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AutoCAD® 2000 Fast Track to Plotting Your First DrawingIntroduction AutoCAD 2000 provides the plotting features you have asked for, with an easy-to-use-plotting interface. New features include: storing plot settings in your drawing; onscreen lineweights; WYSIWYG layouts; more control over hardcopy output using plot style tables; device-accurate paper sizes; and new wizards to assist you in configuring plot devices, creating custom paper sizes, and importing Release 14 pen assignments. You may require a little time to become familiar with these new features, but once you do, you will be able to plot faster, more easily, and with more consistency than ever before. Common Questions This document is designed for customers who are familiar with Release 14 plotting. You will be introduced to the key changes in the new plotting interface while quickly plotting your first drawing. Just click on the hyperlinks to learn more about each topic.
Procedures Configuring a Plotter or Printer Use the Autodesk® Plotter Manager and Add-a-Plotter wizard to configure plotting and printing devices. The Add-a-Plotter wizard creates a plotter configuration (PC3) file containing device-specific information such as device driver name, model name, media type, and default paper sizes. For a list of supported plotters and output file types, see Supported Plot Device.
Configuring a Windows System Printer Windows system printers and plotters do not require any additional configuration to be used with AutoCAD 2000. Windows system printers and plotters are always available in the Plot Device list in the Plot dialog box, and are distinguished by a printer icon as illustrated in figure. For an explanation of Windows system printers see: Windows System Printers.Figure 1. Specifying a plot device Tips
Configuring an Autodesk Heidi plotter driver (HDI) AutoCAD ADI plotter drivers have been replaced with Autodesk Heidi plotter drivers (HDI). To configure an Autodesk HDI plotter driver, use the Add-a-Plotter wizard and choose either My Computer to configure a plotter connected directly to your computer or Network Plotter to configure a plotter connected to a network sever.
Configuring a Plotter Connected to Your Computer
Figure 2. The Autodesk Plotter Manager A new plotter configuration file is created in the Plotter Manager folder. To use this configuration, select the plotter configuration file from the Name list on the Plot Device tab in the Plot dialog box. Tips
Configuring a Plotter Connected to a Network Server
Figure 3. The Autodesk Plotter Manager
A new plotter configuration file is created in the Plotter Manager folder. To use this configuration, select the plotter configuration file from the Name list on the Plot Device tab in the Plot dialog box. Tips
If Your Device is Not Listed as an Autodesk Heidi Driver If the manufacturer of your device is not listed in the Add-a-Plotter wizard, you have the following options:
In Release 14, pen assignments and AutoCAD object colors were combined to determine lineweights, linetypes, and the color of a drawing when it was plotted. AutoCAD 2000 replaces pen assignments with a plot style table file. A plot style table file can use AutoCAD colors to control lineweights, color, color screening, grayscale, dithering, linetypes, line end and join styles, fill patterns, and pen numbers at plot time. Plot style tables are device independent and are attached at plot time using the Plot Style Table (Pen Assignments) list in the Plot dialog box .
Specifying Pen Assignments Using a Plot Style Table
The lineweights, colors, color screening, grayscale, dithering, linetypes, line end and join styles, fill patterns, and pen numbers from the attached plot style table are used to plot your drawing. Tip
Editing Pen Assignments Using a Plot Style Table
Figure 5. Editing a plot style table with the Plot Style Table editor
The lineweights, colors, color screening, grayscale, dithering, linetypes, line end and join styles, fill patterns, and pen numbers from the attached plot style table are used to plot your drawing. Tips
Creating Pen Assignments in a New Plot Style Table
The new plot style table you just created is now attached to your drawing and ready for plotting. Import Release 14 Pen Assignments from a PCP or a PC2 file
The new plot style table you just created is now attached to your drawing and ready for plotting. Note: Release 14 pen assignments are stored in the acadr14.cfg file. During the installation of AutoCAD 2000, your Release 14 pen assignments were converted to plot style tables. These plot style tables are list by device name or as R14 Default Pen Assignments in the Plot Style Table (Pen Assignments) drop-down list on the Plot Device tab of the Plot dialog box (only available if Release 14 was installed on your system when you installed AutoCAD 2000). Specifying Plot Area, Rotation, Paper Size, and Scale The Plot Settings Tab in the Plot dialog box contains the settings for paper size, drawing orientation, plot area, plot scale, plot offset and plot options. How Plot Settings are Saved in Your Drawing Once you have plotted your drawing, all plot settings are automatically saved in the drawing. To plot your drawing again with the same plot settings, choose Plot, and then choose OK. When you plot your drawing from model space, the plot settings are saved in model space. When you plot your drawing from a layout, the plot settings are saved in the layout. Using the Layout Paper Image When plotting from a layout, there is a new paper image that represents the following plot settings: paper size, printable area, plots area, plot scale, and plot offset. If your drawing displays within the black dashed line on the layout paper image, it will plot with the plot settings you have chosen. If any part of your drawing displays outside the dashed line, it will be clipped when it is plotted.
