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itor, or the job editor (once the job has begun processing). This is
easier to follow up as a user. The queues tab should only be used
for advanced users and test purposes.
2.13.2 Module queues
These are represented by a Nexus icon, and have the same possi-
ble status, being running or held. For each single module in Nexus
there is a Queue that represents an ordered list of data objects
(jobs, pages and plates) that the module still has to process.
Nexus consists of a number of separate applications or modules,
being scheduled by Control, and each being responsible for one or
more tasks or activities. In the queues list, you can verify how many
tasks are scheduled for each module, and view the status as well.
A Module is held by selecting it from the Queues list and pressing
the Hold button, releasing the module is done by pressing the re-
lease button. Holding a module will result in all processes queued
for this module to be suspended. If a module is active and perform-
ing a certain task when held, it will first complete the action before
changing the state to Hold. Be aware that some modules are re-
sponsible for multiple processes. The Assembler Module for exam-
ple is invoked for Banding, Screening and Proofing, but today only
one process can be in progress at any time.
Modules that are not being used for a while will switch automatically
to the Hold status. This means that these modules have been shut
down by Control to release valuable system resources, being re-
started later if required. When Control is started for the first time, all
modules are launched so that Control can determine which activi-
ties they support.
2.13.3 Purge Queues
The queues labelled by the workflow name, and shown with a trash
can icon are the purge queues. These indicate how many Work-
flows have reached the purge time, and how many jobs are sched-
uled for purging. Putting the queues into Hold is possible, but not
recommended, as the Hard Disk space could fill up very fast when
running jobs and not purge them.
2.13.4 Dump
The dump option (Contextual Menu) is only useful for diagnostic
purposes by the AWS support department. When selecting a
queue and pressing the dump button, a print window will appear
providing some information on the selected queue.
2.13.5 List
If a Queue is selected in the list, the jobs in this queue are shown in
the Job list. Above and underneath the job list, there are a number
of buttons that can be applied on a job selected in the job list: Hold,
Release, Abort, Retry, Change Priority and Purge Job.
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The “edit” option in the contextual menu in this list opens the Job
Editor of the job.
This can be very useful e.g. to monitor and change the queue of files
waiting to be send to an imagesetter, without having to search for
the individual jobs in the job window.
2.14. Modules
2.14.1 Modules Window
• Module List
On the left hand side of the Modules window, we see the list of
existing Modules. A Module is an independent executable pro-
gram which runs on the Nexus Server. When Nexus is started up
on the Server, all modules will be launched automatically. The
Controller schedules all the applications. When a module has
been idle for a while, it will timeout and quit to save processor re-
sources on the Nexus Server. In the queues list, these modules
will be put on hold, which can be verified in the control log.
Every Module can have two modes. It can either be active or dor-
mant. The Modules remain dormant until a job is launched which
requires a certain module. At that moment, the icon in the List will
change from dormant to running. On the server, the Modules
may be seen as applications (having the extension .exe on Win-
dows) in the Nexus application folder. When in use, each Module
is a separate application and can be seen in the Task Manager.
In a daily production environment, the end user should normally
have no reason to access the Modules Tab. It would typically be
the system administrator or technical support staff who would
check on the status of the modules.
2.14.2 Module Options
• Nexus Soap Server
The Nexus Soap Server module, which can be found in the Mod-
ules list, is the most important part of Shuttle Integration in Nexus.
For more information, see Appendix 3 : Shuttle on page 450.
• Duplicate
The + button allows you to duplicate a selected Module in the
Module List. Currently this feature is only supported for a limited
number of modules. The Duplicate button will therefore only be
enabled if one of these modules has been selected.
Details on how to set up multiple modules are discussed in
2.14.3 Multiple Modules on page 86.
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• Delete
If a module has been duplicated one or more times, these dupli-
cates can be removed again by pressing the - button. The original
module can never be deleted, because this could cause the sys-
tem to fail or to behave unpredictable.
• Edit defaults
The Modules have only limited settings. Upon selecting a Module
in the List, the defaults as specified for this module are displayed
by selecting Edit Defaults in the contextual menu, by selecting
“Edit” in the Edit menu, or by the shortcut q - E. These defaults
relate to all Nexus Modules, irrespective of function. They are im-
portant for Performance reasons and debug level.
• append to log file
Every single Module writes diagnostic information to a log file, the
name of which is the Module name, followed by the extension
“.log” (f.e. assembler.log) Checking this option will make sure that
a new log file will be created every time that Nexus will be restart-
ed. The old logs will then be copied in the folder called Module
Logs Backup, where they are available for diagnostic reasons.
