Creating Custom Plotter Drivers

[Emoke Csikos]

Introduction

There is a large number of .xml files called plotter drivers shipped with ARCHICAD. They are located in a folder named PlotWare within the main folder of ARCHICAD. These files contain some basic information (e.g. maximum paper size, sizes of margins and resolution) of certain plotters. This information is necessary for ARCHICAD. Some other drivers also contain some manufacturer-specific data that should not be changed manually.

When you select a machine in the drop-down list of plotters in the Plot Setup dialog, you actually select one of these drivers and it will be used by ARCHICAD when plotting. You might have a newer machine in your office since these drivers were last updated by GRAPHISOFT. In such a case you might run into the problem that you don't find the machine you bought in the list of the Plot Setup dialog. In this case you can create the driver for your machine the way described below.

Steps to create your custom plotter driver:

1. locate the drivers in your ARCHICAD/PlotWare folder
2. you should duplicate and then rename an .xml
3. open that newly made .xml file using any text editor (e.g. WordPad)
4. change the "< MaxPaperSize >" size parameters according to your plotter manual
5. change the "< DefaultMargins >" margin parameters to the right values
6. "<Left>" value means the leading edge by default orientation
7. save your file

Launch ARCHICAD and you will see your custom plotter among the others.

NOTE: It is recommended to choose a driver that belongs to a plotter made by the same manufacturer as the one you want to create the new driver for. You will need administrator privileges to be able to duplicate one of the .xml files. Then when you try to save the file after the necessary changes have been made, you might get this notification:

In this case move the file to a different location, modify it, save it, then move it back to the PlotWare folder. To do this you will again need administrator rights.