The information in this document is believed to be reliable and accurate. However, Xitron Inc.

assumes no contractual responsibility (expressed or implied) for errors which may be present
herein

Acrobat and Brilliant Screening are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated.

Alpha is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation.
Ethernet is a registered trademark of Xerox Corporation.
Macintosh is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Incorporated.
InstallShield and UninstallShield are trademarks of the InstallShield Corporation.
PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
Windows NT is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

Copyright © 2000 Xitron Incorporated

Ann Arbor, Michigan USA. All rights reserved
Property of Xitron Incorporated. Confidential material distributed only under license agreement.
Reproduction or use other than as provided in license agreement is prohibited.
Rev Date Pages Text Changes
A 27 January 1999 All Initial external release; covers
Raster Blaster software release,
version 1.0
B 30 March 2000 All External release; covers Raster
Blaster software release, version
2.0
C 29 September 2000 All External release; covers Raster
Blaster software release, version
2.9
D 03 November 2000 All External release; covers Raster
Blaster software release, version
3.0

iii
iv
Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction
Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-1
A Quick Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2
Chapter 1: Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2
Chapter 2: Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2
Chapter 3: Removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2
Chapter 4: Devices. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2
Chapter 5: Queues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3
Chapter 6: Logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3
Chapter 7: Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3
Chapter 8: Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3
Chapter 9: Connecting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3
Document Style Conventions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3
Notes and Cautions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4
Style Conventions Used in Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4
Related Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-5
Raster Blaster Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-5
On-Disk Supporting Software Documentation . . . . . . 1-5

Chapter 2: Installation
Before You Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1
Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2
Installing Output Plugins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-7
The Select Program Folder Wizard Screen . . . . . . . 2-11
Security Key Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-16

Chapter 3: Removal
Remove Your Raster Blaster System Software . . . . . . . 3-1

v
Chapter 4: Devices
Configure Raster Blaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1
Device Configuration Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2
Creating New Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3
Deleting Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-6
Creating New PSets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-6
Deleting Setups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-10
Configuring Device Configuration Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-11
Default PSet Configurations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-13
Device Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-14
Imaging Engine group box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-15
Disable Device check box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-16
Buffer Size and Band Size spinners . . . . . . . . . . 4-16
Settings Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-16
Exposure Text Box. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-17
Cassette Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-17
Resolution Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-18
Bottom Portion of Settings Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-18
Options Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-20
Override Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-21
Orientation Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-21
Output Copies spinner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-22
Supply Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-23
Configuring Cassettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-24
Media Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-24
Assigning Cassettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-26
Enabling Cassette Tracking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-27
Avantra 44 Example Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . 4-28
Takeup Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-36
Feed Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-36
Wait (Seconds) After Feed Controls . . . . . . . . . . 4-37
Cut Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-37

vi
 Units Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-38
Cut Sheet and Plate Imagers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-39

Chapter 5: Queues
Configuring Queues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-1
Configuring New Queues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-2
Monitor Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-3
Input Monitor Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-3
File Types to Exclude. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-8
Maximum Active Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-9
Configuring Thresholds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-10
Editing & Changing Existing Queues . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-11
Deleting Queues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-13
Sharing a Queue with Macintosh Workstations . . . . 5-15

Chapter 6: Logs
Configure Logs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-1
Log Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-6
Creating a New Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-6
Opening Logs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-6
Saving Logs As... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-7

Chapter 7: Operations
Starting Your Raster Blaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-1
Imaging a File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-4
Using the Output Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-6
Job Queue Tabs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-7
Progress Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-7
Disable Output Check Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-8
Job Action Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-9
Info Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-9
Remove Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-10

vii
 View Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-10
Delete Menu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-14
Resetting your Raster Blaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-14
Shutting Down Your Raster Blaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-14

Chapter 8: Browser
Accessing Raster Blaster with a Browser . . . . . . . . . . . 8-1
Activity Monitor Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-3
Activity Monitor Subwindows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-4
Job Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-5
Detachable Copies of the Four SubWindows . . . . . . 8-6
Progress Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-7

Chapter 9: Connecting
Preparing Raster Blaster for TIFF Output . . . . . . . . . . . 9-1
Creating a Shared Directory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-2
Preparing the RIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-4
Mapping a Raster Blaster drive to the Xitron RIP . . . 9-4
Configuring the RIP for TIFF Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-6

Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Glossary-1

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Index-1

viii
Chapter 1: Introduction

Description
Raster Blaster is a Xitron software system for imaging bitmaps.
Raster Blaster accepts screened black and white TIFF files in 1-bit/multiple
strips, 2-bit/multiple strips, 1-bit/single strip formats, as well as a number
of compression schemes including: CCITT Group3, CCITT Group4,
CCITT Huffman, LZW, and Packbits, and outputs these files as pre-raster-
ized images to a wide number of imagesetters.
Raster Blaster operates using the Windows NT operating system in unit
and symmetrical multi-processor (SMP) configurations.
• You can configure, monitor, and operate Raster Blaster through its
menu-driven graphic user interface, using the computer on which it is
installed.
• You can remotely monitor the operation of the Raster Blaster and get
information about the jobs that Raster Blaster is processing through its
browser interface.

1-1
Raster Blaster User’s Guide

A Quick Tour
This user’s guide contains nine chapters, a glossary and an index:

Chapter 1: Introduction
This chapter includes:
• A description of Raster Blaster.
• The contents of this guide.
• An explanation of style conventions used in this guide.
• A list of related documents.

Chapter 2: Installation
This chapter includes installation instructions for the Raster Blaster soft-
ware and Raster Blaster output plugins.

Chapter 3: Removal
This chapter describes how to remove Raster Blaster and any output plu-
gins you may have installed.

Chapter 4: Devices
This chapter describes how to configure the core of Raster Blaster, its
output devices and their associated parameter sets (PSets).

1-2
 Introduction

Chapter 5: Queues
This chapter describes how to configure input queues for sending files to
Raster Blaster.

Chapter 6: Logs
This chapter describes how to configure and manage your system logs.

Chapter 7: Operations
This chapter describes various operating tasks, including starting, imaging
files, resetting and shutting down Raster Blaster.

Chapter 8: Browser
This chapter describes the monitoring that can be performed through a
browser on the host system or a remote computer.

Chapter 9: Connecting
This chapter describes the process of connecting Raster Blaster to Xitron’s
Navigator NT RIP.

Document Style Conventions

This document contains a number of style conventions designed to make it
easier to use.

1-3
Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Notes and Cautions

Notes and Cautions appear within horizontal rules and are used for the fol-
lowing purposes:

Note: Notes provide information that is important enough to

demand special attention. The information may be relevant to the
current discussion but awkward to include without disrupting the
flow of information.

CAUTION
Cautions advise of situations that might cause equipment damage
or loss of information or work time.

Style Conventions Used in Text

A change of typeface within the document indicates such things as screen
messages and operator entries. The following conventions are used:
Italic designates file names, directories, variables, and document
references (for example, “the Hosts file...”).
Bold designates text entered by the operator using the keyboard
(for example: “Enter 1111 for the directory”).
Bold italic designates entries found on the screen (for example: “click
the Configure button”).
Extended blocks of text found on-screen are placed in separate paragraphs,
which use a smaller type size and have special indents (as shown in the fol-
lowing example:

1-4
 Introduction

This example represents an extended block of text captured from the

screen. The point size is slightly smaller, and the left and right margins
have been indented slightly.

Related Documents
The following documents are available to assist in the use of Raster
Blaster:

Raster Blaster Documentation

A copy of the Raster Blaster User’s Guide is provided with each1 Raster
Blaster on the CD ROM disk.

On-Disk Supporting Software Documentation

The following supporting software elements are provided on the Raster
Blaster CD-ROM disk:
• Raster Blaster Output Plugins

1. Acopy of this document in Acrobat pdf form can be found in the Documentation
folder on the Raster Blaster compact disc.

1-5
Raster Blaster User’s Guide

1-6
Chapter 2: Installation

Before You Begin

Raster Blaster software is designed to run by itself on a dedicated
computer. Do not install other applications or utilities beyond those needed
for system operation. Unneeded utilities and applications may interfere
with the functioning of the Raster Blaster program and cause it to lose com-
munications with the attached output imager.
• Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 5 must be installed on your computer
before you install the Raster Blaster program. Other versions of Win-
dows NT may create problems with AppleTalk networking. To make
sure that all necessary changes to the System software have been cor-
rectly applied, it is a good idea to run the Service pack both before and
after all installation procedures are completed.
• Before installing Raster Blaster, make sure you have the desired network
services installed.
• If you want to run the browser interface on your local machine, you
must install Microsoft Internet Explorer (revision 4.0 or later) on your
local machine.

2-1
Raster Blaster User’s Guide

• If you want to run the browser interface on your local machine, and you
are running Raster Blaster on a platform with Windows NT Workstation
installed, you must install Microsoft Peer Web Services on the computer
where Raster Blaster resides.
• If you want to run the browser interface on your local machine, and you
are running on a platform with Windows NT Server installed, you must
install the Internet Information Server (IIS) on the computer where Ras-
ter Blaster resides.

Getting Started
1. Log in to Windows NT as a user with administrator privileges.
2. Insert the Raster Blaster compact disk in the CD drive of the com-
puter you want to use as your Raster Blaster platform.
3. The installation program checks to see if all the necessary system
files are in place on your computer. If all the system files are there,
the next screen you see is the Raster Blaster splash screen. In this
case, skip ahead to step 9 on page 2-4.
If you don’t see the Raster Blaster splash screen at this point, continue
with step 4 below.

2-2
 Installation

4. If the installation program finds some important system files missing,

it will display the following dialog box:

5. If you see this message box, click Yes to automatically reboot your
computer and continue with the installation.
6. When you click Yes, the installation program installs the missing files
and reboots your computer to make the new system files available.
7. Now start the installation procedure over again by removing the Ras-
ter Blaster compact disk from the CD drive and reinserting it, or
Auto-start your CD drive by double clicking the appropriate drive
icon in the My Computer window.
8. When you Auto-start the installation CD, the Raster Blaster splash
screen appears.

2-3
Raster Blaster User’s Guide

9. To start installing Raster Blaster, click Install RIP. A progress bar

appears to indicate that the InstallShield Wizard is being initiated.
After the progress bar is filled, the Welcome screen appears.

2-4
 Installation

10. Click Next on the Welcome screen to continue.

The Choose Destination Location wizard screen appears, asking you to
define the name and location of the folder in which the Raster Blaster soft-
ware will be installed.

Choose Destination Location wizard screen

Note: The suggested Destination Folder will be located on the

NTFS formatted partition of your hard drive.

2-5
Raster Blaster User’s Guide

11. To accept the suggested Destination Folder, click Next to continue.

To change the location for your Raster Blaster software, perform the
following lettered steps:
a. Click Browse.
b. Using standard Windows techniques, select the desired location
in the Directory Browser that appears.
c. Click OK. The Directory Browser closes and the Choose Desti-
nation Location wizard screen returns with the location you
selected displayed as the Destination Folder.
d. Click Next to continue.
The Select Components wizard screen appears.

Select Components wizard screen

2-6
 Installation

At this point, you may complete your installation without installing Output
Plugins by clicking Next and skipping ahead to “The Select Program
Folder Wizard Screen” on page 2-11.
To load Output Plugins now, continue with the next section.

