MARCA

SOFTWARE
MANUAL
Table of content

1. Introduction

2. Initialization

3. Configuration

4. Message Mode

5. Font and Layer

6. Printing

7. Alarms

8. Automation

9. Barcode References
CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
TABLE OF
CONTENT
1. INTRODUCTION ..................................................................... 5
2. MARCA AND MARCA LITE INSTALLATION ........................... 8
 1. INTRODUCTION
The internal firmware of the laser is running Linux managing the laser marking system. It controls
laser beam position, calculates printer laser position and the angular position of scanner mirrors. The
firmware also calculates corrections for marking on the fly, controls electronics scanning board
input/outputs and allows the operation of the Touch Screen and the graphical user interface program
(Marca and Marca Lite).
The firmware includes Crystal Font dot matrix fonts and provides the option of changing the menu
language of the Touch Screen It also allows the user to see the number of marks made during a
printing session without going out of the printing menu.
The firmware allows us to control the laser through an external element; this interconnection will be
carried out by means of:
a) protocol through the serial canal RS232
b) TCP/IP protocol (through an Ethernet line)
These protocols can be controlled by a personal computer with connection via RS-232 or Ethernet
TCP/IP with the firmware included on marking laser system. It is compatible with all kinds of operating
system Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista/7/8 and able to control the laser marking system from a remote PC.
It manages to quickly transfer messages from PC to the laser, confers powerful graphics capabilities
and quick and easy access to the editing and graphics capabilities. It is also able to create messages in
able to create messages in all of the marking area both static and dynamic applications.
There are five external controllers that allow us to carry out messages and logos. These controllers
are the following:

1. Touch Screen: 10.0 inch industrial environment colour interface with built-in software.
Communicates with the laser software via Interface connector. Allows print and laser
parameters to be changed and new message to be editet (up to 4 lines). It allows, among other
options, the modification of the size (max. 20mm) and separation between characters. It can also
modify the XY position of the message. Performs multiple timestamp formats, with clock settings
and sequential numbers. IT can be used to select the messages stored in the laser CPU and
includes a password protection system for both dynamic and static marking application.

1-5
 2. Full Graphics Interface (Marca): The software runs under Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista/7/8 on an
external PC. Communications between Marca and the laser is carried out through a TCP/IP
connection between the external PC and the internal firmware program of the laser. This
software allows you to create the highest quality graphics with laser marking.

Easily installer, the Marca provides software compatible with Windows NT/2000/Vista/7/8. This
software is supplied with a protection key and controls laser system via Ethernet TCP/IP. It has
powerful WYSWYG design editor in all the marking area, zoom, unlimited layering, barcodes, 2D
barcodes, Font Editor and character-filling features. It is capable of downloading BMP, JPG, Gif,
TIF, PCX and other graphics files, DXF vector files with multiple import options and object and
character morphing.
The Marca has ODBC (database) features, fills object features and has true type text fonts.
Message can be activated by hourly, daily or monthly changes; it has networking capabilities of
several systems via Ethernet TCP/IP, access registration for all the users, creation of reports of
the registered marking in the CPU laser memory. Synchronization of PC and laser clocks is also
possible, as well as “auto text” external messages. It is able to align the selected object, enables
power, frequency, resolution and speed adjustments by software and allows the configuration of
function keys.

3. Marca Lite: Actually, the Marca Lite is not a new program but a new “appearance”. It covers all
the capabilities of Dynamon combined with all the communications feature (TCP/IP) of the full
Marca. While the actual software is identical to the regular Marca, access to the Lite version is
obtained through a different USB dongle.

1-6
 Marca Lite can be simulated with a “Marca” dongle, simply adding the /M2 command line
parameter of the shortcut of the Marca program. It has exactly the same appearance and
features of the full Marca software, but for some differences that are explained in this
manual.
With the Marca Lite you can create the message graphically and send it to the lasers. A print test
can be performed and the laser can be activated for printing and stopping at any time. The
internal alarms can be viewed and the actual status of the laser can be monitored.

4. 21 CFR Part 11 Software: Regulation 21 CFR Part 11, the FDA guideline for trustworthy electronic
records, requires companies to employ procedures and controls designed to ensure the
authenticity, integrity and, when appropriate, the confidentiality of electronic records. This
regulation applies to all computer systems that create, modify, maintain, archive or retrieve
electronic records required by the FDA for inspection and submission.

The original intended key objectives of Part 11 regulation are the following:
 Retention / Documentation of records
 Integrity / Security of records
 FDA access to records
 Authentication of Electronic Signatures
 Accountability for Maintaining records system
 Validation

21 CFR Part 11 software has been designed to comply with the FDA requirements. Each one of
these option has an independent technical manual.

1-7
 2. MARCA AND MARCA LITE INSTALLATION
The Marca software works within a Windows environment. It allows you to edit any kind of message
using available fonts and, at the same time, create any logos, however difficult they might be.
Therefore, the creation of a logo will no longer be a limitation. Furthermore, the new software offers
you the possibility of introducing numbers, bar codes and sequential messages (days, months, years,
weeks, hours, minutes and seconds) using different types of formats. The system works using a
multilayer system, so it is possible to assign different properties for different objects. Any message
edited is visualized through the PC screen in the same way as it will appear printed later on. It is also
possible to import DXF, JPG, GIN, PNG, ICO, PCX, TIF, TFA, BMP and ASCII files as well as to
communicate with external data bases.
The first step to install the software of the Marking System is to insert the supplied CD into the relevant
disk drive. We need to execute the setup.exe file. After opening this file we will proceed to the Marca
installation by means of an installation dialogue. The first thing to do is to choose the language. We will
answer “yes” to all the installation questions.
The Marca application will be installed in a subdirectory of the C: / drive, the destination directory can
be modified during the installation process. Several programs and files are required for the main
program to work and will be installed in the installation’s directory.
If the version includes a security key (Hasp Key), the relevant drivers need to be installed after the
Marca installation. You can prevent the installation of the Hasp Key driver by deselecting the
corresponding checkbox (if you already have installer the application on your PC, it will not be
necessary to reinstall the Hasp Key driver).
In your Desktop a new applications folder according to the installed version will have been installer
containing four shortcuts for launching the program in different modes.
The software can work in four different modes:
- User: no additional parameter in the shortcut. A “standard” user cannot create or edit
messages nor has access to the setting of the configuration and environment of the software.
- Advanced User: “/advanced” as an additional parameter in the shortcut. An advanced user can
create and edit messages, but has no access to settings of configurations and environment.
- Supervisor: “/supervisor” as an additional parameters in the shortcut. The supervisor can
create and edit messages and has fully access to the settings of configuration and
environment.
- Technician: “/technician”. Has full control over all features of the software.

To enter to the system in the technician mode it is necessary to follow the steps described below:

1-8
 1. Create a shortcut on the desktop for the application’s executable file (Right click on the icon
and select Create Direct Access)
2. Change the name of the shortcut into a proper name (e.g. “Technician Mode”)
3. Right click on the new shortcut and select Properties / Direct Access.
4. Add /technician at the end of the Destiny.
5. Press Accept and double click on the new icon.

Now the system will allow you to enter the system in the Technician mode and modify alarms and test
the laser.

1-9
1-10
CHAPTER 2

INITIALIZATION
TABLE OF
CONTENT
1. ENVIRONMENT ...................................................................... 4
 You can start the Marca software by pressing the corresponding icon (Supervisor) icon in the desktop.

1. ENVIRONMENT
Once we have entered the system the following screen appears:

At the left part of screen, the system shows the drawing tools, and the object to be drawn, like a circle
or the square.

2-4
 The center of the screen shows the working area, where we write or drawn own message.
At the top of screen, we can see the system bar, which shows the type of laser selected, and the
standard icons (e.g. NewFile, Save, Zoom…)
On the right of the screen the system shows the different layers that contain the message and the
properties of the object selected.
Main Menu:

From the main menu you have access to all sub menu items. You can load/save messages, select the
different object types, perform various operations on the selected object and open the various
configuration dialogs to configure your system environment and your laser system.

Standard Icons (tool bar):

Selecting the standard icons you can copy/past easily objects, load/save messages, open the print
dialog, switch the fonteditor, zoom in/out you view and many more..

Advanced tool bar:

An advanced toolbar lets you select quickly some common operation on selected objects.

System bar:

The system bar hives you a short information of your actual selected system. You can create as much
systems as you want, all with different configuration and environmental parameters. A system is just a
collection of all important configuration parameters stored under a single system name that appears
in the system bar’s combo box.

2-5
 Tools:

On the left side of the main screen you can select the different tools, usually the object that you can to
create with a mouse-click on your working area. A reference grid can be viewed on the screen by
clicking on the icon to activate or deactivate it.
Layer/Objects: Object are placed inside “layers”. Thus, some physical parameters like the writing
speed, frequency, laser power and many more, can be shared and set for the different objects. You can
add up to 255 different layers and place/move your objects easily from one layer to another.
Object properties: When you select an object or layer with a mouse-click, you load their properties into
the property dialogs that will appear in this area. There, you can change manually all the different
properties that selected object owns.

2-6
CHAPTER 3

CONFIGURATION
TABLE OF
CONTENT
1. CONFIGURATION ..........................................................................................4
1.1. FIRST STARTUP DIALOG ....................................................................6
1.2. LASER .................................................................................................8

1.2.1. LASER .......................................................................................8

1.2.2. DIMENSIONS AND CORRECTIONS ........................................10
1.2.3. SCANNERS INERTIA ...............................................................14
1.2.4. FIELD CORRECTIONS .............................................................21
1.2.5. PRESCAN OPTIONS ................................................................22
1.2.6. SETTINGS FOR TEST FUNCTIONS .........................................24
1.2.7. CYLINDER MAPPING ..............................................................24
1.3. DYNAMIC AND PHOTOCELL .............................................................26

1.4. MESSAGE TABLE ..............................................................................32

1.4.1. FILE SEQUENCE SETUP WITH THE SOFTWARE ....................36
1.5. COMMUNICATION.............................................................................38

1.6. OPTIONS ...........................................................................................41

1.6.1. EXTRA OPTIONS .....................................................................41

1.6.2. END SIGNAL ...........................................................................46
1.6.3. FIRST PULSE OPTION ............................................................47
1.6.4. Z-AXIS .....................................................................................48
1.6.5. MOTORIZED AXIS ....................................................................50
1.7. KEYBOARD FUNCTIONS ...................................................................53

1.8. ENVIRONMENT .................................................................................54

1.9. USER MESSAGE ................................................................................61

1.10. MULTIPLE APPLICATIONS ...............................................................62

 1. CONFIGURATION
Working with the laser requires a correct configuration of the system. When you start the Marca in the
supervisor mode you can access all configuration parameters. Only authorized persons should modify
them.
In order to configure the system, there is a pop-up menu in the top right hand corner of the screen.

Laser: let you configure the laser type, scanners parameters, marking area and lens parameter.
Dynamic and Photocell: Let you configure the printing mode, the input signal, encoder type and
parameters for dynamic printing.

3-4
 Message Table: Let you a set up a table of message to be printed as a batch job or selectable from and
external resource.
Communications: Configure the IP address of your system or add a new system to your Marca program
in this dialog.
User Message: Set up the RS-232 port of your PC for receiving an external user message.
Alarms: Configure the alarm options according to your system.
Options: Let you configure some special printing options.
Local System Variables: Let you view the local system variables
Test: Let you perform some basic tests of your internal hardware (only in technician mode).
Password: Let you configure your Marca program to use passwords for different user levels or users,
identified by their name.
Save a TextFile: Stores the actual configuration in a local textfile that can be used to restores the
configuration later.
Load from TextFile: Restores a configuration from a previously stored textfile.
Environment: Let you configure your Marca’s environment (e.g. default directories, templates, copy.
paste behavior…)
Eventhandler: Let you easily configure and program some very special events and actions for
automation.
Control System: Provides yours with a basic control dialog with your laser system.

3-5
 1.1. FIRST STARTUP DIALOG
When you start a newly installed Marca application the following startup dialog will be visible and you
can select one of three possible options.
1. Load a formerly save configuration file:
If you choose this option you must select a configuration file (txt-file),
formerly save in another Marca version.
2. Configure manually the parameter:
You have to edit all configuration parameters for the laser manually. Do this only if you
know exactly, what parameters you have to set for your laser system.
3. Connect to a known IP and upload configuration:
If you are connected to a laser system, you can that is stored to the
laser’s parameters. This is inside the laser and set your environment the
option you have to actual configuration parameters of choose, if you don’t know the
laser that you want to connect to.
The best way to configure a new Marca installation is choosing the third possibility: The
software will connect to the laser (defined by its IP)and upload the laser’s configuration
into the Marca.

3-6
3-7
 1.2. LASER
Within this option, there are five tabs which allow us to vary the configuration of our equipment: Laser,
Dimensions and Corrections, Scanners, Prescan options, Setting for testfunctions and Cylinder
mapping)

1.2.1. LASER

Laser: Shows the actual selected model

Type: Defines the type of installed laser. Three types are actually possible: CO2, YAG and Fiber
Model: Defines the specific model of the installed laser. Note, that the possible models that may
appear in this combo box depend on the selected scanner card.
If you are not sure about your scanner card you should “connect” to the laser. The Marca will actualize
automatically the scanners when it connected to a lasersystem. If you are working “offline” you may
configure your scanner card in the “Configurations-> Communications” dialog.

3-8
 Tickel: Is necessary for most CO2 systems and is defined with two parameters, the pulselenght and the
pulse period. The tickle keeps the laser always in an active, preionized state and improves the quality of
the print, specially the quality of the first printed characted. Defaul values are 1 for usec for the pulse
lenghr and 200 usec for the period.
The longer the pulse length and the shorter the period, more preionization takes place (the laser is
“hot”), but may lead to leakage of laser power that may be visible on the marking product.

Min Power Level: Defines the power level (the current) for D-Series and F-9000 series lasers that will
be active when the printing dialog is opened (That means, the laser will be enabled, and the current
level is set to this value). You should set this value as high as possible, taking into account that from a
certain level on the laser starts lasing and may mark the product. This parameter helps to stabilize the
diodes of the laser before printing.

IMPORTANT NOTE
Some systems share the same laser type settings but need additional setting to be set in the system
variables (see chapter “Commandline parameters and system variables”). The system variables are
stored inside the laser in its hard disk (DiskOnModule or CompactFlash). If the DiskOnModule would
get corrupted you may get an “INITIALIZATION” alarm when starting the system. In this case you
should check the system variables for the correct setting in case of the following laser types: shown
are only the variables that must be enabled and set to the specified values.

NanoD:
POWERDERATEMIN: 100.0
POWERDERATEMAX: 100.0
TRIGGERPULSE: -1

NanoF:
MINFREQ: 10.0
MAXFREQ: 50.0
TRIGGERTYPE: 2

D-5010-B1:
POWERDERATEMIN: 100.0
POWERDERATEMAX: 100.0

3-9
 1.2.2. DIMENSIONS AND CORRECTIONS

3-10
 Fieldsize: Defines the maximum printing area which depend on the used lens (default for most
systems: 100 mm).

Focal distance: The distance, in mm, from the lens output to the marking surface.

Mirrors separation: The value has to be set to 0 for all systems with scanning lenses. Only for system
with prefocal lenses this value must be set to the distance between the centers of the x and y mirror.

Gain X/Y: The gain X / Gain Y parameters are currently used for all system with SM140, SM170 and
SM108 scannercards. The value range from 24 up to 64. They allow a coarse scanfield adjustment from
60 to about 100% of the maximum possible scanfield. Fine adjustment must be made with the Fine
Gain.

Gain Offset: An offset can be set fot the gain X and gain Y to shift the complete scanfield slightly in X or
Y direction. The gain offset values can be positive and negative (range is [-10.0, 10.0]), however, the sum
of the gain X/Y value plus the absolute value of the gain offset value must be smaller that 64. Example:
for a gainX = 60 value, the maximum adjustable offset values are from -4.0 up to +4.0. Consequently, an
offset for the gainX/Y can only be applied if the gainX/Y values are not at their maximum value (64).

Fine Gain: For the fine tunning the gain. Value are approximately in unit of one per 100 000. a value of
1000 correct the fieldsize by about 1 mm (100x100mm fieldsize).

Scanners: activates/deactivates a correction for the distortion of the scanfield due to the scanners
(default: activated).
Lens: Activates / deactivates the correction for the lens (default: activated)

Lineatiry correction in x and y: Values from 0 (default) to 10000. It defines a correction factor in units of
approximately 1 per 100000. It corrects the nonlinearity of the scanners/lenses in x and y direction.
Drawing a regularly grid lines and spaces in x and y usually results in bigger spaces between the lines
in the outer range of the scanfield due to nonlinearity (see figure)

3-11
 No linearity correction With linearity correction
(spaces not equal) (all spaces are equal)

X/Y angle: rotation angle of the x and y axis. Values from -10000 to +10000 urad. It is used to rotate both
axis independently if they are not exactly adjusted at a ninety degrees angle.

Lens Correction X/Y: The value defines the amount of correction for the distortion due to the lens
properties. When set to 0, no lens correction is applied. Values can only be positive and correct the
barrel from of the scanfield due to the lens properties. Typical values range from 30-300, depending on
the lens. For lenses with short focal distance this values tend to be higher than for lenses with a large
focal distance.

Kx and Ky: these factors apply and additional correction in case that the scan field is still not
rectangular. Values are from -5000 to +5000.

3-12
 X/Y Symmetry: An asymmetric scanfield lens correction can be corrected with this parameter. Due to
small mechanical adjustment errors, the lens correction may results to be asymmetric (one side of the
square is linear, the opposite side is curved). The correction values range from -1.0 to +1.0. Note: in
older versions this parameter was included in the systemvariables.

Pointer Correction: Due to the different wavelength of the laser pointer, the scan field can be different
when you use the laser pointer. With the following parameters, the laser pointer can be adjusted to
match the scan field to the write laser.
- Correction X: Stretches or compress the scan field for the laser pointer in X
- Correction Y: Stretches or compress the scan field for the laser pointer in Y.
- Offset X: Position offset for the laser pointer.
- Offset Y. Position offset for the laser pointer.
- FocalPointerX: x-position when the optional focal pointer is activated
- FocalPointerY: y-position when the optional focal pointer is activated.

Fieldborder (dynamic): With the dynamic fieldborders you can limit the used scanfield in the moving
direction (x). For example when printing on rotating cylinders whose diameters are smaller that the
scanfield you must defined the scan fielfborders to print correctly. When you switch to the 3D visual
mode the borders became visible.
Note: in older version these parameters were included in the system variables.
- Left scanfieldborder: Position of the left border in mm measured from the left limit of the
fieldsize.
- Right scanfieldborder: Position of the right border in mm measured from the right limit of the
fieldsize.

3-13
 1.2.3. SCANNERS INERTIA

There parameters determine the velocity and jump behavior of the scanners.

3-14
 Delay. Defindes a time constant, in combination with the Stepsize that is used to move the scanner to
the beginning of a marking line. It is correlated to the inertia of the scanner mirrors. The bigger the
mirror the larger should be the delay. A typical value for a K-1000 system in 80 usec. For digital
scanners this value may decrease down to 40 usec. If the delay is too short the scanner will not have
reached the start of the marking line when the laser is turned on. When the Jumpdelay variable is set
to “-1” the software always waits 2 times the Delay at the start of each marking line to assure that the
scanner has reached the start of each marking line when the laser is turned on (see Jumpdelay).

Stepsize. Defines the size of microstep for the scanner movements in unit of percentage of the scan
field. The standard value for analog scanner is 0.5 – 0.8. For digital scanners the value should not
exceed 0.5 (typical 0.3 – 0.5). The smaller this value is, the smoother will be the movement of the
scanners to the start points of the lines to be marked.

Jumpdelay. When set to “-1” this variable is disabled and the movement of the scanners is defined only
by the delay and the Stepsize. When set to any value greater or equal to 0, the Jumpdelay defines a
delay that is applied at the start of each marking line before the laser is turned on. Additionally, the
scanner movement algorithm is enhaced and the “Speedfactors” are used in the algorithm.
This parameter is a new parameter introduced at beginning of 2012 and us used to achieve a fast and
precise movement of the scanners to the start of each marking line. When set to “-1” the new
algorithm is disabled and the system behaves in a old-fashioned way. It is recommended to load the
correct new parameters from the corresponding templates (see Load from Templates).

