topic Re: PLOTFLOW in Documentation

PLOTFLOW

rengarch — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 14:40:51 GMT

I am doing some drawings for another architect who does not work on Archicad. Can I give her a copy of Plotflow (PC) and sent her a Plotflow (MAC) file via email and she would be able to plot directly to a plotter?
Does the AC10 CD have both PC and MAC version of Plotflow on it?

Re: PLOTFLOW

__archiben — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 01:24:07 GMT

rengarch wrote:
Can I give her a copy of Plotflow (PC) and sent her a Plotflow (MAC) file via email and she would be able to plot directly to a plotter?

yes - a plot file (*.PLT) is generic. she would have to configure plotflow to suit her plotter.

Does the AC10 CD have both PC and MAC version of Plotflow on it?

i believe it is a dual-platform disc . . .

why don't you use high-res PDF's?!

~/archiben

Re: PLOTFLOW

rengarch — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 01:41:52 GMT

The other architect printed the .pdf's and the scale was slightly off. With pdf's you are not always sure what % they are printing to. A plot is a plot - to scale.

Re: PLOTFLOW

Djordje — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 03:41:19 GMT

rengarch wrote:
The other architect printed the .pdf's and the scale was slightly off. With pdf's you are not always sure what % they are printing to. A plot is a plot - to scale.

You are, if they print PDF at 100%

Re: PLOTFLOW

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 14:48:22 GMT

Djordje is right. An extremely common error is to print a PDF from Acrobat with the "shrink to fit page size" setting turned on. If the sheet is the same size, but with larger margins in place (probably pulled from the printer description), a scale reduction will occur, and it wouldn't be noticeable until someone tries to scale off the prints.

When I send PDF docs to anyone for printing, I specifically warn them about the "shrink to fit button," and have them make sure it is not set.

Re: PLOTFLOW

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 15:11:32 GMT

RobertNichols wrote:
Djordje is right. An extremely common error is to print a PDF from Acrobat with the "shrink to fit page size" setting turned on. If the sheet is the same size, but with larger margins in place (probably pulled from the printer description), a scale reduction will occur, and it wouldn't be noticeable until someone tries to scale off the prints.

When I send PDF docs to anyone for printing, I specifically warn them about the "shrink to fit button," and have them make sure it is not set.

This is very important since most (all?) PDF viewers default to the shrink to fit behavior since this makes sense for the rest of the world. What lawyer would want to find their pleadings running off the page or what accountant would want a truncated spreadsheet - who cares if the text is 5% smaller?

It will be up to us to make sure that everyone (service bureaus, consultants, each other) understands the exceptional needs of our professions.

I don't think sticking to PLT(HPGL) will work in the long term. Even HP is abandoning it. What they used to call plotters are now "large format printers" and HPGL is an extra cost option.