Plotters

[rodneyf]

I posted this question on the alt.cad.revit discussion group and got some really great help but I still can not plot correctly.
Hello All,
I have tried over and over again to set up our Oce 9600 plotter to use with Revit and it keeps making huge plot files and doubling the length of the plot (i.e. 36" long turns into 72" long) and I am getting fed up. We plot to file to a directory on the network. Has anyone been successful in setting up and using an Oce 9600 with reprodesk software version 4.25 or 4.30.5. I have downloaded all the latest drivers and it still does not work correctly. Should I install another printer and use it to plot? I have tried the HP 1055cm and it scatters some of my dimension lines and blanks out some of the text. system specs are as follows, AMD Athon XP 1700, 1gig of Ram, 32mb 3Dlabs Oxygen VX1, Win XP pro, and Revit 5.1 latest build. Any help at all is greatly appreciated. We plot to file (.plt) and then we open Reprodesk software on each computer and add files from a directory on the server then we send the print job over to the print room via a queue. Once it gets into Reprodesk is where it gets all screwy.

Thanks,

[sbrown]

I responded before in the other newsgroup.

Heres what I suggest.

Ignore the repro software.

start from scratch, remove your oce printers, download the file
ocewrd2 from oce's website,
it is the windows driver for the oce 9600 or 9800
install that. so now you have the oce 9600 as a windows printer.

print to it from revit, check the paper size, ie 24x36 landscape

check the plot to file box.

tell it where you are saving.

and print.

send the individual .plt files to your repro shop, usually ours has to view one and move it slightly to center it on their paper, then those settings get applied to all of them and it prints excellent.

I do this every job and don't have any issues with either the 9600 or 9800. I'll run down and ask what software our shop uses.

[sbrown]

I just checked with our repro shop they are usiing reprodesk 4.3 so I can't imagine there is any difference.

we are running win2000 are you on a diff. os?

[rodneyf]

Well I have reinstalled the Oce 9600 first thing this morning and it worked okay, the only thing was the .plt file size was still very large (2.9mb). So I unstalled the 9600 and installed the 9800 printer and made a new plot and the file size is still very large (3.6mb). I did add some more information to the drawing before plotting to the 9800 but it was only text so I am still confused why the .plt files are so large.

Thanks,

[sbrown]

that size sounds ok to me.

most of my plt are between 1mb and 4mb from revit. we just burn em all on a cd and send it off.

[christopher.zoog51272]

Well I have reinstalled the Oce 9600 first thing this morning and it worked okay, the only thing was the .plt file size was still very large (2.9mb). So I unstalled the 9600 and installed the 9800 printer and made a new plot and the file size is still very large (3.6mb). I did add some more information to the drawing before plotting to the 9800 but it was only text so I am still confused why the .plt files are so large.

Thanks,

IMHO, I don't think those plots are that big, especially if the sheet has an elevation or two. I've seen plot spool files that reach 200 mb! :shock:

[rodneyf]

You guys really don't think those are that big. I have set up an HP 1055cm and it was only 1.2mb. Also if I use the PDF writer then it drops down to 800-900k. That is why I am concerned about the size of the plot files using the Oce printers.

Thanks,

[PeterJ]

Like I said before, try installing an HP 7550. We use that as our driver for printing to file and typical A1 sheets (your 30 x 40??) run 500kB to 2 MB.

The print shop technical people say it's because the HP HPGL plot file is a tighter implementation than the Oce one.

P

[rodneyf]

The HP 7550 was the next plotter on my list to install. I will be setting one up tomorrow so I will let you know how that went.

Thanks,

[rodneyf]

Well I could not find any drivers for the HP 7550 so I could not set that one up. However I was able to set up an HP 755CM and it worked now I just have to tweak it to our standards and all will be well in never never land.

Thanks to all that helped me,

[ajayholland]

I've been plotting to our in-house 9600 for a couple of weeks, with only these issues:

I had to beef up the line weights in my object styles - fine lines that were printing well on a laser printer were dropping out on full size plots. For the transparent filled region overlays I had also had to use thicker, darker lines.

We don't plot directly to the 9600 - SOP is to make HPGL plot files, which are sent to the Oce using their Plot Director software. When I use my Revit plot files, I get the following warning:

One or more files contain some remote control information. Do you want to merge this information with the currently selected configuration?

Either accepting or rejecting this dialog does not seem to have any effect on the output.

Finally, when I create plot files in Revit the file extension defaults to *.prn instead of *.plt. I have to go to this dialogue last – if I do anything else it will reset.

Comments welcome.

-AJH

[ajayholland]

After my previous post here (above), I contacted Revit support with my problem, and got the answer back the same day. I'm posting the response here, for the benefit of other users.

Jay,

AutoDesk Revit is a true windows application and requires the use of the actual printer driver for the hardware being used. The HPGL solution will not work with Revit and is not supported. It was a pre-Windows solution that is widely used for AutoCAD, but will not work for regular Windows applications. I suggest you print with the OCE Raster driver.

The message you are receiving is not a Revit message and is probably related to the driver or Plot Director. I suggest contacting Oce and the folks that support Plot Director to see if they know how to avoid this message.

In regards to the file extension, “.prn” is the Windows file extension and “.plt” is the AutoCAD file extension, which is not as commonly used. I know that other OCE printers, drivers, and software accepts “.prn” since it is the industry norm. You may also want to consult OCE on this.

Robert Mencarini, AIA
AutoDesk Revit Client Services