Maximum inertia and R inertia. These are inherent parameters of the scanners. These parameters
allow the scanners to end the marking lines in accordance with the printing speed. The adjustment of
these parameters must be suited on the scanners used. The default values for 6220 8mm scanners
are: inertia 120 and inertia R1.
Problems that can be solved by adjusting these parameters are:
a) As shown in the picture below, the scanners cannot finish the marking line (i.e Maximum Inertia at
100)

3-15
 b) As shown in the picture below, the scanners are fixed at the same point for some time before the
laser stops. This means a point or a burned are will appear at the end of a line (i.e. Maximum Inertia at
300)

In order to solve these problems these parameters must be adjusted as follows:

1. Print at high speed.

2. Check the possible problem:
a) The Maximum Inertia value must be increased.
b) The Maximum Inertia value must be decreased.
3. Repeat the two previous steps.
4. Print at low speed.
5. Check the possible problem:

3-16
 a) Decrease the Inertia R value.
b) Increase the Inertia R value.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until the problem is solved.

Start_inertia: [in microsecs] This is the complement to the max_inertia parameter and applied at the
start of a vectorline. The laser is turned on after the ‘Start_inertia’ time has passed, but whiles the
scanner is already moving along the vectorline. If this parameters is set to ‘0’ and no prescan is
enabled the only effect that you may see is the start of a vectorline may be marked slightly more than
the rest of the line. If you enabled the prescan you should set the ‘prescan laseron’ parameter to ‘0’
and set the ‘start_inertia’ to the same value as the ‘max_inertia’.
Note for DSP-cards: For DPS-scannercards the Start_inertia parameters is just used to calculate
automatically the necessary prescan-steps when the prescan is enabled.

Laser on delay: Each time the laser is switched on (at the beginning of each line) the scanners wait
<laser on delay> microsec before they start moving the laser beam. When printing a bitmap or 2D-
code this options is automatically disabled.

Laser off delay: Each time when the laser is switched off (at the end of each line) the scanners wait
<laser off delay> microsec before proceeding to the next line.

Delay Active: Defines when we want to use the laser on delay variable. This variables has no meaning
for DSP-card system, where the delay will be always applied “Always active”.

Always active: The delay will be used always when we switch on the laser (start of each line). This is the
default settings for DSP-card system.

Active only on start of print: The delay will be used only at the beginning of the printing of a message.
Not available for DSP-card system.

Active only at actual figure: The delay will be used only at the beginning of each object. Not available for
DSP-card system.

3-17
 Max. LaserOnDelay: Independently of the previous “Laser on delay” this parameter defines a maximum
time the laser is switched ON at each start of a new line or at each point of a bitmap or is switched OFF
the time of this OFF-state is recorded. The next time the laser is switched ON, e.g. at the beginning of a
new line, a new bitmap point or a new crystalfont point, the laser will remain at the starting point for an
additional time that is calculates accordinf the following formula:
- If the time of the Off-State is <Min. Offtime then
t = 0;
- If the time of the Off-state is > Max. Offtime then
t = <Max.LaserOnDelay>
- If Max. Offtime > time of the Off-state is > Min. Offtime the
t = <Max.LaserOnDelay>x(<time of the Off-state>-<Min.Offtime>)/(<Max.Offtime>-<Min.Offtime>)
This means that when the laser is Off for a long time, the next start point will be marked with more
energy. If the laser is Off for a short time only, the next start point will be marked with less energy. This
parameter correct linearly the dynamic of the laser’s ON/OFF state and is only usefull in systems
where such a dynamic behavior is observed (e.g. nanoD).
For most system this parameters should be set to 0.

Max. Offtime: Defines the time of the Off-state from where on the next starting point of a line, or bitmap
point, or crystal font point will be marked with the additional <Max. LaserOnDelay>.
For most systems this paremeter should be set to 0.

Min.Offtime: Defindes the time of the Off-state until no additional LaserOnDelay will be used on the
next starting point of a line, or bitmap point, or crystal font point. This value must always be smaller
than the <Max. Offtime>.
For most systems hits paremeter should be set to 0.

Prescan: Enables/disable a vectorial prescan.

For some applications (or some laser types) it is necessary to print the vectors with constant
velocity/energy to obtain absolute uniform lines. Specially, the starting and endporint of the vectors
may be a problem, because the scanners are still not in movement or still have not reached the end
position. To assure a reaching of the end position the “Max. Inertia” value must be adjusted correctly.

To prevent a burning point at the beginning of the line, we can use the Prescan option. When you
enable this option, the scanners start moving <n> dots (Number of dots for the Prescan) before the
starting point of the vector. The velocity during this Prescan dots, when we switch the laser on.

3-18
 Note for DSP.cards: For DSP.scannercards the Prescan_dots, Prescan_laseron and Prescan velocity
have no meaning. You can just enable/disable the Prescan. According the start_inertia value the
system calculaes automatically the number of additional prescan microsteps

Prescan dots: The number of dots to be prescanned. Recommended a value of about 10.
Prescan laseron: Defines at which prescan dot the laser is turned on. Recommended a value of 0 AND
setting the ‘start_inertia’ value to the same value as ‘max_inertia’
Prescan velocity: Defines the velocity factor for the prescann distance. Recommended a factor of 1.0
(same velocity)
Postscan: When set to a value > 0 the scanner performs a postscan at the end of each line. The value
determines the number of additional dots to move at the end of a line.
Note for DSP-cards: for DSP-scannercards the Postscant can just be enabled or disabled. According
the Maxinertia value the system calculates automatically the number of postscans microsteps.

Parameters for DSP-cards only

For DSP-scannercards some additional parameters can be set to synchronize perfectly the scanners
movement with the laser ON/OFF or the power signals. This is due the fact that the laser ON/OFF
signals as well as the power signals can be delayed thorough a FIFO with respect to the scanner
signals.
Tracking Delay: With this parameter the laser ON, laser OFF and all power signals are delayed in time
with respect to the scanner signals. These parameters is added to the systemparameter ‘DC900Delay’.
The sum of both parameters must e always positive and is internally limited to 4090 microseconds.
Typically the scanners have an inertia that makes them move slightly later then the signals sent to the
scanners. Thus, the laser control signals should be delayed by the amount of the inherent delay.
LaserOn FIFO: The laser ON signal can be delayed individually with respect to the scanners signals and
can be different from the laser OFF delay. This is useful for lasers where the laser output response
might be slows when turned on. The LaserOn FIFO is only active for vector marking and not for pixel
marking. The internally used value for the LaserOn FIFO isalways the sum of the Tracking delay
+DC900 delay + LaserOn FIFO.

LaserOFF FIFO: The laser OFF signal can be delayed individually with respect to the scanners signals
and can be different from the laser On delay. This is useful for lasers where the laser output response
might be slows when turned off. The LaserOFF FIFO is only active for vector marking and not for pixel

3-19
 marking. The internally used value for the LaserOff FIFO is always the sum of the Tracking delay +
DC900 delay + LaserOFF FIFO.

Pixel FIFO: The value determines the LaserOn and LaserOff delays for pixel marking. The inernally
used Pixel FIFO delay is the sum of the Tracking delay + DC900 delay + Pixel FIFO. For pixel marking
the LaserOn FIFO and LaserOFF FIFO delays cannot be adjunsted individually.

Power1 FIFO; The Power1 FIFO delay determines the delay of the power1 signals (serial DAC of the
DSP-cards, usually used for the power adjustments of YAG-Lasers) with respect to the scanners
signals. The internally used value is the sum of Tracking delay + DC900 delay + Power1 FIFO.

Power2 FIFO: The Power2 FIFO delay determines the delay of the power2 signals (parallel DAC of DSP-
cards, usually used for the power adjustments of pulsed fiber lasers) with respect to the scanner
signals. The internally used value is the sum of Tracking delay + DC900 delay + Power2 FIFO.

Parameterset: up to 4 different parameters sets for the above parameters can be defined. The different
parameters sets can be called for usage within the layer settings. Thus, you can print different layers
with different parameter sets.

Load from Template: Lets you select and load pre-defines scanner setting for the different scanner
models used in the different laser systems.
The following table shows the relation between scanners types and laser system. Please keep in mind
that this table represents a snapshot of the system configurations and some systems may have been
modified for special applications.

6210_6mmAnalog: K-1000-SP Series

6210_6mmDigital: K-1030SHS SP series
6220_10mmAnalog: D-5000 B1 and ML2 series, F-9010 and F-9020 pulsed series
6220_8mmAnalog: K-1999 series, D-5005, D-5010. D-5020, Nano-D, Nano-YAG
6220_8mmDigital: K-1000SHS series, S-series, F-9000 cw series
6231_12mmAnalog: T-3000 series

3-20
 Speedfactor: Defines the relative speed that is applied for scanner movement at different sizes of the
step to be done. These parameters are only enabled when the Jumpdelay is not set to “-1”. In the
“Response time” graphic you can directly observe the scanner response time depending on the step to
be performed. Usually, you should not change the speedfactors unless you know exactly what to do. It
is always better to load some pre-defined parameters from the templates.

Parameters to configure the type of scanners

We supplies different types of scanners. All of them have the same shape but different adjustments.
Ask your technical support or their distributor for optimal parameters.
Old-fashioned standard values for the analog driver 8mm scanners are: delay 80usec, max inertia 120
usec, stepsize 0.8%, Jumpdelay: -1
Old-fashioned standard values for the digital driver 8 mm scanner are: delay 40 – 50 usec, max_inertia
40 usec, stepsize 0.3 – 0.5 %, Jumpdelay: -1.
For new settings simply select the scanners type with “Load from Template”.

1.2.4. FIELD CORRECTIONS

The ‘FieldCorrection’ is supported from firmware 5.3.5 on. When this option is enabled, the
pixeltimes/vectorspeeds are adjusted in real-time according these settings. It is typically used to
compensate the radial spotsize variation over the scanfield in prefocal configurations (where no F-
Theta lenses are present). The Gamma value and the percent-value of the fieldcorrection determine
the strength of the pixeltime/vectorspeeds modification over the scanfield.

3-21
 Fieldcorr. Variation [%]: Defines the maximum variation of the pixeltime/vectorspeed over the whole
scanfield.
Fieldcorr. Offset [%]: Defines form where on in the scan field (in percent of the scanfield) the
fieldcorrection be applied.
Fieldcorr. Gamma-value: Defines the gamma value for the fieldcorrection algorithm.

1.2.5. PRESCAN OPTIONS

The Prescan options are global options that, when enabled, overwrites any of the corresponding
object’s options (see bitmap parameters). Thus, if you enable any of these options, they cannot be
disabled individually within the object’s properties.
Pixelmode: Applied for printing bitmaps and/or 2D barcodes.

3-22
 EnableGateOn: When enabled, then the laser will be on during a complete scan of a bitmap-line. The
grayscale is then achieved by adapting the scanning velocity from pixel depending on the color value.

Enable Prescan: Enables a prescan before starting a scanline. The exact prescan can be defines with
the following parameters.
#: distance of the prescan, that is the distance between the starting point of the prescan outside the
bitmap and the itmap edge.

LaserOn #: Distance after that the Laser will e switched on during the prescan. Not available for DSP-
card systems.
Velocity: Velocity of the scanners during the prescan. Not available for DSP-card systems.
Mode: value from 0 to 10. Not available for DSP-card systems.
- 0: simple prescan.
- 1: prescand will be started from the opposite side of the bitmap. This will increase the time the
laser is switched on before starting scanning bitmap scanline, leading to a more stable laser
output.
- 2,3,4..: prescan will perform 1,2,3… squares (size of the bitmap) with high velocity and the laser
switched on, leading to stable laser output.

Automatic Speed: When this options is enabled, the velocity of the Prescan is automatically adjusted to
the velocity of the bitmap blank-printing. Not available for DSP.card systems.
Note: the default values are #:30, LaserOn #: 15, Mode:1, Velocity: 20000.

3-23
 1.2.6. SETTINGS FOR TEST FUNCTIONS

This dialog lets you set the power, frequency, resolution and speed values used for the test of
inertia/speed/dimensions in the corresponding tab page.

1.2.7. CYLINDER MAPPING

When a target field is a cylinder that is rotating or standing sill a field compensation must be done to
bet the marking area folded onto the cylinder surface.
Remember that you may have to set the left and right scanfieldborder accordingly, if the Cylinder
diameters is smaller that the fieldsize. Note: in former versions all cylinder mapping parameters have
been plances in the variables!
Cylinder diameter: Defines the diameter of a cylinder as the target scanfield. When set to ‘0’, the target
scanfield is considered to be plane (default). When you have to mark on a convex cylinder surface, you

3-24
 scanfield will typically be deformed due to the non.plane surface of the target. Setting the parameters
accorindlgy helps to eliminate this distortion.
When set to a negative value the cylinder is a half-cylinder and the scanfielf is folder onto the inner
surface of the cylinder (from firmware 5.2.7 on). Activate the 3D view if you want to see the
arrangement, size, etc.. of the cylinder target.

Center offset: The distance between the axis of the cylinder and the scanfield center. This variable
depends on the position of the place scanfield with respect to the target cylinder.

Z-offset: Defines the distance of the nominal focal plane to the cylinder surface. Values > 0 means
that the focal plane is placed inside the cylinder.
Note: in some cases (e.g. Z-offset > 0 or a small cylinder diameter), the total scanfield cannot be used,
because either the scanfield’s size is not enough or the optically reachable cylinder surface is smaller
than the plane scanfield.

Orientation: Defines the orientation of the cylinder with respect to the scanfield axis. “Vertical means
that the cylinder axis is along y-axis, “horizontal” means that the cylinder axis is along the x-axis.

x-width at lensoutput: The width (in x-direction) of the scanfield at the lensoutput. When you print a
square of the plane scanfield size without any cylinder corrections (cylinder diameter = 0), this
parameters is the width of the incident angle of the laser beam. Typically it is the range of 20-25 mm
(20000 - 25000).

y-width at lensoutput: The height (in y-direction) of the scanfield at the lensoutput. Idem “x-with”.

Invariant map-point: Defines the invariant x (or y) position. This coordinate (x,y) point maps to the
(radian, height) or (height, radian) point on the cylinder surface. Usually, the value is “0”, which means
that the center of the plane scanfield corresponds to the (0,0) position on the cylinder surface.

Autoborder: When set you a value > 0 the scanfield¡s left and right borders will be calculated
automatically in case of a dynamically rotating cylinder (rotary mode). The autoborder value must be

3-25
 given in percent. The left and right scanfield border will then be centered to the cylinder axis and the
width of the used scanfield is defined by:
Used scanfield width = (autoborder/100) x Cylinder diameter.
A typical value would be 30%. If you do not specify the Autoborder parameter (0,0), the system will
automatically use the maximum left/right border that still falls on the cylinder surface and is reachable
by the scanners, except in the case that the left/right borders are explicitly set to a value not equal to 0.

1.3. DYNAMIC AND PHOTOCELL

All laser systems can print in static as well as in dynamic mode. In static mode, the object to be market
is placed stationary inside the marking area while it is being marked. In dynamic mode the object is
moving along the x-axis while it is marked. The system must then have an external encoder connected
or an internal encoder configured with a constant velocity setting.

3-26
 Mode:
- Static: object does not move
- Dynamic Standard: Object move along the x-axis.
- Dynamic Distance: Object moves along the x-axis and prints should be done at a predefined
distance. The first print start with the activation / deactivation of the Photocell/PLC and the
following prints are done at the predefine distance until the photocell/PLC is deactivated /
activated.

3-27
 - Static-Dynamic: An object move along the x-axis; when the print starts (with print signal), the
message is printed at the exact position where it is drawn on the screen. As the product
moves, the scanner position is automatically corrected.

Distance: Defines the printing distance between two product when the “Dynamic Distance” mode is
active. Note, that in this mode the signal cannot be TriggerUP/TriggerDown.

Autoshift: When enabled, the message is shifted automatically so that its rightest/leftist position is
positioned to the left/right side of the marking area (depending on the lproduct movement from left to
right o right to left). This reduces unnecessary delays due to the positioning of the message in the
marking field.

Autosort: When enabled, the object of the message are ordered according to a FIFO algorithm (first in
first out). The object that first enters the marking area is printed first, etc…
When disabled, the object are printed in the order as they appear in the layers. For vertical aligned text
objects it may be useful to disable this object to get a better performance as well as a better quality.

Autoexplode: When enabled (default) or set to “yes”, the textobjects are exploded into their individual
characters for dynamic printing. This is usually the default setting for dynamic printing. In some cases,
e.g. when you print text a 90º respect to the production line, its is advisable to disable this parameter or
set it to “no”.

N-prints: Defines an optional number of prints to be done in dynamic-distance mode. If n > 0 only n
prints in dynamic distance mode will be done. The printsignal must then be resetted to continue.

Photocell Type:
- Photocell 1. This will be use with only one photocell (marking in only one direction).
- Photocell 2. If the marking requires both directions with an automatic change two photocells
will be necessary (one for each direction). The printing direction will be selected through
Photocell 1 or Photocell 2 (available only for SM117 scanner cards).
- Automatic. Using this option and two photocells, the marking direction will be automatically
selected by the first active photocell.
- PLC. IF a PLC is used, this photocell type must be selected. The system waits for a signal in
the Customer Socket and in Static mode (see electrical diagrams).

3-28
 Signal:
- Activated. The laser will print while the photocell is active (reads a logic “1”).
- Deactivated. The laser will print while the photocell is inactive (reads a logic “0”).
- OFF. The system will always print. It will not check the photocell status.
- Trigger Up. One print will be made every time the photocell is activated (the signal passes from
0 to 1).
- Trigger Down. One print will be made every time the photocell is deactivated (the signal passes
from 1 to 0.

StopSignal: Defines an optional digital stopsignal to stop printing. The photocell, PLC signals as well as
the external input bits (if available) can be used for this option.When a stopsignal is defined and, in the
moment when a trigger signal is detected for printing, the stopsignal input is in the same state as
defined in “Level of stopsignal”, the print will not e done and the print n.o.k counter is increased by one.
If “Stop of actual print” is set to “yes” and a stopsignal is detected during a print, the print will be
stopped and the print n-o-k counter is increased by one.
You can define the same input as the trigger signal for the stopsignal, however in this case the level of
activation must be then be different.
The stopsignal replaces the commandline option “-P=<num>” which will no longer be a valid
commandline option.

Stop actual print: When set to “yes” the actual print is stopped, else the actual print is terminated even
if the stopsignal is active!

Encoder Type:
- Internal. The laser will print with a speed determinate by the settings (velocity). This encoder
type is useful to carry out marking tests or where the line speed is always constant.
- External. In this case the system uses the external encoder located in the production line.
- External Extrapolated. When you select the Encoder Type “External extrapolated” the software
measures the velocity of the line just before printing and assumes during the printing a
constant value of the velocity. For the measurement of the velocity the two following
parameters are needed (not available for DSP cards).

A+B Channel: Disable this option if only the A-channel of the encoder is connected (for DSP cards only).

3-29
 Direction: Defines the main direction of the movement (left -> right or right -> left). If set to
“automatic”, the system determines automatically the sense of the direction due to Channels A+B
signals of the external encoder or in case of defining a “direction signal” the direction is read from an
external input. Note, that the main direction signal of the automatically sense direction are latched with
the trigger signal, thus they cannot changed after the print has been initiated. According to the main
direction the scanner position to the left/right border of the scanfield expecting the product to enter the
scanfield from there.

Direction Signal: Defines if the main direction signal should be read from a digital input. The photocell,
PLC signals as well as the external input bits (if available) can be used for this option. The direction
must have been set to “automatic” if a direction signal is used.

Invert direction signal: (For DSP cards only). Lets you invert the meaning of the main direction signal
when the direction is set with external signal.

Encoder Position:
- Not-DSP Cards: Toggles between left and right direction when the direction is automatically
detected. It depends on the physical installation what is defined “left” and “right”. When you
change the Encoder Position from Position1 to Position2, the system simply interchanges “left”
and “right” position.
- DSP Cards: This toggles the internet encoder counting direction and depends on the
orientation of the mounted encoder. The DSP card counts both directions simultaneously and
is thus able to correct belts that move forward and backward. But depending on the mounting
of the encoder the direction of the counted pulses might be reversed, With this parameter you
can simply toggle the direction.
Position1: the encoder counts visible in the test dialog must increase when the belt/products is
moving to the right direction (right direction in the user software screen).
Position2: the encoder counts visible in the test dialog must increase when the belt/product is
moving to the left direction (left direction in the user software screen)

Step per turn: Number of steps for one complete turn of the encoder (typically 3000), depending on the
encoder-model.

3-30
 Mm per turn: Defines the distance of product movement while the encoder perform a complete turn.
This parameter must be adjusted carefully to get good printing results. To adjust this parameter, be
sure that the marking field is adjusted correctly (a square of 50 mm in the Marca should result in a
marked of 50 mm). Then, set the printing mode to dynamic distance, set the printing distance to about
50 – 100mm (depending on the accuracy you want to achieve) and mark two or more consecutive print
on a paper that moves with the product. Then check the marked distance and correct, if necessary, the
“Steps per turn” to match the adjusted printing distance.

Rotary mode: used for marking on rotating cylinders. When enabled and the cylinder diameter is set to
a value <>0 the encoder stepsize is automatically calculated from the steps per turn and the
diameter of the cylinder. In this case, the ‘mmperturn’ parameter is ignored.

