Always problems with PLTs

[dpasa]

No matter what printer I use, I can't have a plt file from Revit.
Please tell me what printers you use, and what settings, I can't understand why this has to be so difficult.

And what is this prn file? I haven't seen any prn since MS-DOS

I really need some help here, I am working the silly way, exporting to ACAD, adjusting sheets and making PLTs.

[Steve_Stafford]

No matter what printer I use, I can't have a plt file from Revit.
If you take care to set up all your settings first you should be able to. Clicking the BROWSE button to name and place the plot file in a specific location will give you the opportunity to choose the plot file type (see attached image). As long as you print plot as soon as you finish this part you'll get plt files instead of prn.

Fwiw, I've submitted prn files renamed to use plt extensions and submitted them to plotters using GoPlot without a difference in output.

[aaronrumple]

Or just make *.prn's and then C:\>ren *.prn *.plt

[Eric Stewart]

Or just make *.prn's and then C:\>ren *.prn *.plt
What I have done is in Windows Explorer go to Folder Options>Tools>File Types

Find PRN, click Advanced, click New, type Convert To PLT in the Action box , andtype cmd.exe /C "ren %1 *.plt" in the Application used to perform the action: box. This way, all you have to do is double click the PRN file to change it to PLT

[gsHoeflinger]

PLTs....

Ahh the bane of my existence with Revit for many years. However no more.

I have found installing "HP DesignJet 750C (E/A0) Color" as a local printer works wonders.
I have all our Revit users install it, (the drivers are natively present in XP) and use that device to create my plts. I have tried Oce's, and different HPs all with no luck. This has been a very good driver.

Also for many many years i was getting poor printing quality with plt files. Until a visitor from the factory (thanks Lilli!) passed on to make sure you have zero, none, notta color fill legends present on plans you want to create plts from, and i don't mean turned off in visibility. They cause a nasty rasterization, and poor quality.

Deleted those color fill legends and since then, all our PLTs are beautiful.

Now if we could get the print dialog box to stay on the file type i want (plt) and not keep switching back to prn!

[bowlingbrad]

....zero, none, notta color fill legends present on plans you want to create plts from

Has this been an issue before? Does anyone know if it will be addressed in the 'release that shall not be named' ?

[gsHoeflinger]

Not sure.

It took many conversations over, i'm not kidding, years, till someboday actually saw what i was talking about... And from there, after going back to the factory i was able to get a reason and a solution. But it should be fixed i agree. Most firms (especially large ones) live, eat and breath PLTs and this should be fixed, because it was by trial and error I found a good virutual printer.

[dpasa]

To Steve Stafford : I know that I can change the file extension but when I go to preview screen and then back to plot dialog, the file is again prn.

To Galen S Hoeflinger : The plotter you mentioned is one of my favorites, never had problems with other software. Still I can't have good results. I send you a picture of the model and two plt files.
Please be kind to send me any strange settings and plotter properties you use.

[Steve_Stafford]

To Steve Stafford : I know that I can change the file extension but when I go to preview screen and then back to plot dialog, the file is again prn.My point was you need to do everything first, including previews then assign the file information, that's all.

[gsHoeflinger]

dpasa-

I see the plts you posted can you tell me how each was created?
I would believe that spiti1-1 is very comparable to what we get when we create plts from Revit using the printer i mentioned above. The other which is all in black with white lines looks similar to some of the poor plots i used to get.

I'll take a look at our settings but they pretty standard, what software do you use with your plts? ReproDesk tends to help.

[dpasa]

All PLTs are created from Revit with Designjet 750. I think the only thing I changed is a checkbox saying "Negative".

[gsHoeflinger]

Thats odd then, because i those plots seem fine to me.
The negative one appears a bit screwy, (the black background is not equally around the drawing)

However the normal plt seems pretty good to me. Maybe i just have lower standards than you, but i don't see anything necessarily wrong with that plt.