Installing Output Plugins

Raster Blaster Output Plugins allow users of Raster Blaster to send output
to Xitron supported imagers. Output Plugins provide imager-specific data
to the Device Setup dialog box. To load the appropriate Output PlugIn for
your imager, follow these steps:

Select Components wizard screen

2-7
Raster Blaster User’s Guide

1. On the Select Components screen, highlight the line that says:

Output Device Files - Select Output Device
2. Click Change.
The Select Sub-components dialog box appears, containing a menu of Out-
put Plugins.

Select Sub-components wizard screen

2-8
 Installation

3. Scroll through the list, choose the appropriate PlugIn and select it by
clicking in the box to the left of the plugin name. Be sure not to dese-
lect the item called Diag + Utilities. Click the Continue button to go
back to the Select Components screen. Click Next to continue with
the installation.
The next screen to appear depends on which output plugins you
selected from the list on the Select Sub-components screen.
You will see the Select Program Folder wizard screen if you selected one
of the following:
• Barco Output Plugin and Drivers
• Bitmap Output Plugin
• Celix Output Plugin and Drivers
• Screen FTR Output Plugin and Drivers
If you selected one of these plugins, skip ahead to “The Select Program
Folder Wizard Screen” on page 2-11.
If you selected any other device plugin, the next screen to appear is the I/O
base for the personality card wizard screen. This screen asks you to select
the I/O base address for the PB2 card you are using.

2-9
Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Note: Note, with our new single board PCI cards you will not see
this screen for any of our plugins. The single board PCI card is just
coming into production as of this writing, and is not being widely
shipped yet.

I/O base for the personality card wizard screen

4. Make your selection for I/O base address, and click Next.
The next screen is the Select Program Folder wizard screen.

2-10
 Installation

The Select Program Folder Wizard Screen

The Select Program Folder wizard screen asks you to choose a name for
the program folder in which the icons for elements of the Raster Blaster
system software will be installed.

Select Program Folder wizard screen

1. Select the appropriate folder name and click Next.

2-11
Raster Blaster User’s Guide

The Start Copying Files wizard screen appears.

Start Copying Files wizard screen

2. Click Next to begin copying files.

2-12
 Installation

Files are copied into your computer, as indicated by the appearance of a

title window and progress bar showing the percent of the installation that
has been completed:

Title window and progress bar

When the progress bar reaches 100%, the next screen appears, indicating
successful installation.

2-13
Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Next, the InstallShield Wizard Complete screen appears.

InstallShield Wizard Complete screen

3. Select the Yes button, and click Finish to complete your Raster
Blaster system installation.
Your Raster Blaster computer shuts down and restarts.

2-14
 Installation

After installation, Raster Blaster and Modular Installer appear as Start

menu commands.

Start Menu Commands for Raster Blaster

2-15
Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Also, the Raster Blaster icon appears on your desktop:

If you didn’t install Output PlugIns, you may do it now (refer to “Installing
Output Plugins” on page 2-7).

Security Key Installation

Raster Blaster is equipped with a security key that must be installed to
enable the software.

CAUTION
Remove power from your Raster Blaster computer whenever you
install, remove, or replace the security key (dongle). Otherwise,
you may damage your computer.

The security key (also known as the dongle) plugs into the parallel port of
the computer where Raster Blaster resides. The dongle must be installed
for Raster Blaster to work. The security key is a feed-through device. If you
need to connect a cable to your parallel port, you can connect it to the
installed security key, just as if it were the parallel connector. You are now
ready to start using Raster Blaster.

2-16
Chapter 3: Removal

You do not need any compact disk or floppy disk to perform any of the pro-
cedures in this chapter.

Remove Your Raster Blaster System

Software
All software removal procedures involve the use of the UninstallShield
utility, activated through the Add/Remove Programs icon in the Control
Panel window.

Note: The Raster Blaster removal procedure does not delete defini-
tions for devices or PSets. These definitions remain in the Registry.

1. Make sure that your Raster Blaster system is not running.

3-1
Raster Blaster User’s Guide

2. From the Start menu, point to Settings and click Control Panel.

3-2
 Removal

3. In the Control Panel window, double-click the Add/Remove Pro-

grams icon.

Control Panel window

3-3
Raster Blaster User’s Guide

4. If not already selected, select the Install/Uninstall tab in the Add/

Remove Programs Properties dialog box that appears.

Add/Remove Programs Properties dialog box

5. To remove the Raster Blaster system, select it from the list in the Add/
Remove Programs Properties dialog box and click Add/Remove.

3-4
 Removal

6. Click Yes in the Confirmation dialog box to confirm your intention to

remove your Raster Blaster system software.

Confirmation dialog box

7. The UninstallShield utility begins, as shown by the Setup Status wiz-

ard screen.

Setup Status wizard screen

3-5
Raster Blaster User’s Guide

8. When the UninstallShield utility finishes, as indicated by the com-

pleted progress bar, the following information box appears:

Information box

9. Click OK to close the box.

10. Shut down and restart your computer.
11. You have finished removing your Raster Blaster system software.

3-6
Chapter 4: Devices

Configure Raster Blaster

The menu selection File > Configure Raster Blaster displays a screen for
setting advanced features of Raster Blaster not available in this release.

4-1
Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Device Configuration Overview

This is the first of two configuration chapters. The Device Configuration
dialog box is the main focus of our configuration efforts in this chapter. In
the next chapter we will focus on configuring queues for inputting files into
Raster Blaster.
The devices you configure determine which imagers you can use for out-
put. For each device, you can also define parameter sets (PSets) which
determine how the selected imager will process the output. By selecting an
output device and one of that device’s PSets, you determine which imager
receives the output and how it processes that output.
This section is divided into two main parts:
• First, we cover the Device Configuration dialog box and how to create
or delete new devices and PSets).
• Next, we cover the configuration of each of the tabs in the Device Con-
figuration dialog box (refer to “Configuring Device Configuration
Tabs” on page 4-11).

Note: To help put these configuration efforts in context, the discus-

sion includes an example configuration for an Agfa Avantra 44
(refer to “Avantra 44 Example Configuration” on page 4-28).

4-2
 Devices

Creating New Devices

To create a new device, follow the steps below:
1. Open the Device Configuration dialog box by pulling the File menu
down to Configure Devices.
The Device Configuration dialog box has up to five tabs that allow
you to configure devices and parameter sets (PSets). A different sub-
set of tabs is involved in these two configuration tasks. When you
highlight a device, five tabs appear as shown here:

Device Configuration dialog box

Note: If the PSets for a device are displayed in the Output Devices
list, you can hide them by double-clicking on the device icon. If
they are already hidden, double-click the device icon to display
them. After you add a new PSet, all PSets for that device are dis-
played.

4-3
Raster Blaster User’s Guide

2. To configure a new device, click the New Device button.

3. The Add New Device dialog box appears.

Add New Device dialog box.

4. From the Driver pop-up menu, select the driver for your output
device.
5. If you choose a device with more than one type, the Type pop-up
menu will become active. It lists the available device types that apply
to the selected Driver.
6. Select the appropriate device from the Type pop-up menu.
7. Your system labels the device you are creating in the Name text box.
The label used consists of a shorthand reference to the selected
device, followed by a dash and a number. For example, Raster Blaster
labels an Avantra 44 device being created as Avantra 44-0. The num-
ber increases as you create additional devices (Avantra 44-1, Avantra
44-2, and so forth).
8. Most devices will have additional options that are configured using
the Driver Config button. See the plugin manual for instructions on
these additional configuration settings.
9. The Address text box and button are not used in this version of Raster
Blaster.

4-4
 Devices

10. Click OK. The Add New Device dialog box closes. The device you
created appears in the Output Devices window of the Device Config-
uration dialog box. Also, the configuration choices you have made so
far appear under the Device parameter tab. Click the Save button on
the Device Configuration dialog box to save the new device.

Device Configuration dialog box

Note: By configuring a device, you have also configured the

default PSet for that device.

11. To configure the parameter tabs for the device you just added, refer to
“Configuring Device Configuration Tabs” on page 4-11.
12. To delete devices, refer to “Deleting Devices” on page 4-6 .

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Deleting Devices
To delete a device and all of its PSets:
1. Highlight the device icon in the Output Devices window of the
Device Configuration dialog box.
2. On your keyboard, press the Delete key.
3. When asked to confirm your intention to delete the selected device
and all of its PSets, click Yes.

Confirmation message box

Creating New PSets

Note: Each new PSet will inherit the default PSet configuration of
its device. Refer to “Configuring Device Configuration Tabs” on
page 4-11 for device and PSet configuration information.

To create a new parameter set (PSet):

1. In the Output Devices window of the Device Configuration dialog
box, highlight the device for which you want to create a PSet.

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 Devices

2. In the lower right corner of the Device Configuration dialog box,

click New PSet. The Add New Setup dialog box appears.
3. Select a Setup Name.
a. If you want to use a numeric name for your PSet, perform the fol-
lowing substeps. If, instead, you want to use a non-numeric name
for your PSet, skip ahead to step b.
(1) Deselect the Allow non-numeric setup names box to give
the P-Set a numeric setup name. The Add New Setup dialog
box is displayed as shown below.

Add New Setup dialog box

(2) Enter a number in the PSet window. The default value is 1.

The default value automatically increases for subsequent
PSets for the same device.
(3) To accept your configuration entries, click OK.

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Note: If you deselected the Allow non-numeric setup names box

and clicked OK, your system must change from alpha PSet naming
to numeric. To accept the change in PSet naming, click Yes in the
following message box.

Confirmation message box

(4) Skip ahead to step 4 on page 4-9.

b. To give your PSet a non-numeric name, perform the following
substeps:
(1) Select Allow non-numeric setup names by clicking in the
box next to it.

Add New Setup dialog box

(2) Enter a name in the Setup Name text box. The default name
is PSet n (where n is the next default PSet number).

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 Devices

Note: In the default non-numeric default PSet name, two spaces

are placed between the word PSet and a single digit number.

(3) To accept your configuration entries, click OK.

Note: If you selected Allow non-numeric setup names and clicked

OK, your system must change from numeric PSet naming to alpha.
To accept the change in PSet naming, click Yes in the following
message box.

Confirmation message box

4. When you click Yes to close the message box, the Add New Setup
dialog box closes.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

5. The PSet you created appears in the Output Devices window of the
Device Configuration dialog box.

Device Configuration dialog box

6. To configure the PSet you just added, refer to “Configuring Device

Configuration Tabs” on page 4-11.
7. To delete PSets, refer to “Deleting Setups” below.

Deleting Setups
To delete a PSet:
1. Highlight the PSet icon in the Output Devices window of the Device
Configuration dialog box.
2. On your keyboard, press the Delete key.

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 Devices

3. When asked to confirm your intention to delete the selected PSet,

click Yes.

