Orion User Guide - Menu Tabs PDF

Menu Tabs 35 Static Menu Tabs When the Orion Graphical Software Package is first opened there will be three menu tabs in the top left corner of the Orion Window. · File · Home · View File The File  tab contains normal message...

Menu Tabs 35 Static Menu Tabs When the Orion Graphical Software Package is first opened there will be three menu tabs in the top left corner of the Orion Window. · File · Home · View File The File  tab contains normal message operation and related functions such as opening, saving and printing messages also some system function buttons . 36 Menu Tabs File> New New  will open a new message creation window . File> Open Open  is for opening an existing message that has b een already been created in Orion. File> Save Select Save  to save changes to the current message. File> Save As Select Save As  to save the current message wi th a different name . Menu Tabs 37 File>Save Selected as Bitmap Any selected elements in an open message can be saved as a bitmap image. The bitmap file can be saved to any location. To save an element as a bitmap file navigate to the location where you would like to save the file and enter a file name in the File name  box. Select Save  to save th e file. File> Close Select Close  to close the current message. After selecting Close  you will be asked if you want to save the changes for the message before closing. 38 Menu Tabs File> Send To Printer Send To Printer &  will send the current message to the connected printers for printing. The Send Message to Printer  window will open. Send Message To Printer Window The Send Message To Printer  window will list all the printers assigned to the message being sent on the left. On the right side of the wi ndow additional connected printers are listed. The Reset  button will reset printers assigned as target printers to the message pre assigned printers . The Refresh  button will update the list of connected printers available to add to the message targ et. Menu Tabs 39 If you have made chan ges to the current message you will be asked if you want to save before sending the message to the assigned printers. 40 Menu Tabs File> Export To USB Disk Export To USB Disk &  will save the current message on a removable USB disk. Export To USB Disk Window The Reset  button will reset printers assigned as target printers to the message pre assigned printers . The Add  and Remove  buttons will move printers back and forth to the target list. Double clicking on a listed printe r will also move the selected printer (s) to or from the Target printer list. The Printer Messages:  button will offer options for dealing with existing messages. Use the drop down arrow and select the desired option. Select the OK  button to send th e current message to the USB Disk . Menu Tabs 41 Export To USB Disk Generic Printer: In the Export To USB Disk  window there is an option to select Generic Printer  at the top of the list of available printers. If Generic Printer  is selected the message e xported to the USB disk can then be walked around to any printer of the same type and loaded onto the printer. The message will not be tied to a specific printer ID. The Generic Printer option is available for JetLine and CoPilot printers. 42 Menu Tabs File> Pr in t Selecting Print &  from the file drop down menu will allow you to print the current message on a selected office type printer. This is useful to see what a message will look like. Attention! Print &  does not send the message to a Squid Ink industria l ink jet printer. It is only used to print a copy o f the current message on an office type printer. File> Print Preview Selecting Print Preview &  from the File  drop down menu will display a preview of the current message. This is useful in seeing w hat the current message will look like. Menu Tabs 43 File> Help Selecting Help  from the File  drop down menu will display the help window. In the help window you can access the Orion Software User Guide , the Jetline User Guide, the CoPilot User Guide and inform at ion about the currently installed Orion Software . Should you need to contact Squid Ink Technical Services look in About Orion Software  to determine the current version of Orion !" and the maximum number of printers can be licensed. 44 Menu Tabs File> Activation The Orion Activation &  button is located along the bottom margin of the File  drop down menu. Select the Orion Activation &  button to open the activation window. If the Orion Software installation is new or you have to change printers licensed to the current installation use the Orion Activation &  window. Note: The Orion !" software package was shipped with a free license for one printer. License Activation Window Menu Tabs 45 License Status: There are three (3) levels of licensing stat us for the Orion !" Software. · Tier 1 W ill allow one (1) printer to be connected to the desktop and Operator Mode  for a windows !" tablet . · Tier 2 Will allow unlimited printers to be connected to the desktop and tablet . · Tier 3 Will allow and unlimited numbe r of printers to be connected to the desktop and include Database Server and AutoData Server functions . Licensed Printer List: The licensed printer list shows the printers that can be used by the current Orion Software License. To change (add or subtr act) printers from the licensed printer list select the Change  button. Check the boxes for all the printers to be licensed for network use and select OK . 