Version 4.

Device Driver User Guide

—PCIAPIS device driver
for Windows 2000/XP/2003

July 2013

Beijing Founder Electronics Co., Ltd.

Copyright Notice
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copyrighted work of the Beijing Founder Electronics Co., Ltd. and is owned by the Beijing Founder
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without prior notice. No part of this publication may be copied without the express written permission of
the Beijing Founder Electronics Co., Ltd.

Trademarks
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EagleAGS, EagleFAM are registered trademarks of the Beijing Founder Electronics Co., Ltd.

Microsoft, MS-DOS, Windows, Windows NT are trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft

Corporation.
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trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated and PostScript 3 is a trademark of Adobe Systems
Incorporated.
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of their respective holders and are hereby acknowledged.

FZ 5000PA interface adapter was granted CE certificate.

Beijing Founder Electronics Co., Ltd.

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Contents

Introduction .............................................................................. 1
1.1 Overview ....................................................................... 1
1.2 How to use this guide ...................................................... 1
1.3 Conventions ................................................................... 2
1.4 System Requirements ..................................................... 2
1.5 Product Package ............................................................. 2
1.6 Installation Tools ............................................................ 2
Adapter Installation ................................................................... 3
2.1 Prerequisites for installation ............................................. 3
2.2 Interface adapter layout .................................................. 3
2.3 Installation Procedures .................................................... 4
Driver Installation ..................................................................... 5
3.1 PCIAPIS Installation ........................................................ 5
Using Device Driver ................................................................. 11
4.1 About the device driver.................................................. 12
4.2 Device driver parameter setting ...................................... 13
4.3 Agfa PCI device monitor ................................................ 18
4.4 Agfa_pci device driver feedback messages ....................... 20
 1

Introduction

1.1 Overview
The Founder EagleRIP imagesetter interface adapter, PCIAPIS supports
SelectSet, AccuSet, Avantra, Phoenix and ProSet series AGFA
imagesetteres. This card is a PCI bus interface adapter. Compared with
adapters on the ISA, EISA, MICRO Channel bus, it has faster I/O
transmission speed (top speed is 132M byte/sec) and better
compatibility, it’s also plug and play.
The Founder EagleRIP imagesetter interface adapter, PCIAPIS requires
PCI local bus slots with 5V power supply and 33MHz bus clock and
conform to PCI protocol 2.0 or higher.

1.2 How to use this guide

This guide shows you how to install and configure the PCIAPIS interface
adapter and its device driver, how to set the device driver parameters,
how to use the device monitor and the meaning of feedback messages.
Please read this guide carefully, or refer to it later.

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1.3 Conventions
 A note providing hints, tips, advice, or suggestions.
 Cautions alerting you to incorrect operations or unfavorable
conditions that could damage the interface adapter.

1.4 System Requirements

CPU: Pentium IV 2.0GHz or above
Memory: 2 GB or above
Hard Disk: Ultra SCSI Hard Disk with at least 20GB free space
PCI bus: Compatible PCI protocol v 2.0 or above

1.5 Product Package

The package contains the following items. Please check it first to make
sure nothing missing. Please contact your supplier if any thing is
missing.
• PCI bus interface adapter 1
• Communication cable 1

1.6 Installation Tools

The following items may be needed:
• Cross-point screwdriver 1
• Slotted screwdriver 1(spare)

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 2

Adapter Installation

This section shows you the basic information to set your interface
adapter.

2.1 Prerequisites for installation

 Reading this installation guide is recommended before you install
your PCI interface adapter.
 Please make sure the interface adapter looks like Figure 1.

2.2 Interface adapter layout

Figure1.

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• J1 is a 37-pin D-type interface connector.

2.3 Installation Procedures

1. Turn off the computer and imagesetter; disconnect the power cord.
2. Remove the cover of the computer.
3. Choose an idle PCI Bus expansion slot, usually it’s white or ivory-
white.
4. Remove the mounting screw and the existing bracket from the rear
panel behind the selected PCI slot.
5. Place the adapter into the selected PCI slot. Press down on the top
of the board until it seats firmly, make sure it is properly seated in.
6. Secure the bracket of adapter with the mounting screw.
7. Clean up all the cables around.
8. Replace the computer cover, and fasten the computer cover screws.
9. Attach the APIS communication cable1 to the J1 interface connector
on the adapter, and fasten its screws.
10. Insert the USB Dongle into I/O port of the computer.
11. Turn on the imagesetter, then the computer.
12. Start up Windows and install EagleRIP. For detailed information
about EagleRIP installation, refer to EagleRIP 4.x User Guide.

