Author Topic: Add plotter drivers  (Read 2832 times)

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ChrisCarlson

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Add plotter drivers
« on: October 06, 2015, 04:02:27 PM »
Is there more than one way to add plotter drivers to the AutoCAD installation?

Currently the only method I know of is to go through the Add a Plotter Wizard.

ronjonp

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Re: Add plotter drivers
« Reply #1 on: October 06, 2015, 04:23:45 PM »
If you're on a network, just created named pages setups & import before plotting. As long as the network printers are mapped to each computer, then the page setups should work for each computer.

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ChrisCarlson

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Re: Add plotter drivers
« Reply #2 on: October 07, 2015, 08:56:05 AM »
This is current practice, however if the plotter requires "custom" aka non-Window's generic drivers the drivers need to be manually added in. Currently the only way I know of is to initiate the Add a Plotter wizard, select the drivers and then cancel after the drivers are imported.

Hoping there would be a better way.

ronjonp

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Re: Add plotter drivers
« Reply #3 on: October 07, 2015, 10:30:57 AM »
What kind of custom drivers would you need?

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ChrisCarlson

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Re: Add plotter drivers
« Reply #4 on: October 07, 2015, 11:47:32 AM »
KIP is one plotter that has terrible performance with Windows drivers compared to their custom "AutoCAD" drivers.

Peter2

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Re: Add plotter drivers
« Reply #5 on: October 13, 2015, 05:02:04 AM »
It seems that I don't understand the question  :oops:

Why don't you install the driver (locally or to the network) and select it within AutoCAD?
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ChrisCarlson

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Re: Add plotter drivers
« Reply #6 on: October 13, 2015, 08:01:45 AM »
We use one (shared) plotter configuration and one (shared) plot style. This way if something needs to be changed, it only needs to be changed once. Back to the original question, the main issue is in the automation setup of AutoCAD. I have a routine which loads lips, CUIx, routines, dll's, etc but one thing I cannot figure out how to do is manually (bypassing) add a plotter wizard.

mjfarrell

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Re: Add plotter drivers
« Reply #7 on: October 13, 2015, 08:41:27 AM »
We use one (shared) plotter configuration and one (shared) plot style. This way if something needs to be changed, it only needs to be changed once. Back to the original question, the main issue is in the automation setup of AutoCAD. I have a routine which loads lips, CUIx, routines, dll's, etc but one thing I cannot figure out how to do is manually (bypassing) add a plotter wizard.

To my knowledge you should not have to bypass or use ADD Plotter Wizard.
 
Given Same plotter driver is installed on the machine, and you are using Named Page Setups, that essentially embed the plotter information within the drawing/layout(s).

Alternately, we have migrated to plotting nearly everything to PDF and then choosing an output device.
For two reasons, the plot file (PDF) is saved in project folder to be used for 'reprints', scalable output without need to reprint through autocad.
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dgorsman

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Re: Add plotter drivers
« Reply #8 on: October 13, 2015, 10:30:17 AM »
We use one (shared) plotter configuration and one (shared) plot style. This way if something needs to be changed, it only needs to be changed once. Back to the original question, the main issue is in the automation setup of AutoCAD. I have a routine which loads lips, CUIx, routines, dll's, etc but one thing I cannot figure out how to do is manually (bypassing) add a plotter wizard.

Are you talking about drivers, or printers?  Not necessarily the same thing.  I generate PC3 files using our standard Windows printers that IT sets up for each user - all computers have them so drivers etc. are a non-issue.  The profile and set-up controls point the AutoCAD profile to the network folders with the PC3 files and associated PMPs.

So we're back to the first question: are we *actually* talking about drivers, or something else?
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ChrisCarlson

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Re: Add plotter drivers
« Reply #9 on: October 14, 2015, 08:03:54 AM »
The "actual" drivers, eg the .ini files specific to the plotter. I tried copying and pasting into the users directory but it appears that the add a plotter wizard, for the lack of a better word, registers the driver files to the AutoCAD installation.