Selecting ART, ART Premium or Nucleo blocking system-side, by material, by lens style, by order
There are two ways ART or Nucleo blocks can be set up in Rx-Universe. Also, ART provides a "Premium" block that can be used. the "Premium Art" blocks are more expensive to use, therefore, rules can be setup to determine if regular ART blocking of Premiun ART blocking will be used if ART is selected.
Firstly, either ART, ART Premium or Nucleo blocking can be set up system-wide, or for a particular lens design or material. In this case, the job will be blocked on the blocker specified.
A second way is to use one of the previously-existing blocking methods (for example, "7" for the dynamic block list), and ALSO print the appropriate ART, ART Premium or Nucleo block to be used on the work ticket. Then, when the job is blocked on a blocker, the Set Value, Actual Value, and other fields, will be re-calculated at the time of blocking, and the job marked as being blocked on the particular type of blocker. In this way, a lab can decide, at the time of blocking, whether to block using the ART, ART Premium or Nucleo technology, or to block on the traditional (usually alloy) block.
In order to use the ART Premium blocks, the check box for "Use ART Premium blocks" must be checked. If this is the case, when the work ticket is printed and the order can use a premium block, it will be printed on the work ticket. To determine if an order requires ART Premium blocking, the order lenses and Rx will be checked. If either eye meets the requirements, then the order can use premium blocks. What is checked is the following: the lens material or lens style requires the use of ART Premium blocks. Does the order require edge blending, does the Sphere power exceed the break point, does the cylinder power exceed the break point or, does the crib value exceed the break point.
The system default for blocking method / block size can be set on the "Setup", "System Settings", "Blocking" tab. The new options are:
- "U" - Nucleo blocking
- "A" - ART blocking
- "B" - ART Premium blocking
The above setting would make ART blocking the system-wide default for all jobs.
To use BOTH a standard blocking method and ART and/or Nucleo blocking, set the blocking method to the standard blocking method, and then choose the option in the "Select ART or Nucleo blocks" section.
For example, to use blocking method "7" (selection of block using the dynamic selection list), and print both the ART, ART Premium and Nucleo blocks to use, set up the screen as follows:
In this case, Rx-Universe will do calculations based on the standard block selected according to the block selection rules (option "7"), and also pick the correct Nucleo block for the job, and print both on the work ticket, as follows:
The job can then be blocked on either the 58x7 alloy block, the 5-base Nucleo block, or the 5-base ART block, and Rx-Universe will adjust its calculations according to which block was used. Note that if the order required an ART Premium block, the 5-base ART Premium block (PRM5) would have been listed in the "ART BLOCK" line instead of the regular ART block (AB5).
If only ART blocks, or only Nucleo blocks, are selected in addition to the "default" both, only the pertinent information will be printed on the work ticket.
Specifying ART or Nucleo Blocking for specific lens types or materials
The blocking method can also be specified for specific materials or specific lens styles. This might be used when only a particular material(s) or style(s) are to be blocked with this method:
Nucleo or ART blocking can also be specified for a particular order:
When Nucleo or ART blocking has been requested, whether system-wide, by material, lens style, or order, the work ticket will show the block to be used:
The "BP1" in this case indicates that "Block Piece 1" should be used (the text comes from the text field on the System Settings screen), and the 65 indicates that a block from the 65mm group should be used.
Setting up the device as an ART or Nucleo blocker
In order for Rx-Universe to accept the blocking information from either an ART or a Nucleo, and in order to correctly send the block information, the device interface must be set up to identify the device as an ART or a Nucleo. On the Blocking tab of the VCA device setup, check the appropirate option (note that only Nucleo OR ART can be active - Rx-Universe will not allow both boxes to be checked).
