None plot device has been substituted...

[SCR73]

We replaced our old printer recently at my office which means, of course, that any drawing more than a couple of weeks old can't find the printer that is specified in the page setup manager.
I always get the message "... The none plot device has been substituted"

So, how do I get AutoCAD to substitute the new printer instead of the "none" plot device? I have the new printer as my default in "options" but that doesn't seem to make any difference.

[rkmcswain]

Note that the setting you set in OPTIONS only applies to new (no template) drawings, and/or R14 or earlier drawings.

Is this an actual printer in your page setups or a PC3 file?
If the latter, why not just rename the "new" PC3 file with the same name as the "old" one?

[SCR73]

All our PC3 files are stored on a drive to which I have "read only" access. Not only do our IT folks not name them the same when we get a new printer. They name them somethng different whenever they install a new drver so I have this problem quite frequently. Is there no change I can make on my own personal workstation?

[rkmcswain]

Is your IT department part of your company or contracted by your company? Either way, they are costing the company money by making changes for no reason.

If the company owners are OK with this and you still want to find a shortcut...

You can create a page setup, save it in your template drawings (you have updated your template drawings, right?) and then import this page setup into each drawing as you use it.

You can also script the -PLOT command to change the printer.

You can also use DWG Trueview to batch insert pagesetups.

[SCR73]

Oh dear, You're probably just going to think I'm being difficult on purpose.

O.K. The template drawings are saved on that drive that I have read only access to. It looks like they haven't been updated in a couple of years! They don't include plotter settings anyway since they're universal for the whole building and we have several printers in different areas.
I don't have DWG Trueview.They only install it on computers that don't have AutoCAD.
I'm not sure about the -PLOT command. I've never used it before so I'll try it. Thanks.

(I think my main problem is that I work in a small, obscure department and the rest of the company tend to forget that we exist at all so they don't create anything for our benefit. I am one of only two computers in the office running MEP and no one has trained me on how to use it so I mostly just use it for straight AutoCAD which is a complete waste!...Oh, I'm ranting aren't I. I'll stop now.)

[jaberwok]

Open the template file from the server, make the changes you want then save it locally as a dwg.
You can then import the page setups from this file as needed
To start a new drawing you could open this file and immediately save it to a new name and continue.

[SCR73]

Thanks guys.
I already had a drawing saved locally as my base drawing (with the new plotter in the page setup) It hadn't occured to me to import it into the page setup for old drawings but it works! Yay.

You know, it would be much easier if there was a simple way to tell AutoCAD to susbstitute something else instead of the "none" plot device...

[rkmcswain]

You know, it would be much easier if there was a simple way to tell AutoCAD to susbstitute something else instead of the "none" plot device...

But there is no need for it when you keep the same name for your PC3 files.

In your case, I would just script the -PLOT command, it's probably the easiest way to make this change.

[robert_smeallie]

Hi Rick,

Its me again. You helped me last time with some plotting problems so I'll try again.
Like "Lostinusa" we replaced our plotter and so now some old drawings don't recognise the new plotter. I tried using the tools in DWG Trueview 2010's Conversion tool to replace the Page Setups stored in the Drawing Files with one saved in a new drawing which had the new plotter set as the default plotter, but all it did was to add a new setup to each drawing with the new plotter rather than REPLACE the existing page setup like it was supposed to do, and so the old setup called *Model is still the default and when I try to batch plot the drawings it still comes up with cannot find plotter, "None" substituted in its place. Like others I ask the question why Autodesk can't let the user decide which will become the substitute plotter rather than just sticking in "None"? If they can incorporate a tool in DWG TrueView which allows you to substitute the default plotter in the page setup with "None" using a checkboxwhy can't they let you substitute with a plotter of your choosing?

Robert Smeallie
Electrical Design Engineer
Woy Woy, NSW, Australia

[robert_smeallie]

But there is no need for it when you keep the same name for your PC3 files.

In your case, I would just script the -PLOT command, it's probably the easiest way to make this change.

Hi Rick,

It's been a while since I posted but just like last time they have moved our office which has meant a change bin the Printer Names. Like before I have to convert our older drawings so that they have the new printer name saved in the Page Setups.

This time after your earlier guidance I have used DWG TrueView's Convert feature to firstly delete the existing plotter name from the Page Setups by setting Saved Printer to "None" then used your suggestion of scripting firstly the _Psetupin command to import the new Plotter name from a reference dwg file located in the Support folders for AutoCAD then using the _-Plot command to make the new printer the current one without proceeding to actually plot the drawing, just save it with the new plotter name saved in the Page Layouts.

So far all good. When I open the drawing/s and check the Page Layouts the new plotter is the default one. But then when I try to use another script in MultiBatch to actually plot the drawings it brings up the old plotter's name as the plotter it is looking for and since it no longer exists, the script crashes.

Where does the drawing get the old name from if it isn't the default AutoCAD plotter and the old printer isn't listed in the Page Setup listing? I've even opened the drawing file in Notepad to see if the old printer's name is still stored somewhere in the drawing data - it isn't. This is weird.