Confirmation message box

Configuring Device Configuration Tabs

The Device Configuration dialog box choices are divided into a series of
up to five parameter tabs. If a device name is highlighted in the Output
Devices window of the Device Configuration dialog box, up to five tabs
are displayed. If a PSet name is highlighted instead, two tabs are displayed.
An example of the dialog box in both forms is shown on page 4-12.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Device Configuration dialog box, Device name highlighted

Device Configuration dialog box, PSet name highlighted

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 Devices

Device Configuration dialog box parameter tabs are described in the fol-
lowing topics:
• “Default PSet Configurations” on page 4-13.
• “Device Tab” on page 4-14.
• “Settings Tab” on page 4-16.
• “Options Tab” on page 4-20.
• “Supply Tab” on page 4-23.
• “Takeup Tab” on page 4-36.

Default PSet Configurations

If you do not create any PSets for a device, the device configuration for the
Settings and Options parameter tabs collectively become the default PSet
configuration.
Further, when you create a new PSet, you begin with the default PSet con-
figuration. You can then tailor the new PSet to your specific requirements
by changing the configuration of the parameter tabs that appear.
You can also reconfigure an existing PSet by highlighting its name and
changing the configuration of the parameter tabs that appear.

Note: In order to ensure that all of the TIFF files are imaged at the
correct resolution, you must create a PSet for each resolution
required.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Device Tab

Note: When configuring devices or PSets for the first time, config-
ure the tabs in order from left to right starting with the Device tab.
Remember that the Device Tab is one of the tabs that does not
appear when you configure PSets.

The Device tab displays information about the device you have highlighted
in the Output Devices window. As shown below by the sample Device tab
for an Avantra 44 device, the Device tab contains information about the
device that you configured when the device was first created. The Location
text box is new, however. It allows you to record your own descriptive
comment about the selected device.

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 Devices

Device Configuration dialog box, Device Tab

Imaging Engine group box

The Imaging Engine group box displays information about the selected
device.
• Type displays the generic category of the selected imager (Capstan, Cut-
Sheet, Drum, Plate Setter, or none).
• Max. Width refers to the fast scan direction of the imager.
• Max. Height refers to the slow scan direction, if any.
• Units This menu sets the units for the Max. Width and Max. Height
entries (menu choices are Inches, Picas, Millimeters or Points).

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Disable Device check box

Select Disable Device only if you want to prevent jobs from being pro-
cessed by the selected device. Otherwise, clear it.

Buffer Size and Band Size spinners

The displayed values are defaults chosen by your Raster Blaster system.
Change them only on advice from Xitron technical support.

Settings Tab

Settings Tab

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 Devices

Note: When a device name is highlighted in the Output Devices

window, the settings in the Settings tab along with the settings in
the Options tab determine the default configuration for any new
PSets. On the other hand, when a PSet name is highlighted, these
settings determine the specific configuration for the highlighted
PSet.

Click on the Settings tab:

The Settings tab contains the following parameters:

Exposure Text Box

Note: For imagers that do not allow Raster Blaster to control laser
intensity, Exposure is unavailable.

For imagers that allow Raster Blaster to control laser intensity, enter the
desired intensity in Exposure.

Cassette Menu

Note: If you have unchecked Disable Cassette Tracking in the

Supply tab and you do not select one of the cassettes assigned to
the selected device and PSet, your Raster Blaster system will post
an error message.

Select one of 16 cassettes. Refer to “Supply Tab” on page 4-23 for instruc-
tions on configuring or assigning cassettes. If the cassette you select is
assigned to a station or tray, the job will be imaged to that station or tray.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Resolution Menus
The entries on the Vertical and Horizontal menus represent the allowable
resolution settings for the selected device.
For most devices, you must select the same Vertical and Horizontal entries.
If you select a value in the Vertical menu, the corresponding value auto-
matically appears in the Horizontal menu and vice versa.
However, for some imagers, you can select different values for the Vertical
menu and the Horizontal menu.
If you select a value in the Horizontal menu, the corresponding value
automatically appears in the Vertical menu.
However, if you select a value in the Vertical menu, the Horizontal
menu retains its original value.

Bottom Portion of Settings Tab

The remaining items include:
• The Width, Length, and Type entries for Media are determined by the
selected Cassette.
• The Width and Length entries for Device are determined by the high-
lighted device in the Output Device list.
• The Margins box specifies measurements that are graphically illustrated
in the diagram to its right. This diagram changes depending on the type
of device that is highlighted, as shown in the three separate illustrations
on page 4-19.

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 Devices

• The Units menu specifies the units of measurement for the Width and
Length items and the entries in the Margins box, Choices are Inches,
MilliMeters, Picas, and Points.

Settings Diagram for Capstan Imagers

Settings Diagram for Cut Sheet Imagers

Settings Diagram for Drum Imagers

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Options Tab

Note: When a device name is highlighted in the Output Devices

window, the settings in the Options tab along with the settings in
the Settings tab determine the default configuration for new PSets.
On the other hand, when a PSet icon is highlighted instead, the set-
tings apply to the highlighted PSet.

The Options tab includes an Override option, the Orientation group box,
and the Output Copies spinner.

Options Tab

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 Devices

Override Option
Check the Override Job Resolution box if you want your Vertical and Hor-
izontal Resolution entries configured in the Settings Tab to override the
resolution settings contained in the job.
Clear the Override Job Resolution box if you want the resolution settings
contained in the job to apply.

Orientation Box
1. Check the Center on Media Width box if you want to center the
image along the width of the output media.
2. Check the Center on Media Length box if you want to center the
image along the length of the output media.

Note: The results of the remaining items in the Orientation box are
illustrated through the icon containing the capital “A”. For exam-
ple, the illustration below shows how the output would change if
you selected Image Negate, and cleared Margin Negate.

Orientation box in Options Tab

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

3. Select Image Negate if you want to create a negative image of the job
being processed. When you do, the Margin Negate check box
becomes available and selected.
4. Clear Image Negate for a positive image and to make the Margin
Negate check box unavailable.
5. Clear Margin Negate if you want to create a negative image of only
the image, not the margins.
6. Select Wrong Read if you want the image to appear backwards, as if
viewed in a mirror.

Output Copies spinner

Select the number of copies you want to output with the Output Copies
spinner.

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 Devices

Supply Tab

Supply Tab

Supply tab configuration is divided into the following topics:

• “Configuring Cassettes” on page 4-24.
• “Media Tracking” on page 4-24.
• “Assigning Cassettes” on page 4-26.
• “Enabling Cassette Tracking” on page 4-27.
• “Avantra 44 Example Configuration” on page 4-28.

Note: “Avantra 44 Example Configuration” provides an example

procedure in which cassettes are configured and assigned.

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Configuring Cassettes

Note: Each device has its own complement of 16 cassettes. You

must configure the cassettes for each device separately.

To configure a cassette:
1. Highlight one of the 16 cassettes in the Cassettes window.
2. In the Media Type text box, enter a descriptive comment about the
media stored in the selected cassette, such as “Film”, “paper”, or the
part number of the type of film being used.
3. Enter the Media Width value.
4. For cut sheet or plate imagers, enter the Media Height value.
5. Select the units of measurement for the Media Width, Media Height,
and Thickness entries from the Units menu. Choices are Inches,
Millimeters, and Centimeters.
6. For plate imagers, enter the Thickness value for the plate media. For
non-plate imagers, Thickness is unavailable.

Media Tracking
To enable media tracking, allowing your Raster Blaster system to keep
track of the media available in the cassettes you configure:
1. Deselect Disable Media Tracking box.
2. For roll-fed media, the remaining media tracking controls include:
a. Roll Length text box.
b. Units menu to the immediate right of Roll Length. Menu choices
for Units are Feet or Meters. The unit you select applies to the
Roll Length text box and Warn at window.

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 Devices

c. Warn at check box and window

3. For plate media, the Roll Length text box changes to Plate Count, the
Units menu becomes unavailable, and the Warn at window value is
expressed in plates.

Supply Tab

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

4. For cut sheet media, the Roll Length text box changes to Sheet
Count, the Units menu becomes unavailable, and the Warn at
window value is expressed in sheets.

Assigning Cassettes
To assign cassettes to imager stations:
1. From the Stations window, highlight the Slot to which you wish to
assign a cassette.
2. From the Cassettes window, highlight the desired cassette.

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 Devices

3. Click » to assign the highlighted cassette to the highlighted station.

The selected Cassette no longer appears in the Cassettes window but
instead now appears in the Stations window under the selected Slot.

Supply Tab

4. Repeat until you have assigned cassettes to all the imager stations.
5. To unassign a cassette:
a. Highlight the assigned cassette in the Stations window.
b. Click « to return the highlighted cassette to the Cassettes win-
dow, removing it from the Stations window.

Enabling Cassette Tracking

Deselect the Disable Cassette Tracking box to enable cassette tracking.
Refer to “Cassette Menu” on page 4-17, under the description of the Set-
tings parameter tab, for more information.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Avantra 44 Example Configuration

This procedure demonstrates how to configure selected aspects of an
Avantra 44 printer. It is intended to serve as an example of the various con-
trols involved in cassette and tray configuration.
Although it involves many different controls and dialog boxes, this proce-
dure is located here, in the heart of the Supply parameter tab description,
because of the unusual way cassettes are configured and assigned to sta-
tions in the Supply parameter tab.
The procedure is divided into the following tasks:
• “Create a new device for the Avantra 44.” Refer to step 1 on page 4-28.
• “Configure the Supply parameter tab for the Avantra 44.” Refer to step 2
on page 4-30.
• “Create new PSets for your Avantra 44. This example will demonstrate
creating two Psets. One will be 2400dpi negative and the other will be
2400dpi positive.” Refer to step 3 on page 4-31.
• “Configure the Settings tab for the new PSets associated with your new
Avantra 44.” Refer to step 4 on page 4-32.
• “Configure the Options parameter tab for each of the PSets associated
with your Avantra 44.” Refer to step 5 on page 4-34.

Note: The following procedure does not represent a complete con-

figuration of an Avantra 44. Instead, it concentrates on those steps
related to cassette configuration and assignment.

1. Create a new device for the Avantra 44.

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 Devices

a. If the Device Configuration dialog box is not already present,

start by selecting Configure Raster Blaster from the File menu
of the Raster Blaster log window. The Device Configuration dia-
log box appears.
b. Click New Device. The Add New Device dialog box appears.

Add New Device dialog box

c. If it is not already selected, select Agfa from the Driver menu.

d. Select Avantra 44 from the Type menu.
e. Click OK. The Add New Device dialog box closes.
f. The Device name you created appears in the Output Devices win-
dow of the Device Configuration dialog box.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Device Configuration dialog box

2. Configure the Supply parameter tab for the Avantra 44.

a. With Avantra 44-0 still selected in the Output Devices window,
click the Supply parameter tab. The Supply tab is displayed.

Supply Tab

b. If not already highlighted, click the Cassette 1 icon in the

Cassettes window to highlight it.
c. Click the Slot A icon in the Stations window to highlight it.

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 Devices

d. Click » to move the Cassette 1 icon under the Slot A icon in the
Stations window.
e. With Cassette 1 under Slot A in the Stations window and still
highlighted, configure the media for the upper tray.

Supply Tab

(1) Update the value in the Media Width text box if it differs
from the material in the cassette.
3. Create new PSets for your Avantra 44. This example will demonstrate
creating two Psets. One will be 2400dpi negative and the other will be
2400dpi positive.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

a. With the Avantra 44-0 icon still selected, click New PSet. The
Add New Setup dialog box appears.

