Always problems with PLTs

[dpasa]

I can't use PLTs no matter what I do. This is a big delay because I have to export to ACAD and re-open all the DWGs to make them PLTs. This is not very nice since there is an option inside Revit. I tried everything. I use a very common Plotter, HP Designjet 2500.
I would appreciate any help.

[blads]

I'm not sure what you are trying to do... To me, the main scenario where you might be tempted to want to plot to a file would be where the originating site has the data in a CAD system that the recieving site doesn't have. You want to send them an electronic file from which they can print the drawing, even though they don't have the software.

If you want to print an existing .PLT file on your printer (or plotter) then...

Make sure the file was created for your specific printing device (the same model). You can just copy the file to your printer:

COPY /B myfile.plt LPT1:
or COPY /B myfile.plt \\server\designjet2500
for a networked plotter.

HTH

[Lashers]

There is a "Plot to File" option in Revit. It does seem to default to a *.prn file, I don't use it much so never bothered to look for a way of changing it automatically. All you have to do is change the *.prn file extension to *.plt and all is well.

Hope this is what you were refering to??

[dpasa]

I don't have a plotter so I send them to a "plotting center" (Just a store with plotters, photocopiers etc). Their machine needs plt.
Renaming prn to plt is not the solution.
I don't know why this is so difficult to solve, I haven't been able to find any help, this is not the first time I have asked this, also I tried through the discussion group.
I am waiting for an answer from AutoDesk (supp. req) but I am not very optimistic

It's very simple, the choise is there and is not working.WHY?

[aaronrumple]

Renaming prn to plt is not the solution.

Actually it is.

When you print to file, use the browse button to identify a location. Then select the file "Save as type:" drop down. You'll see *.plt listed. In fact you can type in whatever extension you like.

Even if you select *.prn - it doesn't matter. It is the plotter diver that determines what is in the file - not the file's extension. So - yes - you can rename a *.prn to a *.plt and everything will be just fine.

[LRaiz]

You may want to double check with your plotting center what they use on their machine that requires plt. I guess it is not a standard HP plotting set-up. I believe that Windows by default make all printer drivers (regardless of a manufacturer) output a prn (not plt) file in case of print to file. You may try to verify it yourself by printing to file from Microsoft Word or Excel. Revit implemented a plt option as a convenience but in reality file contents are the same as prn. When Revit outputs a printer file it does in according to Windows driver specifications and plt file is identical to prn except naming convention.

I suspect plt is an old outdated convention coming from some specific printer manufacturer (probably Oce) which is still widely employed by print shops. It is quite possible that there is a miscommunication and your printer shop is expecting that plt file would be formatted differently from prn. In that case I think you should not expect Revit to implement a custom file format, you should rather find a print shop that is capable of printing files created according to standard Windows conventions.

Hopefully this explanation will be enough to clear any misunderstanding that your print shop might have and they will complete your job.

[dpasa]

PLT was/is the standard output format from AutoCAD that's why everyone uses it. Not easy to find another plotting center. AutoCAD uses plotter configuration, not system printers so there is no problem. I guess I have to do some more researche on this.

[Scott D Davis]

So what exactly is the problem? You send PLT files to your Plot Center, and then what? No output? Or do you get a plot, but it's not correct? Or is it something else? I haven't had any problems with PLTs.

[sbrown]

dpasa,

1. Download the printer drivers for the printer you print shop uses.
2. Install those on your machine/network(this will create that printer on your machine, you don't actually need to have the physical machine)
3. Print from revit to that machine, check the plot to file button.

Make sure you select .plt as the file name in the pulldown as directed in a previous post.

[LRaiz]

PLT was/is the standard output format from AutoCAD that's why everyone uses it. Not easy to find another plotting center. AutoCAD uses plotter configuration, not system printers so there is no problem. I guess I have to do some more researche on this.
Exactly. PLT may be a standard AutoCAD format but the world is much bigger then AutoCAD. Microsoft imposed the format for print files and all printer manufacturers support it. Revit is not based on AutoCAD and does things according to Windows standards. You problem is understandable if print shop is expecting AutoCAD specific format while Revit outputs Windows standard format. This situation reminds my of AutoCAD specific shx format for text fonts while everyone else long since using true type fonts. Even AutoCAD itself these days supports ttf and is able to use standard windows print drivers in addition to its own printing pipeline.

Check, you should be able to find a shop capable of printing files created by standard windows print drivers.

