Using the ULS Laser Control Panel

Using the ULS Printer Driver and ULS Control Panel Software

All ULS laser systems are designed to operate like a computer printer. After completing a design in Adobe Acrobat or other vector design software, you use the application's print command to send the design for laser engraving or cutting. Unlike a normal computer printer, jobs sent to the ULS laser are intercepted by the ULS Laser Control Panel, allowing the operator to specify the material to be processed and to precisely locate the design on the material.

The laser systems are provided with two software components designed for Microsoft Windows based operating systems. The first component is a printer driver that allows you to print from any Windows based graphic software capable of printing through the Windows print system. This component shows up as a printer in the printer section of the Windows control panel. The second component is a task bar application called the Universal Control Panel (UCP) which controls and operates the laser system through the USB port. Laser systems cannot function unless this component is running on the PC connected to the laser system. This component shows up as a red diamond shaped icon in the task bar.

Printing through the printer driver creates a job for the laser system which is then transferred to and stored in the job queue in the UCP from which the job can be selected and run on the laser system as needed. The printer driver has a printing preferences interface which can be accessed at the time of printing to set the laser system job settings for the particular job being printed. Most of these settings can also be changed after the job is printed through the UCP.

ULS laser systems operate in one of two modes. A raster mode in which images are marked or engraved into a material by etching a pattern of dots into the material at high resolutions up to 1000 dpi and a vector mode in which the laser follows a two dimensional path to cut or mark a shape into a material.

The printer driver determines whether an element in the graphic data being printed is a vector or raster object by its width. Only lines and curves with a thickness of .001” (.0254 mm) or less will be interpreted as vector objects. All other elements of the graphic being printed will be interpreted as raster objects. In order to print vector elements, the software you are printing from must support creation of lines with a thickness of .001”(.0254 mm) or less. Vector cutting depth and raster engraving depth (or marking intensity if you are surface marking only) are controlled by specifying the speed of processing and the laser power level for raster engraving and by specifying the speed of processing, laser power level and number of pulses per inch (PPI) for vector cutting and marking. These parameters are specified in the printer driver printing preferences interface by one of two methods. The two methods are laid out in tabs in the printer driver interface. The first method is a materials database method which simplifies setup for beginners and casual users, the second method is a manual method with allows much more control for advanced users. Each method treats assignment of laser job settings to colors in the graphic being printed and interpretation of raster and vector elements in the graphic being printed in slightly different ways which will be described in the Printer Driver Interface section that follows.

The Printer Driver Interface

The printer driver is a piece of software that allows you to create jobs for the laser system using the Windows print system. The printer driver has a preferences dialog with two tabs which allow you to set various parameters for a print job. One tab offers a materials-based approach to setting job parameters and the other offers a more detailed manual approach to setting job parameters.

Materials Database Printer Driver Tab (beginner and casual user)

This tab of the printer driver is for the casual user and automatically calculates the appropriate laser job settings for a nominal effect based on the material selected and the maximum output power of the laser installed. Please note that when this tab is used to set up a job, all raster data is printed using one set of job settings, all vector cut data using another set and all vector marking data using a third set. There are only three sets of job settings available, one for each type of graphic element in your print job: raster objects, vector cut objects and vector mark objects. All elements of the graphic interpreted as raster objects will be converted to grayscale and printed using the raster job settings with a grayscale dither pattern applied. A dither pattern is a method of mimicking shades of gray using patterns of dots with varying spacing. Dots further apart will appear lighter gray and dots closer together will appear darker gray. This is how the laser system is able to print shaded images and photographs. If you desire a solid background removal for certain elements of your graphic instead of a dither pattern, you must make those elements solid black in color.

Objects to be vector cut must be in red and must have a thickness of .001” (.0254 mm) or less.

Objects to be vector marked must be in blue and must have a thickness of .001” (.0254 mm) or less. Any vector elements in your graphic that are not blue or red in color will be converted to grayscale and printed as raster objects.

Order of execution when using the materials database tab proceeds with raster objects first, then vector marking objects and finally vector cutting objects.