46 Menu Tabs Attention! A printer must be in the Licensed Printer List to be selected in Send Message to Printer  dialog . License Number: There is a license number for the Orion Software Package located on the DOWNLOAD INSTRUCTIONS  card that came with the CoPilot or Jetline printing systems . If you have purchased a license for multiple printers e nter the number in the License Number:  box. Activation Method There are two ways to activate the installed Orion Graphical Software Package. Automatic Activation : To automatically activate Orion, select the Automatic Activation  radio button and the Activ ate License  button. Manual Activation: To manually activate Orion, Select the Manual Activation radio button and call or fax the installation ID to Engage Technologies to get an unlock code. When you have received the unlock code, enter it in the Unlock Code: box and select the Activate License  button. Menu Tabs 47 File>Options Select Options &  from the file drop down menu to set some default values for attached printers and to check for software updates. Attention! Options  in the file drop dow n menu only set the default values for the connected printers such as a default font size or barcode type. Options  does not configure the connected printers. System Options Window : General Tab Inkjet Printer default Font Inkjet Printer Default Font  are the default font setting to be used when create text elements for piezo printers such as the Squid I nk CoPilot or AutoPilot printing systems. To change the default values use the drop down arrows for f ont, height and width. Select the OK Button in t he System Options window to apply the ch anges . DOD Printer Default Font DOD Printer Default Font  are the default font setting s to be used when create text elements for DOD printers such as th e squid Ink Jetline printing system. To change the default va lues use the drop down arrow and select the desired dot matrix font. Select the OK Button in the System Options window to apply the changes. 48 Menu Tabs Barcode Defaults Barcode defaults  are the default barcode attributes . To change the default values for barcode attributes input or use the drop down arrow for a list of attributes for the value you wish to change. Select the OK Button in the System Options window to apply the changes. Check for Updates Occasionally software and/or firmware upda tes will become available from S quid Ink Manufacturing. Click on the Check for updates &  button to update your printers and software. A Check for Updates  window will open and display the current software and firmware levels. If there are updates available yo u will be asked if you want the updates. Follow the on screen prompts to appl y the updates. Note: A warning will display if the user exports multiple updates to the same printer type. Menu Tabs 49 System Options Window: Print Station/ Message Tab The System Options Message tab contains default settings for displaying and saving messages. Message Edit Message Edit  Check the boxes for the defaults you would like to apply here. Multiple substrate surfaces message View mode: Use the drop down arrow to set h ow you would like the view for multiple surfaces displayed. 50 Menu Tabs Print Station/Message Storage Location File Storage Location  is the location where message files will be saved. If Default is selected files will b e saved to the default location . The default location is C: \Squid Ink \Orion \Printnode \Messages. Orion will create a folder for each print station containing messages and a DELETED  folder at this location. Tip! If a message has been accidently deleted it is possible to find and restore the deleted from the DELETED  folder. If Alternate (local or remote) is selected a navigation window will open where you can select the desired location where message files will be saved. Print Station/Message Export is used to transfer a ll print station and message data to another location. See the Print Station/Message Data Transfer  section in this manual. Print Station/Message Import is used to retrieve all print station and message data from another location. See the Print Statio n/Message Data Transfer  section in this manual. Menu Tabs 51 System Options Window: Communications Tab Use the Communications window to set communication defaults. Communication Defaults  are the default settings network printers will use to communicate. 52 Menu Tabs System Options Window: Appearance Use the App earance tab to define the default settings for how the message will be displayed on screen. Ribbon Style: Use the drop down arrow to select a color for the message area background. Select OK  and the selected color will be applied to the message area background. Load color from preset: Use the drop down arrow to select preset color definitions for the message area. Selecting preset definitions will override any custom color selections. Select Yes  to continue. Menu Tabs 53 Workspace Color The colors for selected areas in the message workspace can be changed here. Changing a color is very simple. To change a color, s elect a box for the area you would like to define and a color palate will open. For example, to change the display color for Substrate , select the Substrate box and the color palette will display. Using the Color Palette you can select from any number of colors or create a custom color. Select OK  and the new color will be ap plied t o the selected message area. 54 Menu Tabs Element color You can change to color message elements are displayed in. Change an element color is very simple. Select the type of element you wish to change. A color palette will open. For example if you wish t o change the color in which Date and Time are displayed select Datetime . Using the Color Palette you can select from any number of colors or create a custom color. Select OK  and the new color will be applied to the selected element type. Menu Tabs 55 Home The Home  tab contains three groups : · Message · Print Station · Tools Home>Message Group The Message section contains functions for managing messages created in the Orion Graphical Software Package. New Mouse clicking the New  icon will open the Ne w Message window. In the New Message  window you can select the print station, name the message and apply any existing templates. Select OK  to open the new message. 