If you have ever tried to print a half-size set directly on the WINPRINT thing, you probably never tried again, because it took ten times longer than it should have. This is a limitation of the printer, but here's a pretty good workaround.
Attention: The only reason to plot instead of print is to send drawings out, until the print shops learn to print our PDFs without mangling them. DO NOT PLOT for archiving, or for printing in-house. PLTs look pretty bad when printed here. This method is offered as an emergency backup for when we run out of paper, or to print more sets than we can comfortably collate & staple ourselves.
I look forward to informing you that this technique is no longer needed.
Every drawing or set we give to someone else should be archived as a PDF in the project folder at 2 Output : PDF Archive. This is for convenience and our own protection.
Archives should be named with the date, and a description if the set is for a specific purpose, such as a permit set. Example: Somebody 2005-03-11 Permit.PDF.
In OS X, PDFs can be created from any print dialog by clicking the Save As PDF button.
PDFs saved in this way will be single files with all the printed sheets in them.
You can use PDFs to send drawings to consultants, if they just want to view the drawings and don't need CAD data. If they need actual drawing stuff, you need to send DWGs.
You can view drawing set PDFs using Adobe Reader or Preview, the OS X PDF viewer. Preview is generally better.
For large format output we use that enormous, hot, 16-amp-pulling thing in the middle of the office.
Here is how to install the plotter on your machine.
In PlotMaker, Page Setup. Go to File -> Page Setup. (Not Plot Setup!) At "Format For", select "WINPRINT 192.168.1.29". Select the Paper Size from the next pulldown. 18x24 is ARC C. 24x36 is ARC D. 30x42 is 30X42, not ARC E. (11x17 should be printed on the "small" printer.) To summarize, the only sizes we use are ARC C, ARC D, and 30x42.
In PlotMaker, Display Options. Make sure the fills are set to display "All Vectorial."
If you plan to print "Selected in Navigator", see below, highlight the layouts you want to print.
To print, issue the Print command by File -> Print, Cmd+P, or a toolbar button. Make sure the WINPRINT printer is selected. Set the number of copies. Click Copies & Pages and choose PlotMaker. Select what to print. Don't check "All Colors to Black."
All of the above can be automated by using Publisher, which is a really good idea.
When you print, the print job actually goes to the PC [insert snark] next to the plotter. Depending on the size of the job, it can take a while for the job to process. If you bring the PlotBase application forward, you should see your job at the bottom of the list. It will read Preparing Data, Pending, then Plotting. To reprint a job, right-click on and choose Status -> Pending. I know, real intuitive. The last 50 jobs are saved.
Plotbase troubleshooting: Make sure the "Play" button is pressed (gray). Make sure the "reader" is on (Configuration Menu).
Once the sheets start coming out, it's quick, seven D sheets a minute. Right now we don't have any facility for catching the sheets as they come out. You can grab them one at a time, or pick up the pile at the end. We'll keep working on it. Also not well-solved: binding.
Publisher is the best way to get output from PM. It allows you to save view sets with output settings, so you get the same result every time. I recommend it for printing and DWG creation.
Publisher is based on the view set concept, like in ArchiCAD, except that in PM view sets are only used for publication and you won't encounter them otherwise. You should have a view set for each output you produce with any regularity.
� Switch the title block to the RND9 version. Required. Use Cmd+Opt+click on the new object to retain settings. This is very important. If it fails, that is, you get the new object with default settings, cancel out of the settings box and try again. Delete all the hotspots. Place new hotspots in the sheet number box and the corners of the main drawing area.
� The grays as they come out of the new plotter are all darker. This affects the gray poche in the walls, etc. and the gray lines we use for floor and material fills.
The poche is a little dark, but we can live with it. If you change it it will look better, but it's a chore: You must change the fill background color of all 3D building elements (walls, roofs, slabs), and the background color of all the skins in composites whose settings are used in elements, and the fill color/background color of any masking fills, and the fill color/background color of any objects that show poche in plan or section, keeping in mind that some of them have special parameters for these fills. A chore. If you choose to go through with it, use pen 50. This is our new, dedicated poche pen. The idea is to make the next gray revision simpler; with a dedicated pen, we can just change the color of it rather than the settings of dozens of elements. I wish I'd thought of it sooner. So, poche pen change: Optional.