Add New Setup dialog box

(1) Select Allow non-numeric setup names, if necessary.

(2) Enter 2400dpi Neg in the Setup Name text box.
(3) Click OK. The Add New Setup dialog box closes. The
2400dpi Neg PSet icon appears under Avantra 44-0 in the
Output Devices window.
b. Click New PSet again. The Add New Setup dialog box appears.
(1) Enter 2400dpi Pos in the Setup Name text box.
(2) Click OK. The Add New Setup dialog box closes.The
2400dpi Pos PSet name appears under Avantra 44-0.
4. Configure the Settings tab for the new PSets associated with your
new Avantra 44.
a. Highlight the 2400dpi Neg PSet icon under Avantra 44-0 in the
Output Devices window.
(1) Click the Settings parameter tab.
(2) Set the resolution to 2400.

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 Devices

Settings Tab

(3) Configure the remaining entries in the Settings parameter

tab as desired.
b. Highlight the 2400dpi Pos PSet icon under Avantra 44-0.
(1) Set the resolution to 2400.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Settings Tab

(2) Configure the remaining entries in the Settings parameter

tab as desired.
5. Configure the Options parameter tab for each of the PSets associated
with your Avantra 44.
a. Click the Options parameter tab in the Device Configuration dia-
log box.
b. Highlight the 2400dpi Neg PSet under Avantra 44-0 in the Out-
put Devices window.

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 Devices

Options Tab

(1) In the Orientation box, check the Image Negate box.

(2) Configure the remaining entries in the Options tab.
c. Highlight the 2400dpi Pos PSet in the Output Devices window.
(1) In the Orientation box, deselect the Image Negate box, if
necessary.
(2) Configure the remaining entries in the Options tab.
To move on to the next section, select a device name from the Output
Devices window at the left side of the Device Configuration dialog box.
This makes the Takeup Tab available.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Takeup Tab
For roll-fed devices, the Takeup tab allows you to control the amount of
media the imager feeds between pages and between jobs, the time you wait
after each feed, and a variety of cut controls.

Takeup Tab

Feed Box
• Select the Between pages check box to make its text box available.
Enter the desired amount of media to be fed between pages in its text
box.

Note: The Between pages and Between jobs configuration controls

operate independently of each other.

• Select the Between jobs check box to make its text box available. Enter
the desired amount of media to be fed between jobs in its text box.

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 Devices

Note: Adjust per feed does not exercise any control over the
imager but serves instead to keep a record of the media movement.
This field allows your system to keep track of media usage more
accurately. You must have cleared Disable Media Tracking in the
Supply tab. Refer to “Media Tracking” on page 4-24.

• Enter the fixed amount that the imager moves the media after each feed
in the Adjust per feed text box.

Wait (Seconds) After Feed Controls

Select Wait (seconds) after feed to make its text box available. Enter the
number of seconds you want your imager to wait after a feed before it
becomes available for the next job.

Cut Box

Note: The Cut box applies only to imagers with an online proces-
sor (OLP) or darkroom adapter (DRA).The Units menu at the bot-
tom of the Takeup tab dialog box specifies the units of
measurement for all of the Cut box text boxes.

• Select After job to enable cuts after each job.

Note: The After job and After pages check boxes operate indepen-
dently of each other.

• Select After pages to make its spinner available. Enter the number of
pages you want to process before each cut.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

• Select Min. before cut to make available its text box. Enter the mini-
mum amount of media you want exposed before each cut.
• Select Max. before cut to make available its text box. Enter the maxi-
mum amount of media you want exposed before each cut.

Note: Adjust per cut does not exercise any control over the imager
but serves instead as a record of the entered value. This field
allows your Raster Blaster system to keep track of media usage
more accurately. You must have cleared Disable Media Tracking
in the Supply tab. Refer to “Media Tracking” on page 4-24.

• Enter the fixed amount that the imager moves the media for each cut in
the Adjust per cut text box.

Units Menu
Select the units of measurement for the Feed and Cut text boxes from the
Units menu. Menu choices are inches, feet, and meters.

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 Devices

Cut Sheet and Plate Imagers

As shown below, only the Wait (seconds) after feed controls are available
for cut sheet and plate imagers.

Takeup Tab

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

4-40
Chapter 5: Queues

Configuring Queues
To ensure that the TIFF files coming into Raster Blaster are imaged at the
correct resolution, you need to configure a unique queue for each resolu-
tion value supported by the output device attached to Raster Blaster’s inter-
face. This chapter gives instructions for configuring these queues. The
chapter is divided into the following parts:
• “Configuring New Queues” on page 5-2.
• “Editing & Changing Existing Queues” on page 5-11.
• “Deleting Queues” on page 5-13.
• “Sharing a Queue with Macintosh Workstations” on page 5-15.

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Configuring New Queues

It is a good idea to have all your Raster Blaster input queues folders setup
within one directory. This keeps your queue records more organized than
having queue folders in various places in your computer. This also makes it
easier to connect to your queues across the network from your RIP. Refer to
“Creating a Shared Directory” on page 9-2.
1. To configure new queues, select Configure Queue from the File
menu of the Raster Blaster log window. The Configure Queue dialog
box appears.

Configure Queue dialog box

When this dialog box opens for the first time, a queue directory called
‘\PAGEBUFF\’ appears in the Queue Folder pop-up menu. Leave

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 Queues

this entry in the Queue Folder text box -- do not delete it. The PAGE-
BUFF directory is the folder where jobs enter Raster Blaster and
where sub-folders are created for storing jobs either waiting to output
or already output.

Monitor Points
Monitor Points are the queue folders that you configure to control the han-
dling of jobs input to Raster Blaster. Each folder refers to a specific input
queue. The check box next to each folder name allows you to make that
queue active when Raster Blaster is running. The focus of your efforts in
configuring new queues and changing or deleting existing queues is the
section of the Configure Queue dialog box labeled Monitor Points. This
section contains a list of the existing monitor folders and their parameters.
It also contains buttons for Adding, Deleting and Editing monitor folders.
2. To configure a new queue folder, click the Add Monitor button. The
Input Monitor Folder dialog box appears.

Input Monitor Folder

The Input Monitor Folder dialog box allows you to name a queue
folder and specify how to handle files that arrive as input to Raster
Blaster in that specific queue folder.

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3. Do one of the following:

a. If you know the directory for this queue folder, type that directory
name into the Folder text box. If the directory you type in does
not exist, Raster Blaster will create the directory for you. Skip
ahead to step 4 on page 5-7 to complete the dialog box.
b. If you want to browse for a directory name, click on the square
button with three dots ‘...’ to the right of the Folder text box. This
opens the Browse for Folder dialog box.

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 Queues

Browse for Folder dialog box

Use this dialog box to locate and select the directory you wish to
specify. When you have the correct directory displayed in this win-
dow, click the New Folder button. This opens the New Folder dialog
box.

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(1) Type the name of the new queue folder in the New Folder
Name text box, and click OK to return to the Browse for
Folder dialog box. Your new folder name appears in the
directory you selected.
(2) Click OK to close the Browse for Folder dialog box. Your
new folder name appears in the Folder text box of the Input
Monitor Folder dialog box.

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 Queues

4. Follow the steps below to complete the parameters on the Input Mon-
itor Folder dialog box:
5. Under Default Output Device, select your Device and Pset.
6. Put a check mark in the Always use Device and PSet associated with
Queue check box if the Device and PSet selected here should be used
even when the incoming file contains device and PSet information.

Note: If a job is not associated with a device, it will appear in the

Active queue, but it will not be processed.

7. Checking Override Device under Orientation allows you to override

the orientation setting configured for the Device/PSet. When you
check Override Device, the Rotation text box and Wrong Read check
box become available.
Rotation for the queue may be set to 0, 90, 180, or 270 degrees, or
select To Fit (+90) or To Fit (-90).
Checking Wrong Read flips the incoming file to Wrong Read mode
before output.

Note: Any rotation and wrong read changes are made to the file
from a Monitor Point before the file is moved to the Queue Folder.
A progress dialog will appear to indicate rotation and wrong read
modifications. Imaging takes precedence over rotation. If both
occur simultaneously, rotation may slow to maintain imaging
speed.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

8. Check Always use input File Name as Job Name to display the file-
name rather than any embedded jobname. This function is useful
when processing files produced by outside sources.
9. Click OK to return to the Configure Queue dialog box. The new
queue folder you created now appears in the Folder list under Moni-
tor Points.

File Types to Exclude

10. The File Types to Exclude pop-up menu allows you to configure Ras-
ter Blaster to skip queued files with designated extensions. By
default, filenames with the extension “.map” are excluded.
a. To exclude additional file types (such as extensions used while a
job is being written to Raster Blaster), click the adjacent Add but-
ton.

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 Queues

When the edit box opens, enter the filename extension and click
Add to List.
b. You may delete a file type from the exclude list by highlighting it
and clicking the Delete button.
c. If the file extensions ‘.tmp’ and ‘.TMP’ are not listed, add them
to the list of File Types to Exclude. This procedure should only
be required once, unless these entries are manually deleted.

Maximum Active Pages

The remaining parameters on the Configure Queue dialog box allow you
to set controls that regulate the use of available memory by Raster Blaster.
These settings apply to all the input queues and need only be set once:
11. Maximum Active Pages limits the number of jobs Raster Blaster can
read (imaging jobs plus active jobs). You may wish to change the
default value of 1000. For example, set it to much smaller number if
you want to have multiple Raster Blasters monitoring the same queue.
Setting the field to 1 ensures that no rotation or wrong read conver-
sion takes place during imaging.
12. Put a check the Allow virtual memory for rotation check box if you
want rotation to take place even when there is insufficient memory to
perform rotation. When the box is unchecked, (the default), Raster
Blaster will only rotate an image if there is enough memory.

Note: Checking the box Allow virtual memory for rotation

severely taxes memory and is not recommended where the amount
of RAM may be limited. Rotating the bitmap at this point can be
demanding and time consuming process. If possible, try to perform
any rotations of the job at the RIP.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

CAUTION
If the box Allow virtual memory for rotation is not checked, and
there is not enough RAM memory available to contain the entire
file, rotation will fail and the file will be moved to an error folder.

Configuring Thresholds
At the bottom of the Configure Queues dialog box is a section called
When necessary delete thresholds. The fields in this section allow you to
configure two thresholds that control the treatment of jobs as they leave the
Active queue and enter the Completed queue on the Output Monitor.

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 Queues

These thresholds allow you to specify how large the Completed queue can
become before the Output Monitor begins deleting jobs from it as they are
completed.
The thresholds in this box become operative only when you set the Delete
pop-up menu in the Output Monitor window to When Necessary. Refer to
“Delete Menu” on page 7-14.
The following two thresholds control the treatment of files in the Com-
pleted queue:
13. Megabytes of free disk space. Enter the amount of free disk space
you want to reserve. When the Completed queue becomes too large to
maintain this amount of free space, jobs are deleted from it to main-
tain this requirement.
14. Maximum Held Pages. Enter the maximum size of the Completed
queue in pages. If the Completed queue exceeds this number of
pages, jobs are deleted from it to maintain this requirement.
15. Click OK to save your configuration and close the Configure Queue
dialog box.
16. Configure a new queue for each resolution value of your output
device by repeating the procedure starting with Step 2 on page 5-3.
17. When you are finished configuring new queues, click OK to close the
Configure Queue dialog box.