Velocity: the velocity for the internal encoder.

Systemdelay: Defines the systematic delay of the positioning commands. In former versions there was
a systematic delay of 0 usec assumed and the system could not correct for systematic delays. This
parameter becomes important only in dynamic mode at high velocities and when the velocity may
change significantly from time to time and your application requires a good absolute positioning of the
marking message on the product.
There is always a systematic delay between the time the photocell is activated and the time the system
detects the photocell, calculates positions due to the information it gets from the encoder and moves
the scanners to the desired position. Typically, the value of this delay is about some hundred
microseconds, arising mainly from the delay of the scanner’s reaction. This delay leads always to a
fixed offset of the complete message and as long as the velocity does not change, it will not change the
position on the marked product.
Example: at 100m/min linespeed and a systematic delay of 500 usecs leads to ans offset of 0.8mm.
Changing the linespeed to 50m/min would change the offset to 0.4 mm
If you want to correct for the systematic delay you have to set the value to an adequate value depending
on your electronics and scanner types.
Note: When you set the systematic delay to a value greater zero, the product marking may need more
time (maximum the time you entered as the systematic delay). The system has to measure and
calculate the velocity for each print.

3-31
 Typical Values:
- Analog scanners 6220: 0.3 – 0.6 msec
- Digital Scanner 6220: 2.7 msec

Note: The digital scanners have longer systematic delay then the analog scanner, which is due to the
nature of the digital scanner.

Min.Steps: Defines the number of encoder tics that must be counted by the software to calculate a valid
value of the velocity.

Vaid period: Defines the time period in milliseconds for which the velocity is valid and should not be
measured again.

1.4. MESSAGE TABLE

Most, but not all of our marking systems allow printing messages to be selected from a remote source.
Depending on the model up to 256 different messages can be stored and selected with an external BIT
selection.
To print the selected messages from a remote source, the following steps must be followed:
1. Connect the CUSTOMER socket the input signals coming from the remote source. According to the
system type (F-series, K-series…) the PINs of the external message selection are varying. Consult your
technical manual or ask your local system supplier.
2. Turn the computer on.
3. Launch the Marca program and open the Message Table dialog from “Configuration-> Message
Table” in the main menu.

3-32
 4. Enter the different messages onto above screen, using the mouse to choose where you wish to put
them.
5. Select Enable Extern Message Selection.
6. Close the Message Table dialog and open the printing dialog.

3-33
 7. Start printing by selecting ‘Print One’ or ‘OK’.
The laser will carry out the following process:
- Wait for the activation of the photocell
- Read the eight line of the external message selection
- Print

3-34
 EXCLUDING BITS FOR EXTERNAL MESSAGE SELECTION

If you want to exclude certain bits from being used for the external message selection you can select
those bits in the message table dialog. Excluding bit may be necessary if you want to use those inputs
for other purposes (e.g. layer selection, alarmsignal, eventhandle actions…)

BATCH JOB
This new option allows the printing of a whole set of messages. The table is working through line by
line. When the last entry is reached, it automatically jumps to the first entry. Each entry (each
message) will be printed <n> times, where n is the number of repeats for this message.
When the “External Message Selection” is enabled, the repeats are ignored!

3-35
 1.4.1. FILE SEQUENCE SETUP WITH THE SOFTWARE

The following information will show the setup procedure of a file sequence for multiple MLF designs
marking.
On the attached example, which is an application of textile marking, the garment will be finished with
two separate MLF designs (LeftMoustache.MLF and Right Moustache.MLF). Each MLF design has been
created from the corresponding BMP image, and the T/px and other parameters have been set up in
each file for latter marking, so that will ensure that no mistake will be made when reproducing the
same design on following series of production with the same design.

MLF Files Creations: Create the MLF files with the corresponding BMP images and set up the right
marking parameters for the type of fabric and color being used. Save the files with an appropriate
name and folder location that later on will let your recover them by the same.
IMPORTANT! If the design of BMP images is done in a different computer, before editing the MLF you
should copy the BMP file in the PC of the machine. Otherwise, when the CD or the floppy disks were
saved, they could cause some problems and fail to find the BMP situation

Sequence SetUp: Start the Marca software in a Supervisor level. Go to Configuration / Message Table.
This windows will let you setup the sequence of files and the amount of times (or repetitions) that are
required for each MLF file to be printed (in case the same design will be applied to different locations
on the same garment).
Before setting up a new configuration, click the Delete all button. That will leave a blank configuration.

3-36
 Then, activate both boxes “Use External Selection”, and “Use Automatic Selection”. That will enable the
sequence that later on will be on this windows.
IMPORNTAT! Note that by enabling both boxes, the software will not necessary mark the current file
that will be located on the screen. As soon as the starting signal will be provided (green button) the
software will open the corresponding file that is configured on this windows.
In order to let you know that, the software will show an special icon on the Print window. In case that
you need to mark a file that is not on the sequence, you will be required to disabled botch boxes of the
“Use…Selection” before trying to mark it.
The windows shows three columns of number as follows:

The 1st column will not be used in this configuration process.

The 2nd column will be the ORDER of the MLF file to be printed inside the current sequence.
The 3rd column will shows the number of times that each file will be printed 1 means that the
corresponding file will be market just one time).
The 4th column will be the path name and file name of the corresponding file for that special position on
the sequence.

In order to set up the sequence, first choose any of the position of the table. It will become in blue
color.
Then, set the number 1 at ORDER position. It will make that special position the 1 st one to be printed on
that current sequence.
Then click the ADD button and select the MLF file that will be printed on that position. In case that the
same file must be printed twice or more times, set the corresponding number to the TIMES box while
the current position still remains in blue color. Repeat the same process with as many files as may be
needed on the sequence.
As soon as the table has been created, make sure that you save that configuration for the next time
that could be needed, so you will be able to retrieve it with the whole sequence. That may require not to
modify any of the related BMP and MLF files and neither their location, otherwise that may affect to the
operation of that special sequence
Remember that no BMP files can be printed or sent to the laser in the Marca Lite software.

3-37
 The condiguration file will be saved in MTF format, which is the Marca Message Table File Format.
Make sure that you save it with and appropriate name that will let you retrieve later on for the type of
garment that will was created (i.e. Model22-SizeW32L32.MTF in a different folder for each different
brand name or type of garment).

Marking Process: As soon as the sequence is set, the MTF file is saved and botch boxes are activated,
switch the laser system on, open any of the files to be used, click the PRINT icon, set the AUTO box and
click the OK button. That will leave the system ready for marking the sequence.
Note that it appears a yellow sign that informs that the Automatic Selection has been enabled.
IMPORTANT! While the Automatic Selection of Messages option is being used, the red laser tool may
not show the right location and size of the next file being printed out.
So, it is even more important to pay attention to the marking area, and ensure that nobody will put their
hand or any other part of the body un any place of the whole marking area corresponding to the type of
lens being used (10x10cm, 20x20c, 30x30cm, 50x50cm, depending on lens) while the laser will proceed
the marking process.
Every time you exit the print menu, the sequence of messages will be reset. So, after going back again
to the print menu, the sequence will start again through the 1 st file.
It is a must to remember the sequence that has been configured, so the operation of the laser can
easily locate the garment according to the next file to be printed.

1.5. COMMUNICATION
The communication of the Marca program with the laser system is based on a socket to socket
connection under TCP/IP. The laser works as a server while the software acts as a client. To connect
and communicate with the laser you simply have to adapts the lasers IP address and network mask
(optionally a gateway) to your local network. The default network parameters for the laser system are:
IP Adress: 192.168.0.180
Mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: not defined

Within the startup dialog you can launch the “SeekLaser.exe” program that detects the available
lasersystem in the network, independent on your network parameters. With the “SeekLaser.exe”
program you can easily change the laser’s network parameters, so that they match with your local

3-38
 network. Otherwise, you will first have to adapt your own network parameters to the laser’s default
network to connect to the laser.

IP-address: the laser’s IP-adress.

NetMask: the laser’s network mask.
Slavepath: a local directory in your PC that can be used for some special purpose (some
temporary data files will be stored within there)
Timeout: a timeout value in milliseconds for communication.

Lasersystem: the name of the system. It is just a placeholder for the whole bulk of configuration
parameters and environmental settings. You can define new system names, copy actual systems to
new systems, delete systems, etc..
With the system Selection combo box in the main menu system bar you can easily change from one
system configuration to another one.

Controlcard: the hardware controlcard of the selected laserystem. When you select from the menu
“Execute-> Test communication” and the communication is succcesfull, the control card is
automatically displayed and selected.

3-39
 UPDATING THE FIRMWARE
From the menu select “License -> internal barcode”. If your system is already licensed, there is no
need to enter the license key, else you will be ask to enter a valid license key. Call the support center
for getting your barcode license, if necessary.

CHANGING THE IP SETTINGS

Selecting the “System -> Set new IP” item in the menu, you can change the network address of your
laser.

Set and Save: It requires that your laser is connected to the PC and the actual network parameters of
the laser are correct (if not, you won’t get a connection to set the new parameters in your laserystem).
Save only: The new parameters will be saved only locally in the Marca environment, and will not be
sent to the laser.

3-40
 1.6. OPTIONS
1.6.1. EXTRA OPTIONS

3-41
 Several different options can be adjusted, depending on the type of the laser system and on the needs
of the final application.
Laser Test diode: Select this if your system is equipped with a red diode pointer. The velocity of the
scanners for the red diode pointer can be set from 200 – 40000 mm/sec. When enabled, the main menu
enables a tool button in its toolbar to have direct access to the red diode pointer.
As soon as you press the toolbar button, the pointer is activated and the surrounding square of the
selected objects is traced. Note: when you deselect the objects you can place the red diode pointer to
any position in the scanfield just by positioning the mouse on the working area and a right-button click.

Automatic pointer: Select this if your system is equipped with a red diode pointer and you want to
activate the red diode pointer always when you are in printing mode.

Invert Axis: You can invert individually the x and y-axis coordinates of your marking scanfield.
Additionally, you can exchange the x-axis with the y-axis, which corresponds to a rotation of the
scanfield by 90º.

Check for “print.cmd” in slave path: When enabled, the software checks for the existence of a
“print.cmd” file in the slave path set within the communication’s configuration while the system is in
printing mode (opened the printing dialog and having pressed “OK”). As soon as the “print.cmd” is
detected (the file exists), the software removes this file, sends a printsignal to the laser and the laser
will print a product.

Actualize “status.inf/datasent.inf” in slave path: When enabled, the software writes/actualizes the
“status.inf” file with the status-structure of the laser, each time a print was done. Each time that the
software sends new data to the laser, a “datasent.inf” file is written/actualized with the status-
structure.

Avoid user interaction on alarm: When enabled, the software will not show a “Retry-Cancel”-dialog to
the user when an alarm occurred (e.g. the interlock will be opened). This option can only be enabled in
the technician mode and can only be done if other security means are provided (e.g. a mechanical
restart button). It is intended to be used when additional external software/hardware controls the laser
in completely automized stations. In this case an opened interlock must be detected by a third party
software or hardware and a restart of the laser must be implemented to be conform to local security
standards.

3-42
 Enable automatic printing: When enabled, the software will automatically enter printing mode as soon
as the printing dialog is opened.

Default button in printdialog: Sets the default selected button in the printdialog.

Enable automatic copies: When enabled, the software reads the number of prints line by line from a
databse variable, which must be included in the actual message.

Save message always after sending to laser: When enabled, the software will automatically save the
actual message in the local PC each time when the software has sent the data to the laser. Thus, any
modification by the user or any automatic modification of the message data (i.e. sequential numbers,
database keys, etc.) are saved in the local message file.

Reload message when content changes: When enabled, the software watches the last modification
time of the actual message’s harddisk file and will automatically reload it when it detects a change.
This option can be used for actualizing automatically the message with an external application.

Create “copy.txt” when reloading messages: It will create a file named “copy.txt” in the configured
slave-path of the system each time the Marca has send new data to the lasersystem. This file contains
the complete information of the printing file (its is a copy of the printing file in ASCII/Unicode). The
option can be enabled when you use the “Reload message when content changes” to verify with an
external application that the contents of the modified and sent file is equal.

Realod message when selection changes (table): When enabled, the software reloads the actual
selected file (external message selection or batchjob) each time when the selection changes.

Actualize screen when selection changes (table): When enabled, the software just actualizes the
screen data according to the actual selected file.

3-43
 View actual number of prints: This option enabled the software to update in realtime the number of
prints.

Enable eventhandling after each product: This option enabled the software to handle possible
preprogrammed actions after each product. The laser will make a request to the Marca via TCP/IP
after each product to give the software eventhandler the chance to perform some preprogrammed
actions.

Send configuration with confirmation: It is to prevent an automatic overwrite of the laser’s

configuration when entering into the printdialog. If you want to overwrite the laser’s configuration
automatically each time you have change some parameters, you have deselected the checkbox. When
enabled, the Marca will always ask you to overwrite the laser’s internal configuration when it detects
changes in some of the configuration’s parameters.

Always send local configuration when printing: When enabled, Marca always uploads the local
configuration to the laser when the printing dialog is opened. The local configuration is uploaded only
when Marca detects that the laser’s actual configuration is different from the local configuration.

Always send local system variables when printing: When enabled, Marca always uploads the local
system variables to the laser when the printing dialog is opened. This options can only be enabled in
the technician mode of Marca.

Confirm overwrite of system variables: It is to prevent an automatic overwrite of the laser’s system
variables when entering into the printdialog. When enabled, Marca will always ask you to overwrite the
laser’s system variables.

Adjust internal clock on printing: When this option is enabled, the internal clock of the laser is set to
the actual time/data of control-PC each time when you enter into the printing dialog. It assures to
matching of time and date between internal clock and PC-clock.

Use enhanced server communication: Communication between Marca and the laser is optimized when
enable this option. No unnecessary TCP/IP traffic takes place when there are no changes in data. This

3-44
 option must be enabled if you want to use an efficient eventhandling during a printing session. The
communication between laser and Marca will be faster and more stable than before. In the actual
version of Marca this options are always automatically enabled, even if you disable it. The parameter is
obsolete; however, it is still necessary for communication with some old systems.

Force usermessage to be actualized: When enabled, the firmware will not print two consecutive
internal usermessage without having received a new usermessage in between. This is to avoid the
printing of two usermessages without having actualized the user messages, thus avoiding the printing
of two consecutive usermessage with the same value.
Note that the contents of the usermessage are not checked, so if you always the same content the
laser will continue printing.
When you activate the “empty message” alarm, the laser will launch this alarm in case that the
usermessage was not actualized externally.

Force customer bitmaps to be actualized: When enabled, the firmware will not print two consecutive
internal datastring (used for customized bitmaps) without having received a new datastring in between,
This is to avoid the printing of two customized bitmaps without having actualized their content, thus
avoiding the printing of two consecutive customized bitmaps with the same image.
Note chat the contents of the datastring are not checked, so if you send always the same content the
laser will continue printing.
When you activate the “empty message” alarm, the laser will launch this alarm in case that the
datastring was not actualized externally.

3-45
 1.6.2. END SIGNAL

An endsignal can be activated after having marked a product. The ednsignal can be electrically
connected at the customer connector where it corresponds to a NO and/or NC contact of a solid state
relay. The endsignal can either be activated for static printing or dynamic printing or both types of
printing. You can define the time that the endsignal contact should be closed.
Possible values are between 0 – 10000ms (firmware < 5.2.7: If the time is greater that 800 ms, the
contact keeps closed until the next product is going to be marked, else it closes just for the
programmed time and then opens again.
You can also define some logic to decide when the endsignal should be activated.
Note: in former versions the endsignal slows down the whole marking process sequence. A marking
sequence was finished after the endsignal time has elapsed. New triggers during the endsignal active
time have been ignored. In newer versions (firmware >= 5.2.7) the marking process ends with
activating the endsignal. If during the endsignal active time a new trigger signal is detected a new
marking process will be started immediately, and the end endsignal will be dropped down to low.this
means that the endsignal time may be shorter than programmed if it is interrupted by a new incoming
trigger signal. At least a 5 ms endsignal time will be applied in any case.

No active if alarm: no endsignal if there was an alarm during the mark.

Active only if alarm: endsignal only when there was an alarm during the mark.
Active if print no OK: endsignal only active when the mark was not finished due to any alarm or user
interaction (mark stopped by user).

3-46
 RS-232: The end signal can optionally be delivered also over RS-232. If the print was done correctly (no
error during the print) two bytes <ACK><CR> are sent, if the print was not done correctly the two
bytes <NACK><CR> are sent.
Comport 1 is the standard serial port for the RS-232 protocol which is always available.

TCP: The endsignal can also delivered over a TCP/IP connection at the laser’s internal socket port 3493
(server socket). Only one client can be connected to this server port. The sent data bytes correspond to
the bytes of the RS-232 endsignal (<ACK><CR< or <NACK><CR>).

1.6.3. FIRST PULSE OPTION

- For the D-5020 and D-5100 at first pulse suppression must be done to avoid damage of the
internal laser optics.
Two delay must e defines that take care of this:
The diode current will be switched down for these delay times (depending on the actual user
power) on the start of a new laserline. Typical values for the D-5020 are 250 microsec for the
delay at 100% power and 100 microsec for the delay at 50% power.
The typical values for the D-5100 are the values seen in the picture above, please note, that
these values are only orientate and can vary from each lasertube.

3-47
 - First pulse suppress option for CO2 Lasers.
For the K-series a first pulse suppressions can be applied to avoid an extensive first pulse. This
option may only work on newer scanning cards. The time of the reduced duty-cycle (default:
300 usec) and the reduced duty-cycle must be set accordingly. Note, that the duty cycle is
relative to the actual used power. Note also, that for best performance printing should be done
at high frequency (>= 50 kHz). If the frequency is too low (e-g- 10 kHz), the first pulse
suppression may not work well.

1.6.4. Z-AXIS

An optional z-axis control can be enabled for systems equipped with a focus-shifter or dynamic z-axis.
Note: in former versions these parameters were places in the systemvariables!

Z-range: Defines the z-travel range in percent of the xy-fieldsize. The value depends on use dynamic z-
ais and the fieldsize configuration.

Z-range [mm]: Shows the theoretical maximum z-shift according to the set parameters.

Full steptime: Defines the time that the z-axis needs to travel throught the complete travel range.

3-48
 Direction: Defines the direction of the z-travel. This parameter simply depends on the orientation of the
used z-axis system.
F-theta lens: If the system uses a prefocal lens this parameters must be set to “no”, else to “no”. For
prefocal lenses the ssytem has to correct the z-axis even for place surface marking.

Used DAC range: Defines the used DAC range for the z-move. Value depends on the z-axis system and
the desired z-range.

DAC offset: Defines an offset for the z-move. The offset can only be non-zero when the DAC range is a
choosen as < 100%.

Symmetry: A value that correct the non-linearity of the z-travel and the z-focus. A value of 1.0 is for a
perfect linear relationship. Typically the value is slightly greater than 1 depending on the optical system
of the used-axis.

M-shift: An internal value used for the z-axis correction (default: 19). Should not be changed.

Lower hard limit: Sets a software limint in case of a hard bumper for high side of the control output
values for the z-movement.

Delay: Sets an additional delay that is applied after each z-movement. Units in [microsecs].

Min. z-steps: Sets the stepsize from when on the ‘Delay’ is udes. For z-steps lower than this value no
additional delay is applied.

3-49
 1.6.5. MOTORIZED AXIS

Some systems can optionally control up to three motorized axis (XYZ) and one rotating/linear
servomotor (servocontrol).
The motorized XYZ-axis are controlled via RS-232 from the laser. Two control ports are usually
available, port 1 or port2. Axis command can be configured in the message properties, so that the axis
is positioned before starting the mark. Alternatively, a simple axis control dialog is available within the
user software.
XYZ-controlport: Defines the RS-232 port used for controlling the motorized axis. Note that comport 1
is normally used for the standard RS-232 protocol to communicate externally with the laser. Comport2
usually used for the HandHeld terminal protocol. If you use on of this ports for motorized axis the
corresponding default protocols will be disabled.

Counts per mm. XYZ: Is defined internally by the corresponding axis and depends on the installed
motor-axis. This number is just the number of steps of the used steppermotor per 1 mm distance.
Offset mm XYZ: Defines an offset for each axis. An arbitrary offset can be chosen for each axis which
simply changes the (0mm, 0mm, 0mm)- position of the system.

3-50
 Axis control dialog

With the axis control dialog you can easily control the optional XYZ-axis. Note, that after a powerup
sequence any axis to be moved will first perform a home-positioning before moving to the desired
target position. The units in the dialog can be switched from steps to mm. Note, that I message’s
properties the given for an axis command are always in mm.

