HP 1050C driver out of date and unsupported

[vanderloo5]

As much as I love my Hp 1050c, I am amazed at HP's back alley tactics to get us to upgrade even if our hardware is working perfectly, well except for the driver. No more support for my plotter.
Having had driver issues I have updated to what is supposed to be the most recent driver and now my margins on my title blocks are getting cut off.
I have to set my T-Block borders over 1 1/2" in from the paper edge for it to plot.
So now, until I find a solution, I'm sending my plots out to a repro outfit and it's really an inconvenience.
I've tried 3 or 4 different drivers and none have solved the problem. I've spent a great deal of time adjusting settings both in the driver(s) and on the plotter menu to no avail.
Even had technicians from the reseller come on site to try to fix. No luck.
So my only hope is that someone out there has had the same issues ans has found a solution, and/or, there is a source for after market drivers for HP plotters that will work.
If anyone has any suggestions I would sure like to hear them.
Thank You
By the way, the plot preview is fine. It just isn't plotting everything in the preview. And I get the same results when plotting from a .pdf.

[BlackBox]

I'm not sure that I understand your issue fully... More information is needed.

Can you not just print your drawings to PDF, and print the PDF to the plotter, or is that 'off' as well?

If it's an OS issue, you must have 'recently' upgraded, and may still have access to one of your now deprecated licenses... Just setup a virtual machine with that OS, and place your PDF in a shared folder, with a monitor on the deprecated OS that automagically prints any PDFs placed in said shared folder, and then deletes them.

Cheers

[BlackBox]

Also, you do still have a copy of the earlier firmware, etc., right? Are you able to roll back the firmware?

Cheers

[vanderloo5]

My issue- My revit title blocks have a double border around the perimeter, one being about 1/4"-3/8" from the edge of the sheet. Even if I set the plotter driver to center the plot, my border does not plot, (too close to the edge).
My reseller said it is a known issue and I could try the HP Universal Driver but if that doesn't work, he doesn't think there's anything I can do about it.
This happens whether I plot .pdf's or .rvt files. Even though the preview looks correct.
If I set the plot to "fit to page" the T-block borders are about 1 1/2" from the edge of the sheet and it's not to scale. Ive tried every setting in the plotter setup, the driver, and the on board settings on the plotter. Nothing works.
Even if I change my T-Block to fit the plotters margins, (which would be giving up too much real estate), I often need to plot my engineer's sheets, Civil Acad, topos, etc., and they all have borders too close to the edge that get cut off.
In fact my engineer's detail sheets get cut off on the edge of his details.
So, even though I have a $7,500 plotter that is in near perfect condition, I'm paying big bucks to outsource my plots until I can come up with a solution.

[BlackBox]

My issue- My revit title blocks have a double border around the perimeter, one being about 1/4"-3/8" from the edge of the sheet. Even if I set the plotter driver to center the plot, my border does not plot, (too close to the edge).
My reseller said it is a known issue and I could try the HP Universal Driver but if that doesn't work, he doesn't think there's anything I can do about it.
This happens whether I plot .pdf's or .rvt files. Even though the preview looks correct.
If I set the plot to "fit to page" the T-block borders are about 1 1/2" from the edge of the sheet and it's not to scale. Ive tried every setting in the plotter setup, the driver, and the on board settings on the plotter. Nothing works.
Even if I change my T-Block to fit the plotters margins, (which would be giving up too much real estate), I often need to plot my engineer's sheets, Civil Acad, topos, etc., and they all have borders too close to the edge that get cut off.
In fact my engineer's detail sheets get cut off on the edge of his details.
So, even though I have a $7,500 plotter that is in near perfect condition, I'm paying big bucks to outsource my plots until I can come up with a solution.

Your inkjet can print to the paper's edge, AFAIK.