[dpasa]

GSHoeflinger, explain somethingto me please.. The normal plt file is the one that is all black. The other one ("screwy") was the negative one. So, what you are saying is that black background is normal? When I try to plot this file it comes out all black.
Do you get a normal plotting for files with black background?

[dpasa]

So, it is not easy to find a driver for PLTs from Revit. Can I please have some answer of what is wrong with my PLTs? They 're all solid black with some white lines inside. Can someone tell me how to correct this and which printer I should use?

TIA
Dimitris

Edit: Dimitris, this new thread appears to be the same subject as the previous one, so I'm merging it.

[Yman]

I've looked at both your plt fiels and picture. The picture looks fine unless your missing materials on your walls. Is that your problem? If it is I would be curious to know if that is the problem you are talking about. I have been trying to resolve this issue for about a year now with Revit. Material patterns disappear if they are too dense in that view. This is very frustrating. Am I the only one that seems to have this problem? It worked great in version 5 and then when they went to version 6 it went downhill from there. Still doesn't work in my mind. I know it was an issue before with other people. Just curious if it is still happening to anybody else in version 7.

I've used this print driver for many years with Revit, HP DesignJet 600 (C2847A), but I changed to the 750 C printer that was mentioned in an earlier post. Make sure you go to the HP website and get the most current drivers. I found that to be an issue, if you have an old driver then printing gets screwy sometimes. Revit always programs to print mfg's most current drivers.

The other thing is when you go to plot just change the .prn to .plt in the name path and file before you hit the OK button and when it creates the plot file you then they will all be .plt files. We create plot files almost everyday and store them on the server to plot out when clients/ contractors come in, so it works we just need to find out what your doing wrong. Also, before you print check your revit print settings and make sure you are set to greyscale, not black and white. Fill patterns become black when using black and white settings.

Keep trying and let's see how it goes.

Y

[gsHoeflinger]

Sorry if there has been some confusion with my responses.
So lets try again. Your plts seem OK.

When i view these in Reprodesk is see the following.
spiti1-1.plt - I would consider this a good plt.
spiti1.plt - Creates black image with white lines. Not what I would want.

So somehow you created a good plt file. If you can replicate this, you are all set.
I will aslo mention i have had plts i created in my office from Revit sent to another office who doesn't use Reprodesk, and the plts printed, oddly. For instance, images (logos) on title blocks end up printing in reverse or negative. I would check your software you use to print plts, that could be the source of the problem.

And to Yman, i agree they do need to address the patterns (materials) in plts... the grey lines don't always translate too well.

[beegee]

The word from the factory on disappearing hatch patterns. ( Thread Reference (http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=2492&page=2&pp=10&highlight=patterns+disappear) )



It works like this: if more than 50% of the face would be covered by the pattern lines, we just paint the face. Vector mode does not paint faces. The lines can be made thinner by using higher resolution (raster quality: presentation) or (for model patterns) finer scale.
Bug reports with minimal examples are always welcome.



No, there was a rewrite between 5.1 and 6.0. Revit has been converting dense patterns into solid fills for a long time, what changed is the logic that decides when the pattern is too dense.
If the plotter were to cover half the face with lines it would look outright ugly, wouldn't it? But then, if the pattern does not look that dense, there may be a bug.
Do you get any improvement from higher resolution or switching to vector?



If vector drops the pattern, raster will probably just shade it.
What throws Revit off is that the pattern makes double lines between tiles. This makes the pattern appear denser, to Revit. Can you send me a .pat file for it?

(http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=2492&page=2&pp=10&highlight=patterns+disappear)

[dpasa]

I want to thank you all very much, you've been a great help.

I think I discovered something, I will let you know after I finish my tests.

[athanasiosmavrides]

DPASA eisai ÅËËÇÍÁÓ?????

[dpasa]

No, still nothing. All I get is black background with some white marks. It seems like sPiLT ink. :-)