Paper sizes are listed under Paper Size on the Plot Settings tab based on the supported paper sizes for the current plot device. Each paper size has a predefined printable area based on the manufacturer specification. To modify the printable area of a paper size, see "Modifying the printable area of a standard paper size."With some plotters, you can load the same size sheet of paper in either landscape or portrait orientation. These plotters list the same paper size twice in the Paper Size list. For example, ANSI A (8.5 x 11) and ANSI A (11 x 8.5). When selecting a paper size, choose one that represents both the size and orientation of your paper when you load it into your plotting device.
Figure 8. Specify paper size, paper orientation, drawing orientation, etc. on the Plot Settings tab Plot rotation is now controlled by the paper size and drawing orientation you specify. The white paper icon under Drawing Orientation represents the paper orientation in the plot device. The letter "A" inside the icon represents the drawing orientation on the paper. In the illustration to the right, the position of the white paper icon is the result of selecting a 24"x36" paper size and a drawing orientation of landscape. In this case, you place a 24" wide roll or cut sheet of paper in your plotting device. After removing the drawing from the plotter, you would rotate the paper 90 degrees to view read it. In the illustration to the right, the position of the white paper icon is the result of selecting a 36"x24" paper size and a drawing orientation of landscape. In this case, you place a 36" wide roll or cut sheet of paper in your plotting device. After removing the drawing from the plotter, you do not need to rotate the paper to read it. When plotting from model space, the options under Plot Area in the Plot dialog box are the same as in Release 14. When plotting from a layout, a new option called Layout is now available. Setting the plot area to Layout plots all objects within the printable area of the selected paper size when the plot scale is set to 1:1. A dashed line on the paper image background represents the printable area.Setting a plot scale is the same as in Release 14. A new Scale list provides a list of industry standard scales factors. You can also specify a custom scale in the Custom boxes. Scaling Lineweights If your drawing uses lineweights, you may also want to reduce the width of the lineweights in proportion to the plot scale when creating check plots. When working in a layout, you can select the Scale Lineweights option in the Plot dialog box. The effect is the same as photo-reducing your drawing to a smaller size. The Scale Lineweights option is only available when plotting layouts. Figure 9. Specifying plot area, plot scale, and lineweight scale Creating a User- Defined Paper Size User-defined paper sizes are now referred to as custom paper sizes. You can create custom paper sizes for Autodesk HDI drivers using the Custom Paper Size wizard in the Calibration and User-Defined Paper Sizes node of the Plotter Configuration Editor. For the Windows system printers, the chosen printer driver must support custom paper sizes.
Creating a Custom Paper Size for Autodesk Heidi Plotter Drivers (HDI).
Figure 10. Creating a custom paper size in the Plotter Configuration Editor Figure 11. Creating a custom paper size in the Custom Paper Size wizard
NOTE: If you are creating a paper size that is larger than a standard paper size, verify that the plotter is capable of plotting within the new dimensions by using the Print test page button on the Finish page. A plotter configuration file has now been created containing the new paper size. The plotter configuration file will appear in the plot device list in the Plot dialog box. Make sure you select this plotter configuration file when you plot. Creating a Custom Paper Size for Windows System Printers User-defined paper sizes are now referred to as custom paper sizes. For the Windows system printer, custom paper sizes must be supported in the Windows system printer driver. To determine whether your Windows system printer driver supports custom paper sizes, use the following procedure.
