Doing Digital Calculations From Order Entry

Owned by Tony LeBlanc
Last updated: Dec 18, 2015
4 min read

Digital-Specific Fields in Order Entry

For the most part, entry of an order in Rx-Universe is the same for a digital job as for a toric (non-digital) job. 

However, beginning with version 6.46.00, "delta" or "adjustment" values may be entered for a digital job. On the F12 screen from order entry, a new tab called "Delta Powers" is accessible (for digital jobs only):

Values entered on this screen will be sent to a digital calculator using the ADJSPH, ADJCYL, ADJAX, ADJADD, ADJPRVM, and ADJPRVA labels (respectively, reading from left to right on the screen).

Note that these labels must be added to the LDI file for the digital vendor (if they are not already there), and not all digital vendors support the use of these labels. If any particular digital vendor does not support the ADJ* labels, then entering values in this screen will have no effect on the final lenses.

In addition to VCA digital vendors, the delta values (with the exception of the Delta Axis) are also passed to the Old Seiko interface (the Satisloh-specific, non-VCA digital calculator).

For information on setting labels in the LDI file, please refer to Use of LDI (initialization files) with Digital Vendors.

 

Digital Interface From Order Entry

Beginning in version 6.45.00, it is possible to communicate directly with a digital calculator from Order Entry, instead of waiting for the job to be handled by the Digital Processor.  Previous versions of Rx-Universe always used the Digital Processor to communicate with digital calculators.

The advantage of communicating with digital calculator(s) directly from order entry is that the user can see the results of the digital calculation directly from within order entry, and the work ticket that is printed, from OE, includes the results of the digital calculation.

The dis-advantage of doing digital calculations directly from Order Entry is that the user must wait for the communication with the digital calculator to finish before being able to finish entering/modifying the order. For a digital calculator that is located locally, this should be a short wait of, at most, a few seconds, but for a web-based digital interface, it could be many seconds, or even minutes.

The "mode" of communication can be set on the Digital Type setup for each manufacture.  Note that this option affects only manually entered orders in Rx-Universe - orders sent electronically will still be processed by the Digital Processor.

When the "Interface at OE" is checked, digital jobs will communicate directly with the LDS calculator from order entry, and the digital processor will NOT process these jobs.  The Digital Processor will, however, continue to process any jobs being received electronically from other systems.

The "Timeout for LMS files in OE" specifies how long, in seconds, the order entry session should wait for a response from the digital calculator.

Within order entry, when a digital job is entered, and the "F9/Calcs" button is pressed, the connection to the calculator is initiated.  A series of messages will be displayed showing the progress of the communication.

Once the communication is complete, and results received, the results are available just as for a toric (non-digital job).  Clicking the device icon will display the calculation results screen:

If results are not received back within the timeout period, an error will be raised:

An appropriate error will also be saved as the "digital status" of the job:

For Zeiss digital jobs, if the option "Print Zeiss Digital Ticket at Digital Processor" on the Digital tab under System Parameters is checked, then the Zeiss Digital Ticket will be printed when the LMS file is received back from Zeiss (within Order Entry).

 

Vendor-Specific Changes

Rx-Universe uses a different naming convention for direct-from-OE files to the digital calculator, to allow the Digital Processor to continue to process orders coming in from third-party systems without confusion with manually-entered orders.  For LDS files created from Order Entry, the filename is "!" + the job number; Rx-Universe then looks for the same filename to be returned as an LMS file (ie for job 123456, Rx-Universe creates file !123456.LDS and looks for !123456.LMS in response.

CrossBows

The default behaviour for CrossBows is to create the LMS file using the job number specified in the JOB= label inside the LDS file, and not to use the filename specified as the LDS file.  In the case of job 123456, Rx-Universe would create !123456.LDS, and look for !123456.LMS in response, but CrossBows would create 123456.LMS instead.

This behaviour can be changed in CrossBows, under "Tools", "Options", change tag ModFilename from 0 to 1.  A value of 0 causes CrossBows to create the LMS file using the JOB= number; a value of 1 causes CrossBows to create the LMS file using the same base filename specified for the LDS file.

 

 

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