Universal Print Que

[Kevin Baker]

Is there anyway for me to either save the files in the print que or change the location of where these jobs are stored? I had to do a reinstall a few days ago and lost all the previous jobs I had ran..

Thanks,
Kevin

[Scott Shepherd]

Kevin, you may not have lost them, they may be there (unless your reinstall was on the windows side). If not on the windows side, give Tech support a call, there is a way to recover them. I installed a new driver some time ago and lost all my jobs. They were able to tell me where the jobs are stored and how to recover them. Followed their advice and all my jobs came back up. Not positive it'll work for you, but it's worth a try.

[Dan Hintz]

Kevin,

Stored jobs can be found in the following folder:
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\ULSVL\

This assumes (obviously) the driver was installed on the C drive and meant for all users (I'm not sure you can limit their driver to a specific user, come to think of it).

[Kevin Baker]

Scott - I lost the hard drive on my old computer and got a new computer. I know I've lost all those old jobs, but was trying to prevent it again my either backuping up or changing the location of the stored jobs.

Dan - No luck at the location you gave.. I'm using Windows 7 and can't even find a ULSVL directory anywhere.

I'll give tech support a call and let you know what I find out.
Thanks,
Kevin

[Ed Mihalack]

I upgraded my laser computer and was looking to transfer my files also. I just gave up on it, till now. I'm running Vista on both machines. I had no luck with Dan's location either. Kevin let us know what you find out.
Ed

[Scott Shepherd]

Mine is under /Application Data/ULSMVX.

Not sure why it's located there, but it is. Check that folder and see if you find your jobs there (Ed, not Kevin).

[Mike Lassiter]

Here is a thread I started when I had the same problem. I have a home server that my files where backed up too, I just didn't know where to locate them.
Here is the link titled "Universal Laser owner FYI" http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?151766-Universal-Laser-owner-FYI

I had Windows XP and had to upgrade with Windows 7. The files are not stored in the same folders as noted in the thread.

[Kevin Baker]

They are stored in a proprietary database - the individual files are not accessible but you can copy the entire database to save all the jobs. I am not sure where they are in win7 but in winXP they are here:

C:\Program Files\ULSdb Copy & save the entire contents of that folder to backup your database.

Also, you can save the individual files as .emf files.

[James Terry]

On a side note to this issue, what is it you gain by saving print jobs? Is it just that you dont need to recall settings in order to quickly send the jobs again? Other than that, I cannot fathom what you gain over just opening your application again. Or, does the laser hook into this folder and allow you to select these jobs from the local screen as if they were stored locally?

[Scott Shepherd]

The machine runs off the computer. You can pull up old jobs and it'll have every single setting for that job, there, ready to hit "go". It's so helpful I'd never buy a machine that didn't have it. You can pull up a job you did last month, grab the settings from it, apply it to a new job, or go back in time, grab the settings, and save the settings to use for anything in the future. It's outstanding. I've run lasers without this and with it and I'd never have another one that didn't do this. It's saved me countless hours and made me far more productive than I ever was.

[Mike Lassiter]

James, this is relavent for ULS lasers, I don't know about others. Consider that you have created a design in Corel Draw and "printed" to your laser. You will likely save the Corel Draw file to your computer. In order to "print" with your laser; you have to go thru the laser print driver software. ULS print driver is where you have set the parameters for the laser to use as to color mapping, and the laser raster/vector power, speed and ppi and so on. ULS saves this file(s) to the computer hard drive, and you have ability to have 2000 I think that you can access from the laser print driver without having to start with Corel Draw and "print" thru the laser print driver again.

While you can open the Corel Draw file and send it to the laser again - what settings did you use previously when you ran this file on the laser? You would either have to leave notes within the Corel Draw file itself or keep them in a log book so you could dublicate previous work without trial and error again. The laser driver lets you open it and access previous files you have sent to your laser, the settings that were used and basically load the part in the laser and hit run, without using Corel Draw at all. Every file you send to the laser is processed by the laser driver, and saved by it (until you delete it or exceed max amount I guess). As Scott said, you can go back within the laser driver and see what settings you last used say for the same material but a different design, and apply them to the new one you are about to laser. I guess you could say it is sort of like having a log of every file you sent to your laser complete with all the variables used on each one.

To me when I had to replace my laptop and change operating systems it was like losing everything. I did have the Corel files saved, but what settings were used? Some files were the same design but lasered on different materials with different settings. By copying the laser driver files from the backup back to the correct folder on the new computer ALL the work previously done was back. Not quite like losing all of your Corel files, but think of the time saved by not having to experiment again everytime you wanted to laser something.
This is all I have ever known as it is the only laser we've ever had. It is something I find (like Scott) that I would not be without.