56 Menu Tabs Open Mouse clicking on the Open  icon will allow you to find and open an existing message. The Open Message  window will list all existing messages assigned to the selected print station. In the above example there are two messages listed under print station Practice 1 . A preview of the selected message will be displayed on the right side of the Open Message window. Use the Print Station:  drop down arrow to select a different print station. Select a message from the list and Mouse click on OK  to open the selected message. Or double click on a message in the message list. You c an select more than one message to open them at a time. Menu Tabs 57 Open File Open an existing message from a disk file. Click on Open File  and navigate to the file location to open the desired message. Save Clicking the Save  icon wil l save any changes to the current message. Ensure that you really want to save the changes before clicking on Save . Save As Save As  will allow you to save the current message under a different name. Enter the New name for the message in the Message Name:  box and click OK  to save the current message under a new name. 58 Menu Tabs Close Clicking the Close  icon will close the selected message. You will be prompted to save the changes before closing the message. Select Yes  to save the changes before closing. Select No  to close without saving. Send to Printer Send the open message to the printer. Selecting this icon will open the Send Message to Printer  screen. Send to Printer Window Select the printer you wish to se nd the current message to and select OK . A progress screen will open. Menu Tabs 59 Message Transfer Progress Window After the message has successfully transferred, select Close  to close the progress screen. 60 Menu Tabs Export t o USB Disk Export t o USB Disk &  will save the current message on a removable USB disk. Export t o USB Disk Window The Reset  button will reset printers assigned as target printers to the message pre assigned printers. The Add  and Remove  buttons will move printers back and forth to the target list. Double clicking on a listed printer will also move the selected printer(s) to or from the Target printer list. The Printer Messages:  button will offer options for dealing with existing messages. Use the drop down arrow and select the desired option. Select the OK  button to send the current message to the USB DSK. Menu Tabs 61 Export t o USB Disk Generic Printer: In the Export To USB Disk  window there is an option to select Generic Printer  at the top of the list of available printers. If Generic Printer  is selected the message exported to the USB disk can then be walked around to any printer of the same type and loaded onto the printer. The message will not be tied to a specific printer ID. The Generic Printer option is available fo r JetLine and CoPilot printers. Message Management Message management provides a variety of functions such as Export, Import, Print, etc. for managing messages. Select Message Management  to open the message management window. Message Manage ment Window 62 Menu Tabs Import: Select Import  to import an existing Orion (xxxx.orion) message or an existing ImageMaster (xxxx.txt PZ Pilot ) file. Note : Import will only support .txt files that were created in ImageMaster for the PZ Pilot/Pilot Plus printing sys tem. To import a message, navigate to the message you would like to import and select Open . Import Window Menu Tabs 63 Export: Select Export  to export the current message to a selected directory. Browse for Folder Window 64 Menu Tabs Email Use this to email the selected message. Tip! Email is a good tool for transferring messages because it will attach all the related elements, text, graphics, etc. included in the message to the email. Delete Use this to delete selected messages. You will be asked to confir m that you wish to delete the selected Message(s). Select Yes  and the selected messages will be deleted. Select No  to close the delete window without deleting the selected messages. Attention! The Undue  button does not restore a deleted message. When the message it s deleted it s gone. Menu Tabs 65 Export t o USB Disk Export to USB Disk &  will save the current message on a removable USB disk. Export t o USB Disk Window Export t o USB Disk Generic Printer: In the Export To USB Disk  window ther e is an option to select Generic Printer  at the top of the list of available printers. If Generic Printer  is selected the message exported to the USB disk can then be walked around to any printer of the same type and loaded onto the printer. The mess age will not be tied to a specific printer ID. The Generic Printer option is available for JetLine and CoPilot printers. 