Figure 12 Creating a Custom paper size for a Window system Printer Modifying the Printable Area of a Standard Paper Size In Release 14, the paper size specified was actually the papers printable area. In AutoCAD 2000 each paper size has its own customizable printable area that is specified separately from the paper size. AutoCAD determines the printable area of a plotter's or printer's paper sizes based on the manufacturer's specifications. These are called standard paper sizes. If your plot is clipping, or you know that you should be able to print on a larger area of a standard paper size for a plot device, you can modify the printable area of standard paper size. Once you have modified the printable area for a standard paper size, the dashed line in the layout paper image and plot preview displays the new printable area. Modifying the Printable Area of a Paper Size
Figure 13. Modifying a standard paper size in the Plotter Configuration Editor Figure 14. Modifying the printable area of a paper size in the Custom Paper Size wizard
A plotter configuration file has now been created containing the changes to the paper size that you have made. The plotter configuration file will appear in the plot device list in the Plot dialog. Make sure you select this plotter configuration file when you plot. Definitions This wizard steps you through configuring an AutoCAD plot device. You can import plot device settings from PCP or PC2 file or use the Plotter Configuration Editor to configure the default plot device settings when plotting from AutoCAD. You can access the Add a Plotter wizard by choosing the Plotter Manager from the File menu, then double clicking on the Add a Plotter Wizard icon.Autodesk Heidi Plotter Driver (HDI) Heidi Device Interface (HDI) - An interface for developing plotting and printing device drivers that work with AutoCAD 2000 and other Autodesk products. After you create a configured plotter (PC3) file using the Add-a-Plotter wizard, you can edit the file using the Plotter Configuration Editor. The Plotter Configuration Editor provides options for modifying a plotter's port connections and output settings including media, graphics, physical pen configuration, custom properties, initialization strings, calibration, and user-defined paper sizes. You can drag these options from one plotter configuration (PC3) file to another.
You can start the Plotter Configuration Editor using one of the following methods:
The Plotter Configuration Editor contains three tabs. The General tab contains basic information about the configured plotter. The Ports tab contains information about the communication between the plotting device and your computer. The Device and Document Settings tab contains plot device options. A Windows folder that contains the Plotter Configuration files for all the plotting devices that you have added to AutoCAD using the Add a Plotter Wizard or by modifying the properties of a Windows system printer using the Properties button in the Plot dialog boxs, Plot Device tab.Enables you to edit the plot styles contained in the specified plot style table. You can modify a plot styles lineweights, color, color screening, grayscale, dithering, linetypes, line end and join styles, fill patterns, and pen number. The editor has three tabs: General, Table View, and Form View. The General tab lists the plot style table, description, version number, and location (path name). You can modify the description, and you can apply scaling to non-ISO lines and to fill patterns. The Table View and Form View tabs provide two ways to modify plot style settings. Both tabs list all of the plot styles in the plot style table and their settings. On the Table View tab, Plot styles are displayed in columns from left to right. The setting names for each row are displayed at the left of the tab. On the Form View tab, plot style names are listed under Plot Styles on the left side, and the settings for the selected plot styles are displayed at the right side of the dialog box. Is the actual area on a piece of paper that a plotter or printer can plot on. Most plot devices will not plot to the very edge of a piece of paper. The area that they can plot on is referred to as printable area. The area that they cannot plot on is referred to as non-printable area. A printing or plotting device that is available for printing from all Windows based applications. Windows system printers are