Plotmaker Settings & Printer Drivers

[Anonymous]

I am having a tough time trying to PLOT from Plotmaker to my HP DesignJet 500.
I can send the document but on the plotter its showing me an error indication.
However I can PRINT to my LaserJet printer from Plotmaker fine.

Any suggestions on what the problem might be or any solutions?

thanks

[David Larrew]

A little more information would help to diagnose your problem. What driver are you using in PM? What errors are you experiencing? Screen-shots also help!

[Anonymous]

The driver that I am using at the moment is connected to our server \\server\HP designjet 500 24 by HP.
When I send the drawing the error that I get on the plotter screen is Warning 61:05. Error Processing Job. Flushing Rest Of Job.

I thought I heard somewhere that you have to setup a special DRIVER to plot from PlotMaker, is this true?
If so... where can I access this driver?

[David Larrew]

So you are not using PlotMakers internal Plotter drivers to create the plots? Have you tried using PMs drivers in lieu of your current driver?

[Djordje]

drew wrote:
The driver that I am using at the moment is connected to our server \\server\HP designjet 500 24 by HP.
When I send the drawing the error that I get on the plotter screen is Warning 61:05. Error Processing Job. Flushing Rest Of Job.
I thought I heard somewhere that you have to setup a special DRIVER to plot from PlotMaker, is this true?
If so... where can I access this driver?

And your OS is ... ? Network is ... ?

This can be a memeory problem (not enough in the DesignJet), network problem, driver problem. IMHE HP has much worse drivers than its reputation would make you expect.

[Karl Ottenstein]

drew wrote:
I am having a tough time trying to PLOT from Plotmaker to my HP DesignJet 500.
I can send the document but on the plotter its showing me an error indication.

Why do you want to plot and not print? We print all sheets to a DJ 500 with no problems - with network access from all (peer to peer) computers.

Well, I take that back. The problem that we have had, and that might be related to your plot use, is that we have the base (cheapest) model 500 - no extra memory or add-on cards. Printing from PM works fine, always. When we try to print PDF's though, nothing happens - not even an error message - unless we set the print setup to 'draft' mode. I assume this is an issue with inadequate memory in the base DJ 500. Possibly this memory thing or lack of HPGL card (?) might be the problem you're having with trying to plot? (A punt.)

HTH,
Karl

[aahatimo]

Karl wrote:

drew wrote:
I am having a tough time trying to PLOT from Plotmaker to my HP DesignJet 500.
I can send the document but on the plotter its showing me an error indication.

Why do you want to plot and not print? Possibly this memory thing or lack of HPGL card (?) might be the problem you're having with trying to plot? (A punt.)
HTH,
Karl

karl is was in your 'why plot when we print fine' camp for the past few years. times change...
we recently upgraded our basic hp 500 printer to a hpgl2 enabled 'plotter'. life is much better. we have a mixed xp pro / osx environment around here and had some luck printing under osx w/ gimp print & the driver from buymelunch.com. now osx plotting is no problem. xp pro plotting is also faster than printing. there are add'l features added by the ; being able to reprint sheets, narrow margins... the upgrade was a bit pricy, the card and maxing out memory ran about $500. we spent far more than that over the past year just trying to get consistant prints from osx. so for $500 we have a 'new' plotter.
drew, what was the error message from your 500 panel?
are you using an internal jet direct card? did this problem just start?
jeffry c has posted quite a bit of printing / plottting info @: http://tr.graphisoftus.com/ and the archiguide site has articles.

[Anonymous]

I just switched to Mac from PC. My deisgnjet 500 is neither PS nor HPGL2, and I can print (sometimes) but not always. HP tech support tells me that the regular HP Designjet 500 is not Mac supported, and that I shouldn't be able to print at all.
This makes me wonder whether anyone else is using a DesignJet 500 without PS or HPGL2, and whether they've got it working?

Brad

[Anonymous]

As a follow up: HP techsupport says that perhaps Archicad makes it possible to use a designjet 500 from OSX.

Anyone know for sure? Is it archicad making the "impossibl" possible, or is my mac doinf something HP doesn't know about?

Refering to the original post under this subject: I, too, can print, but not plot from OSX to Designjet 500.

I cannot upgrade to a PS plotter, but HP techsupport said I could try a few things to help plotting:

Third party RIPs, such as XRIP

Buy an HPGL2 card

Anyone have luck with either option?

Thanks
Brad

[aahatimo]

Brad wrote:
As a follow up: HP techsupport says that perhaps Archicad makes it possible to use a designjet 500 from OSX.
Refering to the original post under this subject: I, too, can print, but not plot from OSX to Designjet 500.
I cannot upgrade to a PS plotter, but HP techsupport said I could try a few things to help plotting:
Third party RIPs, such as XRIP
Buy an HPGL2 card
Anyone have luck with either option?
Thanks
Brad

brad check out my earlier post. we are plotting great w/ osx on an hp500 w/ hpgl2 card.
before we had sporadic success 'printing' using a driver from: http://www.buymelunch.com/printing/
it is a jaguar driver, he has not updated it. you will not be able to 'plot' w/o the hpgl2 card.
good luck!
jeffry c may be able to answer your impossible possible question.