66 Menu Tabs Send to Printer Send the open message to the printer. Selecting this icon will open the Send Message to Printer  screen. Send to Printer Window Select the printer you wish to send the current message to and select OK . A progress screen will open. Message Transfer Progress Window After the message has successfully transferred, select Close  to close the progress screen. Menu Tabs 67 Home>Print Station Group The Print Station group contains functions for managing print stations and configuring printers that are assigned to the selected print station. A print station is not a printer. The print station is the location where pr inting will occur. Printers are added to print stations. Add Print Station To add a print station, click the Add a Print Station  icon from the top menu bar. The Print Station  dialog box will open. In the print station dialog box you can: · Give the print station a unique name. · Specify the substrate type. · Define the product dimensions. · Specify the surface(s) to be printed on. Specify the name of this Print Station: Use this box to give the print station a unique name. 68 Menu Tabs Substrate Type: Use the drop down menu next to Substrate Type  to select the type of substrate you will be printing on. Specify the product dimensions: Define the size of the product that will be printed on. The number of options will change according to the substra te type. For example a label will have no depth value. Dimensions can be in Inches, centimeters or millimeters. Use the drop down arrow to select the desired unit of measurement. Specify which surfaces(s) to print on: Check the box next to the surf ace to be printed on. The number of options will change according to the substrate type. For example a 2 side box will only have two surfaces, a front and back. Add a Substrate Surface Mouse click the Add Substrate Surface  icon to add a printing surfac e to the print station. The Substrate Surface  window will open. Menu Tabs 69 Surface: Use the drop down arrow under Surface  to s elect an already named surface to add to the print station. Print Direction: Use the drop down arrow under Print Direction  to select the direction the surface will be traveling in. Substrate Surface Name: Here you can enter a unique name for the surface to be added to the print station. Substrate Size: Enter the width and height for the printing surface here. Size un its can be inches, centimeters or millimeters. Use the drop down arrow to select the desired unit of measurement. Enable Bitmap Substrate Using a bitmap image as the substr ate is useful if there is an existing piece of artwork or graphic that you would l ike to represent the printing surface on the Orion !" message creation screen. The bitmap image used as a substrate does not print. To use a bitmap image to represent the printing surface: Check the Enable Bitmap Substrate  box. Mouse -click the Browse  button. 70 Menu Tabs When the browse window opens, navi gate to the graphic location and select the desired image. In this example I m going to use this image for the bitmap substrate. With the desired bitmap selected mouse -click on Open . Menu Tabs 71 Sel ect OK  in the Substrate Surface  window. The selected bitmap image will now display as a substrate surface. Example of a Bitmap Image Displayed as a Substrate 72 Menu Tabs Print Area The Top Margin  displays the distance from the top edge of the substrate to the top of the message. It is how the printhead position is shown on the Orion !" message creation screen. It is a visual aid to help in placing elements in the message. To set the top margin, enter the distance in the Top Margin  box. Home>Tools Group Below is a general description of the tools found in the Tools Group  under the Home  tab. For more information on these tools see the specific section in this manual relating to the specific function. Operator Mode: Orion has the capability of enteri ng a mode in whi ch the user is locked out of most program functions except selectin g message files, transferring them to the printer and some settings functions c alled the Operator Mode . This prevents unauthorized personnel from editing message informati on in error or creating undesirable messages. See the Operator Mode  section in this manual for instructions on using Orion !" in the Operator Mode. Database Message Server: The Database Message Server is an Orion !" message creation function that is used to create dynamic messages from a template and sent to the printer(s). The message is populated with data retrieved from a predefined database table. See the Database Message Server  section in this manual for using information from a database file when cre ating messages. Note: The Database Message Server option is only available in the Orion !" Tier Three License Level . Auto Data Server: An Auto Data Template message contains at least one Text, Barcode and/or Graphic element that is configured to accept Aut o Data. When the message is initially loaded, the Default Data  you enter for Text and Barcode elements or the graphic you use for Graphic elements will be printed as a placeholder. Once the printer receives an Auto Data record, it will rebuild the messag e, placing the various fields into their associated elements. See the Auto Data Server  section in this manual for creating messages using Auto Data. Note: The Auto Data Server function is only available in the Orion !" Tier Three License level. Random Code: Random Code will create a batch of random codes and save it to a text file for printing. See the Generating Random Code Files  section in this manual for instructions on creating random character codes. Menu Tabs 73 View The View  tab will open windows and provide functions for navigation and displays. View>Print Station Explorer Clicking the Print Station Explorer  Icon will toggle the print station explorer panel. The print station explorer panel will display a list of all print stations we have defined on the left side of the Orion workspace . 