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the material selected will be transferred to the manual tab, including the laser power and processing speeds
which will transfer to the black (raster marking), red (vector cutting) and blue (vector marking) colors in the
color table.
The various controls in the Manual Printer Driver Interface Tab are explained below:
Color Table
The color table contains a list of all of the job settings that are tied to colors in the graphic being printed. To
change job settings for color, select that color so it is highlighted, then use the controls to the right of the
color table to change the desired settings. It is possible to highlight more than one color at a time and the
changes will be applied to all the highlighted colors.
Color Order (Order of Execution)
You can change the order of the colors in the color table by dragging the color up or down the list in the
table. This will change the order of execution of objects in those colors. You can only change color order
when first printing a job. After printing the job to the UCP the color order becomes fixed for that job.
% Power
The Power setting allows you to select the laser power level to be applied from 0 to 100%. This setting is
directly related to how deep the cutting or engraving will be. The higher the setting, the deeper it
engraves or cuts, and vice-versa. Power essentially determines the duty cycle of each laser pulse in the
job. Laser pulse frequency is controlled by the PPI setting for vectors and by the image density selected
for rasters (image densities 5 and below fix pulses at 500 PPI and image densities 6 and 7 fix pulses at
1000 PPI).
% Speed
This setting allows you to select processing speed from 0 to 100%. This setting determines the maximum
rate of travel of the motion system. Actual engraving time (throughput) is not only dependent on the %
Speed setting but is also dependent on the size, intricacy and the placement of the graphic in the
engraving field. The motion system will accelerate/decelerate at a fixed rate up to the chosen speed. If
the motion system cannot achieve the chosen speed based on the size and intricacy of the graphic or
graphical placement in the field, it will automatically adjust its speed to the maximum speed it can
achieve. This is evident when you see the motion system automatically slow down while cutting curves
or circles as opposed to straight lines. Automatic proportional pulsing (see PPI) of the laser beam will
ensure that there is no difference in the depth of cut from straight lines to curves.
% Power and % Speed work together in determining how deep the engraving or cutting will be. Higher
power and slower speeds produce deeper results. Lower power and higher speeds produce shallower
results.
Note: 100% raster speed is different than 100% vector speed. Rastering is done with the X-axis focus
carriage which is lightweight and has a high acceleration and top speed. Due to the inertia of the X-Axis
arm, movements in the Y-direction have a slower acceleration and top speed making vector speeds
range from one-third to one-half the maximum raster speed.
PPI
This setting allows you to select the pulsing frequency of the laser pulse stream being applied to the
material when vector cutting from 1 to 1000 pulses per inch (PPI). The PPI setting indicates how many
laser pulses, per linear inch, the laser cartridge will emit. The pulsing of the laser beam is electronically
linked to the motion. These pulses will always fire, equally spaced, from one to the next, regardless of
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