 While installing the interface adapter, keep it away from heat

source or magnetic objects.
 While installing the interface adapter, avoid damage from
electrostatic discharge.
 While installing the interface adapter, if the selected PCI expansion
slot is too tight, please shake the adapter slightly. If it does not
work, select another PCI slot.

1
APIS communication cable is provided by primary manufacturer.

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 3

Driver Installation

The following sections show you how to install the Agfa_pci imagesetter
device driver, how to set the device driver parameters, how to use the
device monitor and the meaning of feedback messages.

3.1 PCIAPIS Installation

1. First, shut down the computer, and cut off the power, and then
insert the PCIAPIS or PCIAgafaPro card into computer’s PCI slot.
Then switch on the power, start the computer, and enter windows
2000.
2. When the computer starts, system will detect the new hardware
automatically. If it finds the inserted PCIAPIS or PCIAgfaPro card,
the following dialog will be displayed:

Figure2.

3. And then, the wizard will be displayed, just like the following
figure:

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Figure3.

4. Now, follow the guide on the screen, select “Next”, and then you
will see the following figure:

Figure4.

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5. Select “Search for a suitable driver for my device” item, and click
“Next”:

Figure5.

6. Select “Floppy disk drives” or “CD-ROM drives”, then click “Next”, if

the wizard can’t find the suitable file, you should select “Back” to
return to this step, and then select “Specify a location”, and click
“Next”:

Figure6.

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7. Use “Browse” button to find the path that include the *.inf file and
the driver file, then select “OK”. If the wizard finds the necessary
files, you will see the following window, or you should search the
installation disk carefully to find the correct path:

Figure7.

8. When you see the above window, the file was found. Click “Next”,
the following window will be displayed:

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Figure8.

9. Click “Finish” to complete the PCIAPIS card’s installation. If you

open “Device Manager” of your operating system, you will see
PCIAPIS or PCIAgfaPro card under the “Device Interface Adapter”
node. See the following figure:

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Figure9.

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 4

Using Device Driver

Before you use Agfa imagesetter to output, you need to install the
Agfa_pci device driver in the Device Manager of EagleRIP. For
detailed information about device driver installation, please refer to
EagleRIP 4.x User Guide.

After you have installed the Agfa_pci device driver, click Template
Manager in the EagleRIP 4.x, select “Agfa_pci” from the Template
List and click Edit button. Then click Device Setup in the Edit box to
open the Device Setup window where you can set up parameters for
Media, Ganging, Mirror & Negative, etc. See the following figure.
Correlated with the output device, all these parameters are critical to
have the job output correctly. In this guide we will use AGFA ProSet
9400 as an example.

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Figure10.

4.1 About the device driver

Select the AGFA device name node on the top of the parameter tree,
and click About the device driver button to get the Device Property
window as shown in Figure 11, which displays device related
information including Vendor, Protocol, Device and Version.

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Figure11.

If any modification was made, the Cancel the modification button is

enabled. Clicking the button will restore the default settings of the
current device setup.

4.2 Device driver parameter setting

See Figure 10. The upper part of the Device Setup window contains a
tree of settings, including three nodes: Effects, Media and Advanced.
You may collapse or expand a node by clicking the before it. And
click an item under a node, the lower part of the window will display its
corresponding parameters.
After you’ve set the parameters, click OK at the bottom of the Device
Setup window. And you may refer to online help about EagleRIP
Agfa_pci device setup by pressing the Help tab.