74 Menu Tabs View> Message Explorer Clicking the Message Expl orer  Icon will toggle the message explorer panel . The Message Explorer  panel will display a list of all the elements c ontained in the current message defined in print station structure Message Explorer Panel for Current Message View>Printer Connec tions Mouse clicking the Printer Connections  will toggle the Printer Connection Status  panel along the bottom of the message display. The Printer Status Connection panel will display a list of printers registered in Orion . Printer Connection Sta tus Panel Menu Tabs 75 Printer Configuration Tab Double mouse clicking on a printer in the Printer Connection Status panel will open the Printer Configu ration window for that printer in the Orion workspace . You can also open the configuration window for a selected pr inter by selecting the Printer Configuration  icon for a highlighted printer in the print station explorer list. In this Printer Configuration window yo u can view or change settings for a printer. There are four tabs along the top of the Printer Confi guration window. · General · Font List & Ink System · Network Configuration · Print Configuration 76 Menu Tabs General The General Tab will display information about the selected printing sy stem. W hen a printer is connected, i f there are firmware, software or any other updates available for the printer the Install the latest version  will become active. Menu Tabs 77 Font List & Ink System The Font List & Ink System window will display a list of the available or supported fonts and information pertaining to the ink sys tem. 78 Menu Tabs Network Configuration The Network Configuration window will show the current network configuration and allow changes. Generally the printer will be set to Obtain an IP address automatically . Select the Use the following IP address:  radio button to manually select an IP address. Attention! Should you decide to manually input the IP address be sure to work hand in hand with the IT or System Administrator at your facility to avoid conflicting with existing devices that may be using the same address. Menu Tabs 79 Print Configuration The Print Configuration  Tab consists of two sections, the Configure Printer  group and the Configure Each Printhead  group. The Configure P rinter  group contains global settings for the selected printing system. The Con figure Each Printhead  group contains settings for each individual printhead. Speed Detection: Use the drop down menu next to Speed Detecti on  to select None  or Encoder . Select none if you are going to input the line speed manual ly. Select En coder if you will be using an encoder to detect line speed. Speed (FPM): Use the up and down arrows next to Speed (FPM ):  to manually set the line speed. When manually inputting line speed be sure Speed Detection  is set to none. Line speed is measured in Feet per Minute. 80 Menu Tabs Encoder Divider: The encoder divide r is currently set by the factory at 13. The encoder divider is not changeable. Encoder Time Out (seconds): The amount of time the encoder will remain idle and stop trying to send a signal. Use the up and down arrow buttons to increase or decrease the value. Encoder Resolution (PPR): Encoder Resolution has been set at the factory to correspond to the optional encoder that if ordered was shipped with the printer. The Encoder Resolution cann ot be changed. Track Encoder Direction: Track Encoder Direction is set to No  and cannot be changed. Encoder Rotation Direction: Only Clockwise  is available. The rotation direction cannot be changed. Printhead #: Use the down arrow button to sel e ct which printhe ad to apply the configuration . Selec t pr inthead one or two . Distance to Photocell: The Distance to Photocell  is the distance between the photocell and the printhead. Increase or decrease the distance to photocell by using the up and do wn arrows next to the dista nce to photocell box. Or, simply enter the desired distance in the box. Distance to photocell can be in inches, centimeters or millimeters. Use the drop down menu to sel ect the desired unit. Direction of Substrate: The dire ction of substrate can be Left to Right  or Right to Left . Use the drop down arrow to select the desired direction. Note: Substrate direction is considered when viewed from behind the printhead. Menu Tabs 81 Printhead Rotation (degrees): The Printhead Rotatio n function has been disabled in the Orion Software Package. Spit Mode: When turned on the printhead will spit a small quantity of ink at pre - determined intervals. The spit function is useful when printing with fast drying solvent based inks to keep the ink from drying and clogging in the ink nozzles. There are four spit modes. OFF, COLUMN, GHOST ALL and GHOST. OFF Turns the spit mode off. The printer will not spit when OFF  is selected. When printing with oil based ink the spit should always be set to OFF . COLUMN Will spit a column of ink the entire height of the