KBA Ergotronic automatic measurements import
Requirements:
- MeasureColor 21.2.61 and later
- KBA Logotronic 8.1 and later
HotFolder configuration
KBA Ergotronic saves measurement data into specified folders. The folder structure is configured by KBA during installation and can vary from location to location. In many situations, however, the KBA Ergotronic data exporter will be configured something like:
<<Target Folder>>OrderPartOrderPrintRun*.xml
MeasureColor (version 21.2.61 and later) has a configuration system to adopt most (if not all) of
these implementations. As each print job is saved into a separate folder by the KBA system, MeasureColor needs to be
configured to look for measurements in those specific folders.
MeasureColor preparations:
- Check and make sure you have the KBA Ergotronic option activated in your license and selected to be used on the MeasureColor workstation that is used (Advanced login options).
- Configure the Machine settings (Management Module) and set ‘Measurement workflow’ to ‘Auto import’.
- Make sure the KBA system exports the data onto the hard disk of the MeasureColor workstation.
- For easy and fully automated functionality, sync naming conventions for all OrderNumbers, PartOrderNumbers, etc. between prepress and MeasureColor (automatic) Job Setup.
Generic remarks
The MeasureColor KBA Ergotronic importer recognizes measurements coming from Qualitronic (inline) system or Ergotronic (offline) scanning system. Please note that only Ergotronic measurements are available for quality analysis by MeasureColor, Qualitronic (density only) files are automatically ignored.
The system can work with measurement files coming directly from Ergotronic or KBA QualityPass. At the end of the print run, KBA Ergotronic sends a special (empty)measurement file. MeasureColor will use this file to stop the importer process and start postprocessing actions (if defined).
Known limitations
For double-sided printing (both straight and perfecting) it is mandatory that the system is configured to find each measurement folder automatically. The manual override functions (see later in this documentation) cannot be used in this situation.
Configuration window
The main configuration window lets you configure where the job measurements are to be found.
Start by selecting the base Hot folder where all the KBA jobs will be stored. Please note that it is strongly recommended (like mandatory) that this folder resides on the hard drive of the MeasureColor Client workstation.
Configuration options
If you wish to save the measured data in the original format, you can specify a ‘Completed’ folder and an ‘Error’ folder to save the measurement files to after they have been processed by MeasureColor. If not set, the folder will be deleted from the hard disk at the end of the print run (indicated by KBA Ergotronic). Otherwise, the folder and measurements are moved to the defined locations.
- Invert samples will invert the sequence of patches in case the color bars are defined upside-down.
- Manual selection is not applicable when using the new automatic importer, please leave de-selected.
Next, we need to build the configuration to match the way how KBA stores the individual print jobs. We’ll do this via Levels where each level stands for a subfolder in the Hot folder. Make sure you log in to MeasureColor as admin, open a job in Process Control module, and right-click the ‘Auto Import’ button to open the configuration window.
| Example on KBA Ergotronic: | Example in MeasureColor: |
|---|---|
| KBA Order: KBA-003 | Level 1:MC Job Number |
| KBA PartOrder: ABCDE | Level 2: MC Job Description |
| KBA SheetSide: Front | Level 3: MC PrintingSide |
Note: You can use any MeasureColor job data field here, including custom data fields (if applicable).
Result: Based on the example configuration window shown on the previous page, for this job, MeasureColor will look for KBA Ergotronic measurements in this folder:
C:KBA-hotfolderKBA-003ABCDEFront*.xml
Job data fields:
To build the dynamic folder path, you have these MeasureColor job data fields available:
- Print location
- Customer
- Machine
- Printing side
- Job number
- Job name
- Job description
- Job signature
- Any custom job data field
- <None> (do not use any field content, specify content using transformations)
The content of any of these data fields can be altered via transformation options:
| None | leaves the content ‘as is’ |
| Replace | Replace a part of the content |
| Sheet Sides | Convert Printing Side to folder name like ‘Front’, or ‘Back’, etc. |
| Wildcard | Use wildcards to split the content into multiple objects to be used in the folder path |
| Append | Append content |
| If Empty | Add a fixed value if the content is empty |
Transformation options:
Replace
You can replace parts of the field content with some other (fixed) value.
Example:
Your MeasureColor job numbers use a naming convention ‘MC-xxxxxx’ and on the KBA the order numbers use ‘KBA-xxxxxx’. In order to find the job in the KBA hot folder, we need to replace ’MC-‘ with ‘KBA-‘.
Example:
| MC Job Number: | MC-123456 |
| Substitute: | MC- |
| With: | KBA- |
| Result: | KBA-12345 |
Sheet Sides
Transforms MeasureColor Printing side into a fixed folder name. In MeasureColor, a job can have either a ‘Top’, ‘Bottom’, or ‘N/A’ indicator which needs to be transformed into the naming convention used by KBA (Typically: ‘Front’ and ‘Back’).
Example:
| KBA Sheet side names: | Front/Back |
| MC Printing side: | Top |
| MC naming | Transformed naming |
| N/A: | Front |
| Top: | Front |
| Bottom: | Back |
| Result: | Front |
Wildcard
Wildcard transformation splits the content into multiple parts and lets you choose which part to use. Use the ‘*’ symbol to indicate separate characters to use to split the content.
Example1:
| KBA Order Number: | 12345 |
| MC Job Name: | FoldingCarton_12345 |
| Pattern: | *_* |
| Select: | 1. FoldingCarton |
| 2. 12345 | |
| Result: | 12345 |
Example2:
| KBA Order Number: | 12345 |
| MC Job Name: | FoldingCarton_12345-6x33cl |
| Pattern: | *_*-* |
| Select: | 1. FoldingCarton |
| 2. 12345 | |
| 3. 6x33cl | |
| Result: 12345 |
Append
Appends a predefined string to the end of the content.
Example:
| KBA Order Number: | 12345X |
| MC Job Number: | 12345 |
| Append: | ‘X’ |
| Result: 12345X |
If Empty
Adds a fixed value whenever the content is left blank/empty.
Example:
| MC Job Description: | <empty> |
| Value if empty: | Combo |
| Result: | Combo |
Advanced option: Combine multiple MC data fields into a single folder name
Every transformation has the option ‘Join with’ which uses a default ‘’ (folder separator). In cases where you need to combine multiple MC data fields into a single folder name, you can change the ‘join with’ character with ‘_’ for instance. This allows to combine multiple job data fields into a single folder name.
Example:
| KBA JobFolder: | KBA-003_ABCDE |
| KBA JobPart: | ABCDE |
| MC JobNumber: | KBA-003 |
| MC Job Description: | ABCDE |
| Level1: | Job number, transform ‘None’, join with ‘_’ |
| Level2: | Job Description, Transform None, join with ‘’ |
| Level3: | Job Description, Transform None, join with ‘’ |
| Result: | KBA-003_ABCDEABCDE |
If a job (or part of the job) folder path cannot be found
Even though the system is designed to work with properly managed naming conventions used in prepress, KBA system, and MeasureColor there are always situations where the calculated folder path cannot be found:
- The job has not yet been measured using KBA Ergotronic
- (Part of) the Job data fields are filled out differently than expected
In these situations, MeasureColor will try to find its way down the folder path, until it cannot continue. MeasureColor will then ask the operator which of the available jobs to load from the KBA Ergotronic.
In the example below, the MeasureColor importer did find the OrderNumber ‘KBA-003’ but the expected folder one level deeper was not found. It then asks the operator to select which folder to use.
Note: The ‘More…’ option allows the user to see the content of the parent folder. With that said, it will not allow the operator to go any further up the folder path than the defined hot folder (C:KBAhotfolder in this case).