PLOTTING 3D DRAWINGS FROM ARCHICAD IN PLOTMAKER

[Anonymous]

Could someone please tell me the proper way to send a 3D view of an Archicad drawing to Plotmaker and plot?

I have tried several ways and everytime I plot from Plotmaker the lines are all "jagged".
However when I plot the same 3D view in Archicad it plots pefectly.

thanks

p.s.: LINK! YOU OUT THERE?

[Anonymous]

unfortunately, the saved views of 3d elements save as low resolution images, not vector based pmks.

you must save/publish a pmk for each 3d view, then import the pmk's into Plotmaker.

covered other places in the forum, too...

Wes

[Anonymous]

i have tried that....
unfortunately i am using an HP DESIGNJET 500 w/ the HPGL2 card.
and its telling me that I do not have enough memory to print.

[Djordje]

drew wrote:
i have tried that....
unfortunately i am using an HP DESIGNJET 500 w/ the HPGL2 card.
and its telling me that I do not have enough memory to print.

Add memory.

[Anonymous]

Djordje wrote:
Add memory.

hah!
u mean theres no other way?

[Anonymous]

drew wrote:

hah!
u mean theres no other way?

I am not too familiar with the 500, but the 650 I use has an advanced setting that will allow you to process the document in your computer...check your plotter properties

[aahatimo]

drew wrote:
i have tried that....
unfortunately i am using an HP DESIGNJET 500 w/ the HPGL2 card.
and its telling me that I do not have enough memory to print.

drew,
on my hp500 w/ hpgl2 card plotter there is a setting under printing prefs > advanced document processing> one is 'maximum preformance', the alt is 'avoid out of memory'. help message for later alt: 'the document will always regardless of installed memory installed in printer. printing will be noticibly slower.'
have you tried that? that maybe the similar setting to what richard mentioned.
btw, i purchased a 128 mb kingston memory card from hp online for the hp500 / 800 hpgl2 card for $50. much better deal than the $300 +/- for hp memory. that maxes out the memory at 160mb.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the help!

I tried the "avoid out of memory" and it worked pretty good... i mean, a few lines were missing but it'll do for now...

[Djordje]

drew wrote:
I tried the "avoid out of memory" and it worked pretty good... i mean, a few lines were missing but it'll do for now...

The golden rule is to fit the PlotMaker file into the printer's memory; if you computer has enough, than the driver settings should be such that the print is processed in the computer. However, that can slow the machine down, and IMHO printers should take care of that. In a multiuser environment, computers can grind to a halt if everybody is processing their own prints, and thewhol eoffice is idling because the memory in the print device is not enough.

That's why I said "Add memory" - in the long run, that is the best way. Of course, do NOT go with the brand memory, any reputed OEM brand will do (Kingston etc).

[Piotr Dobrowolski]

The golden rule is to fit the PlotMaker file into the printer's memory; if you computer has enough, than the driver settings should be such that the print is processed in the computer. However, that can slow the machine down....

It all depends more on the speed of connection to the machine..
I use the ancient HP 450 on LPT port and from what I noticed the larger files with some bitmaps etc (mainly from Corel) are printing significantly faster when "in computer" option is on (180degrees from what the manual says). If prn file produced from layout is larger than 2-3 Meg I rather use "In computer".
It all changes to oposite if the plotter is connected to the USB or LAN!! (But not the old machines - even if on LAN - all stuff is pushed through tight old LPT)

Regards,
Piotr