The fills, however, aren't quite OK. They should be changed to pen 150*. Strongly recommended. The fills include:
1. Fill elements, many of which will be on the F Floor Fin2 layer. Use find and select, on each story, for fills with pen 93.
2. Cover fills on 3D elements, including slabs, roofs, meshes. Do this in the 3D window to get all the stories at once.
3. Vectorial hatching pen on materials. You have to do each material separately in Options -> Attributes -> Materials. (Attribute Manager doesn't work for this.)
� In addition to the grays being darker, all the line weights are heavier, so we need to make all our pens slightly thinner. You will have to do this by hand in PlotMaker. In ArchiCAD, you can use Attribute Manager to import the pens from 3 Resources : Attributes : Color Pens 0105. Required.
All the changes discussed above will be made in the templates.
*UPDATE: This used to say 92. 92 is the right color for plotted output, but in ArchiCAD it looks too light on the screen. Read this post about the new material fill pen. As for changing the pen, either 92 or 150 will work in PM.
This is how to install our gigantic new plotter. Installing other printers is similar in some respects.
System Preferences, Print & Fax, Set Up Printers.
Click "Add".
At the top, select "IP Printing"
Printer Type: LPD/LPR
Printer Address: 192.168.1.29
Queue Name: WINPRINT (Case sensitive)
Printer Model: Other...
Navigate to 3 Resources : Printers : RW470 : RW-470.ppd
Choose.
Add.
If the settings look like this, click Add.
The new printer should appear as "WINPRINT on 192.168.1.29". This is also the name you will see in Page Setup. It will be the default, unless you want to make another printer the default. (If so, select it and click "Make Default".)
Don't forget to do page setup in PlotMaker:
Go to File -> Page Setup. (Not Plot Setup!) At "Format For", select "WINPRINT 192.168.1.29". Select the Paper Size from the next pulldown. 18x24 is ARC C. 24x36 is ARC D. 30x42 is 30X42, not ARC E.
If you don't see 30X42, make sure you got the ppd file from the RW470 folder, nowhere else.
No, that's not all there is to it.
The camera makes it look fat
We have a new plotter. Actually it's a printer. Everybody calls it a plotter, though. Soon we won't plot anymore, we'll just print, like everyone else, and then we'll call printing on big sheets plotting, like everyone else, and we'll call the big new output device a plotter.
(You think I'm being technical and pedantic, but one of the main sources of trouble in getting this thing in here has been that there IS a difference, and the people selling us the, ah, machine think there isn't. It's also the cause of the hard labor you will have to do on each project to get your output looking as good as it did before.)
So we have a good news/bad news/bad news/good news situation.
The good news is that it works.
The bad news is the hard labor of adjusting our workflow.
The other bad news is the plotter requires a "PC" in order to function. A PC is sort of like a computer except it breaks a lot.
The other good news is the output is insanely fast (7 pages a minute). And, since they're forcing us to print, we will gain several appealing advantages of printing over plotting, such as easier publication, sharing, and archiving. I.e., PDFs. And it scans large sheets, so we can electronically archive Jim's basement, including the hand-drawn stuff. Wild!
Here's a summary of the changes to our lives:
� Plotting is going away, including Plot Setup, PlotFlow, and the Plot command. We will print instead.
� We won't send drawings out as often. We can print a 35-page set in 5 minutes! Twenty 35-page sets, we'll still send that out.
� You have some work to do on current projects to get them looking good. This is a big change and it just isn't magic.
� We will archive using PDF instead of PLT files. We can scan old paper sets to archive them to PDF.
Thank you for your patience as we work out the remaining kinks.
By the way, up to this point I have been trying to get our plotting ability back on line, so I'm not an expert in scanning and copying yet, let alone changing the toner and whatnot. One thing at a time.
Several related posts:
Installation
New Title Block
Project Changes
Layout Book Changes
Send PLT files to the plotter using PlotFlow. Some day, we will be able to run it on the server. Currently, everyone has to run it locally.
Note: This hasn't been updated for sending PDFs, because we haven't gotten that working yet. You can still use this method to send PLTs if you need to. Plus, we still have all those PLT archives, and sending out is the way to print those.[March 11, 2005]
Sending out. Anyone can do this.
One or two check plots may be sent directly to the plotter. Any more than that takes forever, during which time you can't do anything else in PM. Usually, create PLT files. Always create PLTs when giving drawings to anyone else.
So easy anyone can do it. Unless it doesn't work.