Editing & Changing Existing Queues

This section contains instructions for changing parameters associated with
existing queues. Begin any queue changes by selecting Configure Queues
from the File menu. This opens the Configure Queue dialog box.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

To modify an existing queue folder, highlight that folder on the Folder list
under Monitor Points, and click Edit Monitor. The Input Monitor Folder
dialog box appears.

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 Queues

1. Under Default Output Device, choose the correct Device and PSet.
2. Complete the remaining parameters on this dialog box as described in
Configuring New Queues, starting with step 4 on page 5-7.
3. Click OK to save your changes and return to the Configure Queue
dialog box.

Deleting Queues
To delete a queue, select Configure Queues from the File menu. This
opens the Configure Queue dialog box.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Configure Queue dialog box

Highlight the folder for the queue you want to delete under Monitor
Points, and click Delete Monitor. The highlighted entry is deleted from the
Folder list.

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 Queues

Sharing a Queue with Macintosh Workstations

1. To share an input folder with Macintosh workstations connected to
your Raster Blaster computer, open the File Manager, from the Start
menu, as shown below:

Note: This works only if your operating system is Windows NT

Server 4.0, and you have installed “Services for Macintosh” as part
of your operating system. Windows NT Workstation 4.0 is not able
to share directories to Macintosh computers.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

2. Highlight the input folder to be shared with Macintosh workstations

(HotFolder in this example).

File Manager window

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 Queues

3. From the MacFile menu, click Create Volume.

Note: If you don’t have a MacFile menu on your File Manager

window, check to see that you have installed “Services for Macin-
tosh” as part of your Windows NT Server operating system.

4. In the Create Macintosh-Accessible Volume dialog box that appears,

click OK.
5. Close the File Manager. If you want to share the input folder you
have just created with other PCs, open Windows NT Explorer.
6. Highlight the input folder (HotFolder in this example).

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7. Click your right mouse button. In the menu that appears, select the
Sharing command.

8. In the Properties dialog box that appears, click Shared As.

9. Click OK to close the Properties dialog box.
If you have not already done so, configure a unique input queue for each
resolution value supported by the output device attached to your Raster
Blaster. Refer to the heading “Configuring New Queues” on page 5-2 for
instructions.

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Chapter 6: Logs

Logs form a record of system actions and events. Logs are created or
expanded every time you start your system, and stored every time you shut
it down. You can also create a log to keep a record of a special event, such
as a failed file. This chapter describes configuration and management of
logs. To configure your logs, refer to “Configure Logs” below. To manage
logs, refer to “Log Management” on page 6-6.

Configure Logs
To configure your Raster Blaster logs:

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

1. From the File menu of the Raster Blaster log window, select
Configure Log. The Configure Log dialog box appears.

Configure Log dialog box

2. The Default Directory text box displays the location where Raster
Blaster stores its log files. If no location appears, no log file is cre-
ated.
3. Do one of the following:

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 Logs

a. If you know the directory where you want the logs to reside, type
the directory name into the Default Directory text box. If the
directory you type in does not exist, Raster Blaster will create the
directory for you. Skip ahead to step 4 below.
b. If you want to browse for a directory name, click on the Browse
button. This opens the Directory Browser dialog box.

Directory Browser window

c. Use this window to browse for the location of the directory you
wish to use. When you have the correct directory displayed in this
window, click the OK button to return to the Configure Log dia-
log box. The directory you selected is now entered in the Default
Directory text box.
4. The Default Log File Name box offers three mutually exclusive
options for log file naming.
a. Use Date
Select this option to have each log named using the date in
YYMMDD format, such as 971112.log. If your Raster Blaster

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

system is started more than once on a given date, the file is

expanded to include all Raster Blaster sessions for that day.
b. Use Date Unique
Select this option to have each log named with the date plus a let-
ter, such as 971111a.log. A separate log file is created for each
Raster Blaster session, regardless of how often the system is shut
down and restarted.
c. Use File Name
Select this option to make the File Name text box available.
Enter the desired file name in File Name. The name you enter is
not incremented.
5. The Log File Limits box contains two text boxes.
a. Max Memory
This box specifies the maximum amount of RAM in KB that will
be made available to display the log window. If a log window
exceeds this amount, the earliest entries will be thrown away to
meet this requirement.
b. Max File Size
This box specifies the maximum size in KB that a log file can
become. If a log file exceeds this amount, the earliest entries will
be thrown away to meet this requirement.
6. You can change the appearance of text in the log window by clicking
on New in the Fonts group box. The following dialog box appears:

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 Logs

7. Select a Font, Font style and Size from the menus displayed, preview
the results in the Sample text box, and click OK to close the dialog
box when you have made your selection.
8. To accept your Configure Log entries, click OK. The Configure Log
dialog box closes.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Log Management
The management of logs involves three main tasks:
• Creating a New Log. Refer to “Creating a New Log” on page 6-6.
• Opening Logs. Refer to “Opening Logs” on page 6-6.
• Saving Logs. Refer to “Saving Logs As...” on page 6-7.

Creating a New Log

Note: Selecting New Log from the File menu closes the current
active Raster Blaster log and creates a new one.

To create a new Raster Blaster log:

1. From the File menu of the Raster Blaster log window, select New
Log.
2. A new blank Raster Blaster log window appears. This becomes your
active log.
3. You may now save this log under a date or file name for future refer-
ence. Refer to “Saving Logs As...” on page 6-7.

Opening Logs
To open existing, saved, and stored Raster Blaster logs:
1. From the File menu of the Raster Blaster log window, select Open
Log.

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 Logs

2. The Open dialog box appears.

Open dialog box

3. Select the log file you wish to open.

4. Click Open.
The selected log file is displayed in your Raster Blaster log window.

Saving Logs As...

To save the current Raster Blaster log window:

Note: The Save Log As command gives you a convenient way to

name and store logs of special interest, such as logs that contain
messages relating to a file failure.

1. From the File menu of the Raster Blaster log window, select Save
Log As.
2. The Save As dialog box appears.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Save As dialog box

3. In the Save in: pop-up menu, locate and select the folder into which
you wish to save your log file.
4. Enter the desired log file name in the File name text box.
5. Click Save to save the log file. The Save As dialog box closes.

6-8
Chapter 7: Operations

This section covers a variety of operating tasks:

• “Starting Your Raster Blaster” on page 7-1.
• “Imaging a File” on page 7-4.
• “Using the Output Monitor” on page 7-6.
• “Resetting your Raster Blaster” on page 7-14.
• “Shutting Down Your Raster Blaster” on page 7-14.

Starting Your Raster Blaster

To start your Raster Blaster system, do one of the following:
1. Double-click the Raster Blaster icon on your desktop.

Raster Blaster Desktop Icon

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

2. Select Programs>Xitron Raster Blaster>Raster Blaster from the

Start menu, as illustrated below:

Start Menu Sequence for Raster Blaster

3. When the Raster Blaster system starts, the Raster Blaster and Rip
Broker buttons appear in the taskbar.

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 Operations

Raster Blaster and Rip Broker Task Bar Buttons

The Rip Broker is an internal task monitor that facilitates the opera-
tion of the Raster Blaster Web Browser Interface. It has no user func-
tions.
4. The Raster Blaster log window appears. Its menu bar allows you to
access controls for operating Raster Blaster. Messages regarding job
status and errors during operation will appear in the window.

Raster Blaster Log Window

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Imaging a File
To image a bitmap file from your Raster Blaster computer:
1. From the File menu of the Raster Blaster log window, select Image
File...
2. The Image File dialog box appears:

3. Set the parameters on this dialog box as follows:

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 Operations

a. Select the file name extension (e.g., TIFF files) under Files of
type:
b. Use the Look In: pop-up menu and its associated toolbar to
locate and select the file you want to print.
c. Be sure the Device field is set for the correct imager.
d. To use a special set of imager parameters for the selected device,
select it from the PSet pop-up menu.
e. If you want the selected Device and PSet to override any speci-
fied settings in the job, click on Override Job Settings... (If you
leave this box unchecked, the selected imager and PSet are used
only if they are not specified in the job.)
f. To cause the imager to rotate the page in wrong read mode
(regardless of the imager’s own settings), check the Override
Device box under Orientation. Both the Rotation text box and
Wrong Read check box become available. A page icon with the
letter R reflects the settings.
g. To retain the original (input) name, click the box Always use
Input File Name as Job Name. If this box is left unchecked, the
software uses the Page Name tag from inside the file as the job
name. If there is no Page Name tag, the input file name is used as
the job name.
h. Click Open. The selected file is processed and imaged, and the
dialog box closes.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Using the Output Monitor

The Output Monitor dialog box is displayed by default when you start Ras-
ter Blaster. To hide or display it, select Output Monitor (a toggle com-
mand) from the Output menu.

Note: If you hide the Output Monitor, the Active Queue and Com-
pleted Queue subwindows are not displayed in the browser moni-
tor.

To monitor the output of Raster Blaster:

1. Open the Output Monitor dialog box. This dialog box provides con-
trols that let you manage the flow of jobs.

Output Monitor dialog box

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 Operations

Job Queue Tabs

The Output Monitor dialog box is organized into four tabs, corresponding
to four job queues:
• Active
• Held
• Completed
• Save
Jobs enter the Active queue first, are processed, and are transferred to the
Completed queue. Jobs are deleted from the Completed queue based on the
command selected from the Delete menu. Refer to “Delete Menu” on
page 7-14. You can defer processing by moving jobs to the Held queue.
When you are ready to process jobs in the Held queue, move them back to
the Active queue. You can save jobs by moving them to the Save queue.
The Delete menu does not apply to jobs in the Save queue.
To move a selected job from one queue to another, use the job-action but-
tons (refer to “Job Action Buttons” on page 7-9).

Progress Bar
The long rectangle between the Held Tab and the Completed Tab is the
progress bar. When jobs are in the Active queue and output is enabled, the
progress bar shows the percent of completion for the current job as it is
being processed.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Output Monitor, showing progress bar

Disable Output Check Box

Select the Disable Output check box to stop your system from sending out-
put to an imager. Clear the box to enable output. When Disable Output is
selected, the word ‘Disabled’ appears at the bottom of the Raster Blaster
log window. When the box is cleared, the word ‘Ready’ appears at the bot-
tom of the log window.

7-8
 Operations

Job Action Buttons

Use the buttons Active, Held, Completed, and Save to send a highlighted
job or jobs to the indicated queue. First highlight the job, then click the
appropriate button.

Note: The Info, Remove, View, Active, Held, Completed, and Save
buttons are unavailable until you highlight one or more jobs in one
of the queue tabs.