Servo control
Servomotor control is typically used in dynamic applications to control the velocity of the production
belt or in applications with rotating products. According the settings of the servocontrol the system
regulated the belt/rotational speed to mark with optimized conditions. Note: in former version these
parameters were placed inside the systemvariables!
Types of control: Defines the output signal for the servo control.
- Min/Max: the –bit DAC of the card is used. The laser sets the output to the SERVOMIN value in
case that the velocity should be slowed down (which is the case when the actual scanfield
position reaches the servoborder frame). The laser sets the output to the sERVOMAX value in
case that the velocity should be incremented (which is the case when the actual scanfield
position has sill not reached the servoborder frame).

3-51
 - Continous control: similar to the previous case, but the output variable is calculated as a value
between the min and max value.
- Endsignal control: the Endsignal relay is used as the output signal. The relay is closed when
the production line speed can be incremented and it is opened when the speed should be
slowed down.

Left borderframe: Defines the frame size at the left scanfield border from where on the laser should
indictes a decrease of the line velocity (for dynamic direction RIGHT). The larger the value the later the
laser will indicate a “slow-down” of the production line.

Right borderframe: Defines the frame size at the right scanfield border from where on the laser should
indicate a decrease of the line velocity (for dynamic direction LEFT).

Minimum DAC Value: When the type of control is “Min/Max” or “Continuous control”, the output signal
is given at the 8-bots DAC of the scannercard SM171. The Minimum DAC value is the value, that the 8-
bot DAC should output in case of the “slowest” velocity for the production line.

Maximum DAC Value: When the type of control is “Min/Max” or “continuous control”, the output signal
is given at the 8-bits DAC of the scannercard SM171. The Maximum DAC value is the value, that the 8-
bit DAC should output in case of the “fastest” velocity for the production line.

3-52
 1.7. KEYBOARD FUNCTIONS

Selecting “Configurations-> Keyboardsfunctions” in the main menu allows tou to configure default
functionalities of your functionkeys.
For each functionkey (except F10, that is reserved for the operating system) you can select a function
from a list of available actions that will be executed when pressing the functionkey.
Note that these actions will only be started when your application has the focus and no Marca dialog is
open. If any other dialog that the mainframe of Marca has the actual focus, you first have to switch the
focus back to the mainframe. You can do this usually by pressing the ESC-key (to close any other
dialogs) or clicking with the mouse on the view (the object plane) of Marca program.

3-53
 1.8. ENVIRONMENT
From the main menu you can open this configuration dialog via “Configuration –> Environment”. Two
property pages are available:

Default Type: Select the default filetype for File-Save, File-Open operation.
- mlf: Marca binary file, readable only with Marca.
- txt (ASCII): Marca message file in ASCII format.
- txt (UNICODE): Marca message file in UNICODE format (Windows)
- msf: binary firmware message file format, readable with Marca.

Template: Can be Marca mld or txt-file and serves as a template when creating new designs.

Eventfile: Can be any Eventhandler file created with the Eventhandler-dialog. When defines, the
eventhandler will be activated.

Background image: Any JPG, BMP of Gif file to be loaded as the background image of the working area.

3-54
 DXF Options

Importfactor: scales a dxf vectorfile when importing it into Marca application. When you wish that your
imported dxf vectorfiles have to be scaled down enter a factor <1.0, otherwise enter a factor >= 1.0,

Text scalefactor: scales the fontsize for all text type entities.

Connect line: is used when you optimize an importet dxf or a vector groups. Its value determines the
minimum distance between two adjacent points, so that the line corresponding to these points will be
connected to one polyline or not. The unit is in micrometer.

Points/Controlpoints: Defines the points per conrtrolpoints to be used when importing a dxf file that
contains SPLINES. SPLINES will be converted to a polyline and this number defines the resulting
resolution of the polyline. The higher the number is the higher will be the number of polylines points.

Import Res: Defines the resolution of the DXF file to be imported. When set to 0 the DXF is imported as
it is and maybe results in too much polygon points. Set the value to a value that makes sense. (e.g. 100
microns for a CO2 lasersystem is a good value)

3-55
 Convert Res: Defines the resolution for the conversion of the elements of a DXF (except TEXT) into
polylines.

Optimize on loading: When selected, the DXF is scanner and optimized. That means, polygon endpoints
whose distance is smaller than the <Connection> values will be connected to one single polygon, this
improving speed and quality.

Inflatsize: Defines the size in um for an inflate operation. An inflate operation increases the outer shape
of closed polygons.

Deflatsize: Defines the size in um for a deflate operation. An deflate operation decreases the outer
shape of closed polygons.

Edgelimit: Defines the limit of the cosines of the vertical angle for any inflate/deflate operation.

Alignment when loading: Defines the alignment of the loaded DXF with respect to the mouse- defined
insertation point.

Bezier filterradius: Defines the number of polygonpoints used for a filter operation when the polygon is
smoothed with a Bezier curve.

Filterdistance: A distance used for thinning operation of bitmaps.

UTF-8 encoding: Read text strings as UTF-8 encoded.

Explode hatch in XML: Explodes the hatch lines as individual objects within the vector group when
storing in a xml-file. The benefit is than the laser can load the file much faster as it has not to calculate
the hatch by itself. Note that when you reload such a file within Marca the vector group is marked as
not-filled.

3-56
 Explode hatch in MSF: Explodes the hatch lines as individual object within the vector group when
storing in a msf-file. The benefit is than the laser can load the file much faster as it has not to calculate
the hatch by itself. Note that when you reload such a file within Marca, the vector group is marked as
not-filled.

BMP options
Fixed resample DPIX: Defines the x-resolution of the final graphics when performing a resample
operation using “Fixed value” as the Resample DPI-interpolation method.

Fixed resample DPIY: Defines the y-resolution of the final graphics when performing a resample
operation using “Fixed value” as the Resample DPI-interpolation method.

Resample DPI-interpolation: Defines the method for the resample operation. Possible values are:
- lowest value: the final resolution is adjusted to the lowest resolution of the selected graphics
objects.
- Highest value: the final resolution is adjusted to the highest resolution of the selected graphics
objects.
- Mean value: the final resolution is adjusted to the mean resolution of the selected graphics
object.
- Fixed value: the final resolution is adjusted according to the values set fixed in FIXED
resample.

Resample default color: Defines the initial color of the final graphic object before starting the
resampling.

Color interpolation: Defines the method how the final color of each pixel should be set if more than one
graphic object is selected and these object are overlapping.
- Black over white: the final pixel color is defined by the “blackest” pixel.
- White over black: the final pixel color is defined by the “whitest” pixel.
- Mean value: the final pixel color is defined by the mean value of the contributing pixels of the
overlapping graphics object.

3-57
 Resample speed: Defines the interpolation method for resamplling when the resolution changes.
- Fast resampling: no interpolation is used for determine the final pixel color.
- Slow resampling: an interpolation is used for determine the final pixel color.

Interpolation step: Defines the stepsize of interpolation when the resolution of the source object is
different from the target object. The resolution can be changed slowly (values <%100%) or at once
(values >100%). The results can be very different depending on the resolution change and the chosen
resample speed. However, in most cases you can use a fast resample speed with a large interpolation
step (400%), thus resampling will be done fast with just one calculation.

Alignment when loading: Defines the alignment of the loaded graphic with respect to the mouse-
defines insertation point.

Shading frame borders: Defines a frame at the scanfield border at left, right, top or bottom side. The
units are set un micrometers. When a frame is defined (one of the values (l,r,t,b) is > 0), any bitmap
image that intersects with the frame reduces / increases the color value according to the “shading
colorchange” value for all pixels that intersect the frame.

Shading Colorchange: Defines the amount of color change (in percent) to be applied to images that
intersects with the frame. A positive value marks the color more lighten; a negative value darkens the
image.

Shading interpolation: Defines the interpolation within the frame. Constant: the colorchange within the
frame is constant. Linear: the colorchange is linear from the border of the frame to the border of the
scanfield.

Encoder into xml-file: When set to ‘yes’ all graphics object (bitmaps) are encoded inside the xml-file
(base64 encoding, char of index 62 = ‘+’, index 63 =’/’, no line separators).

Fieldcorrection: When this option is enabled, the pixeltime and colors of all bitmap objects are
readjusted before the data are sent to the laser. It may be used to compensate the radial spotsize
variation over the scanfield in prefocal configurations. The Gamma value and the percent-value of the
fieldcorrection determine the strength of the pixeltime / color modification over the scanfield. This
option can also be within the laser’s configuration (see Configurations –> Fieldcorrections) if the

3-58
 laser’s firmware supports it. If you enable this option within the ‘BMP option’ the power/spot-changles
will only be compensated for bitmaps and not for vector-based object. Thus, if the firmware supports it
you should be use the settings in ‘Configuration -> FieldCorrection’.

Fieldcorr. Variation [%]: Defines the maximum variation of the pixeltime / color ober the whole
scanfield.

Fieldcorr. Offset [%]: Defines from where on in the scanfield (in percent of the scanfield) the
fieldcorrection should be applied.

Fieldcorrr. Gamma-value Defines the gamma value for the fieldcorrection algorithm.

Show fieldcorrection: When enabled the applied color-correction will be visible in the view. You will
observe a color change in the bitmap object according to their positioning within the scanfield

Operacity for selected images: Sets the opacity in percent for image-object that are selected by the
user. The default is 80%.
Opacity for images: Sets the standard opacity in percent for image-objects. The default value is 50%.

Codepage: You can select any of the installed codepages to map the Unicode 2 BYTE charset to the
ANSI 1 BYTE charset. As default, the actual system codepage is used (0(system default)). You can
change to any of the installed codepages to force Marca to use another codepage than the system
default one. This feature is explained in detail later in the Unicode font section.

Virtual lasersystem: When enabled, no connection to the laser is possible. This is useful, when you
want to create and edit messages with Marca without trying to print with the laser.

Mainframe rectangle: Sets the appearance of the mainframe when the applications starts. If set to -1,-
1,-1,-1, the full screen is used. Click in the editbox to change the size and position to the actual
size/position of the mainframe.

3-59
 Fullscreen mode: When enabled the program uses the whole screen as a topmost window even in front
of the taskbar.

Running applications: Sets the number of allowed simultaneously running Marca applications.

Multiple applications: When set to ‘no’, Marca is launcher as a single document application for one
system. When set to ‘yes’, Marca will be launched in a mode that controls several instances
(processes), each one connecting to a different laser system.

Default Zoom: Sets the default zoom factor for the view.
Zoom layout: When ‘enabled’, a loaded message file will be automatically zoomed to display the
complete message within the view.

Application Mode:
- Standard / Mode 0: the default mode where the dongle decides the printing dialog when
clicking on the ‘printer’ button. If the dongle is a Marla Lite dongle, the control dialog instead
of the standard print dialog will be opened.
- Remote Mode /Mode 1: the control dialog will be opened always when clicking on the ‘printer’
button and the standard print dialog is not accessable
- Standard (internal barcode) / Mode 2: like a Standard mode, but the barcodes for dynamically
changins object will be created internally, by the laser.
- Standard Pc controlled / Mode 3: like the Standard mode, but all barcodes (except internal
usermessage/counters) are created by Marca, even if the laser itself could do it by itself.

Virtual keyboard: When enabled, the program is slightly adapted to be compatible for using with a
touchscreen.

Keyboard: a string defining the name of an executable that is used for a virtual on-screen keyboard. If
no string is given the program’s own cirtual keyboard is used. If you do not wish to use a virtual
keyboard, but you want the appearance with the ‘virtual keyboard’ enabled, you can enter a string that
is not assigned to any application to avoid the virtual keyboard to appear automatically on the screen.

3-60
 Additional monitor: A number that defines an additional non-primary display monitor in the system that
should be used to show the scanfield content. When you set this parameter to ‘1’ then it means the first
found non-primary monitor and so on. Setting it to ‘0’ disabled the additional monitor.
- Type: select the object to be shown in the additional monitor: all, only printable or only non-
printable objects can be selected.
- Background color: Define the background color to be used for the additional monitor output.
- Invert colors: When selected the colors in the additional monitor output are inverted.
- Imagesize: Defines the size in pixels for the additional monitor output view.
- Pixel offset: Defines optionally a rectangle within the additional monitor, that should be used
(left, right, top, bottom coordinates in pixels).
- Background color: Defines the background color to be used for the additional monitor output.
- Angle: Defines an angle of rotation of the view in the additional monitor. Units are degrees.

1.9. USER MESSAGE

When you want to send an external usermessage via RS.232 to the control PC and you use external
usermessage objects, you must enable the PC’s local RS232 port with this dialog. Once activated the
serial port, you can send via RS232 to your control PC usermessages and change the field contents of
external usermessage objects in your message.

3-61
 1.10. MULTIPLE APPLICATIONS

When you select “multiple applications” in the environment parameters and restart Marca the program
is launcher in a controlling mode from where you can control simultaneously different lasersystems in
a single application. The mainframe windows will have a different style.
At the first startup in the “multiple applications” mode it will look like this. The first thing you would
have to do is to add systems to be controlled by this application. For this purpose you have to select
from the main menu ‘Configuration->Environment”

3-62
 Environment configuration
Directory (*.mlf): Defines the default directory where to explore files for loading into the different
systems.
Mainframe rectangle: Defines the mainframe rectangle on startup of this application.
Running applications: Defines the number of simultaneously running Marca applications allowed.
Multiple applications: Defines if Marca should run in “multiple application” mode or the standard
mode.

Add: Lets you add a configured lasersystem to this application. On startup of the application in the
multiple application mode for every system defined here a process is launcher that appears to be a
standard Marca application and is embedded in the mainframe of this application. You can add as
much system as you want.

Remove: Lets you remove a selected system from this list.

Once you have added system in the environment dialog you can launch their specific process by
restarting the application or selecting “Start Lasersystem” from the mainmenu. The following image
shows you the resulting dialog for two defined lasersystems.

3-63
 As you can see, two Marca processes are launcher for the two systems and embedded into the main
application. In each Marca process you can work independently as if it is a standard Marca application
(except that you cannot change within there to another system). From the main application (called the
“Master” application) you are able to take control of the embedded application. You can do the following
from within the master application:
- You can open the printing mode for all systems at once (from the toolbar)
- You can abort/stop the printing mode for all system at once (from the toolbar)
- You can load a document for all system at once (from the toolbar)
- You can activate the diode pointer for all system at once (from the toolbar)
- You can shift the document’s position for all systems at once or for just some selected system
(Online Tools /Edit tools)
- You can change the layer’s power settings, speed settings or the bitmap pixeltime setting for
all system at once (Online Tools, Edit Tools)

When you close the main master application, all embedded applications are closed too.

3-64
 Edit Tools
When you select the “Edit Tools” from the mainmenu (Windows -> Edit Tools) a left aligned toolbar is
added to the application from where you can control the x-y position of the message of all systems at
once and you may change the power/speed or pixeltime settings directly.

Edit System: you can select here for which system you want applu the changes.

X-Y shift: move the complete message, or the selected object if any object is selected, in x or y.
Performance values: Lets you select between Power, Speed or Pixeltime to be changed. Changes apply
only to editable and printable layers or objects.

Remote update: When the system is in printing mode you need to confirm the remote update of any
changes you have done before, to become the actually visible data to be sent to the laser.

3-65
 Note: Any changes are applied to actually loaded documents only. The changes are not stored
automatically in the document file (mlf, xml) in the PC’s storage medium.

Online Tools
When you select the “Online Tools” from the mainmenu (Windows -> Online Tools) a left aligned tool
bar is added to the application from where you can control the x-y position of the messages or the
power/speed or pixeltime settings of a selected system remotely.

Connected system: you can select here for which system you want to apply the changes. Once you
select a system the application tries to connect to it.

X-Y shift: applies a global shift in x and y for the selected system. The actual shift is shown in the text
boxes below. The global shift is a shift that applies to the actually loaded message. It is not stored in
the message itself but just remains in the memory of the laser system. After a reboot or when the
laser’s configuration is actualized, the shift is always reset to (0,0).

3-66
 Performance values: Lets you select between Power, Speed or Pixeltime to be changed. Power, speed
and pixeltime performance is measured in percent. At 100% (the default value after a restart of the
laser) all power, speed or pixeltime settings are as defined in the message files. Incrementing or
decrementing the performance values are applied in all messages. They are not stored in the
messages but just remain in the memory of the laser until the next reboot.

The Online Tools differ from the Edit Tools in that the Online Tools are much faster in its response fue
to the direct protocol to the laser system. Howerver, WYSWYG visualization is not possible with the
Online Tools and it’s on the responde of the suer to control excessive x-y shifts.
The Edit Tools may be more confortable for slow application (where the fime from print to print is not
just a few milliseconds) as the user can visually see the x-y shift or the power /speed/pixeltime
changes.

Frame Tools
When you select the “Frame Tools” from the mainmenu a right aligned toolbar opens.

Edit system: you can select here for which system you want to apply the changes.

3-67
 Change: Lets you select between the frame position for reducing / incrementing the color of a bitmap
or the color increase /decrease in percent.

Remote update: When the system is in printing mode you need to confirm the remote update of any
changes you have done before, to become the actually visible data to be sent to the laser.

3-68
CHAPTER 4

MESSAGE MODE
TABLE OF
CONTENT
1. STATIC DRAWING ...................................................................7
2. DYNAMIC DRAWING .............................................................15
2.1. DATE OBJECT...............................................................15
2.2. SEQUENTIAL NUMBER ...............................................17
2.3. SEQUENTIAL MESSAGE ..............................................20
2.4. EXTERNAL MESSAGE ..................................................21
2.5. GROUPED TEXT ............................................................31
3. VECTOR FILES ......................................................................32
4. GRAPHICS FILES ..................................................................34
5. IMPORT/EXPORT FILES .......................................................39
6. CLONING OBJECTS ..............................................................40
 Marca program has a powerful WYSWYG (what you see is what you get) editor A message file (mlf
extension) acts as a container for multiple objects like Lines, Polylines, static and variable Text objects
as well as Graphics or Vectorgroups. Each object is assigned to a so-called “layer”, which defines the
physical properties of how the object is going to be marked (e.g scanner speed, laser power, laser
frequency,…).
Once created a message you can store it as a message file locally on your PC.

The extension for this message file usually is “mlf” and the file is binary file that is not readable by any
other application but Marca program. You can also store the message file as a human readable text file
(extension txt). In this case you can choose between an ASCII textfile (where character strings are
stored as arrays of 1 byte ASCII char) or an Unicode textfile where character strings are sore as 2-byte
wide chars.
From version 5.6.3 on you can also choose an “xml” format for the messages. The “xml” and the “txt”
format do not store possible bitmap data, but only the reference to the graphic file.
The “xml” format is the only “human readable” format that can be also read by the laser with some
restrictions.
The “xml” format can serve also as a compatible format between different versions (version 5.6.3 on),
whereas the “mlf” and “txt” format is usually only upward compatible (that means, only newer version
can read old “mlf” or “txt” files but not vice versa).
Objects can simply create on the WYSWYG screen by selection then with a mouse-click in the tools on
the left side from the main menu.

4-5
 After selecting the desired object, you simply left-click with your mouse on the screen where you want
the object to be placed to.
Depending on the object type it may be required to enter data (text string) or to continue drawing the
object with the help of your mouse and a left-click (polylines, lines, circle …) or to select the datasource
of the object (dxf, hpgl, plt files, bmp, jpg, gif…). In the following the individual objects and their
properties will be explained.

4-6
 1. STATIC DRAWING
ALL OBJECTS
All objects have a general property page.
General Properties
- Name: a placeholder for a name of the object. You can give any name to any object but not the
same name to two objects in your message. The name may be used when you are going to use
the eventhandler for identying an object.
- Position X: the x position of the bottomleft point of the bounding rectangle in microns.
- Position Y: the y position of the bottomleft point of the bounding rectangle in microns.
- Height: the height of the bounding rectangle in microns.
- Width: the width of the bounding rectangle in microns.
- Layer: the layer to which this object is assigned to.
- Line Width: The line width in pixel with which the object is drawn on the screen and marked. As
soon as the line width is set to a value > 0, the object is marked not as a smooth line but a
circular movement of the laser beam is used to mark the object. Usually, the line width should
always be set to 0.
- Scale: Entering any numerical value here and pressing the “apply” button or simple the
“return” key of your keyboard will immediately scale the selected object according the
numerical value entered.
- Centrate: Select this and “apply” to center the selected object on the screen. Note: this
parameter was eliminated from 5.7.0 on where it is available directly in the advanced toolbar.
- Printable: If you want the object to be marked this tag must be select.
- Real pointer: when you select this, the red diode pointer traces the real object instead of the
bounding rectangle when you enter the printing dialog and select “test pointer”. (Note: the
“REALPOINTER:” variable in the system variables inside the laser must e enabled for this
purpose!)
- Explode for printing: this property is available only for text-objects (text, day, hour…) and for
vector groups. For text-objects the default value is “enabled”, for vectorgroup objects the
default values is “disabled”. When “enabled” the object will be decomposed into smaller
elements when the printing mode is dynamic, when “disabled”, the object is not decomposed.
Note: that the “autosort” and “autoexplode” parameters in the dunamic configuration may
have additional effects on this behaviours.

