How to plot plot files

[jzarmin]

Hello there,
We are working w/ ArchiCAD 10, 1183 USA Full on Mac's. For archiving purposes we have taken all of the Layouts from a specific ArchiCAD 10 file and used the Publisher to create Plot files of the Layouts. We will store these Plot files and be able to hopefully plot them later down the road.

This is to ensure that we can still plot paper copies of these Layouts no matter what happens in the meantime re: this ArchiCAD 10 file becoming outdated version-wise, or its library parts being lost or separated from the file or the imported views withing the layouts becoming messed up.

So does anyone know how, later down the road, we would actually plot from a Plot file? What the actual steps are?

thanks,

[David Maudlin]

jzarmin:

You might want to take a look at PlotFlow, a small application for plotting that comes with ArchiCAD. You should be able to set up PlotFlow to your plotter then drop the .plt files in its spool folder. One caveat is that the .plt files are created for a specific plotter, trying to plot them on another plotter may not work, particularly if the plotter is from a different manufacturer.

You can also use the Drawing Tool to import .plt files and place them on a layout. You might also save your files as .pdf, which should give you more options for printing them later.

HTH

David

[Gerald Hoffman]

Jzarmin,

I would suggest you start archiving as PDF sheets instead as I think it will outlast .PLT (hpgl) language. There are lots of large format printers out now that can't "Plot" out of the box. I wanted to send .PLT files to Kinko's in Texas a couple of years ago now and they didn't even know what a .PLT file was.

I had to send them PDFs. Just my thoughts on this.

Cheers,

[Thomas Holm]

And PDFs have the advantage that you can easily view them on screen, with the free Adobe Reader or other viewers, or the built-in system tools on the Mac (even better in Leopard - Quickvew should work!).

And you can print PDFs to all current printers (remember large format plotters are printers too these days). PLT files need to be translated to be viewed, and need a PLT-aware printer to print.

So instead of plot plot you should print print - or print PDF!

We distribute AND archive all published drawings as PDFs nowadays.

[jzarmin]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think that our version of ArchiCAD doesn't have Plotflow. We used to use it in the older versions. But I'll try that idea re: importing a plot into a Layout. I would have never thought of that.

And re: the PDF versus PLT issue, we do archive as PDF"s also- the format is pretty ubiquitous. Only thing is sometimes some lineweights look a bit different (too thin?) when plotting from PDF. But that's just a tiny detail.

Thanks to all of you!

Joe

[David Maudlin]

jzarmin wrote:
Correct me if I'm wrong but I think that our version of ArchiCAD doesn't have Plotflow. We used to use it in the older versions.

It should be there, look in Applications > Graphisoft > ArchiCAD 10 > PlotFlow. The Plotflow for X that comes with ArchiCAD 10 & 11 is shown as version 9.0, the PlotFlow for X that came with ArchiCAD 9 is shown as version 3.0.

HTH

David

400

[Link]

Congratulations David - 400 good posts too. Always helpful and informative.

I agree with you about using PlotFlow (and it's still there in AC11), but jzarmin keep in mind that you can place a plt file onto a layout and plot it directly from ArchiCAD. This is helpful when you actually want to see what you're going to get first.

Cheers,
Link.

[Anonymous]

I fully agree with Link.

I prefer archiving with .plt files since ArchiCAD (or Plotmaker if you wish) imports this format easily. You can plot directly from ArchiCAD without loss of speed or quality.

I benefit from these vectorial drawings to modify or complete older drawings if necessary... without the struggle of missing library parts 🙂