The meaning, valid value and detailed description of each parameter

are shown below:
Effects
 Mirror & Negative
o Mirror: an option for output mirror (True) or not (False). If
True is selected in the Mirror dropdown list, the device

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 produces a mirrored image which is reflected about the vertical
axis. The default setting for mirror is False.
o Negative: an option for output negative (True) or not
(False). If True is selected in the Negative dropdown list, the
page produced by the device is in negative.
 Margin
o Left/Top Margin: You can set the margins by typing values
into the appropriate text boxes. Any margins you specify are
added to values set within the job. When you specify the left
margin, the right margin is calculated automatically, based on
the total width of the media and the size of the image. If you
wish, you can specify a negative value for any margin. For
example, a –1.0 inch left margin would clip 1 inch off the left
hand side of the page. You may change the unit under RIP
Setup>Misc Tab.
o Alignment: The options in Alignment dropdown list allow you
to specify how to align the image with the output media. The
options include: No Alignment, Horizontal Auto Center,
Vertical Auto Center, Left Alignment, Center Alignment,
Right Alignment, Top Alignment and Bottom Alignment.
 Ganging
To select a parameter used to control bitmap page ganging.
The basic principles of Agfa_pci device driver bitmap page ganging: As
the Agfa_pci imagesetter film may be bigger than your desired output
page size, Agfa_pci device driver provides auto ganging function so
that you can use the film more efficiently. Generally speaking, if the
output parameter setting of one or more bitmap of the requested
printing job are compatible (for example, parameters such as the
Device Model, Media Size, Margin, Cut Mode, Ganging, Mirror,
Negative, Exposure are all consistent), and the currently selected
media size can accommodate such bitmaps (bitmap does not overlap,
and there are needed spacing among the bitmaps), then Agfa_pci
device driver can combine these bitmap page to a big page and output.
 Selecting the ganging option may result in Agfa_pci device driver’s
waiting for enough pages to be combined into a surface before
actually output the surface when the surface is deemed full. And in
Any Job ganging mode, the surface will not be output even if all
the jobs have been interpreted, unless the surface is full. If you

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want to send the ganging surface to the device immediately, you
may click Output Now icon in the CombinePage View window,
or by selecting the Finish Ganging from the right-click menu in
the Page List, or by selecting the same menu item in the Surface
List. The incomplete surface will be output to the device.

o Ganging Type
1. No Ganging: if you want to turn off Auto Ganging
function supplied by the Agfa_pci device driver, please
select No Ganging. When No Ganging is selected, Page
Margin, Color First and Ganging Direction will gray out
2. Same Job: if Same Job is selected, EagleRIP will
automatically compose and output the different
separations or pages in the same rip job for media saving
purpose. If the bitmap requesting for output does not
belong to the composed bitmap in the same rip file, the
system will output the buffered bitmap first, and then
process the requesting bitmap to make sure the different
bitmap belonging to different jobs will not be composed
onto the same page and output. In another scenario, if
Same Job is selected, the system will automatically
output buffered bitmap (if any) in the job when the job is
ripped and bitmap formulates.
3. Any Job: EagleRIP automatically gangs any separation or
page in any ripping job, by means of media saving, and
outputs finally. If Any Job is selected, Limit Job Number
option will be off and Clear Buffer on Completion option
will be on.
a. Reject oversized job: if selected, the system will
disable oversized job output. Oversized job means
output page cannot include all the output contents.
Therefore, the center size shall include the contents
size plus margin size.
b. Partly print oversized job: if selected, only top left
section of the page will be output if the job size
exceeds the media size.
c. Split page and output: jobs that exceed the media
size will be split and output.

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 o Page Margin
X direction: the value specified is the margin between pages
on a surface in X direction.
Y direction: the value specified is the margin between pages
on a surface in Y direction.
You may change the unit under RIP Setup>Misc Tab.
o Color First: with this check box selected, one surface only
contains pages of a particular color separation. And all
separations of the same job are located on the same relative
position of the surfaces.
o Enable X direction: the ganging pages will be arranged on a
surface in X direction.
o Enable Y direction: the ganging pages will be arranged on a
surface in Y direction.
o X direction first: if both X and Y directions are enabled, you
may check or uncheck this box to determine which direction in
which the ganging pages will be arranged first. If X direction
first is selected, the pages will be first arranged on the surface
horizontally till there is not enough space to allow more pages.
o Clear buffer on Completion: if Any Job is selected, you may
check or uncheck this box to decide whether to wait for
bitmaps in other ripping jobs to gang onto the surface before it
is output. When this option is checked, the buffered bitmaps of
the job will be output immediately on completion. This setting
(checking both Any Job and Clear buffer on Completion)
differs from the Same Job setting in that it allows the bitmaps
of the job to be combined with the preceding job (if the
parameters are compatible and there is enough space on the
film.
o Limit Job Number: if selected, you may enter value to limit
the ganging pages. In Same Job ganging, only when both
Enable X direction and Enable Y direction are checked will
this parameter be activated.

