Screened Drawings in Plotmaker

[Anonymous]

Hey. I have been using AC off and on for more than 12 years. My biggest problem has always been plotting. Right now, I have been working diligently on a new, small house. I got my views worked out, my roofs trimmed, my 3D stuff all pretty good. I set up a plotmaker master, and imported plotmaker drawings into my layouts. When I plot, portions of my drawings are screened. I read the threads about how to make this happen on purpose, and tried reversing the suggestions: I set my plotter to B&W, and what worked best so far, I set my pen colors all to black. I've gotten so just my dimension text and label text are screened, but I can't seem to find a work around for these last items.

I just found this forum yesterday, I think its great!

Thanks.

[Djordje]

Is Printing an option?

Plot can cause this trouble ...

Please post your hadrware details

[Anonymous]

Thank you very much for your response. My plotter is a Calcomp Techjet Designer 720C, that I must have bought twelve years ago when I got the software. My AC is 8.1, and I think the PM is 3.1.

I will attempt printing with the plotter. BTW, printing with my HP DeskJet is perfect, just too small (8.5 x 11)

[Thomas Holm]

You don't give any system details. What happens is something in your print chain assumes that your output is color or grayscale even if it isn't, and thus should be rasterized. I had this problem when printing certain documents to our Xerox color printer in MacOSX 10.3, even when they were only black text. This was fixed by Apple in 10.4, fortunately.

[TomWaltz]

John wrote:
Hey. I have been using AC off and on for more than 12 years. My biggest problem has always been plotting. Right now, I have been working diligently on a new, small house. I got my views worked out, my roofs trimmed, my 3D stuff all pretty good. I set up a plotmaker master, and imported plotmaker drawings into my layouts. When I plot, portions of my drawings are screened. I read the threads about how to make this happen on purpose, and tried reversing the suggestions: I set my plotter to B&W, and what worked best so far, I set my pen colors all to black. I've gotten so just my dimension text and label text are screened, but I can't seem to find a work around for these last items.

I just found this forum yesterday, I think its great!

Thanks.

Hey John, welcome to the Forum. Where in Jersey are you? My office is in Collingswood (near Camden / Philly)

You may need to mess with your pen settings a bit. My favorite global editing method is to select all views in the Plotmaker Navigator (set to drawing usage), click "Settings", then "Pen Settings" and edit them there.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, all. I'm in Montvale (exit 172). Most of my work has been residential additions, and I have been able to just draw these by hand. I have some non residential projects, and a larger new residence, with lots of repetition sheet to sheet, and I'll probably be working with consultants, so I've got to work this out.

I couldn't quite figure out how to print with my plotter, if that was the intent of your suggestion. I will keep plugging.

[Djordje]

Are you on Mac? If Mac, which OS? Or on Windows? How is your CalComp connected? And so on ...

You have to give those details so that people can answer

[Seiss Wagner]

JOHN -

You can turn your Calcomp plotter into a printer with software such as "Microspot GraphicPak".

[Djordje]

Also ...

In the PLotWare folder in your ArchiCAD installation, you can find a HTML file outlining which PLOTTER drivers you can use for the plotters not supported, and even the cabling diagrams.

HTH