topic Re: collate while plotting in Documentation

collate while plotting

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 10:49:34 GMT

after all these years how come Archicad still does not have a collate feature when plotting? or is this an issue with Mac?

Archicad 19 5005 USA full version, user since 4.1
iMac 10.10.5

Re: collate while plotting

Barry Kelly — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 00:45:57 GMT

I have moved this topic to 'Working in Archicad".

Personally I would never plot? (print) directly from Archicad.
I would always publish as PDFs.

Two reasons.
One is anyone can print a PDF rather than me being responsible for printing directly from Archicad.
Two you will probably find you have control of the collation in the printer settings when you are printing a multi-page PDF.

Barry.

Re: collate while plotting

Erwin Edel — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 09:53:48 GMT

Plotting several sets has become such a rarity I actually don't have the software from our Océ plotter set up any more, but I think you could do these kind of things from the plotter software.

We publish to 'print' using folders for the different page sizes, just printing 1 copy each and there was some setting you could do on the plotter side. Making ArchiCAD do 'sets' just meant it was sending the print job several times, so speed was lost. Doing it on the print server of the plotter, meant it was handling each sheet once and just printing it the amount of times you set up. I think it had a collate option, but not sure. We fold our drawings by hand, so it is not a big deal here.

We do notice some print quality differences in line-weight from PDF or direct ArchiCAD though. Seems something is lost in the translation. I find direct from ArchiCAD prints look a little better. It is certainly faster, for whatever reason. I'm afraid I'm not terribly knowledgable on matters of printing (post script drivers, etc).

Re: collate while plotting

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Apr 2016 16:19:49 GMT

to Erin and Barry
My so called post script plotter hp designjet 800ps will not print pdfs except through archicad and those come out fuzzy and I paid a lot for that plotter and no one knows why it wont, so I gave up on that a long time ago.

I plot from archicad because some people when they plot the pdf's they came out incorrect, words came out as gibberish and yes the line weights end up different also there are often times where I need projects plotted in house due to timing etc.

another note I do have Adobe pro but it won't plot a pdf either

Re: collate while plotting

Stress Co_ — Sat, 23 Apr 2016 02:42:23 GMT

ron wrote:
after all these years how come Archicad still does not have a collate feature when plotting? or is this an issue with Mac?

This may be a stupid question, but are you able to Print using an HP DesignJet 800ps?

I get this option to collate when printing (not plotting) with my HP DesignJet 110+nr: see attached

Re: collate while plotting

Anonymous — Sat, 23 Apr 2016 04:14:46 GMT

Ron,
Are you using the postscript driver? The reason I ask this as it is not the default one installed when Windows detects the printer nor is it the default offered on the HP driver site, you'll find it down the list.
The PS driver is not as pretty as the default PCL driver but all options and features are there.
One other thing to check is whether the postscript license for the printer has been activated / installed I think you can check this by logging into the embedded web server on the printer (I think all HP printers have this) for printer I type its IP address into my web browser (10.0.0.250) and a web page that reports printer info/supplies/options etc comes up
Scott