installed and managed by the Windows Printers folder. You configure Windows system printers using the Add Printer wizard. To access the Add Printer wizard, choose Start, Settings, Printers, then choose Add Printer. AutoCAD uses HDI (Heidi Device Interface) drivers to communicate with hard-copy devices. These drivers fall into three categories: file format drivers, HDI non-system drivers, and HDI system printer drivers. In addition, Hewlett-Packard has provided an optimized Windows System printer driver for DesignJet plotters. The following tables list the HDI drivers and supported models as well as the models supported by the optimized Windows System printer driver from Hewlett-Packard.Raster formats supported using the Raster HDI driver Manufacturer Model Raster File Formats CALS MIL-R-28002A Type 1(CCITT G4 2D Compression) Independent JPEG Group JFIF (JPEG Compression) MS-Windows BMP (Uncompressed DIB) Portable Network Graphics PNG (LZH Compression) TIFF Version 6 (CCITT G4 2D Compression) TIFF Version 6 (Uncompressed) TrueVision TGA Version 2 (Uncompressed) ZSoft PC Paintbrush PCX (ZSOFT PACKBITS Compression) PostScript output is supported using the Adobe PostScript HDI driver. The following types of PostScript output are supported. PostScript formats supported using the Adobe PostScript HDI driver Manufacturer Model PostScript Level 1 Level 1Plus (Level 1 with color image support) Level 2 Hewlett-Packard pen plotters are supported using the HPGL and HPGL/2 HDI drivers. The following plotters are supported using the HPGL and HPGL/2 HDI driver. Pen plotters supported using the HPGL and HPGL/2 HDI driver Manfacturer Model Hewlett-Packard 7475A 7550A 7580 7585B 7586 DraftPro (7570A) DraftPro DXL (7575A) DraftPro EXL (7576A) DraftMaster Rx model 7596B DraftMaster Mx model 7599 DraftMaster Sx Plus Sheet Feed (7595C) DraftMaster Rx Plus (7596C) DraftMaster Mx Plus (7599B) DraftPro Plus (C3171A - 36") DraftPro Plus (C3170A - 24") DraftMaster I (7595A) 7586B Roll Feed DraftMaster II (7596A) Roll Feed In addition, Hewlett-Packard DesignJet plotters are supported by a optimize Windows System printer driver created by Hewlett-Packard and optimized for CAD use. This driver is supplied on the AutoCAD CD. Plotters supported by the HP optimize Windows System printer driver Manufacturer Model Hewlett-Packard DesignJet 755CM (C3198A=36") DesignJet 755CM (C3198B = 36") DesignJet 750C Plus (C4709A=36") DesignJet 750C Plus (C4708A=24") DesignJet 750C DesignJet 650C (C2858A=24") DesignJet 650C (C2859A=36") DesignJet 650C (C2858B=24") DesignJet 650C (C2859B=36") DesignJet 350C (pelican C4700A=36") DesignJet 350C (C4699A=24") DesignJet 250C DesignJet 700 mono (C4706B=36") DesignJet 700 mono (C4705B=24") DesignJet 600-NR (C2848A=36") DesignJet 600-NR (C2847A=24") DesignJet 330 (C4702A=36") DesignJet 330 (C4701A=24") DesignJet 230 DesignJet 220 (C3188A=36") DesignJet 220 (C3187A=24") DesignJet 200 430 monochrome (C4714A=36") 430 monochrome (C4713A=24") 450C color (C4716A=36") 450C color (C4715A=24") 2000CP ( C4703A = 36") 2500CP (C4704A)=36" 3000CP (C4723A=54") 3500CP (C4724A =54") Xerox plotters are supported by the device driver provided by Xerox. Plotters supported by the Xerox driver Manufacturer Model Xerox XES 8825 (1 roll) XES 8825 (2 roll) XES 8830 OCE plotters are supported by the device driver provided by OCE. Plotters supported by the Océ driver Manufacturer Model Océ G9034-S (FR/FP1.x) G9035-S (FR/FP1.x) G9054-S (FR/FP1.x) 9055-S/95xx-S (FR/FP1.x) 5104 (EM_1.x) 5105 (EM_1.x) 5100C A1 (EC_2.x) 5100C A0 (EC_2.x) 5120 A1 (LZ_1.x) 5120 A0 (LZ_1.x) 5200 (MI_1.x) 9400(w/ Scanner) (LV_3.x) 9700 (R1.0) 9800 (R3 & EPC R) 4900 9600 Installing the Optimized HP System Printer Driver. Hewlett-Packard DesignJet plotters are supported by a Windows System printer driver included on the AutoCAD CD. This driver has been optimized for CAD use. Plotters from other manufactures that emulate HP DesignJets are supported through the HPGL/2 HDI driver. Don't use the HPGL/2 HDI driver if you have an HP DesignJet. To install the HP driver
\Windows System Drivers\HP\Enu\NT40 or Win95\oemsetup.inf. 5 Complete the Add Printer wizard to add the driver. To use the HP driver, use either of the following methods: On the Plot Device tab, under Plotter Configuration, select the HP driver. Use the Add-a-Plotter wizard to create a PC3 file for the driver.
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