4-7
 In general, if “autosort” is “disabled”, then no object will be exploded for marking and printing
is done in the order of appearance in the layers, independently of any other settings.
If “autosort” is enabled, objects may be decomposed, depending on “autoexplode” or the
individual “explode for printing” settings. Additionally, all objects exploded or not, are
ordered according the moving direction in a FIFO manner to optimize dynamic marking.
The “autoexplode” parameter applies only human-readable text. If “autoexplode” is
“disabled” any human readable text will not be decomposed for dynamic printing,
independently of the individual “explode for printing” setting.
If “autoexplode” is “enabled” then the “explode for printing” setting decides if the text will be
decomposed or not.
Note that the “autoexplode” parameter does not apply to linear barcodes. Linear
barcodes are exploded depending solely on the individual “explode for printing” setting.
It is recommended to keep the “autoexplode” parameter always “enabled” and use the
individual “explode for printing” parameter for deciding if an object should be exploded or
not. For example, vertical text or barcodes should have the “explode for printing” parameter
“disabled” to achieve a good alignment with respect to their baselines. Vector Groups,
whose size is small compared to the scanfield, should not be exploded for printing.
LINE
A line object is a simple line defined by two points. When you select the line object from the tools
simply left-click on the screen where the line should start, move to the end-point and left-click to finish
the line.
When you select any object on the screen with a simple left-click near the object, the object is indicated
as selected and drawn in red-color. On the right side of the main screen the property pages for the
selected object are displayed and it is possible to change the properties in there.

A line object has just the “General property page and a “Transformation” property page loaded. Botch
of these property pages are common to all kind of objects and will be explained here shortely.

4-8
 General
- Name: a placeholder for a name of the object. You can give any name to any object but not the
same name to two objects in your message. The name may be used when you are going to use
the eventhandler for identying an object.
- Position X: the x position of the bottomleft point of the bounding rectangle in microns.
- Position Y: the y position of the bottomleft point of the bounding rectangle in microns.
- Height: the height of the bounding rectangle in microns.
- Width: the width of the bounding rectangle in microns.
- Layer: the layer to which this object is assigned to.
- Line Width: The line width in pixel with which the object is drawn on the screen and marked. As
soon as the line width is set to a value > 0, the object is marked not as a smooth line but a
circular movement of the laser beam is used to mark the object. Usually, the line width should
always be set to 0.
- Scale: Entering any numerical value here and pressing the “apply” button or simple the
“return” key of your keyboard will immediately scale the selected object according the
numerical value entered.
- Centrate: Select this and “apply” to center the selected object on the screen. Note: this
parameter was eliminated from 5.7.0 on where it is available directly in the advanced toolbar.
- Printable: If you want the object to be marked this tag must be select.
- Real pointer: when you select this, the red diode pointer traces the real object instead of the
bounding rectangle when you enter the printing dialog and select “test pointer”. (Note: the
“REALPOINTER:” variable in the system variables inside the laser must e enabled for this
purpose!)

Trans
- Abs. Angle: The absolute angle of rotation for this object in degrees (just for information, not
editable).
- Rel. Angle: A relative angle of rotation for this object in degrees to be performed.

4-9
 SCALING/MOVING/ROTATE OBJECTS
To scale, move or rotate an object you can select it and change the properties position X, position Y… in
the corresponding property pages. Another possibility is to directly move or rotate the object with the
help of the mouse.
When you select an object on the screen the bounding rectangle is displayed with some small square
that let you help to perform scaling, stretching or other transformations.

POLYLINE OF POLYGON
You can draw open or closed polylines. Select the drawing tool and left-click on the screen to start the
polyline. With each consecutive left-click you add a new segment to the polyline. To finish drawing just
double-left-click on the screen. Select the polyline to edit their segment points or delete and add more
segments.

ARC, CIRCLE AND RECTANGLE

This tool lets you easily draw arcs, circles and rectangles.

STATIC TEXT
A static text object is a text object whose characters are fixed when you create it. The text object
displays the entered text on the screen according the selected font, size, etc… The fonts can be

4-10
 TrueType, OpenType, single-stroke laserfonts or dot-matrix fonts. When you select the text tool and
left-click on the screen, you are ordered to input a text string.

Now, simply enter the text into the input dialog and press the OK button. The text object will appear on
the screen and you can change its appearance and properties within the property pages after selecting
the text object on the screen.

Text Properties

4-11
 Type: Select between “Text Font” (human readable text), “Barcode” (1-D barcode like EAN-128) or
“Barcode 2D” (2-D barcode like datamatrix).
Orientation Select between:
- “Line”, orientation is linear.
- “Circle”, orientation resides on a circle defined by the given “Radius”.
- Reference X/Y: the reference points (xy-coordinate) of the text object. It is usually the
insertation points where you can create the text object. For circular text objects it’s the center
point of the circle.
- String: Displays the actual text string of the text object. Click on the editbox to change the text
string.
- Clone of: Displays the name of the object’s clonepart if this object is a clone of another.
- Clonetype: Displays the type of clone when this object is a clone of another textobject.
 Text: The string of this clone object is the same as the parent’s strng
 Barcode text: The string of this clone object is the same as the parent’s barcode string.
A barcode string can differ from the object’s text string, as it may contain a check digit
or is formatted.
 Numeric: (only applies for sequential number clones). The number of this clone (s
aequential number) is the same as the parent’s actual number PLUS the defines
stepsize of this sequential number.

Font / 1 properties:

Font: Select the font from a list of fonts (depending on the selected “Type” of font).

4-12
 Type: Select the type of the font. Possible types are:
- “TrueType Font”: double-stroke vector fonts installed in your Windows OS based on ASCII and
Unicode character coding. The laser can actualize objects with this fonttype, however, only
based on the actual selected codepage.
- “Laserfont mff”: single-stroke vector laser fonts (editable with the integrated fonteditor), based
on ASCII character coding.
- “Crystallfont dmf”: dot-matrix fonts (editable with the integrated font editor) based on ASCII
character coding.
- “OpenType Font”: double-stroke vector fonts installed in your Windows OS based exclusively on
Unicode character coding. The laser itself cannot actualize object with this fonttype.
- “Laserfont extended”: single-stroke vector laser fonts (editable with the integrated fonteditor),
based on Unicode character coding.
- “Crystallfont extended”: dot-matrix fonts (editable with the integrated fonteditor) based on
Unicode character coding.
- “Freetype fonts”: double-stroke vector fonts installed in your Windows Font directory /ttf and
otf fonts) based on Unicode character set. The laser is able to read these fonts too. However,
you have to send the desired fonts manually to the laser within the control dialog. When the
object is a dynamic object and you want the laser to actualize the data by itself, the font is
needed inside the laser. In this case you have to enable the font property “internal font”
 Size: Approximate size of the character.
 Ratio: Printing ratio of the characters
 Separation: An additional separation, independent of the drawing of the characters,
between the end of a character and the start of the next character.
 Linespacing: Separation of two lines of text when multiline text is entered.
 Alignment: Alignment of the text (left, right, centered) relative to the insertation point
of the object.

4-13
 Font/2 properties:

Fixed Spacesize: If this option is enabled, the space between textobject is fixed in a default value.
Use Kerning: If ‘enabled’, the space between characters of the same textobject is fixed in a default
value:
Vertical text: If ‘enabled’, the character of the selected text object is shown in vertical (the characters
rotate 90º to left).
Internal font: If ‘enabled’, the system use the internal font for draw/write the message.

4-14
 2. DYNAMIC DRAWING

2.1. DATE OBJECT

Various date objects are available. Second, Minute, Hour, Day, Month, Year and Week. The actualize
automatically as the time changes. The types Day, Month, Week and Year allow different types of
formats and expiry offsets. All date objects allow to use an internal database (just a small textfile) that
can be used to print the data objects in a completely user-defined style.
Using an internal Database (textfile)
The idea behind this feature is simply that the enduser can adapts the date-formats to its need. For
example, some customers want to “encode” the date that is printed on a product such that instead of
printing 01, 02, 03, 59 for the seconds they may want to print Aa, Ab….
To do this you simply have to activate “enable database” and select the database file, which is a simple
ASCII or Unicode textfile.

4-15
 Click on the editbox behind the “name(Browse)” entry and select with the explorer one of the example
databse files (e.g. seconds.txt in the /Database directory of the installation path). To edit the database
textfile, simply click on the editbox behind the “Source (edit):” entry. The notepad editor opens and you
can edit the file.

The format of the textfile must be a described in the example files. The entries must be line by line. At
first the entry of the string that needs to be replaced and that would normally be displayed if the
database is not enabled. This string must be followed by a <TAB> and the string that should be
displayed instead.

Expity dates and formats:

The object Day, Month, Week and Year gives you the possibility to set an offset applied to the actual
date, thus serving as expiry dates. The offset is usually entered in units of “days”, however, they can
also be entered in units of “months”. To do this, just change the “Special Format” to “Offset in months”.
If you want that your date object changes at 6 a.m. in the morning instead of midnight, you may set a
negative offset in minutes (to achieve that the day changes at 6 a.m. instead of midnight, set the offset
in minutes to -6*60 = -360).
Special formats:
- Offset in days: Standard behavior, offset is interpreted in units of days.
- Round to Monday: Offset is interpreted in days, but the days is always rounded down to the
Monday of the week the expiry date remains.
- Offset in months: Offset is interpreted in months. This may lead to some situations where the
resulting date may be invalid. In this case the resulting date will be rounded downwards to the

4-16
 first valid date, e.g. if the expiry results is the 31 February 2016, the result will be 29 February
2016.

Day

Format: Choose between the following types: DD(1..31), D(1..7), Mon,..Sun, Julian Day (1..366), Absolute
(number of days since 1-1-1970).
Calendar: Choose between the default (Gregorian) calendar or the Arabic calendar (Hijri). Note that the
“Hijri” date can vary by ±1 day according the different methods of determine the first day of a new
Islamic year and there is no mathematic algorithm available that accounts for such deviations.
Digit-Type: Select the digit that should be used to display any numeric data format. The “default” digit
uses the latin (0,1…9) characters, “Arabic” uses the Arabic digit-characters (as long as they are
included in the selected font.) Other possible digits are “Arabic-indic” and “indic-devanganari”.
Julian day: This option is available if the day type was selected as “Julian Day”.
Two options are available:
- 1..366: the standard Julian day numbering (31 december is 365 in non leap years and 366 in
leap years).
- 1..365: the 29th of February (in leap years) is numbered as 266 while all other days are number
as if it is not a leap year.

Follow the same steps for Months, Year and Week (Format, Calendar and Digit-Type).

2.2. SEQUENTIAL NUMBER

A sequential number is a dynamically changing displaying a number that may increment / decrement
while printing a product. Different types of sequential number and options can be selected.

4-17
 Actual: The actual value of the sequential number
StartValue: The start value of the sequential number. When the sequential number reaches its end
value, it resets to its starts value.
EndValue: The end value of the sequential number.
Increment: The amount by which the number increases with each print.
Repeats: The number of prints to e printed without incrementing.
Type: The type of sequential number. There are currently 4 different types:
- Local: the sequential number is locally associated to the message. The actual value is not
saved in the message file during the print (while it increments) until the user forces a saving of
the message.
- Saved internally: the sequential number is locally associated to the message and is saved
inside the laser when another message is loaded for printing. This works only if the message is
sent to the laser with the control dialog and Marca program does not control the printing
(printing control with RS232, TCP/IP or touchscreen).

4-18
 - Global extern: the sequential number is a global number independent of the message. It is
identified by its field number that can range from 0-15, The external global number can only be
changed by sending the corresponding RS232 command to the controlling PC. The RS232
usermessage must be activated for this purpose and Marca program must have the control of
the printing.
- Global intern: the sequential number is an internal (inside the laser) global number identified
by its field number (-15). Over RS232 or TCP/IP, the touchscreen, the control dialog of Marca
program, the value can be changed.

Truncate leading zeros: Truncate the leading zeros so that they are not printed (i.e. “00001” truncates
to “1”).
Reset when shift changes: When activated and the message contains a sequential message, each time
when the sequential message changes the counter will be automatically resetted.
Digit String: Defines the character to be used for the different digits. The default difit string is
“0123456789” for the default base 10. If the separation string “\t” is not found in the digistring, each
digit is assigned exactly one character. If you want to define multiple characters for a signle digit you
have to use a separation string, which in this case is “\tª (not he TAB but literally the string “\t”).

Example: digitstring = “abcdefjhij”, no “\t inside the digitstring, thus the digit -> character assignation
is always a single-character assignation.
Digit 0 -> “a”
Digit 1 -> “b”
…
Digit 9 -> “j”
Counter value “000” -> marked text “aaa”
Counter value “123” -> marked text “bcd”

Base: Defines the base of the counter. Standard value is 10. Setting the base to 2 results in a binary
counter. For all bases that are not equal to 10 the digit string must be defined. The digit string must be
defined with exactly <base> characters.
Prevent increment: When enabled the sequential number is not incremented when the
signalmask/state settings of its layer are configured in such a way that the sequential number is not
printed, else it will be incremented in any case.

4-19
 2.3. SEQUENTIAL MESSAGE
A sequential message is a dynamically changing object that displays text according to some specified
intervals. You have to define the format of the intervals, the intervals itself and the text you want to be
printed during a specific time interval.
To create a sequential message click on the corresponding tool button in the tools. Then, select the
Seq.Mess. property page in the property page dialog and press the “Delete All” button if you want to
change the default type. Now, you should be able to select a different type. Select the type you wish,
apply, and enter at least one element (enter the start of the interval in the required format (e.g. in the
“Hour” box) and a text string to be displayed in the “Text” box), then press the “Add” button. Once, at
least one element added to the list of intervals, you simply click on the screen where you want the text
to e positioned. Now select the new object and add more element to the list. Instead of typing in the
sequential message manually you can also load the information directly from a text file. The <date>
and the <text> to be printed must be in the same line separated by a TABULATOR and the <date>
entry should be in the corresponding format.

Type: defines the type of intervals:

- Hour: format is HH:MM

4-20
 - Month: format is MM
- Day: format is DD
- Month/Day: format is MM:DD
- Day/Hour/Minute: format is DD:HH:MM

2.4. EXTERNAL MESSAGE

There are three types of external message. A “keyboard” message, a “database” message or a “user
message”. When you click on the tool for the external Message, you can select in the corresponding
property page the type of external message you wish to create.
Select the one you wish to use and press “apply”. For the User Message and Keyboard message type
you can directly click on the screen where you want the text to be positioned, for the Database Message
you first have to define the database properties.
UserMessage
A User Message is a text that must be set /actualized via RS 232 or TCP/IP. Two types are possible, the
internal user message, that is actualizable via RS232 and TCP/IP due to a connection directly to the
laser, and the external user message that is only actualizable via RS232 over a connection to the serial
port of the controlling PC.

Type: Internal or external type. The next content of an internal type is usually not actualized in Marca
program as the data are sent directly by the laser. The next content of an external type is always visible
in Marca program. However, if you print this message without the standard printing dialog of Marca
program the printed text will not be actualized inside the laser.
Field: The fieldnumber that identifies the user message. Fieldnumbers range from 0 to 255.
Contents Field: Shows the contant of this usermessage. A change have only effect on the global
external type.

4-21
 Comment: You can define a string that can be requested with the internal RS232-protocol. This
comment string may be used by external applications to display a message for the user.

Keyboard message
A keyboard message is a message that requires the user to actively enter the text to be marked into an
input dialog.

You can set the type of the keyboard message that determines, when the user will be asked to enter
the input string.
Input when:
- File loaded: Each time when the message is loaded from the harddisk into Marca.
- Initialize printing: Each time when you press the “OK” button in the printing dialog.
- Stop printing: Each time after you have finished all prints and have stopped the printing.
- After n print: After each print or after a defined number of prints. “number of prints” sets the
number of prints after which the keyboard message should be actualized. When set to “0” the
keyboard message must be entered before the first print and after each print.
- Shift changes: Each time when a sequential message object changes.
- Autotext: When you select this type, the text will be automatically taken from another object of
the same message, identified by its object ID. This is useful when you have one standard
keyboard text and another one that should own the same input text, but without entering the
input text again. In this case tou just define the second keyboard message as “autotext” and set
the object-ID to the ID of the first keyboard message (each object should have a unique ID, that
is automatically assigned).

Object ID: Defines the parent’s object ID in case that this object is of type “Autotext”
Number of prints: Defines the number of prints after which the keyboard message should be actualized
in case that the input type is of type “after n prints”.

4-22
 Enabled: Enabled the keyboard message. If disabled, they keyboard message never changes.
Comment: A string that will appear in the input dialog when the keyboard text is to be actualized.

Database message
A database message is an object that is linked to an ODBC database. Before using such an object, you
have to configure the database. The database connection is set up by configuring or selecting a
database source name (DSN) with the help of your operating system.
A database source name (DSN) specifies a data structure that contains the information about a specific
data source that an Open Database Connectiviy (ODBC) driver needs in order to connect to it. A DSN
may reside either in a registry of tour operating system or in a separate text file. It stores information
such as:
- Name of the data source
- Directory of the data source
- Name of a driver which can access the data source
- User ID for database access (if required)
- User password for database access (if required)

The system administrator of a client created a separato DSN for each database. To connect to a
particular database you need to specify its DSN.
Three kind of DSN exist:
- User DSN (sometimes called machine DSN)
- System DSN
- File DSN

User and system DSNs operate specifically on a particular computer, and store DSN information in the
registry.. A user DSN allows database access for a single user on a single computer, and a system
DSN for any user of a particular computer. A file DSN contains the relevant information within a text
file with a .DSN file extension. Users of different computers who have the same drivers installed can
use the file.
When you create a database object, you have to select an already existing DSN or configure a new once
according the database that you use.

4-23
 CREATE A NEW CONNECTION
1. Select the user message options from Marca toolbar.
2. Select the Database Message option
3. Go to the Database Option Tab, it will be as follows:

4. To establish a new connection to a database, press the button “Browse”.

5. The following screen will appear. Here you can choose a pre-existing connection or create a new
one. In particular, this configuration screen simply lets you configure or select a DSN (database source
name), which will be used for the connection. In this example we want to create a new File DSN:

4-24
 6. We are going to create a new connection so we press the “New” button.
7. In the following dialog the installed ODBC drivers are listed and you have to select one that connects
to your type of database.

4-25
 In this example, we select one of the Microsoft Access drivers (the same process has to be done to
install any of the other database drivers), and press the Next button.
8. The following step is to enter a name for the file DSN you are creating, we name ir AccesExample,
and then press the Next button.

4-26
 9. The following information about the connection to a database that you have just created will be
displayed:

10. Press Finish.

11. The following display will appear. Press OK.

4-27
 SELECTING AN EXSITING CONNECTION
Repeat the previous 1 to 6 steps:
7. The following screen will appear, where you choose a pre-existing file DSN (as an example we
choose the accessdb.dsn):

Select the connection and change the information about this in the same screen that in point 11.

4-28
 Key property
The key box contains the information of the column selected in the key option of the database tab.

Key: Displays the actual key. Click in the editbox and then on the appearing button to change manually
the actual key.
Key input: Defines the method how to read or set the key for this database object. There are 4 possible
types:
- Keyboard: The user has to input the key manually with the keyboard.
- From other object: The key will be read from the object with the ID/name that must be
specified in the additional appearing edit box.
- Auto increment (not cyclic): This type can only be set when you have selected the key as KEY-
AS-ROW-NR (as described above). When selected, the row from where we read the data will be
incremented each time when the database object is actualized.
This option is used when you read the data line by line from a database file. When the end of
the file is reached, the database-object will display the text “invalid data” and printing will be
stopped.
- Auto increment (cyclic): Same as the previous type, however, when it reaches the end of the
database it starts from the first entry again.

Stepsize for autoincrement: Defines the stepsize when the key is autoincremented. The default
stepsize is 1. Note, that for very large stepsize the system performances frops significantly.
Object ID/name: Defines the parents’ object whose content should be taken as the key for this object.

4-29
 Actualize when: Defines when the key should be actualized.
- Manual: the key will be defined when creating the object and will not change.
- File Loaded: each time the message file is loaded.
- Initialize printing: each time the system enters into the printing mode (pressing “OK” in the
printing dialog).
- Stop printing: each time the printing mode is left (pressing “STOP” button).
- After n prints: after a configured number of prints.
- When shift changes: each time when a shift object of the same message changes.