printhead at selected time periods. GHOST Will spit a small amount of ink through the nozzles that are not being used during printing. GHOST is useful if a long message only uses so me of t he nozzles in the printhead . GHOST ALL Will spit a small amount of ink through all the printhead nozzles all the time even during printing. GHOST ALL is useful when printing with very fast drying inks. Spit Quantity (columns): Defines the quantity of th e spit mode by selecting the number of columns the printhead will spit each time. Use the up and down arrows to select a value or type in the desired number. Spit Period (seconds): The Spit Period  in Seconds is the time between spits. Use the up and do wn arrows to select a value or enter the desired value. Spit Delay (milliseconds): The Spit Delay  is the time in milliseconds between when the message stops pr inting and the spit will begin. Time Out (HH:MM:SS): The Spit Timeout  is when the printer will quit spitting. This is important if the printer is going to be abandoned for a period of time such as overnight or long break. Spit Trigger: The Spit Trigger is not changeable. The spit trigger will always be the end of printing the current messag e. 82 Menu Tabs Printer Configuration >Tools Tab When the printer configuration window is open the re is a Tools Tab present. Residing i n the Tools Tab is a ribbon of tools that contain several important printer and printhead functions. Configuration Group Reload : Reload the print configuration from the selected printer. When reload is selected a window will open asking if you really want to reload the print configuration from the printer. Select Yes  to reload the configuration from the selected printer. Save & Apply the Configuration : Select this icon to save and apply the configuration changes for the selected printer in Orion . Menu Tabs 83 Tools Group Start Printing: Use to t ell the printer to start printing. Stop Printing: Use to tell the printer to stop printing. Purge and Fill: Purging and filling is done at the printer. The Purge and Fill functions are not available at the desktop. They are represented in Orion to accommodate future expansion. File Clean : Selecting File Clean  will dele te all th e message files residing in the selected printer. When File Clean  is selected you will be advised that all the message files residing on the selected printer will be deleted. Select Yes  to clean all the message files from the printer. No te: File Clean  will only remove message files from the selected printer. It does not delete files from the desktop or other printers that may be in the same print station or on the same network. 84 Menu Tabs Custom Keyboard: Use to customize a printer s on screen keyboard to input User Data. See the User Data > Custom Keyboard s  section of this manual to see instructions for creating a custom keyboard. Syn c. Date/Time Synchronize printer Date/Time to system current date/time. Start/Stop O perator Mode: Start or Stop Operator mode of the printer controller. Reset Calibration: This button is used to calibrate the touch screen on the CoPilot or JetLine Controller. The graphics on the controller touch screen normally won t be out of sync with the cor responding functions however if you are having problems selecting icons recalibrating the touch screen may help Menu Tabs 85 Status Grou p Production Counter: The production counter will show the current number of prints. Selecting Reset to 0  will reset the production counter to zero. When Reset to 0  is selected you will be advised the printer counter will reset. Select yes  to reset the production counter to zero. 86 Menu Tabs Message Tabs Message contextual tabs will appear when there s a message open in the Orion workspace and currently selected . This contextual t ab contains three sub tabs. The Message  tab is used for managing the current message such as saving and sending the message to the printers. It a lso contains functions to manipulate multiple selected elements. The Insert  tab is used to insert elements such as text, barcodes, and graphics into the message. If an element in the current message is selected the Properties  contextual tab will display. In the properties ribbon you can view and modify properties for the single selected element. Message Message Tab>New New  will open a new message creation window. Message Tab>Open Open  is for opening and existing message that has been created in Orion. Message Tab>Save Select Save  to save changes to the current message. Menu Tabs 87 Message Tab>Save As Select Save As  to save the current message with a different name. Message Tab>Close Select Close  to close the current message. After selecting Close  you will be asked if you want t o save the changes for the message befor e closing. Message Tab >Send To Printer Send To Printer &  will send the current message to the connected printers for printing. The Send Message to Printer  window will open. Send Message To Printer Window 88 Menu Tabs The Send Message To Printer  window will list all the printers assigned to the message being sent on the left. On the right side of the window additional connected printers are listed. The Reset  button will reset printers assigned as target printers to t he message pre assigned printers . The Refresh  button will update the list of connected printers available to add to the message target. The direction buttons will move printers back and forth to the target list. Double clicking on a listed printer wi ll also move the