Author Topic: Delete a plotter from a page setup?  (Read 13377 times)

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KewlToyZ

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Re: Delete a plotter from a page setup?
« Reply #15 on: September 15, 2006, 10:09:21 AM »
Playing around with a few functions and altering the plotting process I am wondering;
Deleting a layout doesn't seem to remove the plotters?
I am finding it is more efficient to import a plotter from a drawing that just contains one plot configuration than assigning all plotters to a drawing.
.plot is designed much more efficiently than publish when it comes to managing page setups and plotters.

I can delete a plotter with a right click in the page setup manager but I'm not finding the command line approach to it?
In other words deleting the pagesetup doesn't remove the previous configurations when replaced by a new one?

I removed all old references in the dwt file and the routines that created the previous configurations but they still remain after replacing the page setup.
« Last Edit: September 15, 2006, 10:37:38 AM by KewlToyZ »

CAB

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Re: Delete a plotter from a page setup?
« Reply #16 on: September 15, 2006, 10:48:22 AM »
Perhaps I missed something but why don't you create your own plot lisp to use the DSD file
and plot what is found there? You would still use the PUBLISH to manage the DSD file.
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KewlToyZ

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Re: Delete a plotter from a page setup?
« Reply #17 on: September 15, 2006, 10:52:18 AM »
Here is just the base of what I am converting over to.
More or less since everything is networked I'm trying to phase out as much network traffic in the process as possible.
Old page setups causes a ton of network traffic. I decided to start removing them from new projects and try to setup the routines to strip the layout and replace it with one only containing the sheet size and plot to file references.
Any plots or publishes use an import from centralized dwg files named according to the page setups additionally required for that plot type.

If you use this approach the advantages of .plot vs. publish become much more apparent.
Mainly because if you use .plot; you get to select the exact page setup you wish to import.
In publish it shotguns everything in forcing me to consider making individual dwg files for each page setup type.


KewlToyZ

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Re: Delete a plotter from a page setup?
« Reply #18 on: September 15, 2006, 10:56:34 AM »
Good morning CAB :)

I just glanced over the dsd file usage yesterday while I was testing my other approach.
I don't know enough about the dsd to make any judgement of how it would work with overall performance in project lifecycles and network traffic in the office?

CAB

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Re: Delete a plotter from a page setup?
« Reply #19 on: September 15, 2006, 11:05:07 AM »
OK, I just re-read the entire thread and it appears that the main problem is the slow operation of PUBLISH when
adding the files to be printed. And this is due to the many page setups found in the files.

Did i get that correct?

Another approach is a lisp to pick the files to be printed, write a DSD file & see if that DSD file is slow to load.

Once loaded it will use DEFAULT as the plot setup or you can force an external page setup.
Do you need to go back & change all of these page setups.

As for the life cycle of the DSD, if it easy to create then just delete it when done.
I've reached the age where the happy hour is a nap. (°¿°)
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CAB

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Re: Delete a plotter from a page setup?
« Reply #20 on: September 15, 2006, 11:15:23 AM »
Just think aloud here.

My Pseudo code
User picks to Create a plot list
List is used to create the DSD file, note, this is nothing more than a text file & you can go off on your own here.
The Setup can be your single or from a pick list.
Lisp to plot each file in the text file.

You can create a DCL to simulate the PUBLISH if using it to manipulate the text file is too slow.



Note: I live in a single CPU environment so I am not aware of the network problems you face.
I've reached the age where the happy hour is a nap. (°¿°)
Windows 10 core i7 4790k 4Ghz 32GB GTX 970
Please support this web site.

KewlToyZ

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Re: Delete a plotter from a page setup?
« Reply #21 on: September 15, 2006, 11:25:09 AM »
Correct sir!

I thought it would be in the best interest to strip them all.
We use 6 seperate national offices with multiple plotter configurations in each one plus full and half sheet sizes.
One office does not need the other 5's configurations bloating their project cycle times.
It is quite simply production downtime in the process to leave the current state of operations.
So i went through the process workflow and what our current automation forces into it.

I guess the main goal was to remove extra system time being introduced by sloppy configuration while minimizing the amount of customizations required.
I found my error in the lisp routine i used to do the page setups in the last few lines and not cqalling it in the proper locations.
<---------- sloppy  :-P

Code: [Select]
(defun delOldPageSetups ()
  (vl-load-com)
  (vlax-for ps (vla-get-plotconfigurations
  (vla-get-activedocument
  (vlax-get-acad-object)))
  (vla-delete ps)
)
)

KewlToyZ

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Re: Delete a plotter from a page setup?
« Reply #22 on: September 15, 2006, 11:29:02 AM »
Just think aloud here.

My Pseudo code
User picks to Create a plot list
List is used to create the DSD file, note, this is nothing more than a text file & you can go off on your own here.
The Setup can be your single or from a pick list.
Lisp to plot each file in the text file.

You can create a DCL to simulate the PUBLISH if using it to manipulate the text file is too slow.

I will have to play with that concept. It may prove less subject to change with any feature changes of AutoCad's utilities.

Quote

Note: I live in a single CPU environment so I am not aware of the network problems you face.

I had done the same for many years. How happy I should have been for the simplicity lol!
Considerably better for development environments. I'm always hanging in the wind of a production environment.
« Last Edit: September 15, 2006, 11:30:54 AM by KewlToyZ »