[Simon.Whitbread]

Exactly. PLT may be a standard AutoCAD format but the world is much bigger then AutoCAD. ...
AutoCAD => PLT Plotting, distribution, archiving, project record
Revit => PDF (BAD Dobby! should be DWF) Ditto

[dpasa]

This is what I get as an output. (Look at it if you have a viewer or print it, it is just A4)

[bkoster343497]

dpasa

This is what I see when I open it in the OCE client tools. Is there something missing?

[dgreen.49364]

Why not plot to PDF files? Easy to view. Easy to plot. Nothing to export. All printing outlets can do them. No muss. No fuss.

[gordie_v]

I have been having problems printing plt or prn file to an oce 9600
I am trying to find a hpgl2 driver that works.
I have been using postscript driver and it works ok but it takes a long time to process. both in Revit and in reprodesk.

auto cad plt files process almost instantly in reprodesk

what drivers do oce users use?

thanks
Gordon

[sbrown]

I used the windows drivers on OCE"s website for the Oce9400 and they allways worked great for me.

[todd.69291]

Try downloading Oce's Reprodesk. You don't need a to have an Oce. I used to use it to preview my plt's before send them to the printers.

http://www.bps.com/reprodesk.htm

good luck,

[dpasa]

To bkoster84198 :This is what you are supposed to see!!!!! What is going on here! All I see when I open the file is a black color covering everything. I try to plot and I get the same black thing... And I see now that you can see what you are supposed to see, the plan view of a small house!
I will try the oce viewer and I'll tell you.
Thank you all for your time...

Update...ten minutes later
This is what I get from OCE viewer Can't explain this

[rodneyf]

dpasa,
If you use the Oce driver and it's Reprodesk software you will have to create a .pen file it is proprietary to Oce. The reason you are getting an almost all black preview is because when the Oce processes the drawing it is looking at a .pen file that is letting the printer control the lineweights and therefor you get a dark drawing. If you create a .pen file that lets the drawing control the lineweights then you may get it to look like you want. Unfortunately I don't work for the company anymore that uses the Oce but maybe one of my previous fellow employees might tune in here and post the file. Hope that helps.

[gordie_v]

we are using reprodesk with our oce
our problem is similar, we get black drawings unless we use a postscript driver.

oce driver is a post script, it looks good but takes a long time to process
hpgl/2 drivers are vector drivers and process files in about 1 second, the postrscript driver creates a raster file and takes 20-30 seconds per plot

its ok if i plot 1 or 2 files but when i print the whole set 60+ sheets its a problem

[bkoster343497]

dpasa

I get the same black screen in Reprodesk. I have downloaded the OCE Client Tools and use it for viewing the file.

http://www.oceplancenter.com/download.asp

Attahced is scan (not a very straight one) of the file printed on our HP1050C using the command prompt "Copy[space]tritri.prn[space]\\server name\printer share name[space]/b

[athanasiosmavrides]

I am having the same problem when trying to plot (I don't own a plotter).
DWF and PLT are not working properly. But even when You own a printer such as an HP designjet 1280 (Max size A3+) I am having the same problems
Autodesk support replied :

"I was able to see the same difference as you in the print dialog of the DWF viewer.
Depending on the printer that is selected, the result of the printable area is different, so the issue may also be linked to the printer driver.
However I think there is an issue when the DWF is generated in Revit because changing the sheet setup does not seem to change the output of the DWF. I reported this issue to our development team. This problem is unfortunately not fixed in the release 9, but is still open for a future release. I will keep you updated when I get a feedback from our development team.

For the moment you can select the option "Fit to page" or "Clip Pages" when printing the DWF."

How do I print?
Export the titleblock that I want to plot to AutoCAD and then plot it through AutoCAD converting it to PLT. (AutoCAD PLT works just Fine)

[dpasa]

Thank you all for your answers. I admit than export to Acad and then make Plts is not something difficult.It is very disturbing though, to have this options from Revit and not being able to use it. I will try, as the last chance, the OCE client tools. After that, I will continue using Acad for plotting.

[Wes Macaulay]

...and this is why we create PDFs for plotting purposes!

[SkiSouth]

From a previous post discussing plotters: I have used this now for almost 2 years. No problems sending plt files...


Our print shop uses the Oce 9800 plotter. I just called and confirmed they don't do anything else to my plots other than load them in repro and then run them.

I use the "outdated" Oce 2.8.2 Raster Driver, downloaded from the Oce website. - (I think I still have the zip file if its not still on the website)
Specifically:

1. Set the plotter up as a Oce 9400 NOT an Oce 9800.
2. Under the Printer preferences - Finishing MUST be set up in all categories as Printer Default.
3. Turn Remote Control Header Present OFF.
4. Plot to a file as your Port.
5. Send your plots to your local print shop for HPGL2 Happiness..