Number of prints: Defines the number of prints after which the key should be actualized in case that
the actualization property was set to “after n prints”.
Usage: Defines some special behavior of the database object.
- Default: The standard behavior.
- Number of printcopies: when this option is enabled, the corresponding object will be set to
“not-printable” and the textstring will be interpreted as the number of printcopies to be
printed. To use this option, you must also have enabled the option “enable automatic copies” in
the Extra options dialog. In this case, the number of copies to be printed is automatically read
from this object. Usually, this option is used to have the whole printing controlled by the data of
a database (i.e all data to be printed and the number of prints, etc. are read from a database).
- Fast database: When youuse this option, the database object will be used as the source for a
buffered internal usermessage. A buffer internal usermessage is an internal ussermessage
that is buffered (that mea,s it has a predefines bugger or arrays of strings, please read the
TCP/IP documentation for the usage of the buffer usermessage).

Prevent increment: When enabled the database key is not incremented when the signal mask / state
settings of its layer are configured in such a way that the database object is not printed, else It will be
incremented in any case (only when the key is configured as “KEY-AS-ROW-NR” and actualized after n
prints).
KEY-AS-ROW-NR (Key as row number)
Usually the key is a string that will be used to find the information in the database source file. Selecting
in the key list the item KEY-AS-ROW-NR will result in the interpretation of the key as the number of the
row where to find information.
As an example, we have the following text file “test.txr” selected as the database source

4-30
 ----------------------------------------------------------
Column1; Column2; Column3
2; Roger; Moore
4; Paul; McCartney
12; John; Lennon
9; Ringo; Starr
5; Geroge; Harrison
8; Harry; Lacoste
1; Steve; McQueen
6; Sean; Connery
7; Isaac; Newton
----------------------------------------------------------
In this example the colums are separated by a ‘;’. When we select the KEY-AS-ROW-NR is the key list,
the key will be interpreted as the woe-nr where we want to read information.
For example, if we select ‘Column30 as the information field and a key value of 3 would result in the
text “Lennon” of this database object.

2.5. GROUPED TEXT

A grouped text object is a variable text object consisting of a concatenation of any type of text object.
You can create it by selecting this button in the toolbar and clicking then on the edit screen.
When you insert a Grouped Text, a standard example will be created on your screen. You can edit the
elements one by one, add new elements, and delete elements, when you select the corresponding
element in the list.

4-31
 3. VECTOR FILES
DXF FILES
Marca software allows you to import files created with CAD programmes or indeed any program
capable of exporting *.dxf formats and hpgl as well as *.plt formats.
The *.dxf format was created by Autodesk. The power capacity of this program allows the reproduction
of any figure which can be drawn using software programs such as AutoCAD.
If we need to import a *.dxf file, it is very important that we ungroup it when using Corel, Freehand, etc.
and explode it when using AutoCAD. This should be done in the case of all file components we are
going to use, whether they are figures, texts, shading, etc.
The Marca software does not allow you to import pictures with a color filling. It only allows external
outlines or, in the case of AutoCAD, hatching. When working with AutoCAD, the file needs to be
exploded first. Every time that a drawing is modified and exported as a .dxf, we must save it with a new
name, otherwise, changes will not be saved. You should also take into account that an AutoCAD text is
not necessarily compatible with the Marca program.

4-32
 To import a *.dxf file, select Import from the Draw menu and click on Import Vectorial or left click on
the corresponding icon.

Once Import Vectorial has been selected you have to click on the drawing area and a message dialogue
window will appear. This window allows you to choose the file to import.

EXPLODE AND OPTIMIZE VECTORGROUP FIGURES

We can explode the imported VectorGroups figures (e.g. to edit some of their elements).
We can also optimize the printing of VectorGroup figures. Using this option, the program is computing
optimized way to print the VectorGroup. IT connect neighbored lines, arcs, polylines to became a
smoothed curve when printing the VectorGroup.

Remark: If you have optimized (sorted) the VectorGroup, and later exploded the VectorGroup to its
elements, then the sorting will be preserved, but the connection between arcs, lines and polylines will
be lost.

4-33
 4. GRAPHICS FILES
The system can import various format of graphical files and print then (bmp, jpg, gif, tif…).
A copy of graphics is stored in the *.mlf file. However, if you work with *.txt or *.xml files instead, only a
link to the original graphic file is stored in the file. In this case the original graphic file cannot be
deleted on your disk. To import a graphic file, select Import from the Draw menu and left click on the
Graphics option of click on the BMP icon.
After clicking on the working area, a dialog box will appear where you can decide to load a graphic from
a file or create a customized bitmap.
Once the file has been selected it will be shown in the drawing area.

Customized Bitmaps
Instead of loading as graphics from a file, a bitmap can have a dynamic changing contents. This is the
case of customized bitmaps. For this type of bitmaps the pixel content must be set by TCP/IP (RS232
not supported up to now). A field number is assigned to the customized bitmap (0-3) in a similar way
than internal usermessages or internal counters. The internal fields are so-called “datastrings”. A
datastring is a sequence of bytes that is used to fill a customized bitmap. The content of a datastring
can be updated with a TCP/IP command. Thus, external application can create dynamically customized
bitmaps, For customized bitmaps the following additional parameters must be defined:

- X-pixel: number of pixel in x-direction (width)

- Y-pixel: number of pixel in y-direction (height)
- Field [0..3]: the field number of the datastring that fills the bitmap.
- Bits per pixel: defines how the datastring fills the bitmap. Possible values are “1” and “8”.
When set to “8” each byte of the datastring represents the grayscale value of exactly one pixel.
When set to “1” each Bit of each Byte of the datastring represents the grayscale a black (bit
set) or white (bit unset) pixel.
Bitmaps are filled row by row from down to up where each row is scanned from left to right. Thus, the
fillinf scan starts at the bottom.left corner of the bitmap, scans the first row from left to the right,
jumps to the next row (one row upwards), scans from left to right, etc…
When the number of bits per pixel is “1”, the bit-order in the datastring when filling the bitmaps is from
MSB to LSB.

Graphic Settings
Several parameters define how the bitmap image will be printed:
A bitmap is scanned line by line. Each pixel is assigned a grayscale value (a value between 0 (black) and
(255) white) corresponding to the color of the pixel. According to the palette properties the laser is
turned on at each pixel for a predetermined time at a predetermined power.

4-34
 The time of “laserON” during a pixel depends on the grayscale value of the pixel.
If the pixel is black (value 0), the time is determined by the t/px Max. parameter (in microseconds).
If the pixel is white (value 255), the time is determined by the t/px Min. parameter (in microseconds).
The time for all other colors is linearly interpolated between these two values.
A gamma correction (non linear interpolation) can be made when you select the advanced button of the
Palette property page.

The power at each pixel can be controlled optionally for F-9000 series and the D-series. For the CO2
system, no individual power control is possible and the power at each pixel is the same and determined
by the value of the current layer.
For the F-9000 and D-5000 series individual power control for the pixels can be enabled. However, it
depends on the internal hardware (scanners cards), if this power control takes effect or not. If you have
any doubt, contact your distributor.

Bitmap Properties
Note: click onto the list with the right mouse button lets you show/hide all properties. Per default only
some parameters not set its default value, are shown.

PrintMode: Defines the mode how to print this bitmap:

- Pixel: the bitmap is scanner and for each pixel the laser is turned on/off according to the color
of pixel and the settings in bitmap palette.
- Squares: at each non-while pixel position <subshapes> small squares are drawn. The
velocity of the square marking is according the settings in the layer.
- Circles: at each non-white pixel position <subshapes> small circles are drawn. The velocity
of the circle marking is according the settings in the layer.

4-35
 - ZigZag: at each non-white pixel position <subshapes> small bidirectional lines are drawn.
The velocity of the line marking is according the settings in the layer.
- DotMatrix: at each non-white pixel position <subshapes> x <subshapes> grid of dots are
drawn. Each dots is marked with parameters as in pixel mode.
- Semispiral: at each non-white pixel position a semispiral is drawn. The velociry of the
semispiral marking is according the settings in the layer. The <subshapes> parameter
defines the number of turns of the semispiral.

Delay between points: Defines a scanner delay before the laser is turned on at an individual pixel (in
microseconds). If this values is too low, the individual dos may not be positioned fine and may result in
a bad contrast.

Delay between blanks: Define a scanner delay that is applied for each “blank” pixel. A blank pixel is a
pixel whose pixel time is set to zero (depends on the palette settings.) Usually, white pixels (color 255)
have a pixel time of 0 microseconds. If this value is set too low, the scanner may not be able to follow
the commanded position for the blank pixel.

Vertical: When enabled, the bitmap will be scanned from up to down. In dynamic applications any
bitmap or 2D-code should be printed with a vertical scan (perpendicular to the moving direction).

Optimize: When enabled, leading and trailing blank pixels are eliminated, thus the printing time is
shortened.

Powermodulation: When turned ON (F-9000 and D-5000 series), the power is individually modulated at
each pixel according the settings of the palette. When turned off (default for all CO2 systems), at each
pixel the power of the current layer is applied.

4-36
 Palette Properties

Color Palette. The power and frequency of the different color variants of each bitmap can be varied. We
can adjust each of the different tones individually on a scale of between 0 and 255 (inadvisable due
complexity of task).
We can also invert colors using the option “Invert Colors”. The changes will be seen when printed –
visible change will be seen on screen.

EXAMPLE OF GRAPHIC MARKING

Note that the quality you got with the graphic file was due to the T/px Min and T/px Max settings at the
PALETTE of the bitmap. The T/px Min means the Minimum Time Per Pixel spent in each “white” pixel
(or printed with less marking time), and the T/px Max means the Maximum Time Per Pixel spent in
each “black” pixel (or printed with more marking time).
In order not to get outside the BMP, we recommend setting the T/px Min at 0. So, the white color will
not be printed at all, and play with the T/px Max around 400 (or higher if you would like more depth of
marking) for having all other colors printed in a gray scale between 0 and 400, depending on the BMP
resolution and the laser power.
Note that the BMP will be printed in 256 gray levels. If you want any special level with any special
amount of making time, you cans elect the special level number, set the parameters for that one.
Make sure that after every change of settings you click the APPLY button. Otherwise, the changes will
not take place.

4-37
 If after having inserted the BMP files you want the smaller or bigger, you can modify them on Marca
software. Anyway, note that by doing this change, the BMP will suffer changes and approximations on
its shape. So we recommend you to do that before you insert the file, and insert the final BCMP in its
real size. You also can do it in another way. Go to View, /Graphics quality/ High in order to increase the
quality of the image. If it has been marked once the BMP size is modified, its printing will be modified
as well, because when we decrease the BMP size, x y pixels are compressed (the laser will burn
intensively if those parameters are not changes) and if it is increased, they get decompressed, although
the resolution will still be the same.
Regarding the BMP file location, the file is not saved together with the MLF file. The MLF file only
contains a link to the BMP file and the PALETTE settings for that file.
Regarding the position of the inserted BMP files on Marca software, note that the BMP file by default
will be inserted with the TOP-LEFT corner at the place you click on the Working Area of the software. In
the environment dialog you can change the default insertation point.

4-38
 5. IMPORT/EXPORT FILES
*.mlf files can only be read by Marca software, but they can be exported to an ASXII or XML format. In
this type of format a list is shown with the printing lines coordinates. This feature allows the user to
observe and modify some specific lines by simply editing the file without starting Marca program.
Obviously, files containing a list of coordinated can be imported by the marking software, transformed
into .mlf files and used to print messages.
In order to import / export ASCII files you simply have to select the aSCII type when you open or save
files…

Text files Unicode: you can save the data as an Unicode textfile. This is usefull if you work with multiple
languages or text with characters of foreign languages like Asiatic or arabir languages.
Note that from Version 5.6.5 on the txt file format is obsolete and the xml file should be used. You can
sill save and load the message as txt files, however, the file format will not be actualized anymore, so
that new message features will not be save in this format.

4-39
 XML Files (*.xml): The xml fyilytype is a human readable text file base on UTF8 encoding. The laser can
read directly xml-files.
Laser files (*.msf): The msf filetype is the binary filetype stored inside the laser. It is reduced in
information, as it stores only information related to printing. Saving files as msf-type does make sense
only when you want to control the system and its data with an external application (e.g. via a TCP/IP-
DLL).

6. CLONING OBJECTS
A text object of any type can be cloned. Simply select the object to be cloned and press the right mouse
button or select from the mainmenu “Edit -> Clone -> Clone object”.

4-40
 What is a cloned obect?
A clone owns the same properties as its parent in the moment that it is created. All properties except
the string data can be changed later. The string of a clone cannot be changed. They are determined by
the clone’s parent object.
That means that you cannot change the contents of the clone unless you change the parent’s content.
On the other side, each change of the content of the parent object results immediately in a content
change of the string data of the clone.

Which object can be cloned?

All text objects, including a grouped text object, can be cloned. The resulting object type of the clone
depends on the parent’s type. A cloned sequential number object results in a clone that has the type of
a sequential number. Clones of all other text object are of the “static” text object type.

4-41
 Clone Properties:

Clone of: This property is not editable. It’s simply show the name of the parent object.
Clone type: the clonetype determines how the string data of the cloned object are created.
- Text: the string data of the clone are the same as the string data of the parent.
- Barcode Text: the string data of the clone are obtained from the barcode text in case that the
parent object is a 1D barcode.
This barcode text of the parent can differ from the original string data of the parent when the
barcode text includes the check digit or a special format.
- Numeric: this option is only used for cloned sequential number. The clone’s number (and thus
its string data) is obtained from the actual parent’s number plus its increment. A cloned
numeric sequential number can be used to avoid controlling 2 or more counter and its actual
values. You can have just one parent counter that increments after each print and as many
clones of this counter as you want, each one having always a value that is completely
determined by the parent and cannot be changed manually or accidentally by the user.

RESTRICTIONS
A cloned object cannot be cloned again. This is to avoid circular dependencies. If you manually clone a
cloned object the resulting object is just a copy of this clone (it is a clone of the same parent).
GroupedText a grouped text object can either be a parent (it can be cloned) or it can have members that
are either clones or parents. Thus, a grouped text cannot contain a clone and a clone’s parent at the
same time. Also, a grouped text that already contains a clone or a clone’s parent cannot be cloned.

4-42
 There rules are there to avoid circular dependencies or dependencies that result in infinite
actualizations.

UNCLONING
Once a clone is created it can be uncloned by selecting it and select from the main menu “Select ->
Clone –> uncline object” (or right mouse.click and select 2unclone object”).
A cloned object has a grayed rectangle around its data, while a parent object has a wine-red rectangle.

4-43
4-44
CHAPTER 5

FONT AND
LAYER
TABLE OF
CONTENT
1. FILLING CHARACTERS OR OBJECTS .................................. 5
2. FONT EDITOR ........................................................................ 6
2.1. PROPERTIES ................................................................. 8
2.2. DOT MATRIX FONT (CRYSTAL FONT) .......................... 9
3. LAYERS ................................................................................ 12
3.1. MULTILAYER STRUCTURE ......................................... 12
3.2. PROPERTIES OF A LAYER .......................................... 12
 1. FILLING CHARACTERS OR OBJECTS
- Variable angle/distance of hatch lines
- Single line hatch or crossed hatch
- Allow hatch of composed figures.

Fill: None, single-line, crossed line

Separation: The separation of the hatch lines.
Angle: The angle of the hatch lines.
Edge distance: The distance of the hatch lines to the outlines.
Repeat: The number of times that the hatch should be printed.
Print outline: Enable/Disable the printing of the outline of the object (e.g. print only the hatch).
Include inner figures: When enabled, the hatch is calculated by taking into account all inner figures of
the selected figure.
Unidirectional: Enables a unidirectional scan of the hatch lines.

5-5
 2. FONT EDITOR
With the font editor you can create and change single-stroke fonts that are used by Marca and the laser.
There are basically two types of single-stroke fonts available. The files with the extension “.mlf” are
binary font files created with the font editor and can contain up to 256 characters. It is therefore called
an ASCII font. The first 128 chars map to the standard ASCII code table, while the mapping of chars 128-
255 depends on the current code page settings in your system.
The files with extension “unx” are extended binary font files and can contain up to 65535 characters. It is
denoted as a Unicode font. The mapping corresponds to the standard Unicode mapping.
To open the Font editor simply select it from the main menu.

Once the font editor is open you will find that some drawing tools are disabled. A property page is added
that lets you jump from character code to character code. The working area of Marca appears empty as
long as you have not drawn any line or polyline on it. In the property page you can select the desired
character code and then draw on the working area. The drawing will be the exact stroke lines of the
character.
Take care about the selected layer when you are drawing.
Five layers will be automatically added to the layer’s tree dialogue. Each layer corresponds to a graphical
representation of the current selected character.

5-6
 - Glyph 0: the standard or isolated form of a character
- Glyph 1: The form of a character when it is at the first position of a word (Arabic language).
- Glyph 2: The form of a character when it is “inside” a word (Arabic language).
- Glyph 3: The form of a character when it is at the last position of a word (Arabic language).
- Neutral: this layer can be used to draw some helpful alignment lines or boxes. Lines that are
drawn in this layer will not be saved in the font.

Usually you draw the character’s lines in Glyph0 layer. The Glyph1 – Glyph4 layer are only used for Arabic
languages where one character can have different appearances depending on the placement of the
character in the word.
When you save the font (Save Font, Save Font as…), it is saved with the extension “fch”. The fch file is the
font editor file format that can be later edited again. Additionally the binary font files “mfs” and “unx” are
automatically created. A “unx” file is automatically created when you have drawn a > 255 character code
and you are advised about this, otherwise the standard “msf” file is created.

5-7
 2.1. PROPERTIES

Number: The character code in decimal and hexadecimal expression. The range is from 0 to 255 (mfs
font) or 0 to 65535 (extended unx font).
Unicode: The character assumes the current code page (0 – 127 always ASCII)
Go to: Lets you select a character code to jump do.
-1/+1: Jumps to the next / previous character code.
Motion Between Chars
First: Jumps to the first drawn character code of the current font.
Last: Jumps to the last drawn character code of the current font.
Previous: Jumps to the previous drawn character code of the current font.

5-8
 Next: Jumps to the next drawn character code of the current font.
Copy: Copies the current lines/polylines of the drawing area to the clipboard for further paste operation.
Paste: Pastes the last copies clipboard content to the current drawing area.
Apply resolution: Lets you select the desired drawing resolution of the font. The standard resolution is
100.

2.2. DOT MATRIX FONT (CRYSTAL FONT)

A new font type is included, called the dot matrix font. When you choose this font for a text object, the dot
matrix property page will be visible.

To create a dot matrix in the Marca, you must follow these steps:
1. Create the text message in the usual way. The user is now able to modify the format of the
message so that it will use Crystal Font.
2. Select the message or click on the AB box.
The properties window will open
3. Select the FONT tab.
4. Scroll down through the list of fonts and highlight one of the two dots matrix fonts displayed.
These fonts are called cryst5x5.mfs or cryst7x5.mfs
5. Press “apply”. An additional tab, called DOT MATRIX, will appear.
Enter the specific dot matrix properties:
- DOT TIME: This is the time that the laser dot will be on in microseconds. It may take any value
between 100 and 500. The recommended initial value is 200. This parameter is substrate
dependent.

5-9
 - DOT SPEED: This is the mirror speed between dots in mm/sec. It may take any value between
5000 and 30000. The recommended value is 20000. This parameter is line speed or message
time dependent.
- DOT µSTEP: This is a measure of the number of micro step between dots. It may take any value
between 20 and 1000. The recommended value is 100.
- DOT GATEON: This parameter controls the laser state between dots. If it has the value YES, the
laser remains on between dots. If it has the value NO, the laser is switched off between dots.
NO is recommended because YES may results in a ghost line between dots.
- DOT WAIT: This is a measure of the time allowed for the mirrors to decelerate as the approach
a dot position. It may take any value between 0 and 500. The recommended initial value is 100.
This parameter may be lower for low DOT SPEEDs, and higher for high DOT SPEEDs.

The user may now continue to further edit the message, to save it and to print it.
When you choose this kind of font type the text will be represented with dots, as you can see in the figure.

You can create your own dot matrix font with the Font Editor. When you start the Font Editor you have
to enable the Dot matrix option.

5-10
 Now when you draw a Lin or Polyline a small circle will represent each point. The lines between each
point are still visible. Please, be careful not to draw a points twice. The following figure shows an
example:

When the font is saved and the dot matrix option is enabled, the program will create the mfs or unx-file
in the same directory as the *.fch file.
The crystal font file formats are exactly the same as the single-stroke fonts. Internally, they just have a
crystal font tag enabled so that the software treats only the vertices of the font data and not the stoke-
lines.
Therefore, you can convert any single-stroke font easily into a dot matrix font by just editing the font,
activating the Dot Matrix Font tag in the main menu and saving the font under a different name. Each
vertex will be printed as a single dot.

