Batch plotting AutoCAD LT?

[TomWaltz]

We have received ~400 DWG files we need to print. Does anyone have any neat ways to do that other than

"For poor_sap = 1 to 400, Open and Plot"??

[Aaron Bourgoin]

do a google on Multi Batch. This should allow you to set it up and go. There is a restruced used free version and a cheap full version.

[TomWaltz]

I guess I was just hoping that AutoCAD would allow you to print more than one drawing/sheet at a time.

What was I thinking??

[Richard Morrison]

I think you may need something like http://www.m-c-2.com/main.htm

[Eduardo Rolon]

I think there is a batch plot utility in AutoCAD 2004 full version, I remember seeing it somowhere in the extras... but I might be wrong

[TomWaltz]

There is an Autodesk batch plot utility, but to say that it s#ucks is being polite.

Aaron was right. We got Multi-batch, a pretty nice Autocad scripting program for about $40.

[Aaron Bourgoin]

Multi-Batch can also be used to perform ac to AutoCAD conversion tasks that aren't done in the ArchiCAD converter scripts.

This was its original use in the office.

AutoCAD output methods, in general, seem very clunky. Seems like you have to do an awful lot of stuff befor you can press print...

[Djordje]

TomWaltz wrote:
We have received ~400 DWG files we need to print. Does anyone have any neat ways to do that other than

"For poor_sap = 1 to 400, Open and Plot"??

Yep.

Pull them into PlotMaker. Print. Done.

[Eduardo Rolon]

Djordje wrote:
Yep.

Pull them into PlotMaker. Print. Done.

As long as you don't mind not having lineweights on the PM file, and if you have a fast computer since all those AutoCAD lines do eat a lot of resources, Djorde's solution works. Just remember to save each inserted dwg as a pmk file so that PM does not take too long to open.

If you need the lineweights you will have to get the pen settings info from the guys that gave you the dwg files so that you can override the pen settings in PM and hope that all the files followed the guidelines. Also you can ask for "plt" files and those will have the lineweights.

[TomWaltz]

Yep.

Pull them into PlotMaker. Print. Done.

Great idea, except that some are in model space (all at different scales, of course), some are in Paperspace, and some files have multiple layouts in them.

Did I mention these need to be to scale and usable as documents (at least resembling a real line weight)? So scale to fit is not an option, nor is globally-assigning pen weights.