Just a note, a pen weight of less than .01 has a tendency on the Oce's to greyscale. ( A percentage of the line is lost due to resolution of width). It's still prints - just not a solid line.

I recently set up a more current driver in another office. Worked fine. Be sure and turn off the remote control header though.

[Alvin_Alejandro]

dpasa,


You can try another plotting centre or another plotter..same experienced we had.After 2 months of complaining to OCE and with the same quality output...we descided to change OCE plotter to XeroX. But last resort they did, was replacing parts of the machine and we still using OCE..it works..

[jrichardson]

We are using the "HP DesignJet 750C (E/A0) Color" plot driver. We plot to file then process through Reprodesk 4.35 to our TDS400 or TDS600. A new .pen was created to allow the drawing to dictate pen settings (see attached). If this pen set is not applied on our end we will get the blackened background. And yest .prn s are created but reprodesk still reads them. We are still looking for a little new driver though. Selecting paper sizes with this one is a little clumsy.

jamie

[DanielleAnderson]

...and this is why we create PDFs for plotting purposes!

We're experiencing some similar problems with plotting prn files to an OCE (although I have not yet begun to troubleshoot since I have been out of town for a while). I just wanted to comment on the PDF situation though, because whenever I have plotted pdfs to an OCE, they come out screened (as in dotted) and project architects tend to freak out about that.

Edit: (Addition) I have done a few plot file tests myself using the "plot to file" toggle in Revit and the attached image is what I get when I open it up in Reprodesk. Not only are the wall hatches completely off, but all the text and room tags have shifted downwards (see standpipe note and how far off the leader is). I get the same results when printing to PLT and PRN. Can anybody help with this?

[DanielleAnderson]

Anybody out there? Would dwf be better? Any experience sending dwfs to an Oce???

[Wes Macaulay]

Ha - thought you were commenting more than soliciting advice. I've had the same problems you mention, but it was an Oce 8000-something. We tried PDF, DWF, and plot files using the HP DesignJet 750C driver that ships with Windows (not HP's driver off their website)... Oce machines can read HP-GL/2. I think DWF won out actually, and I've been having more luck with the integrated DWF driver in Revit 9 than I did with 8.1, which would often crash right back down to the desktop without giving an error report!

So yes, try DWF, and if that doesn't work, try the 750C print driver and send plot files to the Oce. Which model do you have anyway?

[DanielleAnderson]

Ha - thought you were commenting more than soliciting advice. I've had the same problems you mention, but it was an Oce 8000-something. We tried PDF, DWF, and plot files using the HP DesignJet 750C driver that ships with Windows (not HP's driver off their website)... Oce machines can read HP-GL/2. I think DWF won out actually, and I've been having more luck with the integrated DWF driver in Revit 9 than I did with 8.1, which would often crash right back down to the desktop without giving an error report!

So yes, try DWF, and if that doesn't work, try the 750C print driver and send plot files to the Oce. Which model do you have anyway?

It's a TDS600. We have one on the drafting floor and one upstairs in the print center. The one down here we can print directly to, so no problems there, but the one in the print center they want us to go through Reprodesk. It seems that Revit loses something when it goes through the translation to plt or prn - was Revit not meant to talk to Reprodesk or the "plot to file" situation?
For now to get this out the door, I am printing an original set directly to the oce down here and then taking it upstairs for them to copy to create additional sets (we're not supposed to bog down the downstairs plotter). I am going to have to see if we can have a discussion about using DWF with the print center people upstairs. Any other advice from "the trenches" would be much appreciated though, so I can be armed with the facts. :)
Thanks!

[al]

In our experiences, DWF prints just fine from Revit. We are on the newest release of revit and DWF. It does seem to take a little longer to plot then when using the Revit PDF Writer but not a big deal.

To send the DWF files to the Oce we are - oops were - using the Oce Publisher. Oce Publisher quite does not like to process all the data in the DWF files however so we are now back to creating PDFs. I like the ability to create multi-page files with a free utility.

There was supposed to be a new Oce Publisher application available last week but we haven't seen it yet. If we want to stay with DWF then we may have to change our billing procedures to allow printing to the Oce direct from DWF.

BTW, I have never been able to successfully create an hpgl file out of Revit -- gave up a long time ago.

[Wes Macaulay]

The problem with many drivers creating the HP-GL/2 is that they use compression techniques to send the data across the network (so I've been told). The HP750 and 650 were the last plotters to use vanilla HP-GL/2, so the non-HP drivers for these printers are supposed the best way to make PLT files that will work with OCE machines.