5-11
 3. LAYERS

3.1. MULTILAYER STRUCTURE

The laser system works using a multilayer structure. Objects can be placed in different layers and it is
possible to define different characteristics for each layer.
- Select the layer using the mouse.
- The properties of the layer will appear:
o Printable: indicates the layer will be printed (it allows you to choose which objects of
the selected layer will be printed. See General Settings).
o Visible: Shows the layer on the screen.
o Editable: Allows you to edit the current layer.

In order to create a new layer, you just have to go to ‘Layers’ in the menu bar and select Add.

3.2. PROPERTIES OF A LAYER

The laser beam is directed by scanners, which move in short pulses. This means that a line is made up
of a series of short straight lines that are interconnected. If the laser is not configured correctly, some
undesirable results could appear, such as a poor marking effect or a series of dots along the line.
The laser must be controlled correctly in order to mark properly. The properties can be selected by
clicking on the layer we wish to modify in the properties menu in the bottom left-hand corner of the
screen.

5-12
 Power: This control allows the user to increase or decrease the laser power in accordance with the
marking surface. The value of this parameter is expressed as a percentage of the total power of the
laser.
Frequency: This control allows the user to increase or decrease the frequency of the laser. It allows you,
to a certain extent, to penetrate the material that is to be marked. It is expressed as a percentage
(variable only in YAG systems).
Speed: It defined the laser speed when a scanner mirrors diverts it. A very low mirror speed could lead
to the product becoming burnt whereas a very high speed could mean that the product does not het
marked. As for YAG, if the frequency decreases and the speed increases, lines instead of points could
appear.
Resolution: It indicated the number of dots per millimeter. A low resolution could lead to a very poor-
quality marking (with straight curves, etc.). With a high resolution, the part could be burnt as the
scanners would be moving more slowly in order to cover all the necessary points. The speed of the
scanners is proportional to the resolution.
Name: Defines the name of the layer for better identification when using different layers.
Printable: Marks the layer to be printable layer, else the object of this layer will not be printed.
Editable: Marks the layer as editable.
Visible: Marks the layer as visible on the screen.
Delay: The “Delay” is in units of milliseconds. This parameter is intended for application when printing
with YAG laser systems. It applies a delay each time after the layer properties are set during printing.

5-13
 The parameter may become necessary when, for example, the power (=the diode current) of the laser
changes from layer to layer.
Repeat: The number of mark repeats of the layer and all of its objects.
Scanner parameter: Selects the parameter set of the scanners to be used for this layer.
Signal Enable: When enabled (set to ‘yes’) the printing of the layer can be enabled /disabled with digital
inputs (photocell, external bit selection) according to the signal mask and signal state values.
Signal mask: Defines a bit mask of the digital inputs. Only the input signals defined with the bit mask
(where the corresponding BIT is set to ‘1’) are taken into account when deciding if the layer should be
printed or not. The value of the bit mask must be entered in hexadecimal form. The bit mask is a 4 byte
DWORD (32 bits).
The lower Byte of the bit mask represents the 8 digital inputs of the external selection (if system is
equipped with it).
The first bit of the upper WORD represents the PLC input, the second bit the photocell input, the third bit
the photocell2 input (if available). All other bits are still not assigned.

“bit mask” DWORD: bit31, bit30, … photocell2 (bit18), photocell (bit 17), input (bit 16), bit 15, bit 14,….. bit
9, bit 8, external selection7... external selection0.
Signal state: The value of the signal state defines whether the layer is printed or not. At the moment
when the trigger signal for printing is detected, the state of the input signal is latched. Then, only the bits
defined by the signal mask are scanned. If the state of these bits is the same as this variable the layer in
printed, otherwise it is not printed.
- Programmatically: <state> is the current state of the input signals when the trigger signal
for printing arrive.
<state> is masked out with the signal mask:
<result> = <state> & <signal mask>
Compare the result with the masked signal state:
If (<result> == <signal state> & <signal mask>) then
Print
Otherwise do not print

Color: sets the color with which the layer’s objects are drawn on the screen.
Import/Export: Lets you import /export the layer parameters in a text file.

5-14
CHAPTER 6

PRINTING
TABLE OF
CONTENT
1. PRINTING ...................................................................................................... 5
2. MARCA LITE MARKING PROCESS................................................................ 8
 1. PRINTING
In order to begin the marking process, it is necessary to follows these steps:
1. Retrieve the message to be printed by placing the pointer on the toolbar and press File/Open.

2. To vary the marking parameters (speed, resolution, etc.) select the layer where the objects to be
marked are located and vary these values in the properties section (located at the bottom right-hand
corner).

3. Place the mouse pointer on the tools bar and click on the print icon or select from the main menu
File/Print.

The print dialog will open and the Marca program connects to the laser system and sends all
necessary data to it. You will see a dialogs as follows. If you do not have the external message table
selection or batch job selection enabled, the actual printing data are coded into a binary msf file
(4096.msf) and sent to the laser. Eventually, some additional font files are sent to the laser.
If you have the external message table or batch job selection enabled, for each entry in the message
table a binary msn file is created and sent to the laser.
Note that all data files sent to the laser are sent to the laser’s RAMdisk and never to the harddisk of
the laser.

6-5
 OK: The laser is brought into infinite printing mode waiting for the configured trigger signal to initiate a
print.
Print One: A single print is immediately initiated.
Copies: The laser is brought into printing mode waiting for the configured trigger signal to initiate a
print. Printing mode ends after the selected number of copies have been printed.
Laser Pointer: Activates the red diode pointer selecting the complete message to be displayed.
View alarms: Let you view the current alarm list of the laser.
Cancel: Exit the print dialog.
Seq. counter /Database: If the message contains a sequential number or a database object, the
corresponding button is enabled and let the user modify the current counter value or database key.
Select object: Let you select the sequential number to be changed.
Sequential number: The actual value of the selected sequential number.
# of prints..: the number of prints since the last increment of this sequential number.
Change: Applied the actual values to the actually selected sequential number.

6-6
 Change all: Applies the actual values to all sequential number that are inside the message.
Increment all: Applies the actual value to the actual selected sequential number and
increments/decrements all sequential number by the difference of the actual selected sequential
number and the new set value.

Once the laser has entered into printing mode, the print dialog disappears and a printing dialog comes
up.

Prints OK: counts the successful prints.

Prints not OK: counts the non successful prints. Any alarm during a print will count the print as a non
successful print.
Total: counts the total number of prints of the connected laser system.
You can abort a print at any time by clicking the step button or pressing the ENTER key or the ESC key
on your keyboard.

6-7
 2. MARCA LITE MARKING PROCESS
Select File/Print or press the print icon.
The following screen will appear:

6-8
CHAPTER 7

ALARMS
TABLE OF
CONTENT
1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 5
2. ALARMS CONFIGURATION........................................................................... 5
2.1. DISPLAY RECENT ALARMS ................................................................ 8

3. ALARMS CODES ......................................................................................... 11

 1. INTRODUCTION
This chapter describes all the possible alarms that can occur in the different Macsa Laser System.
Therefore, this chapter includes alarms that will never appear on the customer’s laser system. For
example, if the customer has a CO2 system, he will not see specific alarms for YAG laser systems in his
laser system (a laser system will never have all the alarms described in this chapter).

2. ALARMS CONFIGURATION
The laser system can detect several faulty working situations.
Depending on the laser system being used, the firmware will activate different alarms according the
settings.
Only a SUPERVISOR or TECHNICAL can change the settings of the alarms.
Once an alarm is activated by the lasers internal program ScanLinux, the system leaves the printing
loop and a new star command (via Marca, TCP/IP, RS-232 or Touch Screen) must be sent to the laser
to precede printing after the alarm has been cleared.
EXEPTION: When you set the command line parameter –x for ScanLinux, or when you activate the
option “Avoid user interaction on alarm:”, the program will not leave the printing mode until a Stop
signal is sent. When an alarm occurs, the program will not continue printing, it will deactivate the
COMPUTER READY signal on the customer connector until the alarm is cleared automatically or
actively (depending on the type of alarm). As soon as the system no longer detect an alarm, the
COMPUTER READY signal is activated again and printing resumes.
To change the alarm settings, press Configuration / Alarms and a list of the available alarms will be
displayed. Depending on the current laser system, some alarms can be enabled or deactivated.
You can select the alarm settings from some predefined stored templates. In the “Template Settings”
list you can see the standard settings for the selected template system.

7-5
 Stop on interlock/shutter: All laser systems include this alarm. When enabled and the interlock
(customers PINS) is opened, the user will be forced to restart the marking process. If you disable this
alarm, the internal software and hardware still looks for the interlock signal and disabled the laser if
an interlock opens. When this alarm is disabled

7-6
 Shutter: When enabled the shutter is checked continuously (available for L-, F-, D-, T- and K-series).
When the shutter is closed the user will be forced to restart the marking process only if “Stop on
interlock/shutter” is enabled. This alarm should usually be enabled, because most systems (except a
few old ones) are equipped with some sort of mechanical or electronic shutter that disables the laser
by hardware. If you disable this alarm, the system will not report possible shutter alarms.
Laser Ready: checks for an additional “Laser Ready” signal from the laser tube. This alarm is available
only for the K-1060, the KIP-70/80, the T-3000 series, the D-5000 series and the pulsed and continuous
F-9000 series.
OEM-Shutter: Checks for an additional shutter signal. For CO2 systems with an electromechanical
shutter(e.g. T-3000) this alarm indicated that the shutter is in the closed.state. For the D-5000 and the
F-series it can be integrated as an optional electronic shutter signal. For the MK2 series it indicates
the electromechanical shutter is not in the open-state.
Power signal: Checks a DC power failure for the Icon-30W. Checks a Maste Oscilladot (MO) alarm for
the pulsed F-9000 series. Checks an optional beam dumber overheating for the T-9000 series. Checks
the DC voltage for the D-5000 or MK control. Checks the diode driver for the D-5000 B1 system and the
NANO-D system.
Q-switchsignal: Checks the q-switch for the D-5000 B1 system.
Warmup signal: Checks the warm-up cycle for the D-5000 B1 system and NanoD system. Checks the
warm-up cycle or overtemperature condition for a NanoD system.

NOTE: After closing the interlock contact the NanoF system remains in the warm-up cycle
(sounding this alarm if configured) during a few seconds

Scanner failure: Checks for any failure of the digital high speed scanners (the alarm is only available
for system equipped with digital high speed scanners). When the system is turned on, the digital
scanners perform some test routines and disable the scanners until all routines have been passed.
This may take more time than the startup of the laser’s firmware and it is normal for the laser to
generate a scanner failure after startup. The scanner error will be deleted automatically after all test
routines have passed and the system is then ready for marking.
Belt Stopped: Checks if the belt is stopped in dynamic printing mode.
Over Speed: Checks for over speed of the belt (only available in dynamic printing mode). Printing will be
stopped when the marking process cannot be finished due to an over speed of the belt.
Trigger signal: Detects faulty printing signals. The number entered by the user determines the number
of detected signals before the alarm is activated.

7-7
 Max distance: Checks whether the distance between two prints is greater than the maximum distance
defined by the user.
Min distance: Checks whether the distance between two prints is smaller that the minimum distance
defined by the user.
Empty message: Checks for empty messages (messages that have to content)
Stop printing mode on alarm: When set to “YES”, the laser stops any printing mode on alarm, except
for the interlock/shutter alarm if you have set the “Stop on interlock/shutter” to “NO”. When you set
this parameter to “NO”, the laser does not stop the printing mode when an alarm (including
interlock/shutter) occurs. This parameter replaces the “-x” command line parameter. If either this
parameter is set to “NO” or the command line parameter is given, the system won’t stop the printing
mode on alarm.

2.1. DISPLAY RECENT ALARMS

7-8
 Press the “view Alarms” button in the print window and a list with all the alarms that have been
activated since the session was started will be displayed:

Marca Lite users:

Open the print/control dialogue.
Press Laser system / Display Alarms and a list with the alarms that have been activated since the
session was started will be displayed:

7-9
7-10
 3. ALARMS CODES
System Alarms occur when the software detects an electrical, software or mechanical failure that
hinders the marking process.
In some cases, although it is possible to continue editing the message, the laser system must be reset.
When a System Alarms occurs, the condition cannot be modified until the cause of the failure has been
fixed.

“0x02 LASER INTERLOCK”

Interlock open. Hardware alarm.
This alarm is common to all laser system. It activates when the system detects an open interlock at the
customer connector or an open microswitch from the cover. The laser is disabled by its internal
hardware when the interlock is opened (meaning that no voltage arrives at the interlock input on the
scanning board).
The alarm is cleared automatically when the interlock is closed.
“0x03 SHUTTER CLOSED”
Obsolete alarm, should only occur in old systems base on MS-DOS.
“0x04 DC POWER FAILURE”
Obsolete alarm, should only occur in old systems base on MS-DOS.
“0x05 AMPLIFIER OVERTEMPERATURE”
Obsolete alarm, should only occur in old systems base on MS-DOS.
“0x06 Q-SWITCH OVERTEMPERATURE”
Obsolete alarm, should only occur in old systems base on MS-DOS.
“0x07 HIGH REVERSE POWER”
Obsolete alarm, should only occur in old systems base on MS-DOS.
“0x08 LOW POWER”
Obsolete alarm, should only occur in old systems base on MS-DOS.
“0x09 YAG RS232 ERROR”
Obsolete alarm, should only occur in old systems base on MS-DOS.

7-11
 “0x0A BELT STOPPED”
Hardware and software alarm.
The “belt stopped” alarm activates when the alarm is configured (enabled) and the system detects
during printing that the encoder tic-counter does not count for a pre-determined time period. The
detection limit is about 1-2 m/min, which means if the velocity is less than 1-2 m/min the alarms is
activated.
The alarm is cleared automatically when the system detects encoder movement.
“0x0B CHECK PROGRAM NOT OK”
Obsolete alarm, should only occur in old systems base on MS-DOS.
“0x0C WRONG FIGURE TYPES IN FILE”
Obsolete alarm, should only occur in old systems base on MS-DOS.
“0x0D NO MEMORY AVAILABLE”
Software alarm.
This alarms activates when the system has no more memory available. This alarm can occur due to
corrupts messages, corrupts memory or program errors.
The alarm is cleared every 10 seconds or when a new message is loaded.
“0x10 FILE NOT FOUND”
Software alarm.
This alarm activates when the message that should be opened cannot be found. This may be the case
on startup when the system tries to load the last message that was printed. If you have printed with
Marca, the last printed message was not stored in the hard drive and could not be loaded on startup.
The alarm is cleared automatically when another message is selected and the message can be loaded.
“0x11 OVERPRESSURE”
Internal laser alarm for 100W DEOS systems.
Hardware alarm.
“0x12 WATER TEMPERATURE”
Internal laser alarm for 100W DEOS systems
Hardware alarm.
“0x13 WATER LEVER”
Internal laser alarm for 100” DEOS systems

7-12
 Hardware alarm.
“0x15 INVALID FONT (OR NON-EXISTENT)”
Software alarms.
This alarm is activated is a specific font file that is used in the current message could not be found.
The alarm is cleared when a new message is loaded.
“0x16 OVERTEMPERATURE”
Hardware alarm.
This alarm is activated when the system detects an overtemperature. This is considered a critical
alarm and the print mode is always exited. The alarm can only have cleared when the temperature is
correct and a new start command is given to the laser.
This alarm is available for the following systems:
K-1000 series, T-3000 series, F-9000 series and ICON series. For the D-5000 series this alarm would
indicate that the scanner board is not configured properly.

“0x25 SHUTTER CLOSED”

Hardware alarm.
This alarm is activated when the system detects that the shutter is closed. Systems can be equipped
with electronic and/or with mechanical shutters (automatic or manual). Thus, this alarm depends on
the system’s settings
K-1000 series: Normally equipped with a manual mechanical shutter and a microswitch.
T-3000 series: Equipped with an automatic mechanical shutter and two microswitches.
D-5000 series: Equipped with an electronic shutter
iCON: Not equipped with a shutter.
F-9000 series: Equipped with electronic shutter.
“0x26 LASER NOT READY”
Hardware alarm.
This alarm is activated when the firmware does not detect a “Laser Ready” signal. Not all lasers are
equipped with this electronic signals.
The alarm is cleared automatically as soon as the “Laser Ready” signal is detected.
T-3000 series: Equipped with “Laser Ready” signal, indicating the laser is ready for marking.

7-13
 D-5000 series: Equipped with “Laser Ready” signal, indicating the laser is ready for marking. An alarm
indicates the control module is not correctly enabled fue to possible overtemperature, RF-failure, DC-
voltage failure or any failure of the beam pointers.
F-9000 series: Equipped with “Laser Ready” signal. An alarm indicates that the laser was disabled due
to a back-reflection of the output beam. This may be the case when marking high reflective material at
90 degrees (in the centre of the scan field).
K-1060 series: Equipped with “Laser Ready” signal, indicating the laser is ready for printing. An alarm
indicates the interlock may be open or the laser module is not enabled fue to a DC-voltage failure or an
overtemperature condition.
iCON: Equipped with “Laser Ready” signal. The alarm is active when the interlock is open, a failure of
the RF driver has occurred or in overtemperature condition
“0x27 OEM SHUTTER”
Hardware alarm.
This alarm is activated when the firmware does not detect an optional shutter signal. The OEM shutter
system alarms must be enabled in this case. Not all lasers are equipped with such an electronic signal
(only on systems with a SM-171 scanner board).
The alarm is cleared automatically as soon as the “OEM shutter” signal is detected.
D-5000 series: Only available when DIP-switch 4 is set to ON and an external signal is connected to the
corresponding input on the SM-171. Systems from March 2010 and later are equipped with an
additional automatic mechanical shutter that fives this signal.
F-9000 series: Only available when DIP-switch 4 is set to ON and an external signal is connected to the
corresponding input on the SM-171.
T-3000 series: The automatic mechanical shutter sets this signal.
“0x28 POWER OFF”
Hardware alarm.
The alarm is activated in the following cases:
D-5000 series: The laser control module does not have a DC voltage supply.
F-9000 series: The Master Oscillator does not work correctly.
T-3000 series: For systems that are equipped with a beam-absorber and the DUMPPOWER is set to a
value > 0, this alarm indicates that the beam-absorber is overheated. If the alarm is only activated
briefly (displayed on the alarms list, but not active), it indicates that the microswitch of the mechanical
shutter is not working correctly.

7-14
 “0x30 OVER SPEED”
Software alarm.
The alarm is activated when the system is in the “log-mode” (logging data to the hard drive) and the
size of the log files reaches that set in the configuration.
The alarm is cleared when the “log-mode” is turned off or when the log files is delete actively.
“0x31 HARD DRIVE FULL”
Software alarm.
The alarm is activated when the system is in the “log-mode” (logging data to the hard drive) and the
size of the log filed reaches that set in the configuration.
The alarm is cleared when the “log-mode” is turned off or when thelog files is delete actively.
“0x32 FILE NOT ALLOWED TO PRINT”
Software alarm.
The alarm is activated when the system tries to load a message that is not compatible with the
firmware, or is not allowed to be printed due to software restrictions.
iCON: The file was created with Marca and the iCON does not have the iCON Net license.
Other systems: The file was created with a version of Marca newer than the firmware, or the system is
in the “log-mode”, but the file was not created with Marca in the “log-mode”.
The alarm is cleared when a new message is loaded.
“0x33 BARCODE CREATION ERROR”
Wrong parameters. Software alarm.
The alarm is activated when barcode data must be created internally by the laser and some barcode
parameters (usually the text to be codified) do not conform to the barcode rules.
The alarm is cleared when a new message is loaded or the data input is corrected (e.g. the input data
for the barcode is changed).
“0x34 NO BARCODE LICENSE”
Software alarm.
The alarm is activated when there is no internal barcode license and the message contains barcode
variable date data.
The alarm is cleared when a new message is loaded or the correct license number is given to the
system.

7-15
 “0x35 NO BARCODE LIBRARY”
Wrong version. Software alarm.
The alarm is activated when the message contains variable barcode dates and the firmware does not
have a barcode source.
The alarm is cleared when a new message is loaded. If you have this alarm and you wish to print
variable barcodes you need to install a new flash-drive.
“0x36 TRIGGER SIGNAL”
Hardware and software alarm.
The alarm is activated when the alarm is enabled and the hardware detects the specified number of
trigger signals during a print. This alarm helps to detect a failure of the encoder or encoder wheel
while the products are still passing by.
The alarm is cleared automatically after 10 seconds (the main timer) or when a new start command is
sent to the laser.
“0x37 DATABASE ALARM”
Software alarm.
The alarm is activated when the message contains an expiry object and the database file for this object
cannot be found.
The alarm is cleared when a new message is loaded.

“0x38 MAXIMUM DISTANCE ALARM”

Hardware and software alarm.
The alarm is activated when the maximum distance alarm is enabled and the software detects that the
distance between two successive prints is greater than the configured distance.
The alarm is cleared automatically after 10 seconds (the main timer) or when a new start command is
sent.
“0x39 MINIMUM DISTANCE ALARM”
Hardware and software alarm.
The alarm is activated when the minimum distance alarm is enabled and the software detects that the
distance between two successive prints is smaller than the configured distance.
The alarm is cleared automatically after 10 seconds (the main timer) or when a new start command is
sent.

