Label Designer is a simple design facility that allows you to layout the label using the available data fields. These include the ability to add pictures, static/default text, fonts, barcodes etc.

Open Label Designer

LabelDesigner can be opened from a desktop shortcut. Alternatively, you can...

• open in CabMaster the CNC Config Machine Setup > Labels & Outputs tab;

• open in EzyNest;

Located under the ATP menu drop list (EzyNest 6 and later)

EzyNest 6 and later : From the ATP toolbar button drop menu, select Label Designer or from the File menu (click on image).

Click to Expand

• double click on the LabelDesigner.exe file.

Exe files are located in the AutoTP/Lables folder (EzyNest 5 or earlier)

EzyNest 5 or earlier : You will need to open the Label Designer application directly from the windows file explorer.

This is found in the EzyNest folder, typically located in C:\AllMasterSoftware\EzyNest5\AutoTP\Labels\LabelDesigner.exe

Editing Label Designs

Opening a Label Design

Once you open the Label Designer, you will first want to maximize the application. This will make it far easier to modify the label design once it is opened.

1. File > Open - open the label design that you want to modify (in this example, CabMaster 105x74.lds was selected);
2. Edit > Properties > Grid - edit the properties of the grid to a smaller increment, such as 1mm or 5mm.
   • This will also make it easier to see the margins, the bounding box of the text fields, images etc on the label.

Modifying Label Size and Name

Edit > Properties > Design - If you need to adjust the size of the label or the name of the label design, this can be done in the Design properties of the label.

Click to Expand

Adding Static Images/Text

There are three tools to add information to your label designs i.e. the Text tool, Barcode tool and Picture tool, shown respectively.

Most of the label design will be made using either the Text or Picture tool.

To create a new text field or picture and place on the label design, simply click on the tool to select it, then click and drag on the space you want it to occupy on the label design. This will open an Object Properties dialog, as shown, to allow you to modify the object properties and/or to enter the text you want to display or import an image (e.g. company logo).

Modify existing text or image objects properties on the label, by double clicking on them with the Select Tool.

Adding Placeholder Fields

In a production environment, many of the text fields will need to contain different information for each part or drawing (e.g. part measurements, job number, etc). This can be achieved by using placeholders.

When placing or editing an object, you can assign the object as a placeholder in the Data tab.

You can then select which information it will be replaced by in the data source field drop list. For example, if you want to display the width of the part, select the ‘Width’ from the data source list. This will then replace the text field you placed with the actual width of the part when the label is generated.

When looking at the existing label design you can see which objects are placeholders and which are static by checking whether the object has blue arrows in the top left corner.

You can also check which data source is being used by opening the object properties (double clicking on it with the select tool) and checking the Data tab.

Adding New Data Sources

In some cases, there may be certain job information you want as a placeholder on the labels that is not available as a pre configured data source.

In order for the data to be available in the label designs, the information needs to be present in both the exported files that are processed through EzyNest, as well as the label data configuration file from the label designer itself.

The first step is to make sure the information you want to show on the labels is included in the ‘dxt’ list file that is exported from your AMS program. This is the file that includes all the information for the job and each part as it is processed through EzyNest to create your labels and output files.

We will now discuss how.

Adding Data to DXT List File

In order to add any new data fields to the exported machining files, you will need to adjust the LabelXMLExtras.txt file in the Library folder of you program's installed location. To locate, go to File Locations [F10] in the AMS program and copy the Libraries file location into Windows Explorer.

File Location of LabelXMLExtras.txt

The LabelXMLExtras.txt file will have a list of pre configured data fields, to add a new one you will just need to make a new entry at the bottom of the file. The text file is in a tab separated format, this means that you will need to press the <tab> key between each column for it to read the data correctly when exporting.

The structure of the file is as follows:

Exported name <tab> Data type (usually 'Text') <tab> Variable from program

For example, if you wanted to add the Account Name from CabMaster...

• you can hover over the text field from within the program and it will tell you what the variable name is.

• Then you will just need to add that variable into the LabelXMLExtras.txt file, as shown below.

• Make sure you separate the three columns with tabs, or it will not export correctly.

You can then check if this exported correctly by restarting the program, then exporting a file and opening the exported dxt file. (Usually found in C:\Machining\drawing name\material name\ )

The dxt should now show the custom field you entered into the LabelXMLExtras.txt. 

Adding Data to Label Data Configuration

Once the information you want to add to the label is present in the dxt file, all that is left to do is to add a reference to this new field in the Label Data Configuration within the label designer. This can be done from within the Label Designer application when assigning a placeholder.

To add a new data source, go to the object properties like you usually would when adding a placeholder, then in the Data tab

• click on the Edit source field list button.
  • This will then pop up with a Field List Editor window which will allow you to add (or remove) any data fields from your data source list.
• to add your new data source is type the name of the field as shown in the dxt file and click 'Add'.
• you should now be able to assign that value as a placeholder in the Label Designer.

The field name you enter into the field list editor must exactly match the entry you made in the LabelXMLextras.txt file, bearing in mind the case (i.e. Upper and Lower), as well as any separator or special characters (e.g. spaces etc.)