Info Button
To use the Info button, follow these steps:
1. Highlight the file for which you want information in one of the queue
tabs on the Output Monitor dialog box. This activates the Info,
Remove, View, Active, Held, Completed, and Save buttons.
2. Press the Info button to open the Page Info window, containing infor-
mation about the highlighted job. The highlighted job may be in any
queue.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Page Info window

a. The Units pop-up menu allows you to select the measurement

units for Width and Depth measurements. Choices are Pixels,
Inches, Millimeters, Points, and Picas.
b. Status identifies the queue, time and date of the highlighted file.

Remove Button
Remove deletes the highlighted job or jobs from any queue.

View Button
To use the View button, follow these steps:
1. Highlight the file you want to view in one of the queue tabs on the
Output Monitor dialog box, as shown below. This activates the Info,
Remove, View, Active, Held, Completed, and Save buttons.

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 Operations

Output Monitor dialog box

2. Press the View button to open the PAGEVIEWER window.

3. The PAGE VIEWER window displays the file at the resolution of
your computer monitor. It can only view a single layer or color. The
image appears magnified. For example, if the image were created at
1016 dpi but displayed at 75 dpi, the apparent magnification would be
about 14 times (1016/75 ≈ 13.5).
4. Use the vertical and horizontal scroll bars to view the image. The
illustration below shows a test file image of a trout.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

PAGEVIEWER Display of Test File.

5. To see a reduced version of the image, click Scaled Page in the View
menu of the PAGE VIEWER window.

This opens a smaller window, superimposed on the PAGEVIEWER

window, showing a reduced version of the image.

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 Operations

Below, the Scaled Page window displays the same test file image of a
trout, reduced to 1/24 of the original size..

Scaled Page Display of Test File.

Note: If you click a specific location of the reduced view, the

enlarged view in the PAGE VIEWER window will change. It will
be centered around the location at which you clicked.

6. Select the unit of measurement for the PAGE VIEWER display from
the bottom half of the View menu. The choices are Inches,
Millimeters, Pixels, and Points.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Note: To improve the quality of the display, try experimenting

with different settings for the Lines per update command in the
View menu of the PAGE VIEWER window. This command deter-
mines how many lines are interpreted before being displayed. The
default setting is 1.

Delete Menu
The Delete pop-up menu on the Output Monitor allows you to make set-
tings that control the treatment of jobs in the Completed queue.
• Never — jobs are never deleted from the Completed queue.
• When necessary — jobs are deleted when one of two configured thresh-
olds is reached. The thresholds are configured in the Configure Queues
dialog box. Refer to “Configuring Thresholds” on page 5-10 for instruc-
tions on configuring the thresholds.
• Always — jobs are deleted as soon as they reach the Completed queue.

Resetting your Raster Blaster

To interrupt imaging, you can select Reset >Imager from the Raster
Blaster log window. The job will be aborted and your system will be reset.
Use Reset >Imager to abort a job during processing, or if a job causes your
computer to fail.

Shutting Down Your Raster Blaster

To shut down your Raster Blaster:

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 Operations

1. From the File menu of the Raster Blaster log window, click Exit.
2. On the taskbar, click the RIPBroker button.
3. From the File menu of the RIPBroker window, click Exit.
Your system closes. To restore communication with the RIP, restart
Raster Blaster.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

7-16
Chapter 8: Browser

You can use your browser interface to monitor Raster Blaster activity. You
can also use your browser to get information on jobs that appear in the
Active and Completed queues of the Raster Blaster Output Monitor.

Accessing Raster Blaster with a Browser

To access Raster Blaster through your browser interface:
1. Make sure that the Raster Blaster you wish to monitor has been
started.
2. Start your browser (Microsoft Internet Explorer, version 4.0 or later).

Note: Browser connection by way of IP address is not recom-

mended because it significantly increases the time required to
establish a connection.

3. Sign on to the desired Raster Blaster site:

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

http://(Raster Blaster computer name)/cpsihome.html

Note: The browser will not connect if the computer name exceeds
15 characters. Also, the domain name table must be up to date for
this sign-on to work.

4. Once signed on, bookmark the location so that you can easily return
to it.
5. When you first sign on, the Raster Blaster splash screen appears.

Raster Blaster Splash Screen

8-2
 Browser

6. When the splash screen disappears, you can select any of the three
tabs. Select one of the following:
a. The “About” tab, to show the splash screen graphic.
b. The “Activity Monitor” tab, to monitor Raster Blaster.
c. The “Help” tab is currently under construction.

Activity Monitor Tab

When you select the Activity Monitor tab, a screen with four subwindows
appears:

Raster Blaster Activity Monitor

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Activity Monitor Subwindows

The Activity Monitor tab shows four detachable subwindows:
1. The Ripping Status subwindow contains comments relating to the
rendering of files. These comments match those that originally appear
on the host Raster Blaster in the log window.
2. The Imaging Status subwindow contains comments relating to the
imaging of files. Again, these comments match those that originally
appear on the host Raster Blaster in the log window.

Note: To prevent new entries from appearing in the window, click

on the tab of the Ripping Status or Imaging Status subwindows
(the name on the tab turns to gray). Existing entries will be tempo-
rarily blocked from scrolling up out of view. Click on the tab again
to resume scrolling (the name on the tab returns to blue).

3. The Active Queue subwindow lists jobs that are waiting to be pro-
cessed. This lists matches the list displayed in the Active queue tab in
the host Raster Blaster in the Output Monitor window.
4. The Completed Queue subwindow lists jobs that have been pro-
cessed. This lists matches the list displayed in the Completed queue
tab in the host Raster Blaster Output Monitor.

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 Browser

Job Information
To get information about a specific job, highlight the job in the Active
Queue or Completed Queue subwindow, as shown on the screen below:

Then click on the Info button beneath the subwindow. Information about
the selected job appears in a Page Info window:

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

This is similar to the information that appears when you highlight a job and
click Info in the Output Monitor dialog box in the host Raster Blaster
(refer to “Info Button” on page 7-9)
You can highlight more than one job and then click the Info button to dis-
play information about all the highlighted jobs.
When you click Info with multiple jobs highlighted, use the left- and right-
pointing arrowheads next to the Close button on the Page Info window to
scroll back and forth between jobs. Click Close when you are finished.

Detachable Copies of the Four SubWindows

A copy of any of the four subwindows in the Activity Monitor can be
detached and displayed. To detach and display a copy of a subwindow:
1. Click on the yellow pushpin icon at the top of the subwindow.
A copy of the subwindow is created and resides in its own window:

Active Queue Subwindow

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 Browser

The detached copy of the window behaves just like the window from
which it was copied.The window you created is updated based on the
activity on the host Raster Blaster. Once created, the window contin-
ues to be updated even if you close down the browser you used to cre-
ate it. Using this facility, you can monitor the activity of different
Raster Blasters side by side.

Progress Bar
The long rectangular bar in the middle of the Activity Monitor displays the
progress of the current job in the host Raster Blaster. This display matches
the progress bar found in the Output Monitor dialog box.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

8-8
Chapter 9: Connecting

This chapter expands on the information in Chapter 5 concerning configur-

ing your input Queues, but covers moving files specifically from your
Xitron RIP (or other RIP) to your Raster Blaster. For RIPs from other
manufacturers please see the addendum documentation provided with
your Raster Blaster. Raster Blaster only works with revision 4.5r1d of the
Harlequin engine or higher. This chapter is set apart from Chapter 5
because the settings discussed in this chapter will be adjusted and set in the
RIP rather than Raster Blaster.

Preparing Raster Blaster for TIFF

Output
Before you get started setting up your RIP to output files to your Raster
Blaster, there is some setup you need to do in the Raster Blaster itself.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

As mentioned in Chapter 5, it is a good idea to have all your input queues

setup within the same folder on your Raster Blaster. This keeps your direc-
tories and files more organized than having queue directories in various
places in your computer. This also makes it easier to connect to your
queues across the network from your RIP.

Creating a Shared Directory

To share your queue directories over the network, follow these steps:
1. Log on as a user with administrator privileges.
2. Browse to the location of your Raster Blaster input queue or the
directory containing your input queues. For instructions on setting up
queue directories, refer to “Configuring New Queues” on page 5-2.

3. With the folder selected, go to the File menu and select Sharing....

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 Connecting

This opens the File Properties dialog box for the selected folder:

File Properties dialog box for folder called RBQ

4. Click on the Shared As button.

5. If you wish to use a share name different than the directory name,
type in the name you wish to use in the Share Name text box.
6. If you need to set up security on the share, click on Permissions and
apply any appropriate settings for your network.
7. Click on Apply to save your changes, and click OK to close the dialog
box.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

You can now access your input queues across the network for access by
your RIP. The rest of this process will take place on your RIP.

Preparing the RIP

Mapping a Raster Blaster drive to the Xitron RIP

To prepare your Xitron RIP to run with Raster Blaster you need to map the
directory on the Raster Blaster computer that contains its input queues to a
hard drive on your Xitron RIP computer. Follow these steps:
1. From the desktop of your Xitron RIP computer, double-click Network
Neighborhood. Browse to the location of your Raster Blaster input
queue or the directory containing your input queues.

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 Connecting

2. Select the directory you wish to map to your Xitron RIP computer.
This is the folder you just set up for sharing. Click on the File menu,
and select Map Network Drive to open the following dialog box:

The Map Network Drive dialog box asks you to define a letter for the
mapped hard drive. In the example above the drive letter is G, which will
appear in the following screens as the mapped drive.
3. Select the appropriate drive letter.
4. In the Connect As: text box, enter Administrator or a user name with
Administrator privileges.
5. Put a check in the Reconnect at Logon check box.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

6. Click OK to close the Map Network Drive dialog box.

The next window shows you the shared folder mapped to the drive of
your choice, and its contents:

Now you are ready to start your RIP and configure a new Page Setup that
represents the shared input queue folder for Raster Blaster.

Configuring the RIP for TIFF Output

1. To configure your Xitron RIP for TIFF output to Raster Blaster, make
sure the RIP application is started.

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 Connecting

2. Select PageSetup Manager from the Xitron RIP menu. Click on

New. This will open the New Page Setup dialog box.

3. Select TIFF as your Output Device, and click on Configure Device.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

4. The Device Configuration dialog box for TIFF opens.

Device Configuration dialog box for output device called TIFF

5. Click on the Folder button and select the mapped drive that you just
set up on your Xitron RIP computer. Refer to Step 3 “Select the
appropriate drive letter.” on page 9-5.
6. Make the other parameters on this dialog box appropriate for the
TIFF files associated with the Pset and input queue you configured in
Raster Blaster.
7. Clear the check box for Enable Post Processing.
8. Clear the Command text box.

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 Connecting

9. Click OK to close the Device Configuration dialog box and return to

the New Page Setup dialog box.
10. Click Save As on the New Page Setup dialog box to save your Page
Setup. The Save Setup dialog box opens.

11. Change the Page Setup name if necessary, and click Save on the Save
Setup dialog box to save the new Page Setup for your Xitron RIP.
Now, when you print a job through your RIP with the Page Setup you
just configured, the job shows up in the shared folder for the Raster
Blaster input queue corresponding to that PSet.
To verify this, use the Explore function in Windows NT to display the
contents of the queue folder. The screen below is an example.

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Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Explore window showing TIFF file in RBQ input queue folder.