7-16
 “0x40 CLIENT TIME OUT”
Software alarm.
The alarm is activated when the internal server has a communication time out with any external TCP/IP
client.
The alarm is cleared automatically as soon as the communication is established.
“0x41 SCANNER_X ALARM”
Hardware alarm.
The alarm is activated when the alarm is enabled and the scanner board detects an error from the
scanner’s driver. At start-up of the firmware a scanner_x alarm is usual as the driver board is
calibrating each start-up the scanner which takes about 1 minute. Any scanner error during normal
operation indicates an abnormal functionality of the scanner. It can be due to wrong scanner
parameter settings, too high marking velocity, misaligned laser beam (heating up the mirrors or an
overtemperature condition of scanner due to excessive movements). Another possible source is a
marking line width of >0, which implicates very fast circular movement of the scanners to draw thick
lines.
“0x42 SCANNER_Y ALARM”
Hardware alarm.
The alarm is activated when the alarm is enabled and the scanner board detects an error from the
scanner’s driver.
At start-up of the firmware a scanner_y alarm is usual as the driver board is calibrating at each start-
up the scanner which takes about 1 minute.
The alarm is cleared automatically when no error signal applies to the scanner board.
“0x43 EMPTY MESSAGE”
Software alarm.
The alarm is activated under one of the following conditions:
- The alarm is configured and a message without any content (no object inside) is loaded; this is
the trigger for printing.
- A message with a user message is sent for printing but the user message field is empty (FIFO
empty, NOT AN EMPTY STRING!).
- Alarm is configured and a message with an internal user message (not buffered) is triggered
for printing and the user message is an empty string.

The alarm is cleared when a new start command is sent or a new message is loaded/reloaded.

7-17
 “0x44 INITIALIZATION ALARM”
Software alarm.
The alarm is activated when initialization of the firmware has failed. This can be due to the following
reasons:
- No scanner board is detected or the firmware is not the correct firmware for the scanner
board found.
- The firmware has suffered at least 2 consecutive critical failures during start-up with a
program abort.
- No configuration file could be loaded at start-up due to a corrupt or absent configuration file.
- The firmware has received during the start-up routine the RS232 “panic” command 0x75 to
prevent loading of any file from the hard drive to RAM.

The alarm is cleared when a new configuration is sent to the laser or the configuration parameters are
edited and saved with the Touch Screen editor.

7-18
CHAPTER 8

AUTOMATION
TABLE OF
CONTENT
1. CONTROLLING THE LASER WITH AN EXTERNAL SOFTWARE ..... 5
1.1. HOW TO INITIATE A PRINT VIA SOFTWARE WITHOUT USING
THE PLC/PHOTOCELL SIGNAL USING MARCA .................................. 9
1.2. HOW TO SETUP THE MACA PROGRAM TO ENTER
AUTOMATICALLY ON STARTUP INTO THE PRINTING LOOP ............ 11
1.3. HOW TO SETUP MARCA PROGRAM TO CONTROL
EXTERNALLY VIA SOFTWARE WHICH FILE TO BE PRINTED. .......... 12
1.4. ANOTHER POSSIBILITY FOR CONTROLLING THE PRINTING
DATA EXTERNALLY ............................................................................ 12
1.5. USING THE EVENT HANDLER ............................................. 13
2. INFORMATION ON FILE STATUS .................................................. 15
 Not applicable in Marca Lite software

There some different ways of controlling the laser with an external software.

1. CONTROLLING THE LASER WITH AN EXTERNAL

SOFTWARE
DIRECT LASER CONTROL WITH TPC/IP OR RS232
The most popular method is controlling directly the laser with the TCP/IP or RS232 protocol. In this case
Marca is only used as an editor to set up the system and/or upload some pre-defined messages inside
the laser.
The protocol is fully described in another chapter of this manual.
I this case the external application is fully responsible for the control and for displaying possible data,
messages, alarms, etc…
The kind of control can be combined with the internal event handler to customize some specific actions
or events of the laser system e.g. you may want the laser system to send you over TCP/IP some data
each time the laser has finished a print.
This method of control is very fast and can be used in nearly every application. Message can be prepared
by Marca and stored locally in the external PC. The external application then copies the required
messages on demand to the laser’s RAM or the messages are prestored (with Marca) in the laser’s hard
disk and the external application just selects the existing messages.
Data can be updated by using internal user messages and/or internal counters, defined simply by their
field numbers.
Data can also be updated using the internal event handler.
CONTROL OF MARCA WITH AN EXTERNAL APPLICATION
Another possibility is to use Marca as the controlling software and to use an external application just for
controlling the data Marca is using. In this case, Marca fully controls the communication with the laser
and may receive some new input data from an external application over different channels.

8-5
 Possible channels of communication with an external application can be arranges via file modifications
in the local PC (or in some network drive), or over direct TCP/IP communication with MARCa (not with
the laser!) through the event handler.

SOME BASICS OF THE LASER’S FIRMWARE AND MARCA

Controlling the laser with external software requires the control of some functionality of the Marca
program. At this time, there is no DLL or ActiveX control implemented to do this job. However, there
exists a simple way to take control of the printing process by an external program. To understand the
functionality of this control, here are some basics of what the laser and what Marca is doing.
The laser has loaded internally a program (ScanLinux) that controls the printing process. External
software can interact with this program via an internal protocol (or a language that the laser can
understand) through different interfaces: Ethernet (TCP/IP), Serial Port 1.
Basically, the laser program remains continuously in a loop, looking for an incoming command, and in
the case of an incoming command, executing it. This means the laser behaves lake a slave or a server.
The Marca program behaves usually like a master or client that is sending command to the laser.
When you enter the printing dialogue of the Marca program and press the OK button, the Marca program
will have sent the printing data to the laser and will have sent the print command to the laser. At this
point, the laser starts printing (depending on the activation signal, photocell/PLC) and remains in the
printing loop until it receives the stop command.
In turn, the Marca program also enters into its own printing loop when you press the print button. It the
loops continuously looking for possible incoming requests from the laser or from external application
and executes the request.

Possible request can be:

General:
- Updating of barcodes or 2D barcodes (when Marca controls the printing, barcodes are updated
always by Marca and not by the internal firmware)
- Updating of serial user messages sent to the Marca PC (a global user message)

Option dependent (in the Extra options dialogue):

- Updating the screen (refresh screen).
- Checking if printing file has changed and reloading it.
- Reloading the printing file when the laser’s external selection has changed (IO port at the
customer connector).

8-6
 Event Handler:
- Some incoming TCP/IP data launch an event and actions that may alter the message’s content.
- Some registered trigger files have changed launching an event and its actions that may alter
the message’s content.

Figure 1: Schematics of the idle loop of the laser program

Figure 2: Schematics of the printing loop of the Marca program (after having pressed the “OK”
button in the printing dialogue

8-7
 Figure 3: Schematics of the printing loop of the laser program (after having received the star print
command from the Marca program).
Depending on what kind of external control you want to use, and which way you want to update some
printing data, the Marca program offers a variety of solutions. In the following you will find some
examples:

8-8
 1.1. HOW TO INITIATE A PRINT VIA SOFTWARE WITHOUT USING
THE PLC/PHOTOCELL SIGNAL USING MARCA
1. Enable the option “Check for print.cmd” in slave path” in the Options / Extra options dialogue.
2. Enable the option “Actualize “status.inf/datasend.inf” in slave path” in the Optins /extra options
dialogue.
3. Enable the option “View current nº of prints” in the Options / Extra options dialogue.

4. Set the activation of the PLc/Photocell signal to Trigger Up or Trigger Down, but do not use the
PLC/Photocell inputs.
5. Load the file you want to be printed (*.txt or *.mlf)

8-9
 6. Enter the printing dialogue and press the OK button. (Marca and the laser will both enter into
the printing loop).
7. Create an empty file called “print.cmd” in the slave path directory (per default: C:\Fly\) with you
external software.

The “slave-path” can be configured in “Configuration -> Communications”

Now exactly one print will be initialized and executed automatically. The “print.cmd” file will be removed
automatically by the Marca program.
After having printed, the laser will send automatically some information-data to the Marca program and
a file called “status.inf” will be created in the Fly directory.

The “status.inf” file contains information about the current status of the laser it is a binary file containing
the current status of the laser and is described in this manual.

8-10
 1.2. HOW TO SETUP THE MACA PROGRAM TO ENTER
AUTOMATICALLY ON STARTUP INTO THE PRINTING LOOP
1. Enable the option “Enable automatic printing” in the Option / Extra options dialogue.

2. Add the following command line parameter to your shortcut to the Marca program (assuming
that your printing file is named C:\ Documents\samble.mlf; complete path):

When you start the Marca program now, it will automatically load the specified file, open the
printing dialogue, send the data to the laser and enter into the printing loop.

NOTE: Usually there is already one command line argument set for the supervisor level;
/supervisor

NOTE: Enabling this option causes the program to enter into the printing loop as soon as
you open the printing dialogue.

NOTE: When you close a printing dialogue manually, the Marca program will close completely.
If you do not want this behavior, you have to use the command lie argument /H instead of /A.

8-11
 1.3. HOW TO SETUP MARCA PROGRAM TO CONTROL
EXTERNALLY VIA SOFTWARE WHICH FILE TO BE PRINTED.
(not using the external user message selection by hardware selection of the IO-Port of the laser)
1. Enable the option “Reload message when content has changed” in the Options / Extra options
dialogue.
2. Save all files you want to be printed as txt files or a mlf files (i.e. sample1.mlf, sample2.mlf,
sample3.mlf)
3. Save one of these files also under an arbitrary name (i.e printfile.mlf)
4. Load the “printfile.mlf” and enter into the printing loop and press the OK button.

NOTE: You can setup the software to do this automatically as explained before

5. With your external software you can copy now your desired data to the “printfile.mlf”.

NOTE: it is not enough to copy only the file (i.e copy “sample1.txt” to
“printfile.mlf”), but it is necessary that the printfile.mlf has changes its last
modification date! Marca looks at the date and only if this date is newer than
the last one, Marca will reload the data.

As soon you have overwritten the printfile.mlf, data will be automatically send to the laser and are ready
to be printed.

1.4. ANOTHER POSSIBILITY FOR CONTROLLING THE PRINTING

DATA EXTERNALLY
1. Enable the option “Reload message when content has changed” in the Options / Extra options
dialogue.
2. Save the file you want to print as a txt file or xml files (e.g. datafile.txt).

8-12
 3. Load this file for printing (use eventually the /A <file name> startup option in Marca’s
shortcut).
4. Activate “automatic printing” in the Options dialogue.
5. Activate “Avoid user interaction on alarm” (software auto-rearm). Thus, Marca will not be
kicked out of the printing mode when an alarm occurs, the alarm is just displayed and as soon
as the alarm (e.g. interlock alarm) is cleared printing is continued.
6. With your external application you can edit directly the content of the message file (e.g.
“datafile.txt”).

Now, each time when your application overwrites the message file, Marca will reload this file and send
it automatically to the laser.

1.5. USING THE EVENT HANDLER

Automatization can be very easy when using the event handler feature. It is described more in detail in
the “3.12 Event handler” chapter of this help.
Explained in a few words, you can:
1. Set up the event handle to “react” to changes of arbitrary files (the TRIGGERFILE event). Thus,
any change in a defined file causes the Marca software to perform the programmed actions
(e.g. reload another message, where the message’s name can even be stored and changed in
the trigger file.)
2. Set up the event handler to “react” on receiving of TCP/IP data. Applications can communicate
across TCP/IP on the same Pc without sending the data really out onto the Ethernet (using e.g.
the loop back device).

A typical example is the communication of a small text file. The external application created a text file
with the following entries:
FILE: C: \blabla\ blabla.mlf
TEXT1: Hola, mundo
TEXT2: acbde
COUNTER1: 012345
COUNTER2: 65.478

8-13
 The event handler would been set up to use this text file as a trigger file. Typical actions for the trigger
file event would be:
- Load the file whose name is given behind the string “FILE:”.
- Assign the string that is behind the string “TEXT1:” to an object with the name “TEXT1” of the
message.
- Assign the string that is behind the string “TEXT2:” to an object with the name “TEXT2” of the
message.
- Assign the string that is behind the string “COUNTER1:” to an object with the name
“COUNTER1” of the message.
- Assign the string that is behind the string “COUNTER2:” to an object with the name
“COUNTER2” of the message.

The advantage of the event handler is that the communication between Marca and an external ap. Can
be very, very easy just simple text files.

8-14
 2. INFORMATION ON FILE STATUS
Having entered the printing dialogue and started the printing, the Marca program writes some
information into two files that will be located in the slave path directory (by default: c:\Fly). The two files
are called “datasent.inf” and “status.inf”
datasent.inf: will be rewritten each time when the Marca program sends a new or up dated printing file
to the laser. This is the case when:
1. An external user message has been sent to the Marca PC and the data must be updated.
2. Any dynamic figure, which cannot be up dated by he laser itself, has been up dated by the
Marca PC. e.g. dynamic barcodes, keyboard messages, database text…
3. You are working with the external table selection and have enabled the option “reload when
selection changes”. Eahc time the selection changes, the laser will request the Marca program
to reload the new selected file and send it.
4. You have enabled the option “Realod when content changed” and work with ASCII-files Each
time the content of the ASCII file changes the printing file will be resent with the new data and
the datasent.inf files will be rewritten.

status.inf: will be written in the cases above and when:

1. You have selected the option “update current nº of prints”. After each print the file will be
rewritten.

The contents of both files are defined by the PrintStatus structure and are as follows:
PrintStatus structures
typedef struct{
DWORD d_counter; // current counter of ok-prints (resetted when message changes)
DWORD s_counter; // current counter of nok-prints (resetted when message changes)
DWORD n_messageport; // current file-nr printing
BYTE Start; // Printing or stopped
BYTE request; // Waiting for request
BYTE option; // Options for HandleRquets()
Byte res; // Reserved

8-15
 DWORD t_counter; // Total counter of prints
DWORD m_copies; // Current nr of copies to be print
DWORD err; // Alarmcode
DWORD time; // Reserved D-Word (actually used as time-info)
char name [8]; // File name of the current file being printed (max. 8 chars)
DWORD reserved1; // Reserved
DWORD reserved2; // Reserved
} PrintStatus;

8-16
CHAPTER 9

BARCODE
REFERENCES
TABLE OF
CONTENT
1. HOW TO CREATE A GS1 DATA MATRIX ................................ 5
2. ENCODE NON-HUMAN REDABLE CHARACTERS
SEQUENCES (ENCODING BINARY DATA) .................................. 14
3. 2 DIMENSIONAL BARCODE SYMBOLOGIES ...................... 16
4. 1 DIMENSIONAL BARCODE ................................................ 18
4.1. PRINTING 1D BARCODES .......................................... 21
 Not applicable in Marca Lite software. It can’t print or send to laser barcode or 2D
barcode.

Marca as well as the internal laser’s firmware (ScanLinux) have incorporated a barcode library to create
the most important 1-dimensional and 2-dimensional barcodes.
They can be separated into various sections:

1. HOW TO CREATE A GS1 DATA MATRIX

A type of data matrix in 2 dimensions that after inserting the object code selects the text properties such
as “2D code”.

For GS1 Data matrix, you have to select the UCC/EAN Format. This will add automatically the FNC1
codeword to the header of the Data matrix.

9-5
 You should also enable the use of ESC sequnces (ESQ sequence). This allows you to enter the special
non-human readable characters <GS> or FNC1 acting as the field separator.
Field separator <GS> or FNC1: must be entered as ‘\F’ (“BACKLASH” and “F”).
For the following AI’s (application identifiers, full AI table) no field separator must be added, because
the data (AI + data field) are or fixed length.

In the table below we ca see the table full identification AI applications for GS1 Datamatrix.

9-6
9-7
9-8
9-9
9-10
9-11
9-12
 NOTES:
(*) The first position indicates the length (number of digits) of the GS1 Application.
(**) If only year and month are available, DD must be filled with two zeros.
(***) The fourth digit of this GS1 Application Identifier indicates the implied decimal point position.

NOTE: The parantheses aound the AI’s (typically used when printed as human readable characters)
are not part of the data and are not encoded in the symbol.

Some AIs are defined as having a fixed length data field, but they are not included in the initial table of
pre-defined length above. In these cases, the data encoded after the AIs must be followed by a field
separator FNC1 when other AIs are concatenated after it in a GS1 Data Matrix. This is true, even if the
AI data has a fixed length. One example is AI (426), used to indicate the country of origin and which has
a 3-digit fixed length data field.
EXAMPLE:
Human readable:
(01)03453120000011(17)091125(10)ABCD1234(410)9501101020917
GS1-data:
<FNC>01034531200000111709112510ABCD1234<FNC1>4109501101020917

Data to be coded in Marca:

01034531200000111709112510ABCD1234\F4109501101020917
With “ESC sequences” set to true and selected the “UCC/EAN” format.
In this example only one ESC sequence ‘\F’ is needed to code the <FNC1> as field separator after the
Batch number (AI = 10), because it is a field of variable length. The leading <FNC1> must never be
coded.

9-13
 2. ENCODE NON-HUMAN REDABLE CHARACTERS
SEQUENCES (ENCODING BINARY DATA)
If you want to use non-printable or special characters in a barcode, you have to use escape sequences.
An escape sequence always start with a backlash (‘\’) followed by the sequence itself.
- You have to activate the decoding of ESC sequences in the barcode properties (by default the
translation of ESC sequences is turned off).
- With activate ESC sequences you must use “\\” in input data to encode a single backlash “\” in
the barcode.

9-14
9-15
 3. 2 DIMENSIONAL BARCODE SYMBOLOGIES
Below is a brief introduction of 2D codes commonly used by Marca:
Data Matrix

NOTE: Data matrix is encoded always with the newest ECC200 error connection

Code format:
Sets the code format which is used for encoding the barcode data.

In case of Macro 05 and Macro 06 a trailer of RS + EOT s included automatically in the data stream.
UCC/EAN coding is a synonym of GS1 encoding (for more details, see “9.1 HOW TO CREATE A GS1 DATA
MATRIX”).

Aztex code
Aztec Code is a 2-dimensional Matrix Code. Characteristic for the Aztec Code is the finder in the centre
of the symbol, which contains 3 to 5 lapping squares.
Code format:

9-16
 Codablock F
Codablock is a stacked symbology based upon the 128 characters set Code. Each row constist of a 128
symbol Code, but extended with row indicators (row count and sequence number) and an additional
check digit.
Row [2..44]: Specifies the number of rows used for encoding.
Columns [4..62]: Defines the number of columns which are generated (Default: the number is calculated
automatically on the number of input characters).
Code format:

QR-Code
The QR-Code is a 2-dimensional matrix symbology capable of coding up to 3000 ASCII characters or 7000
digits.
Code format:

9-17
 4. 1 DIMENSIONAL BARCODE
EAN/UPC/ISBN SPECIFIC FORMAT
For the EAN8, EAN11, UPC12, UPCA, UPCE and ISBN codes, the displayed barcode format may include
some bars longer than others (so-called synchronization bars),, and may align the visible human
characters with respect to these bars.)

EAN8P2 code not formatted

EAN8P2 code formatted with synchronization bars

This feature can be enabled

within the “advanced” barcode dialogue (pressing the “advanced” button) and setting the human-
readable character option to “formatted”.

9-18
9-19
 BASIC PROPERTIES

Normal Size: If enabled, the barcode is defined by default, if you have to disable modify, and you can
modify the following options:
- High: Defines the height of the barcode.
- Width: Defines the width of the barcode will.
- Lines/bar: Defines the number of lines that will be used for each of the bars.
- Lines Separ.: Defines the separation between the individual will of the bars.

Invert: this option reverses the colour of the barcode, used for printing on dark surfaces, without the
barcode reader for any problems you.

9-20
 Human readable characters: Checking this option will show the contents of the barcode human readable
characters, and you can put them up or down and defined their separation.

4.1. PRINTING 1D BARCODES

Bidirection printing: Enable this option to print bidirectionally. The effective printing time of a barcode
can be decreased by 10-20% when you print in bidirectional mode.
Rigth to Left: Scans the barcode from right to left instead of a default direction (Left to Rigth)
Explode on printing: Explodes the barcode into its bars when it is printed in dynamic mode. In most cases
this will decrease the time for printing the 1-D code significantly.
Spot size correction: you can reduce the width of the printed bars of a barcode when you set the spot size
correction to a value greater than zero. The distance between the bars and spaces is maintained.
Reduction of bar separation: This reduces the separation between consecutive bars and has nearly the
same effect as the spot size correction. The centre position of consecutive bars is maintained.

9-21
9-22