Due to all kinds of trouble with networking and people and subcontractors don't following standards, I had everybody to produce plt files. Printer drivers are on server for everybody to download and make the plts. I hate to search for ctb and stb files, to set custom paper sizes and other stuff so the plt is the way to go. Sometimes we produce one "booklet" and all the managers seeing it want their own copy, but only for their scope (structures, earthworks, drainage, etc) and since we don't know how many we should plot plts help us a lot. Then we take the plts for a booklet and dump them to a folder and fire up a cmd that looks like this:
net use lpt3 /delete ;;;Ensure that lpt3 is not assigned
net use lpt3 \\roms02004\ROMP02071 ;;;Assign lpt3 to a plotter network port
timeout 10 ;;;Nice thing to have a delay to reach the plotter or printer before anybody messes up your papers; can be found on the 'net because no longer comes with either XP or 7, it was in the 2k
copy /b d:\acadtemp\plot\PLOTTER\*.plt lpt3 ;;;The copy job
net use lpt3 /delete ;;;Freeing the lpt3.
I know it's dirty but it gets the job done. The folder with plt files should not reside in the "my Documents" or "desktop" anything that has something to do with active directory and "documents and settings", don't ask me why I found out the hard way.
Good luck,
v.