If all your input queues for Raster Blaster reside in the same folder, this
completes the process of setting up your RIP to output files to Raster
Blaster. If you have input queues set up in more than one folder on your
Raster Blaster computer, you need to go through the procedure (starting
with “Creating a Shared Directory” on page 9-2) for each folder containing
input queues.

9-10
 G LOSSARY
Aspect Ratio
The height-to-width ratio of a page.

Banding
A printing problem in which white bands are produced when data is sent to
an imagesetter too slowly. The media continues to feed through, but no
image is available to print, leading to white bands in the output.

Bitmap
A rectangular grid of small squares known as pixels, which represent a
graphic image.

CCITT Group3, Group4, Huffman

Compression methods used to reduce the size of computer graphic files.

Calibration
The process of setting a device to known conditions. Commonly done with
devices that change color frequently such as monitors, proofers, imagers,
and other printing devices that can change output when colorant or paper
stock is changed.

Color Separation
A monochrome image that represents a component of a color image. In
CMYK color printing, images are depicted by four separated pages (cyan,
magenta, yellow and black) for each full-color page.

Glossary-1
Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Color Space
A scheme for representing color images as combinations of a few basic col-
ors, such as CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) or RGB (red, green,
and blue). Some schemes use other parameters (for example, HSB uses
hue, saturation and brightness) to represent color.

Compression
The process of reducing the size of a computer file by eliminating redun-
dant characters or by changing the way in which characters are represented.

Continuous Tone
A term applied to artwork such as photographs, drawings or paintings, that
consist of shades of gray or color that blend smoothly over a range of color
tones.

Dot Gain
A printing problem caused by the tendency of halftoned dots to increase in
size during the course of image reproduction. Dot gain can be caused by
overexposure in the burning of the plate, resulting in denser dots, or it can
be caused by pores in the paper soaking up ink, causing the dots to swell.

Gamut
The subset of colors in the visible spectrum that a printing device is capable
of reproducing.

Halftone Screening
The process of breaking down a continuous-tone graphic image into solid
spots of differing sizes to create the illusion of transitioning grays or colors
in a printed image.

Glossary-2
 Glossary

ICC
The International Color Consortium. Established in 1993 by eight industry
vendors for the purpose of creating, promoting, and encouraging the stan-
dardization and evolution of an open, vendor neutral, cross-platform color
management system architecture.

ICC Profile
A file that describes how a particular device (e.g., monitor, scanner, printer,
proofer, imagesetter) reproduces color.

Imagesetter
A computerized printing device that uses a marking engine to apply pixels
of colorant to paper or film.

Imposition
The process of arranging the pages of a publication on sheets so that when
the sheets are printed and folded, the pages appear in the proper sequence.

LZW
A compression method used to reduce the size of computer graphic files.

Misregistration
A printing problem in which different color inks are not exactly aligned
with each other, causing gaps to occur between color objects.

Offset Printing
A form of printing in which the ink is not transferred directly from the plate
to the paper. The offset is supplied by the use of a blanket, or large rubber
roller. The plate applies the ink to the blanket, and the blanket transfers the
ink to the paper.

Glossary-3
Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Output Device
A computer peripheral capable of producing printed copy of images, such
as an imagesetter or digital proofer.

Output Plugin
A device driver which controls an output device connected to a RIP.

Packbits
A compression method used to reduce the size of computer graphic files.

Pixel
A small square or dot in a rectangular grid of similar dots, that together rep-
resent a graphic image. The smallest distinct unit in a bitmap.

Platesetter
A printing device that produces an image on metal plates by burning dots in
the metal surface.

Proofer
A printing device used to create images as proofs in order to match the final
output of an offset press. Traditional proofers create prints from separation
negatives. Digital proofers create ink-jet prints or dye-sublimation prints.

Rasterizing
The process of translating a graphic image into a computer file by repre-
senting the image as an array of dots or pixels.

Resolution
A measure of visual precision in a graphic image. Resolution is commonly
expressed as the pixel count or dot count per unit of measure in the image.

Glossary-4
 Glossary

RIP
Raster Image Processor. A computer program that translates a graphic
image into a set of computer language symbols that describe the image as
an array of dots or pixels.

Screen Ruling
The number of lines of halftoned dots on a screen or image measured in
lines per inch. The higher the screen ruling, the finer the dots and the
sharper the image.

TIFF
Tagged Image File Format, a type of computer graphic file. This is the only
file format that can be used as input to Raster Blaster.

Trapping
A technique in which adjacent colors are slightly overprinted along com-
mon edges to minimize the effects of misregistration.

Glossary-5
Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Glossary-6
 Index

I NDEX
A Adding a New Device 4-29
Address button 4-4
Accessing Raster Blaster with a Browser (In Add New Device dialog box) 4-4
8-1 Address text box
Active button 7-9 (In Add New Device dialog box) 4-4
Active queue 7-7, 8-4 Adjust per feed text box
Active Queue button 7-10 (In Takeup parameter tab) 4-37
Active Queue subwindow 8-5 After job check box
Activity Monitor tab 8-3, 8-6 (In Takeup parameter tab) 4-37
Active Queue subwindow 8-4 After pages check box
Completed Queue subwindow 8-4 (In Takeup parameter tab) 4-37
Imaging Status subwindow 8-4 Agfa device driver 4-29
Ripping Status subwindow 8-4 Allow non-numeric setup names check
Add Monitor button box 4-9, 4-32
(In Configure Queue dialog box) 5-3 Always use Device and PSet associated
Add New Device dialog box 4-4, 4-29 with Queue check box
Address button 4-4 (In Input Monitor Folder dialog box) 5-
Address text box 4-4 7
Driver Config button 4-4 Always use input File Name as Job Name
Driver menu 4-4, 4-29 check box
Name text box 4-4 (In Image File dialog box) 7-5
Type menu 4-4, 4-29 AppleTalk networking 2-1
Add New Setup dialog box 4-7, 4-9, 4-32 Assigning Cassettes
Allow non-numeric setup names check (In Supply parameter tab) 4-26
box 4-7, 4-8
Setup Name text box 4-8
Add/Remove button 3-4
Add/Remove Programs icon 3-3
B
Add/Remove Programs Properties dialog Between jobs check box
box 3-4 (In Takeup parameter tab) 4-36

Index-1
Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Between pages check box (In Options parameter tab) 4-21

(In Takeup parameter tab) 4-36 Center on Media Width check box
Broker (In Options parameter tab) 4-21
RIP 7-3 Choose Destination Location wizard
Browse button 2-6, 6-3 screen 2-5, 2-6
Browse for Folder dialog box 5-4, 5-6 Command text box 9-8
Browser 1-3 Compact disk 3-1
Browser interface 2-1 Completed button 7-9
splash screen 8-2 Completed queue 7-7, 8-4
Buffer Size and Band Size spinners Completed Queue button 7-10
(In Device Parameter Tab) 4-16 Configure Device button
Button (In New Page Setup) 9-7
Add Monitor 5-3 Configure Log command 6-2
Delete Monitor 5-14 Configure Log dialog box 6-2
Info 7-10 Default Directory text box 6-2, 6-3
Job Action controls 7-9 Default Log File Name box 6-3
New Device 4-4 Fonts group box 6-4
New Folder 5-5 Log File Limits box 6-4
New PSet 4-32 log file naming conventions 6-3
Remove 7-10 Max File Size 6-4
Task Bar 7-3 Max Memory 6-4
View 7-10 Configure Logs 6-1
Configure Queue dialog box 5-2
Add Monitor button 5-3
C Delete Monitor button 5-14
File Types to Exclude 5-8, 5-9
Cassette Slot Maximum Active Pages 5-9
(In Supply parameter tab) 4-26, 4-27 Monitor Points 5-3
Cassettes window 4-30 Queue Folder menu 5-2
(In Supply parameter tab) 4-24, 4-26, Queue Folder text box 5-3
4-27 Configuring Cassettes
CCITT Group3 1-1 (In Supply parameter tab) 4-24
CCITT Group4 1-1 Configuring New Queues 5-2
CCITT Huffman 1-1 Configuring the RIP for TIFF Output 9-6
CD-ROM 1-5, 2-2, 2-3 Confirm File Deletion dialog box 3-5
Center on Media Length check box Connecting 1-3

Index-2
 Index

Connecting Raster Blaster to a RIP 9-1 (for Page Setup) 9-8

Control Panel command 3-2 Device tab 4-14
Create Macintosh-Accessible Volume di- Location text box 4-14
alog box 5-17 New Device button 4-29
Create Volume command 5-17 New PSet button 4-7
Creating a New Log 6-6 Options parameter tab 4-20
Creating a Shared Directory 9-2 Output Devices window 4-5, 4-10, 4-
Creating New Devices 4-3 29
Creating New PSets 4-6 Parameter tabs 4-11
Cut box Save button 4-5
(In Takeup parameter tab) 4-37 Settings Parameter Tab 4-16
Cut Sheet and Plate Imagers Settings parameter tab 4-17
(In Takeup parameter tab) 4-39 Supply parameter tab 4-23
Takeup parameter tab 4-36
Device Length placard
D (In Settings parameter tab) 4-18
Device Parameter Tab
Darkroom adapter (DRA) 4-37 Buffer Size and Band Size spinners 4-
Default configuration for new PSets 4-20 16
Default Directory text box 6-2 Disable Device check box 4-16
Default Log File Name box 6-3 Imaging Engine group box 4-15
Default PSet 4-13 Max. Height placard 4-15
Default PSet configuration 4-13 Max. Width placard 4-15
Default PSet name 4-9 Type menu 4-15
Delete menu Units menu 4-15
(In Output Monitor) 7-7 Device Parameter tab
Delete Monitor button 5-14 (In Device Configuration dialog box)
Deleting Devices 4-6 4-14
Deleting Queues 5-13 Device parameter tab 4-14
Deleting Setups 4-10 Device Width placard
Depth of page (In Settings parameter tab) 4-18
(In Page Info Window) 7-10 Devices 1-2
Destination Folder 2-5, 2-6 Directory Browser 2-6
Destination Location 2-5 Directory Browser dialog box 6-3
Device Configuration dialog box 4-5, 4-6, Disable Cassette Tracking check box
4-10, 4-11, 4-13, 4-29, 4-34 (In Supply Parameter tab) 4-17

Index-3
Raster Blaster User’s Guide

(In Supply parameter tab) 4-27 Share Name text box 9-3
Disable Device check box Shared As button 9-3
(In Device Parameter Tab) 4-16 File type 7-5
Disable Media Tracking check box Finish installation 2-14
(In Supply parameter tab) 4-24 Folder text box
Disable Output check box (In Input Monitor Folder dialog box) 5-
(In Output Monitor) 7-8 4
Document style conventions 1-3 Fonts group box
Driver Config button (In Configure Log dialog box) 6-4
(In Add New Device dialog box) 4-4
Driver menu
(In Add New Device dialog box) 4-4 H
Held button 7-9
Held queue 7-7
E Held Queue button 7-10
Enable Post Processing check box 9-8 Horizontal Resolution menu
Enabling Cassette Tracking (In Settings parameter tab) 4-18
(In Supply parameter tab) 4-27
Exposure Text Box
(In Settings parameter tab) 4-17
Extension
I
file name 7-5 I/O base address for the personality card 2-
9
Image File command 7-4
Image File dialog box 7-4
F Always use input File Name as Job
Feed box Name check box 7-5
(In Takeup parameter tab) 4-36 Always use input file name as Job
File 6-2 Name check box 7-5
File Manager 5-15 Device menu 7-5
File menu 4-29, 5-2, 6-2, 6-6, 6-7, 7-4 Device text box 7-5
Exit command 7-15 Files of type menu 7-5
File name text box 6-4, 6-8 Look In menu 7-5
File Properties dialog box 9-3 Orientation group box 7-5
Permissions button 9-3 Override Device check box 7-5