This is recommended, because log files can become quite big af-
ter a period of time.
• debug to standard out
If this option is checked, Nexus will also write debug information
to the Task Window on the Nexus server. Normally these Win-
dows are minimized (except for Control) on the Windows 2003
machine, but through this option, it may be useful to select the
modules and view the report generated.
• debug apple events
AppleEvents are used for the communication between control
and NexusManager. For the End User, there is no reason to view
this communication. Only for development issues, it makes sense
to use this option. This results in big data files, containing all in-
formation on messages being sent.
• set debug level
There are three different debug levels. The popup enables you to
modify the amount of detail requested for each module and ac-
tivity both for the task windows and for the log files. Info is the
most detailed option, and is recommended. Warn will only pro-
vide information about real and potential problems. Error will only
log serious errors that occurred.
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• View Log / Activities
At the right hand side, a constantly updated log of the selected
Module is shown. This option allows the user to view log files,
without having to look for them on the server.
By switching the dropdown menu to “Activities”, you can see the
activities of the selected Module.
You can save the contents of this log window using the shortcut
q - S or from the contextual menu.
• Save / Restore
Save and Restore can be used to save and/or restore the set-
tings of all duplicated Modules.
• Sleep
If Modules are inactive for some time, they will be quit, to be re-
started when they need to perform any action. As it is impossible
to duplicate a module while it is running, the sleep function (in the
contextual menu) allows to quit a module, in order for it to be du-
plicated.
• Activity List
This list shows an overview of the tasks a module has to take care
of in the Nexus Workflow system. Most modules only have to
perform one specific task, but others have a whole range of sim-
ilar functions to do. In case of duplicated modules you will see
several columns for each module, indicating which activities the
module can handle. In that case, you can switch off specific ac-
tivities for one of the Modules.
• Edit
This button is only shown when the Activity List displayed is an
FTP Exposer List and the selected activity is ‘Make RTL and
Download’. This feature will allow to assign one specific RTL
proofer to one FTP Exposer. Details can be found in the next sec-
tion on setting up multiple FTP Exposers.
• Show Nexus.env
The Show Nexus.env option in the contextual menu is only avail-
able on the Control module. It shows the contents of the Nex-
us.env file. See 1.8. NexusConfig on page 32.
2.14.3 Multiple Modules
A drastic boost of productivity can be achieved by running modules
such as the Assembler, NexusProcessor or FTP Exposer multiple
times on the same system. While before, plate calculation or expos-
ing to an HP plotter could only be executed one at a time, it is now
possible to calculate multiple proofs or plates simultaneously, effec-
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tively increasing the throughput of the system. Equally, when multi-
ple plotters are connected to the same NexusRIP, they can be
driven in parallel.
The modules that can be duplicated have a wide range of activities
to take care of. Therefor, these modules can become a bottleneck
when multiple jobs are processed at the same time. By default the
controller provides one of each module and one queue per module.
The Modules that can be duplicated are: the Assembler, the
CIP3Gen, the EscPConvert, the FTPExposer, the PDFFlattener, the
PDFPreProcessor, the PDFTrapper, the Nexus Processor, The
RTL, the TotalRIP, the Transport, the Trapper and the PitStop mod-
ule.
• Load Balancing
By clicking the + button next to a module that can be duplicated,
a second module named [Module]#1 will be generated.
The default queue will feed both modules and each can handle
any activity.
With this basic setup of duplicated modules, only a straightfor-
ward Load Balancing will be done. Activities will be performed by
one of the available modules, depending on their availability.
• Prioritizing Activities
If priority must be given to certain activities, the modules can be
setup differently. Duplicate the module as above. For multiple
modules, you see the enabled activities in a column for each du-
plicated module. These columns are all changeable and effect
the correspoding (duplicated) module. Select the duplicated
module in the module list and then remove the ticks on all activi-
ties in the activity list, except the activities you want to create a
fast track for, e.g. the Make Link activity in the Assembler.
When link files need to be made, the 2nd Assembler will usually
be free to do them. If the 1st/main Assembler happens to be idle,
it can do them also. You can run this configuration in less RAM
than the Load Balancing setup, as long as the memory settings
for the link activity are reduced.
• Multiple FTP Exposers / RTL / ESPC Convert
• 1. Using different RTL plotter types
The RTL module must be duplicated.
