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Warning

MillMage is in active development and in a prerelease state. Many operations and functions are not feature complete. Please report any unexpected behavior by searching for and reporting the issue or question in the MillMage Beta User Forum. Please include screenshots and as much detail as possible.

Beta Users: Finding Help

Find help and download the latest release candidate of MillMage in the MillMage Beta User Forum.

Users new to MillMage should follow the Getting Started guide.

Warning

This documentation is in active development and in a prerelease state. These documents are not complete and may include missing pages, broken links, and placeholders. Content is being updated as feedback is reviewed. Your patience is appreciated.

Variable Text Formatting

Use the following formatting expressions with the appropriate Variable Text mode to have MillMage replace the expressions with alternate data when you output a project to your laser.

In order for each type of formatting expression to be replaced with alternate data, you must also select the corresponding mode from the dropdown menu in the Text Options Toolbar.

Variable Text Dropdown menu

Tip

Use the Test button to verify that you have entered the formatting expressions correctly, before sending a project to your laser.

Date/Time

When using Date/Time formatting, MillMage will automatically substitute special combinations of characters with values for the current local date and time, as determined by your system's clock.

Date/Time Example

Use the following expressions for dates:

Output Expression
The day as number without a leading zero (1 to 31) d
The day as number with a leading zero (01 to 31) dd
The abbreviated localized day name (e.g. "Mon" to "Sun"). Uses the system locale to localize the name. ddd
The long localized day name (e.g. "Monday" to "Sunday"). Uses the system locale to localize the name. dddd
The month as number without a leading zero (1-12) M
The month as number with a leading zero (01-12) MM
the abbreviated localized month name (e.g. "Jan" to "Dec"). Uses the system locale to localize the name. MMM
the long localized month name (e.g. "January" to "December"). Uses the system locale to localize the name. MMMM
the year as two digit number (00-99) yy
the year as four digit number yyyy

Use the following expressions for time:

Expression Output
h The hour without a leading zero (0 to 23 or 1 to 12 if AM/PM display)
hh The hour with a leading zero (00 to 23 or 01 to 12 if AM/PM display)
H The hour without a leading zero (0 to 23, even with AM/PM display)
HH The hour with a leading zero (00 to 23, even with AM/PM display)
m The minute without a leading zero (0 to 59)
mm The minute with a leading zero (00 to 59)
s The whole second without a leading zero (0 to 59)
ss The whole second with a leading zero where applicable (00 to 59)
z The fractional part of the second, to go after a decimal point, without trailing zeroes (0 to 999). Thus "s.z" reports the seconds to full available (millisecond) precision without trailing zeroes.
zzz The fractional part of the second, to millisecond precision, including trailing zeroes where applicable (000 to 999).
AP or A Use AM/PM display. A/AP will be replaced by either "AM" or "PM".
ap or a Use am/pm display. a/ap will be replaced by either "am" or "pm".
t The time zone (e.g. "CEST")

Additional Notes

  • Any sequence of characters enclosed in single quotes will be included verbatim in the output string (stripped of the quotes), even if it contains formatting characters.

  • Two consecutive single quotes ('') are replaced by a single quote in the output.

  • All other non-formatting characters in the input string are included verbatim in the output.

Variable Text formatting using single quotes

Tip

Formats without separators (e.g. "ddMM") are supported but must be used with care, as the resulting strings aren't always reliably readable (e.g. if "dM" produces "212" it could mean either the 2nd of December or the 21st of February).

Serial Number

When using Serial Number formatting, MillMage will automatically substitute special combinations of characters with the Current serial number value.

Serial Number example

Use the following expressions for serial numbers:

Output Expression
The serial number as a decimal value d
The serial number as a hexadecimal value, lower case h
The serial number as a hexadecimal value, upper case H
Tells MillMage to pad the number with leading zeros 0

The number of characters controls how many digits will output. If the Current serial number is larger than the number of digits allowed, as many digits as will fit from the end of the number will be displayed. For example, if your Current serial number is 1234, the table below shows how that number would be formatted for each of the displayed formatting inputs:

Input Output Input Output
d 4 0d 4
dd 34 0dd 34
ddd 234 0ddd 234
dddd 1234 0dddd 1234
ddddd 1234 0ddddd 01234
dddddd 1234 0dddddd 001234

Additional Notes

  • Any sequence of characters enclosed in single quotes will be included verbatim in the output string (stripped of the quotes), even if it contains formatting characters.

  • All other non-formatting characters in the input string are included verbatim in the output.

  • Use the Offset field in the Text Options Toolbar to enter multiple indentical formatting strings that output a different serial number.

  • You cannot mix decimal and hexadecimal formatting in the same text entry.

  • You cannot split a serial number with other characters. For example, because of the hyphen between the two groups of format characters, this string is not valid: ddd-ddd.

  • Invalid strings will output as "bad serial format".

Bad Format example

Merge/CSV

When using Merge/CSV formatting, MillMage will automatically substitute special combinations of characters with an entry from a CSV file.

Merge/CSV example

A CSV file is a Comma Separated Values file — a very simple text format that uses a line in a file as the row, and commas to separate columns. You can create a CSV file using a plain text editor, or by exporting from most common spreadsheet software.

In a Merge/CSV entry in MillMage, the text you enter uses the percent sign followed by a number to look up a column in the current row of the CSV file.

  • Columns and rows are numbered starting from 0.

  • Refer to the first column in a CSV using the formatting "%0", the second using "%1", the third using "%2", and so on.

  • A Current value of 0 refers to the first row, 1 to the second, 2 to the third, and so on.

For example, using a CSV file with the following content:

MillMage,80,10
Corel,300,20

And entering this formatting:

"​I'm thinking of buying %0, it costs $%1."

Would output:

"​I'm thinking of buying MillMage, it costs $80."

Additional Notes

  • Use the Offset field in the Text Options Toolbar to enter multiple indentical formatting strings that output a different row from a CSV.

Additional Notes

  • Any sequence of characters enclosed in single quotes will be included verbatim in the output string (stripped of the quotes), even if it contains formatting characters.

  • All other non-formatting characters in the input string are included verbatim in the output.

For more help using MillMage, please visit our forum to talk with MillMage staff and users, or email support.