Index-4
 Index

Override Job Settings check box 7-5

Page icon 7-5
J
PSet menu 7-5 Job Action Buttons 7-9
Rotation text box 7-5 Info Button 7-9
Wrong Read check box 7-5 Remove 7-10
Image Negate check box View 7-10
(In Options parameter tab) 4-21 Job queue tabs 7-7
Imaging a File 7-4
Imaging Engine group box
(In Device Parameter Tab) 4-15 L
Imaging Status Subwindow 8-4
Location text box
Info button 7-9, 8-5
(In Device Configuration dialog box)
Input Monitor Folder dialog box 5-3, 5-6
4-14
Always use Device and PSet associated
Log File Limits box 6-4
with Queue check box 5-7
Log in as administrator 2-2
Always use input File Name as Job
Log Management 6-6
Name 5-8
Log on as administrator 9-2
Default Output Device 5-7
Log Window 6-2, 7-3
Device text box 5-7
Logs 1-3
Folder text box 5-4
LZW 1-1
Orientation group box 5-7
Override Device check box 5-7
Pset text box 5-7
Rotation settings 5-7 M
Rotation text box 5-7 MacFile menu 5-17
Wrong Read check box 5-7 Macintosh computers 5-15
Installation 1-2 Map Network Drive command 9-5
Installation Complete screen 2-14 Map Network Drive dialog box 9-5
Installing Output Plugins 2-7 Connect As text box 9-5
Installing Raster Blaster 2-4 Reconnect at Logon check box 9-5
InstallShield progress bar 2-13 Mapping a Raster Blaster drive 9-4
InstallShield Wizard 2-4 Margin Negate check box
Internet Information Server (IIS) 2-2 (In Options parameter tab) 4-21
Introduction 1-2 Margins box
(In Settings parameter tab) 4-18, 4-19
Max File Size text box 6-4

Index-5
Raster Blaster User’s Guide

Max Memory text box 6-4 New Log command 6-6

Max. before cut text box New Page Setup dialog box 9-7
(In Takeup parameter tab) 4-38 New PSet button 4-32
Max. Height placard Notes and Cautions 1-4
(In Device Parameter Tab) 4-15
Max. Width placard
(In Device Parameter Tab) 4-15
Media Height text box
O
(In Supply parameter tab) 4-24 Online processor (OLP) 4-37
Media Length placard Open button 6-7
(In Settings parameter tab) 4-18 Open dialog box 6-7
Media Tracking Open Log command 6-6
(In Supply parameter tab) 4-24 Opening Logs 6-6
Media Type placard Operating system 1-1
(In Settings parameter tab) 4-18 Operations 1-3
Media Type text box Options parameter tab 4-13, 4-17, 4-20, 4-
(In Supply parameter tab) 4-24 34
Media Width placard Center on Media Length check box 4-
(In Settings parameter tab) 4-18 21
Media Width text box Center on Media Width check box 4-21
(In Supply parameter tab) 4-24, 4-31 Image Negate check box 4-22
Microsoft Internet Explorer 2-1, 8-1 Margin Negate check box 4-22
Min. before cut text box Orientation box 4-21
(In Takeup parameter tab) 4-38 Output Copies spinner 4-22
Monitor Points Override Job Resolution check box 4-
(In Configure Queue dialog box) 5-3 21
Wrong Read check box 4-22
Orientation box 4-35
(In Options parameter tab) 4-20, 4-21
N Output Device Files
Name text box (In Select Components wizard screen)
(In Add New Device dialog box) 4-4 2-8
New Device button 4-4 Output Devices window 4-30, 4-32, 4-34,
New Folder button 5-5 4-35
(In Browse for Folder dialog box) 5-5 (In Device Configuration dialog box)
New Folder dialog box 5-5 4-6

Index-6
 Index

Output menu 7-6 Progress bar 7-7

Output Monitor 7-6, 7-10, 8-4 InstallShield Wizard 2-13
Delete menu 7-7, 7-14 Properties dialog box 5-18
Disable Output Check Box 7-8 PSet spinner 4-7
Hiding 7-6 pushpin icon 8-6
Job Action Buttons 7-9
Job Queue Tabs 7-7
Progress Bar 7-7, 8-7
Using 7-6
Q
Output Monitor Tab Queue Folder text box
Active queue 7-7 (In Configure Queue dialog box) 5-3
Completed queue 7-7 Queues 1-3
Held queue 7-7 How to Configure a New Queue 5-2
Save queue 7-7 Monitor Points in Queue Configuration
Override device 7-5 5-3
Override Job Resolution check box
(In Options parameter tab) 4-21
R
Raster Blaster
P Acceptable input formats 1-1
Packbits 1-1 Desktop Icon 7-1
Page Info window 8-5 Installation 2-4
Page Name tag 7-5 log window 4-29, 5-2, 6-2, 6-6, 7-3, 7-
PAGE VIEWER window 7-12, 7-13, 7-14 15
Scaled Page command 7-12 Output plugin 2-16
Scaled Page window 7-13 software 2-5, 2-11, 2-13
View menu 7-12 Software Removal 1-2, 3-1
PageSetup Manager 9-7 Raster Blaster command 7-2
Parameter sets (PSets) 4-2, 4-6, 4-10 Raster Blaster log 7-3
Parameter tabs Raster Blaster log window 6-6, 6-7, 8-4
(In Device Configuration dialog box) Raster Blaster Output plugins 1-5
4-11 Raster Blaster software 3-6
Peer Web Services 2-2 Remove button 7-9, 7-10
Pixels 7-10 Reset command 7-14
Preparing the RIP 9-4 Resolution Menus

Index-7
Raster Blaster User’s Guide

(In Settings parameter tab) 4-18 for a PSet 4-33, 4-34

Restart after installation 2-14 Horizontal Resolution menu 4-18
RIP Broker 7-3 Margins box 4-18
RipBroker button in taskbar 7-2, 7-15 Media Length placard 4-18
RipBroker window 7-15 Media Type placard 4-18
Ripping Status Subwindow 8-4 Media Width placard 4-18
Roll Length text box Resolution Menus 4-18
(In Supply parameter tab) 4-24 Units menu 4-19
for plate media 4-25 Vertical Resolution menu 4-18
Rotation 7-5 Setup Name 4-7
Setup Status wizard screen 3-5
Sharing a Queue 5-15
S Sharing command 5-18, 9-2
Splash screen 2-3
Save As dialog box 6-7 Start Copying Files wizard screen 2-12
(for saving logs) 6-7 Start menu 7-2
Save button 6-8, 7-9 Starting Raster Blaster 7-1
Save Log As command 6-7 Stations window
Save queue 7-7 (In Supply parameter tab) 4-26, 4-27,
Save Queue button 7-10 4-31
Saving Logs 6-7 Style Conventions 1-4
Select Components wizard screen 2-6, 2-7 Subwindow 8-4
Select Program Folder wizard screen 2-9, Active Queue 8-4
2-11 Completed Queue 8-4
Select Sub-components wizard screen 2-8 Imaging Status 8-4
Service Pack 5 2-1 Ripping Status 8-4
Settings diagrams Supply parameter tab 4-17, 4-23, 4-28, 4-
(In Settings parameter tab) 4-19 30, 4-37, 4-38
Settings Parameter Tab Assigning Cassettes 4-26
(In Device Configuration dialog box) Avantra 44 Example Configuration 4-
4-16 28
Settings parameter tab 4-13, 4-17, 4-20, 4- Cassette Slot 4-26
27 Cassettes window 4-24, 4-26
Device Length placard 4-18 Configuring Cassettes 4-24
Device Width placard 4-18 Disable Cassette Tracking check box 4-
Exposure Text Box 4-17 17, 4-27

Index-8
 Index

Disable Media Tracking check box 4- Max. before cut check box 4-38
24, 4-37, 4-38 Min. before cut check box 4-38
Enabling Cassette Tracking 4-27 Units menu 4-38
Media Height text box 4-24 Wait (seconds) after feed check box 4-
Media Tracking 4-24 37
Media Type text box 4-24 Wait (seconds) after feed controls 4-39
Media Width text box 4-24, 4-31 Task Bar Buttons 7-3
Plate Count text box 4-25 Thickness text box
Roll Length text box 4-24 (In Supply parameter tab) 4-24
Sheet Count text box 4-26 TIFF as Output Device 9-7
Slot A icon 4-30 TIFF Output 9-1
Stations window 4-26, 4-30 Type menu
Thickness text box 4-24 (In Add New Device dialog box) 4-4
Units menu 4-24, 4-25 (In Device Parameter Tab) 4-15
Units menu for Roll Length 4-24
Warn at check box 4-25
Warn at spinner 4-25
Warn at window 4-24
U
UninstallShield utility 3-5, 3-6
Units menu
(In Device Parameter Tab) 4-15
T (In Page Info window) 7-10
Takeup parameter tab (In Settings parameter tab) 4-19
Adjust per cut text box 4-38 (In Supply parameter tab) 4-24
Adjust per feed text box 4-37 Units menu for Roll Length
After job check box 4-37 (In Supply parameter tab) 4-24
After pages check box 4-37 Use Date check box 6-3
Between jobs check box 4-36 Use Date Unique check box 6-4
Between jobs text box 4-36 Use File Name check box 6-4
Between pages check box 4-36 Using the Output Monitor 7-6
Between pages text box 4-36 Utilities and applications 2-1
Cut box 4-37
Cut Sheet and Plate Imagers 4-39
Cut text box 4-38
Feed box 4-36
V
Feed text box 4-38 Vertical Resolution menu

Index-9
Raster Blaster User’s Guide

(In Settings parameter tab) 4-18 (In Page Info Window) 7-10
View button 7-9 Windows NT 1-1, 2-1
View menu 7-14 Server 2-2
Lines per update command 7-14 Workstation 2-2
Windows NT Server 5-15
Windows NT Workstation 5-15
W Wizard screens
Choose Destination Location 2-5, 2-6
Wait (seconds) after feed controls I/O base for the personality card 2-9
(In Takeup parameter tab) 4-39 InstallShield Wizard Complete 2-14
Wait (seconds) after feed text box Select Components 2-6
(In Takeup parameter tab) 4-37 Select Program Folder 2-9, 2-11
Warn at check box Select Sub-components 2-8
(In Supply parameter tab) 4-25 Start Copying Files 2-12
Warn at window Welcome 2-4
(In Supply parameter tab) 4-24 Wrong Read 7-5
Welcome screen 2-4
Width of page

Index-10