How to Set-up Printfil with Foodman.
PrintFil is a utility which allows you to setup multiple printers on
a network. Printers may be Parallel, Serial or USB in any combination.
PrintFil also has an email capability to email printed reports.
You can download a trial version from: Printfil.com
The software costs $103.00 and is an excellent value.
When PrintFil is used, Foodman is directed to send all printed output
to disk files instead of directly to the printer.
Foodman allows up to seven printers on a PC. These are normally referred
to as LPT1, LPT2, LPT3, COM1, COM2, COM3, and COM4.
When PrintFil is used, these values are changed to the name of a disk
file. The following screenshot of the Printer Setup page in System Setup
in Foodman shows that the first three printers have been changed to use
a disk file on drive C:.
The names are C:\PRINTER1\PRTR1, C:\PRINTER2\PRTR2
AND C:\PRINTER3\PRTR3.
(PRINTFIL is run in the three directories C:\PRINTER1
C:\PRINTER2 AND C:\PRINTER3. Data is written to the
files PRTR1, PRTR2 and PRTR3 in the respective
directories (see below).
These changes must be made for each of the computers
on the network. This results in each computer writing
to files on ITS OWN disk drive.
If you need more than three printers, just change
the values appropriately.
After installing PrintFil, you have to set it up
to work with Foodman.
In the Foodman folder (C:\XOD, C:\XSS or C:\XHD)
depending on which system you use, there are files
which can be used to setup PrintFil.
PFSETUP.BAT
PFSETUP.BAT is used to create seven directories on
drive C:
These seven directories are used to control printing
on up to seven printers. It doesn't matter if you
use less than seven.
This file will also copy the file PRINTFIL.INI
into each of the directories which it creates.
PRINTFIL.INI is the file which PrintFil uses to
manage the printing.
To create the directories using PFSETUP.BAT, do the
following:
Click on Start
Click on Run
Enter CMD and Click OK
A black window will appear.
Enter the following depending on
which Foodman system you have:
CD\XOD
CD\XSS
CD\XHD
Then, enter "PFSETUP" and press enter.
Finally, type EXIT and press enter to return to
Windows.
You only need to do this once when first installing
Printfil.
PFSETUP.BAT is as follows:
REM This batch creates seven directories on drive C: for use by
REM up to seven copies of PRINTFIL.EXE.
C:
CD\
MD printer1
MD printer2
MD printer3
MD printer4
MD printer5
MD printer6
MD printer7
CD\PRINTER1
COPY C:\WINDOWS\PRINTFIL.INI
CD\PRINTER2
COPY C:\WINDOWS\PRINTFIL.INI
CD\PRINTER3
COPY C:\WINDOWS\PRINTFIL.INI
CD\PRINTER4
COPY C:\WINDOWS\PRINTFIL.INI
CD\PRINTER5
COPY C:\WINDOWS\PRINTFIL.INI
CD\PRINTER6
COPY C:\WINDOWS\PRINTFIL.INI
CD\PRINTER7
COPY C:\WINDOWS\PRINTFIL.INI
PRINTFIL.INI
PRINTFIL.INI is the file which contains the
information needed for PrintFil to function.
Remember that there is a copy of PRINTFIL.INI
in each of the directories created by PFSETUP.BAT.
The first part of the file is shown below. You must
change it to tell PrintFil the name(s) of the
disk file which Foodman writes to and the name of
the printer that Printfil will actually print to.
You need to change the PRINTFIL.INI in each of
the directories used to print.
Use the Windows NotePad to change the INI files.
The files you need to change are called:
C:\PRINTER1\PRINTFIL.INI
C:\PRINTER2\PRINTFIL.INI
C:\PRINTER3\PRINTFIL.INI and so on.
You must change the "FileName" to denote the
the Foodman disk file name and you have to
change the "Printer" to the name given to the
printer when it was installed in Windows.
The PRINTFIL.INI files look like this:
[Config]
FileName=C:\PRINTER1\PRTR1
Capture=
CapMode=1
Font=Courier New
Color=0
AnsiConv=.T.
Timer=3.00
Preview=.F.
Printer=Star DP8340
After making the changes save them and exit NotePad.
PFSTART.BAT
You have to have a version of PrintFil running
for each printer you have. PrintFil just sits
there waiting for a file to be created and
then prints the file to the designated printer.
So, if you have three printers, you need to have
three copies of PrintFil running, each one in its
own folder.
Foodman comes with PFSTART.BAT which you must
run at the start of each day. PFSTART starts
three copies of PrintFil, one for PRINTER1,
one for PRINTER2 and one for PRINTER3.
You will need to make a shortcut on the desktop
to start PrintFil each day. Do the following:
Right-Click on the Desktop
Select "New"
Select "Shortcut"
Enter either:
c:\xod\pfstart.bat or
c:\xss\pfstart.bat or
c:\xhd\pfstart.bat
depending on which Foodman system you have.
Double-Clicking the shortcut will run PFSTART.BAT
which will run the three copies of PrintFil to handle
the three printers.
The PFSTART.BAT is as follows:
C:
CD\PRINTER1
START C:\"PROGRAM FILES"\PRINTFIL\PRINTFIL.EXE
CD\PRINTER2
START C:\"PROGRAM FILES"\PRINTFIL\PRINTFIL.EXE
CD\PRINTER3
START C:\"PROGRAM FILES"\PRINTFIL\PRINTFIL.EXE