AC 11 / Mac / Plotting to OCE TDS600

[rm]

We have just loaded Leopard to our new Macs and have AC 11 installed. We cannot seem to plot to our OCE TDS600. We get a page of postcript errors when attempting to plot. I get OffendingCommand errors.

This is a Windows office switching to Macs. I was able to print a PM 11 file from Tiger ( OS 10.4 ).

We are using the Postscript drivers ( v 1.13 ) from the OCE website.

Any Ideas???

Thank you,


Robert Mariani

[Rick Thompson]

I plot to an Oce 9300 fine with Leopard, but not through Airport. If I try through Airport then it fails, but is fine wired. I could in 10.4 though. So, if you are wireless, that could be an issue. Leopard has some Airport issues.

I am using the HP driver supplied by Graphisoft

[rm]

Rick,

Thanks for the tip. But I am a little confused by your reply. 10.4 is Tiger, 10.5 is Leopard. So did you mean you use the HP driver from GS to generate your plot and you send it to your Oce through 10.4 or 10.5.

We are not on a wireless network. We have are on a LAN and all our ProMacs and PowerBook Pros will be running AC 11 on OSX 10.5 ( Leopard ). Our network consultant indicated that Oce is aware that their driver needs to be updated for OSX 10.5 and should be out second qtr. this year.

What's odd is out of AC 11, under plot setup, the Oce TDS600 is listed. So you would think GS tested this and it works. But we cannot get it to work.

I hope there is a solution to this that we are just missing.

[Rick Thompson]

I have used the GS supplied HP750 driver since I got the Oce in 2002...(I think the 750.. I'm not on that computer, but I don't remember noticing any difference in them anyway). It has worked fine for every version of the OS and AC. The only problem I have had is now via Airport. So, since you are not wireless I am no help. I think I did play around with the Oce driver, but for some reason I went back to the HP driver, but I just don't remember what the difference was. My understanding is that the basic HP driver is somewhat generic so less likely to cause issues trying to do too much. I have had no reason to try anything else. The Oce driver might offer a few options (like collating and scheduling) but not on the Mac, but only if you are plotting to Oces printing program, which is Windows only.

So, just my best guess is to try the GS HP driver and see if it simplifies the output and avoids something that is causing the error. I don't understand a postscript error plotting anyway. Postscript is a print function, and you said you are plotting. I am plotting, not printing, a big difference. My Oce does not have a postscript card, so i have to plot. I prefer plotting anyway as it is faster. I once tried a postscript card in the Oce, but had problems so took it out. Are you plotting or printing? You shouldn't be triggering a postscript function plotting, as far as I understand it... but I avoid knowing too much about that stuff:)

[Rick Thompson]

One more thought. Are you plotting directly to the plotter, or going through Plotflow? I always go through plotflow. I remember an issue during AC11 beta testing if I was plotting directly to the plotter, but don't remember what is was. I filed a report on it, but don't know what happened. I always use Plotflow, and that issue did not happen plotting to a spool folder. If you are not using plotflow you might try that. I think it is better anyway.

[rm]

Rick,

I tried both plotting and printing. I agree, plotting is much faster, yet we got a postscript error non the less. This Oce uses a RIP ( raster image processor ) even for the the plt files....dont know why, got better things to think about.

That said, I like your idea about trying the HP750 driver, and using Plotflow instead of plotting directly out of AC. I will try both. But I have a feeling Leopard is the the hang up here.

I would hate to have to print from the Windows side of AC until Oce comes out with the proper Leopard driver. We are using VMware on our Macs to run Windows as we are migrating from Windows to Macs.

Thanks again for your help!

[Karl Barker]

We had a lot of issues with a TDS300 and replaced it with a TDS400.
I found that the most stable print set up in our office was to set up the TDS400 as an LPD printer on one machine directly. Ensure that you are able to use the printer.
Following that i then shared the printer from that machine around the network. This allows me to update any driver on the machine it is shared from without having to install it on 12 different machines through the office.
It seems to work reasonably well.
The only minor issue I have come across is some times the 'print server' computer is asleep, and may not wake up. just needs a good kick start and the print will go through.
Cheers,
Karl.