Not sure what paper size you're plotting, but the issue seems to be the margin settings for that paper size, which is entirely editable within CAD (I use AutoCAD & Civil 3D, etc. not Revit)... Simply open the plot dialog, edit the printer's properties, and may need to create a new paper size with custom margins if there is no in-built 'full bleed' paper size for, example.

If you're already using a 'full bleed' configuration, and a resultant PDF is correct, but the printer simply won't spit the sheet out correctly, then you definitely have a printer issue... Which *should* be able to be configured, so long as your recent 'update' didn't remove such functionality... If that did in fact happen, simply call the manufacturer and demand that they provide you a copy of all firmware versions, and then iterate back as far as you need in order to restore functionality. This may, or may not introduce a conflict with your current OS, in which case see my comments above about implementing a folder monitor on a legacy (virtual?) machine.

Hope this helps!

[cadtag]

It sounds like the OP is running Win7/Win8 - for which there are no HP Drivers other than the 'universal' that support the 1050.

Option 'D' would be to set up an XP box as a plotting station and dump PDFs from that. Or possibly a Linux box with CUPS

[BlackBox]

It sounds like the OP is running Win7/Win8 - for which there are no HP Drivers other than the 'universal' that support the 1050.

I'm running Server 2012 R2, and Windows 8.1 (testing Windows 10 TP), with a 2 month old HP T7100, and still run the 'HP Designjet Universal Print Driver HPGL2'... Not sure what the differences are between the OP's and this obviously (above my pay grade), but I'm certainly not inclined to disbelieve the OP.

Are you guys still running the 1055, and 3500's?

Option 'D' would be to set up an XP box as a plotting station and dump PDFs from that. Or possibly a Linux box with CUPS

Sorry, I thought I had suggested that already - maybe I'm just off my game - it's been an eventful end of year.

Cheers

[cadtag]

I scrapped all my 1055s up here in the north country. (but did salvage the bases for rolling workshop stands -- heavier duty casters on the bottom, and a SYP 2x8 w/ 1/4" hardboard on top lines up nicely with the tablesaw and workbench. Route a dado centered in that & add a strip of T-track running the long way, and they are pretty handy.

I'm running a T2300 scanner/plotter combo. Paper handling sucks on it - especially at the end of the roll, but it makes nice hardcopy. Put in a roll of high gloss photo paper, and I can get great banners.

[BlackBox]

I scrapped all my 1055s up here in the north country. (but did salvage the bases for rolling workshop stands -- heavier duty casters on the bottom, and a SYP 2x8 w/ 1/4" hardboard on top lines up nicely with the tablesaw and workbench. Route a dado centered in that & add a strip of T-track running the long way, and they are pretty handy.

We actually have a 1050(something) here that has been unused since they took on the KIP I just replaced with T7100; you've got to email me some pics, so I can see if something similar can be done here... I'd love to be able to wheel my desk around (I'll just 'quiet' the backup battery; ehhehehe!

I'm running a T2300 scanner/plotter combo. Paper handling sucks on it - especially at the end of the roll, but it makes nice hardcopy. Put in a roll of high gloss photo paper, and I can get great banners.

I _almost_ got the T2300 (basically a new ink-based version of the KIP we used to run), and ended up opting for the T7100 + stacker instead as it wasn't much more per month, and has significantly better performance, superior quality as compared to the KIP (laser), not to mention color!

That said, I too am having issues with whatever they've done with the new firmware... Doesn't seem to matter if we specify roll length or not, when the end of roll comes, it throws a 'non-continuable error' event and requires a restart (something neither the old 1055, 3500, or T7100 at my old office to your South [which just got its leadership shaken up a bit, as I understand it; ehhehehe] used to do; Grrr). I'm working with a guy from HP Services on the issues I've observed, and they are working with me to develop firmware updates, so here's a penny in the wishing well.

Cheers

[cadtag]

This is what my HP 1055 now looks like.... I've got two more to rework -- they may become a router table, I haven't decided yet

plotter.png