[DanielleAnderson]

These plt problems appear to be driver-driven (haha). Does anyone know if autodesk has talked to Oce about compatible drivers? I went onto the Oce website and took a look around and it looks like they have customized drivers that are autocad-specific - wonder how hard it would be for them to give us one for Revit?

[Don Sutherland]

I gave up using Plot files and started to using full sheet size PDF files for ploting and have had good luck with them.

[DanielleAnderson]

I gave up using Plot files and started to using full sheet size PDF files for ploting and have had good luck with them.

PDFs with an Oce plotter? (just want to clarify)

[Scott D Davis]

These plt problems appear to be driver-driven (haha). Does anyone know if autodesk has talked to Oce about compatible drivers? I went onto the Oce website and took a look around and it looks like they have customized drivers that are autocad-specific - wonder how hard it would be for them to give us one for Revit?
AutoCAD requires specific drivers.....Revit on the other hand uses Windows drivers, so if a printer/plotter works for Windows, it should work for Revit.

[DanielleAnderson]

AutoCAD requires specific drivers.....Revit on the other hand uses Windows drivers, so if a printer/plotter works for Windows, it should work for Revit.

That's the problem though...it doesn't. we can't get revit - using an oce driver - to print plts or prns of plan drawings without the test/dimensions/symbols registering about 1" off (see previous image I have posted above). (note: sections and elevations appear to print just fine to plt/prn - odd?) So, I'm wondering if somehow it is driver-based? Or if there is just some inherent problem with the "plot to file" command in Revit. I am beginning to think it is the latter, since printing directly to the Oce (not through plt) produces perfect plots.
This is a really big deal to us right now here at CollinsWoerman - these, unfortunately, are the sort of glitches that make PMs think twice about wanting to use the software - no matter how much talking I do.

[mcuevas]

We have an Oce TDS600 and we don't have any issues plotting to it. Although we do not use PLT/PRN files, we use PDF files. We use OCE Print Exec LT, to plot the PDF files.

[ron.sanpedro]

That's the problem though...it doesn't. we can't get revit - using an oce driver - to print plts or prns of plan drawings without the test/dimensions/symbols registering about 1" off (see previous image I have posted above). (note: sections and elevations appear to print just fine to plt/prn - odd?) So, I'm wondering if somehow it is driver-based? Or if there is just some inherent problem with the "plot to file" command in Revit. I am beginning to think it is the latter, since printing directly to the Oce (not through plt) produces perfect plots.
This is a really big deal to us right now here at CollinsWoerman - these, unfortunately, are the sort of glitches that make PMs think twice about wanting to use the software - no matter how much talking I do.

I have reached the point where any plot house that can't handle PDFs just doesn't deserve the work. And we are close to demending that the plot house be able to handle PDFs with a Post Script driver. PLT is only one step above sepia prints and eating your meat raw. Just WAY too old school! We have clients who still list PLT and TIFF in their deliverables, and we are trying hard to educate them about PDF, but it is slow.

Best,
Gordon

[Don Sutherland]

In talking to the repro companies in Orange County, the PDF files take less time and fewer steps than PLT flies. And less cost to plot.

[DanielleAnderson]

I have reached the point where any plot house that can't handle PDFs just doesn't deserve the work. And we are close to demending that the plot house be able to handle PDFs with a Post Script driver. PLT is only one step above sepia prints and eating your meat raw. Just WAY too old school! We have clients who still list PLT and TIFF in their deliverables, and we are trying hard to educate them about PDF, but it is slow.

Best,
Gordon

Unfortunately, I don't have that kind of power. We actually have a contract with a local repro house and they have a satellite print center IN our office. Perhaps we will look into dwf and see if we can get them up and running with that.
As for pdfs - has anybody noticed issues of them coming out looking screened on an oce? Everytime I have printed a pdf to an Oce (through a repro house) it has come out looking screened. What pdf writer do you use?

[Innamae]

We have had nothing but problems with printing. We send all of our drawings to a local printer.
PLT never looks the same as on the preview screen
DWF can't handle any font other than Arial - Text jumps everywhere

Pdf is the only way we can print anything.

[andrewharle]

We have had exactly the same issue with our print shop's Oce 9800 as Danielle Anderson has, with all text and fill information being shifted.

Our IT department have now resolved this by setting up a new network printer to using a driver for an Oce TCS500 Colour, and with the Printing Preferences - Image - More - Processing on the Computer option turned on. We then print to file, and our print shop then processed the resulting files.

This has cracked the problem, even if it is long winded

Interestingly enough saving as a PDF (using CutePDF) and then printing the PDF using the Oce 9800 windows driver still produced shifted text and fill information.

I assume the printing issue remains in Revit 2010, but we will wait for a stable version before we start using it.