Pausing Print Job at half of the records
Hi,
I've used this forum many times in the past and the information has helped a lot in finding solutions to my Bartender challenges. But I cannot seem to find a solution for my current problem.
We want to pause our printer halfway in the print job. So if we would have 200 records containing a single label with a unique serial number, the printer should print 100 pieces and then wait for the operator to push the pause button on the printer before continuing with labels 101-200.
We use Bartender Automation 10.1 with a Zebra printer.
Basically I want to set the 'Pause after defined interval' setting of the printer with each print job dynamically based on a database field. But I cannot find out if this is possible.
The only solution I could imagine was to use 'Pause after identical copies' and add two identical 'stop' labels in the middle of a label set. I've tried this by printing two identical templates ('separator1' and 'separator2') in the middle of my set. But this did not work, the printer paused only a the end of the complete set of records.
Can anybody help my in finding a solution for this issue?
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If you are using a Seagull driver then you should have this option:
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Thank you for your response Peter.
I do have this option but as I tried to describe above, it does perform the action, but I need it to work dynamically.
Each print job for us is one single production batch. But each batch has a different size, and each batch needs to be split in two.
So a fixed interval does not do the job as the difference between batch sizes can be as big as 100 and 1.500 for example.
I need Bartender to determine the middle of the print job for each job depending on the value it gets from the database field that sets the amount of labels to print.Which is why I tried using the 'After identical copies' option from the function in your picture. As a less than ideal option because it needs two extra useless labels. But my idea of identical copies does not seem to match with the program's definition. As it does not pause after two identical labels, but only after the entire job.
I've also considered the possibility of sending a ZPL pause command with VBA (if this is even possible). But I do not believe this will work. Because from what I understand Bartender creates an entire print job and then sends it to the printer in one command. So even if I could send ZPL with VBA during serialize at the calculated middle of the job, the pause command probably will not end up in the middle of the job where I want it.
Any ideas of how to achieve what I want? Or any smart ideas for workarounds to achieve the desired result.
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The only thing I can think of is
- adapt your existing label so that it pauses after each print run (label1)
- create a label that does not print and into that you enter all the variable data and that acts as front end at print time and sends out a command to print label1 with all the variable data but with the quantity halved. After that it sends out a second print command to print label1 again but this time for the second half of the label.
If you look at the Properties of the Data Entry Form you can access the Actions commands from there.
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Thanks again, I will give this a try!
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Oops just noticed you are using 10.1 and so that option wont be available.
Here's a different option then!
Set the label to halve the value entered for the number of labels and Pause after the print job.
Also configure this label from the Administer menu I think it is to log the output to a text file including the number of labels. Make the file a single line with no header or footer information but containing all the fields you need on your label. Print a label to get a sample text log created.
Next save you existing label under a different name and then configure this new label to get the data from a text file and link it to the log file. Configure all the fields to this database including the number of labels,
Next open Commander and set this to look for a trigger file in the folder the above log it output to and also to look for this file and then rename it (just the extension). Then configure the Commander settings to open your new label and print the usual printer, using the log file as the database and delete the file afterwards.
Using this half the labels will be printed when the operator asks it to print and this will also create a log file that will automatically trigger the production of the other half of the labels.
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Thank you for your reply.
I noticed that your screenshots were from a newer version. We were planning on updating our Bartender anyway, so now is as good a time as any I guess.
I tried your first proposal and it did the trick!
But one new issue came up. I found a partial solution but it's not a perfect one. Possibly there is a simpler solution that I'm just missing.Somehow the purge/cancel all action on our Zebra only cancels 20 jobs from the queue, so if a mistake is made, cancelling 1500 jobs is no fun.
Therefore, our operator always uses the preview function before printing, to double check his work before sending out the print order to the printer.
But since we are now controlling the print actions from the 'empty label' form actions, the preview function does not work anymore, and will simply still send the print actions of the actual labels.
Is there anyway to get a preview of the labels we will be printing before sending the print command to the printer?(My current solution is a 'cancel all label' with a ZPL command to purge all jobs from the printer queue. This label takes priority on the queue. After printing this label, the last labels still in the printer's cache can be cleared our by using the cancel all button on the printer.)
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The Commander route, I dont think so but with the Actions if you add a User Prompt to the label (it doesn't need to do anything just have a field off to the side of the label linked to a Data Entry From input # ) then in the Print Document screen there is a Tab called Print Options and on there you can tick to enable prompting.
As well as the entry field you can also add a Preview of Template on to the Data Entry Form so the operators can see the label, however any fields with VB in them (if you have any) may not show up at this point
# I have not tried just having the Preview of Template only on the Data Entry Form without also having an actual field for the operators to type something in but you could try with out this latter option and see what that does.
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Preview of Template on the Data Entry Form works like a charm. Also without any other fields present.
Thank you for all the help Peter, would have taken me forever to figure out by myself.0 -
I celebrated a bit too soon.
We perform prints using Print Station. Somehow the print document actions do not seem to run when using Print Station. Is this normal? Can it be fixed?
Also, Print Station gives an error when printing the 'controlling label' without any templates that actually print. So I had to actually print something to get past this error in the first place.Thank you in advance!
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I take it you are now using 2022 R5? If so you could try ticking the Legacy Forms option in Print Station > Admin Setup > Advanced and see what that does
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Thanks, that worked!
Another question, a bit off topic:
In the new print station every step (opening a label, starting a print, loading data from SQL etc.) takes very long. It shows the waiting animation for several (sometimes 10+) seconds before it reaches the next step. In 10.1 this worked significantly faster.Any idea how this could be fixed?
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