Topic: Definitive Plotting Guide ...

[MP]

Hi folks, anyone have what they consider the definitive guide to managing and automating plotting?

Thanks,

Michael.

[quamper]

I used to have something, but now I use sheetsets and its no big deal.

[Josh Nieman]

CTRL+P ?


(sorry couldn't help myself)

[David Hall]

what exactly are you looking for?  I have some VBA code I swear by, because it works every time, and my users cant screw it up, but that may not work for you

[MP]

In a nutshell I've been tasked with the responsibility of "making plotting easy". This will involve streamlining and managing plotting for approximately 150 users distributed between approximately a half dozen buildings, dynamically assigning printers on the basis of discipline, project and proximity. Automation will be responsible for doing all the grunt work of initializing page setups et al, supporting ctb as well as stb tracks yada and intelligent project/discipline centric plot stamping that meets APEGGA requirements, the abbreviated version being that an Engineer's stamp may only reside in any drawing for the lifetime of the plot activity and then must be thoroughly removed.

I've already started a lisp library of supporting functions; probably 1/5th complete.

I'd be happy to stand on your shoulders by accepting the generous offer of your VB code CmdrDuh -- that would be fantastic.

As for the 'Definitive Plotting Guide', (I should had said 'guides' in hindsight) ... any guides / resources that address large scale plotting management; everything from intelligent page setup / plot style management, to 'talking to hardware' (I've done a fair bit already by exploiting WshNetwork and WMI).

Version wise we're running AutoCAD 2005 on the majority of projects, using everything from ink jets to KIP plotters.

Hope this clarifies and helps ya'll help me.

Thanks folks.



Michael.

[T.Willey]

No standards, but here is my C# batch plot program. [> Link <]  Use/abuse/ignore as you like.

[David Hall]

MP, you have an email I can tag or do you need me to post stuff here?

[David Hall]

I assign plotters based on userlogin, which you may or maynot want to do.  I dont have 150 users, so that might be a bit of management.  I also use startup scripts to update my users everyday when they login, so you might try that for copying updates to the users.  Maybe base those on proximity to printer etc.

[David Hall]

MP, in the pagesetup file I sent you, there is a bunch of little 3-4 line chunks of code that you substitute pc3, ctb, size, scale etc in, and call that from a button or LISP routine.  My users love it b/c if they push button 1, 11x17 with correct ctb prints.  Button 2 spits 18x24 with diff ctb file, whilst button 3 is 36x24 full size ctb file.  Then buttons 4-6 are the same, but diff ctb for vendor pens.  Youll see what I mean when you open it.

[MP]

Wow, hit the mother load already!

No standards, but here is my C# batch plot program. [> Link <]  Use/abuse/ignore as you like.

Great, thanks Tim!

MP, you have an email I can tag or do you need me to post stuff here?

Either is good for me, in this thread or caddscience | at | gmail | dot | com. Thanks CmdrDuh! Edit: Got it already, sweet!

I assign plotters based on userlogin, which you may or maynot want to do.  I dont have 150 users, so that might be a bit of management.  I also use startup scripts to update my users everyday when they login, so you might try that for copying updates to the users.  Maybe base those on proximity to printer etc.

Indeed, it's a good strategy to do as much as possible during system logon and / or AutoCAD initialization. However,  there are some folks that change projects as many as half dozen times a day without logging on / off or even leaving AutoCAD, so I have to have the flexibility to address that scenario as well. In the past I penned a 'ChangeProject' utility that dynamically assigned network drives, configured AutoCAD ad nauseum ... said utility was run at logon but could also be run on demand. I'll likely employ a variant of this approach again.

MP, in the pagesetup file I sent you, there is a bunch of little 3-4 line chunks of code that you substitute pc3, ctb, size, scale etc in, and call that from a button or LISP routine.  My users love it b/c if they push button 1, 11x17 with correct ctb prints.  Button 2 spits 18x24 with diff ctb file, whilst button 3 is 36x24 full size ctb file.  Then buttons 4-6 are the same, but diff ctb for vendor pens.  Youll see what I mean when you open it.

You're philosophy parallels mine pretty close -- have the automation do 95% of the behind the scenes minutia on behalf of the user.

Thanks peeps, really appreciate it -- lots of great stuff here to ruminate.

[David Hall]

what about ProjectName sysvar?  check that at plot time and pull from there

[David Hall]

I check the projname and push files or put files based on that value.  And it its nil, I pop a box to make my users fill it out.  There was resistence at first, but once I explained that if you fill it out once, it wont keep popping up (per dwg) they accepted it.  Then when we archive a job, b/c we are a utility and reuse the same dwgs over and over, I run a clean up script to clean up the projnames

[MP]

I've used ProjectName in the past but not quite how you noted below -- I like.

While ProjectName is good, and definitely can be exploited in many ways, it's a drawing centric variable. 

I'm thinking of employing an ActiveProject variable that is machine / user centric, likely a registry entry, the value which is qualified against a small db of 'acceptable' project names, complete with easy descriptions and (transparent) associated data to serve plotting and other activities / uses. That way when a user changes from drawing to drawing the Active Project stays constant until it's applicable that it be changed.

These conversational exchanges are extremely useful David, please do keep them coming as log as they don't conflict with work.

Thanks for sharing your experience / ideas.

[David Hall]

I have some reg manipulating code as well if you want it

[MP]

While I've got that area (registry) covered and it's tempting to say "No thanks, not required", I think it's dangerous when one starts to think they've written the absolute, definitive code, so ...

Please, do share, will be interesting to see how you've skinned your cats.

THANKS!