Media

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 Media Size: an option to define the media size. You may change
the unit under RIP Setup>Misc Tab. EagleRIP offers A5, B5, A4,
B4, A3, etc. for you to choose from the dropdown list. If you want
to customize the media size, you need to first select “Custom” in
the Media Size dropdown list and then enter the values you want
in the Width and Height edit box respectively. You may enter any
decimal for more accurate media size. If you the media size you
want to customize is close to a media size in the dropdown list, for
example A4, you may select first “A4” in the dropdown list, then
select “Custom”, and then fine-tune the width and height for
accurate result.
 Cut Mode: select the method on how to cut film.
o Manual_Cut: do not cut film after printing. This is the default
setting.
If this option is checked, you can do manual cutting by
operating the control panel of Agfa_pci imagesetter or the
EagleRIP Agfa PCI device monitor.
o Film_Cut: automatically cut film after printing each film.
If your imagesetter is not connected to an online processor, be
careful to check this option. Because your imagesetter may
breakdown if you cannot change the cassette in time.
o Page_Cut: automatically cut film after printing each page (i.e.
when all the separations of one page have been completely
printed).
If Same Job or Any Job in Ganging Type is checked,
Page_Cut will be out of commission because after page
combination, no page limit exists any more, the system cannot
do cutting automatically after printing all the separations of
the page.
o Job_Cut: automatically cut film after printing each job (i.e.
when all the separations and pages of one job have been
completely printed).
If Any Job in Ganging Type is checked, Job_Cut will be out of
commission because that after page combination no job limit
exists any more, the system cannot do cutting automatically
after printing all the separations and pages of the job.

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 Copies: enter the number of copy you want to have. The valid
value ranges from 1 to 9999.

Advanced
Set the advanced parameters.
 Exposure Parameter
The default setting is to have Auto checked. To set an exposure value
on your own: first uncheck Auto, then enter the value of exposure you
want directly into the exposure edit box, or handle the scroll bar to set
exposure.
The valid value for each Agfa_pci imagesetter series is shown below:
AGFA SelectSet series: 0 to 995
AGFA Avantra series: 0 to 1430
AGFA AccuSet series: 0 to 255
AGFA ProSet series: 0 to 255
AGFA Phoenix series: 0 to 995
Selecting Auto check box resets the exposure value to default of the
current device.

4.3 Agfa PCI device monitor

The Agfa PCI Device Monitor is used for monitoring and refreshing
the device status, and setting the device.
You may open the device monitor by selecting the Device Control
command in Action menu.

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Figure12.
 Only when the currently printing job is output into Agfa_pci
imagesetter, can you open the Agfa PCI Device Monitor; if the
currently printing job is switched to non-AGFA imagesetter, the
open device monitor will be closed automatically by the system.
During the switching of device, the system will automatically output
the buffered bitmaps into the Agfa_pci imagesetter.

 Media Remaining
The Media Remaining text box displays the length of the remaining
media in the current Agfa_pci imagesetter. You can also type in the
original length of the media and click the Set Film button to set the
original film length.
 Interpage Space
The Interpage Space text box displays the interpage space of the
current Agfa_pci imagesetter.
 Max Media Collection
The value specifies the maximum collection of the cut film. The value
can be decided according to the model of the imagesetter and the
media type.

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 Current Media Collection
The text box allows you view or specify the current amount of media
collection.
 Units
The Units options allow you to specify the units of media size, and
media collection, etc.
 Refresh
Through this button, you can display the current status of Agfa_pci
imagesetter on the device monitor and see if it is ready.
 Cut Film
Click the button, you can instruct the Agfa_pci imagesetter to cut films.
 Set Film
When you have specified the values of Media Remaining, Interpage
Space, Max Media Collection and Current Media Collection, click
the Set Film button to validate the changes.
 Reset
Press this button to reset all the specified values.

4.4 Agfa_pci device driver feedback

messages
The feedback messages include normal messages, warning messages,
error messages etc.
The Black font messages are Normal messages.
The Red font messages are Error messages.
The Blue font messages are Warning messages.

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