selected printer (s) to or from the Target printer list. Click the OK  button to send the current message to the target printers. If you have made changes to the current message you will be asked if you want to save before sending t he message to the assigned printers. Menu Tabs 89 Message Tab>Export To USB Disk Export To USB Disk &  will save the current message on a removable USB disk. Export To USB Disk Window The Reset  button will reset printers assigned as target printers to the message pre assigned printers. The Add  and Remove  buttons will move printers back and forth to the target list. Double clicking on a listed printer will also move the selected printer(s) to or from the Target printer list. The Printer Messages:  b utton will offer options for dealing existing messages. Use the drop down arrow and select the desired option. Select the OK  button to send the current message to the USB DSK. 90 Menu Tabs Message Tab>Ink Usage Clicking the Ink Usage  icon will open a displa y that will estimate the number of prints you may expect from an ink can or cartridge . The ink usage is shown as the maximum number of prints you may expect to get if 100% of the ink in the can or cartridge is used for printing. The message as it looks on screen at the time of ink usage request is the image used for calculation. Factors such as spitting and/or priming will reduce the number of prints to some degree. Also, any variable data, AutoData, or user data that will print significantly different length text strings will affect the calculation accordingly. Message Tab>Clipboard Group This group contains tools for undoing and redoing changes, as we ll as Cut , Copy  and Delete . Message Tab>Arrange Group This group contains tools for alignin g, automatically spacing and locking elements. Menu Tabs 91 Message Tab>Element Group This group contains options for hiding an element so that it does not get printed, inversing the element (background is printed instead of the element) and inverting the ele men t (turning it upside down). These options on ly affect the selected element(s). Check the appropriate box to apply the action to the selected element(s). Message Tab>Printhead Group This group contains printhead -level tools such as inversing an d invertin g the entire current ly selected printhead in the message. Enable or disable print of the selected printhead. Currently Enable  is always selected and cannot be unchecked. Inverse Print will print the highlighted printhead s background instead of the content. Print content of the highlighted printhead will print upside down (flip vertically). The number of times each column of data will be repeated making the print that much wider (or bolder). Use the up and down arrows to increase or decreas e the number of hits or enter the desired value in the Hits box. 92 Menu Tabs Message Tab>Printer Group This group contains printer -level tools such as Pre Build , Repeat Print mode and if there is a database associated with the message. Database Connection: Us e Database Connection if the message is populated with data retrieved from a predefined database table. See the Database Server  section in this manual for instructions on including information received from a database in the message. Database Field Pre view: Database field Preview will display the database table associated with the current message. Example of Database Field Preview Menu Tabs 93 Share Counters: Share the same set of counters between all the printheads . Any change taking place in the counter on one head will be reflected on the other head. Share Counters  is toggled off and on by selecting the Share Counters  Icon. While the Share Counters  Icon is highlighted Share Counters  is active. When the Share Counters  Icon is not hig hlighted Share Counters  is inactive. Note: If there is an unequal number of counters on the printheads (for example three counters on printhead one and two counters on printhead two) only the lower number of counters will sync. One Shot Mode: One Shot Mode is an Auto Data function only. See the Auto Data  section in this manual for instructions on selecting One Shot Mode. Repeat Mode: When a message is configured for Repeat Mode, it will be printed repeatedly as long as the trigger is active. Repeat Mode is often used when printing on long substrates and extruded material. In Continuous Line Mode the printer will only build the message when the printer is triggered. This will eliminate any gap between repeats caused by the printer not being ab le to print while rebuilding the message. Do n ot use this mode if the message contains variable data and you want the data to update when repeating. If not in Continuous Line Mode  length, unit, and quantity options are available to define the repeat par ameters. 94 Menu Tabs The Length specifies how often the message is repeate d (based on the selected Unit). In order to print a continuous line, you have to set the Repeat Length to 1 column longer than the length of data being printed. This causes the printer to r epeat as soon as it s finished the first print. Orion !" simply sets the required values eliminating the need to figure out how long the message is and what the Length value should be. Use the drop down menu to select the desired unit for the repeat length . The Quantity specifies the total number of times this message is to be repeated . Use the up and down arrow keys or enter the desired value in the QTY: box. Enter a Zero (0) to theoretically repeat forever.