one part of the image to another) while in the vector mode. Allowable numbers range from.300 to inches per second. It is perfectly acceptable to set this value to If the laser has the chance, it will accelerate to 40 inches per second. 6) Vector Cut Power %: This value represents the maximum power the laser will have in the raster mode. Allowable numbers range from 0 to percent. Remember, this number is the maximum. Actual output amount will be factored by the color percentage described in Section C, Color/Power.... 7) Vector Cut Speed IPS: This is how fast the machine will move with the laser on or firing in the vector mode. Allowable numbers range from.300 to inches per second. Our tests have shown inches per second to be a good maximum value for most jobs. To apply more power to the work surface, try slowing the machine down. If your vector letter quality is important, slow the machine down. 8) Laser Spot Diameter: This value represents the diameter of the laser spot when focused. This value will vary depending on the focal length of the lens you are using. There are at least 3 different lenses available. Standard is.003 inches. Lenses with.0015 and.006 inch spot sizes are available. 9) CutGrid Power: This value represents the maximum power the laser will have in the grid cut out (Vector) mode. Allowable numbers range from 0 to percent. Unlike the other two power settings found in this dialog, this is the actual power used by the laser. 10) Grid Speed Index: This is how fast the machine will move with the laser on or firing in the grid cut out mode. Allowable numbers range from.300 to inches per second. Our tests have shown to inches per second to be a good range for most jobs. To apply more power to the work surface, try slowing the machine down. 11) Laser Waits for Start Button to Start: Since the Meistergram Laser does not have an Auto switch for starting the machine automatically, this software setting allows the machine to self start. This allows you to start a job calculation and leave. The system will start as soon as the job is calculated. This also allows you to use the Job Spooler to link together a series of jobs, with the machine going home and starting the next job without the operator. 12) Greyscale BMP Output to: Dark Background or Light Background This function tells XGW how to use the power setting for engraving color or greyscale bitmaps. If you are engraving a photograph on black anodized aluminum, you must tell XGW that the background is dark. Otherwise, the image will engrave as a negative image. In this mode, if you set dark background, Black will interpret as no power and white will be full power. If you select light

7 background, XGW will output black as full power and white as no power. Please note that this function only works on 16 or 256 color or greyscale bitmaps. 13) Laser Routes Background on Raster Images: This feature in effect creates a background route for all the engraving in a job. This mode works only on straight text output and has no effect on bitmaps. This function should not be confused with the Stamp mode described elsewhere in this document. Unlike the stamp mode, there are only two power settings used, black for the background and white (no power) for the text. See the To Engraver Dialog Help for information on the following items used in this dialog. 14) Axis Orientation: 15) Grid Cutout is: 16) Plate Rev/Norm: 17) Display this Dialog on Download: 18) Output to Engraver #: Section E Other 1) IMPORTANT! - For now, you must configure your video for 256 colors for the raster Stamp making mode of the laser to work!! As soon as we can make other resolutions work, it will be included in an update. Any resolution (640x480, 800x600 (recommended), 1024x768, etc.) is okay to use, just make sure the number of color for the video display is set to 256. This only effects the Stamp mode! Black and white bitmaps are not effected by the number of colors set for the video. Your general engraving in the raster mode is done in black and white. 2) XGW makes temporary bitmaps in the current working directory (usually c:\xenetech) when it is creating raster output for the laser. The bitmaps created for the banding mode are named BMAPx.BMP, with x indicating the sequence top to bottom (BMAP0.BMP is first map, BMAP1.BMP is second map, etc.) The user may choose to have XGW automatically delete these files after use. In the Xenetech.ini file, in the [Laser] section: DeleteBMP = 1 If DeleteBMP is equal to 1, the bitmaps are deleted after use. If DeleteBMP is equal to 0, the bitmaps are not deleted. If you choose to not delete the bitmaps, you can import them as regular bitmaps.