Selecting the Make RTL & Download activity in the Activity List will
show the “...” button. Click it to enter the IP address of the 1st
printer. Select the second RTL Module and repeat, entering the
IP address of the other printer.
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When you have completed the above setup there will be an RTL
module which handles each printer.
When building a workflow that is driving RTL devices directly, the
Module popup can be used to define which FTP Exposer and re-
lated plotter should be used.
• 2. Using identical RTL Plotters
If you are using two identical plotters (same size, paper and qual-
ity) and you don’t care on which plotter jobs get output you can
do the following: Do the same steps as for different plotter types.
When building the workflows, in the RTL activities in workflows
and jobs, you can leave the Queue popup and the IP address
blank. In this case the activity goes on the default queue, and can
be output on either HP. The default Exposer Queue will download
the RTL data to the first available plotter.
• Duplicating the Assembler
When duplicating the Assembler, make sure that there is enough
RAM in the PC to handle the two modules running at once. When
pressing the Edit Defaults button, the Module Defaults window
will popup and show us the Assembler Memory Usage. The As-
sembler requires a lot of RAM and 80% is allocated by default to
the total Assembler Usage. When duplicating Assemblers, the
available RAM will be divided equally over the different Assem-
blers. The memory allocation can be changed in the Module de-
fault window if needed. You can repeat these steps to make 3 or
more Assemblers, but this is unlikely to be useful unless you are
running on a PC with 3 or more CPUs, and loads of RAM.
• Multiple NexusProcessors
When duplicating the NexusProcessor, you have no checkboxes
for the activities, so it is NOT possible to dedicate one of the Nex-
usProcessors to a specific task. The result will be that all activities
to be run through the processor, will go to the first available mod-
ule.
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Chapter 3. Defining Workflows
A new workflow can be defined by selecting “New Workflow” in the
file menu, by selecting “New” in the contextual menu of the Work-
flows window, by clicking the “New Workflow” button in the Work-
flows window, or by its shortcut q - x - N.
When defining a new Workflow, you can either start from scratch,
by selecting “Empty” as Workflow Type. You can start from a de-
fault workflow, based on the output needed, by selecting the appro-
priate Workflow type in the list. Once a workflow is created, you can
edit it in the Workflow Edit window.
3.1. New Workflow
By creating a new Workflow, the Nexus Workflow Setup dialog will
open, in which the Workflow Type, Input Type and name for the
Workflow can be chosen.
When clicking the Cancel button or pressing the “esc” key, the dia-
log is closed, and no workflow is created.
When clicking the Create button, the workflow is created on the
server. If Input Type is set to Appletalk Printer, the dialog to define
the Appletalk Printer settings is opened. The options for this dialog
are explained in 2.12.9 Printer on page 73. If Input Type is set to
Hot folder, the dialog to define the hot folder settings is opened. The
options for this dialog are explained in 2.12.8 Hot Folder on page
72.
After setting the Hot folder or Printer settings, the newly created
workflow is opened in the Workflow Edit Window. When starting
from scratch, i.e. using Workflow Type “Empty”, only the Workflow
activity will be present. Other activities can be added. See 3.3. Nex-
us Flow Editor on page 115
• Workflow Name
The name of the workflow is restricted to basic characters, and
is limited to 31 characters. If the name entered in the input field
contains invalid characters such as $, &,..., these are automati-
cally replaced by an underscore. When the name entered con-
tains more than 31 characters, only the first 31 are kept.
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• Input Type
The input type for a workflow can be Appletalk Printer, Hot folder
or manually select. For more info on these input types, see Chap-
ter 4. Running Jobs on page 138. The input type for a workflow
can be extended or changed at any time, in the Monitors tab. See
2.12. Monitors on page 70.
• Installed RAM
The Installed RAM shows the total amount of physical memory
available on the server, and not just the amount of memory as-
signed to Nexus.
3.2. Workflow Type
In the “Workflow Type” list, Nexus provides a whole set of standard,
built-in workflows. The predefined workflows mostly refer to Nexus
Rip functionality. All of these workflows are applicable in most com-
mon pre-press environments. Major differences are the available
output devices, and the way of inputting files. There are basically no
Nexus Import and Processor workflows foreseen, since these are a
lot more customizable, and easier to set up using the “Empty” work-
flow type. Workflows generated using a “Workflow Type”, may be
used as they are, or they can be modified and edited at any time.
Documents you may be interested
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