| Review PrintAPlot, IntelliCAD 98,plotting, printing, Epson, HP, HPGL,
HPGL/2, inkjet, Canon, Hewlett Packard
| Printing vs Plotting Printing technology today is essentially a process of placing fine
dots of ink on paper. This technology is equally capable of producing everything line work
(your basic Coco Chanel - black & white) through to and color images with photographic
tonal quality. All at reasonable quality, speed and cost
Plotting technology originally mimicked the manual
drafting process using ink pens of specific width in order to produce the multi-weighted
line work that is essential for engineering drawings. Pen plotting has been constantly
dogged by the number of moving parts and the essentially mechanical nature of the machine
and the notorious nature of drawing pens to clog and run out of ink sent plotter
manufacturers looking elsewhere for a simpler, more reliable technology.
The inkjet technology of the desktop printer has now all but taken
over as the dominant plotter technology and large format output devices are now
essentially just big printers.
Whereas once plotters could only respond to HPGL (Hewlett-Packard
Graphics Language) which consists of pen up, pen down, move from x1,y1 to x2,y2, with
inkjet technology they are capable for full raster image output. Essentially the same as a
desktop printer only using bigger sheets of paper.
However engineering drawings are still made with the aim of being
plotted with a variety of line weights and the terminology of pen and color and its
relationship to line weight (pen thickness) persists. |
|
Medium format and
desktop printers are common and affordable, and perfect for a quick check plot, or even
the final deliverables. The plotting facilities provided by IntelliCAD are inadequate for
plotting to many desktop printers. PrintAPlot enables you to plot a professional looking
engineering drawing from practically any Windows printer Originally developed when printer support in CAD applications was
less than comprehensive, PrintAPlot as a long history (in computer years) and a long list
of happy customers. In a nutshell, PrintAPlot sends plotter files (in HPGL or HPGL/2
format) from a graphics application to a laser, inkjet or dot matrix printer from Windows.
Why PrintAPlot?
The easiest way for a CAD programs to output data that incorporates line
weights is in the form of an HPGL or HPGL/2 file. However only devices aimed at producing
engineering plots can accept HPGL and make sense out it. Most desktop printers and medium
format printers do not understand HPGL.
When plots are sent directly to these devices
through Windows system printer interface, there is no opportunity to map line weights and
all lines are printed with the same thickness.
In simplest terms, PrintAPlot reads HPGL file and translates
the vector commands into a raster format recognized by virtually all modern graphics
printers. On printers that can accept HPGL directly, PrintAPlot provides additional
control and flexibility over the final output.
PrintAPlot shows a Live Paper Space. Plots can be
sized by dragging handles or using an absolute plot scale. The unprintable region on the
page is grayed and plots cannot be placed in this region.
Installation & Ease of Use
PrintAPlot was supplied on 3 disks. Installation on a Windows 95 system was
fast and faultless. The default installation associates .PLT files with PrintAPlot.
Double-clicking on these files loads them into PrintAPlot for processing. Otherwise
PrintAPlot will remember the last file you processed and load that into its "Live
Paper Space" display.
The "Live Paper Space" size and
orientation reflects the settings of your current Windows printer. It shows a gray border
region that represents the unprintable area on the page and allows you to locate you plot
anywhere within the printable region.
Change the printer, size and orientation at anytime by
selecting File > Printer Setup and making the changes you want. As well as locating the
plot on the page, you have complete control over scale and clipping. This enables you to
visually group a number of plots or plot portions onto a single sheet.
Control
PrintAPlot provides two template systems that enable you to apply
predefined plot and pen configurations to your plot files.
The pen configuration dialog allows you to assign
colors, thickness and line type to up to 255 pens.
The plot sizing template defines output size
or scale, orientation and tiling format. The pen template stores settings for pen color,
width and pattern (line type e.g., dashed, center, etc.). You can define up to 255 pens
with any combination of color, width and line type. Templates are easily defined and
applied.
Plot template defining output size or scale,
orientation and tiling format can be saved and selected for use in future plots.
HPGL/2 files have the ability to embed line weights and
colors within the plot file. These commands may override settings you make in PrintAPlot,
PrintAPlot allows you to ignore running set commands.
Advanced features include tiling of drawings over multiple
sheets; the addition of True Type text on the plot sheet; the insertion of multiple plots
on a page (each with different pen templates); and the ability to export plots in HPGL/2
or BMP format.
PrintAPlot Batch also allows PLT files to be
scheduled for unattended output. Plot and pen templates can be attached to individual
plots
Output
We output PLT files from AutoCAD and IntelliCAD to HP DeskJet, Epson Stylus
COLOR 600 and Epson Stylus COLOR 1520 printers. Every case produced a clean plot quickly
and without any bother. Line weights were accurate and as specified, The same applied to
mono and color plots where the printer supported color.
Wish List
PrintAPlot is good. It does a great job. One thing we’d like to see
added is a "Folder Watch" where PrintAPlot monitors a folder somewhere on a
local machine or network and adds new PLT files that appear in that folder to the batch
queue. Plot file names could be coded to load plot and pen templates… or am I getting
carried away?
Final Wash
If you need a way to plot with line weights to your desktop printer then
PrintAPlot is a great product that will extend the usefulness of your existing software
and hardware investment, and give you great looking engineering drawings into the bargain.
PrintAPlot is especially valuable for IntelliCAD 98 users who are limited to the number of
print devices they can print line weights on. Highly recommended.
Tony Zilles
http://www.insightdev.com
|
|
