Good larger format printer for ArchiCAD

[Anonymous]

Hi Fellow ArchiCAD users,
I am looking for large format printer recommendations. I currently have an HP Designjet T520 (36inch), which unfortunately will not communicate well with Archicad in that it won't allow a 24x36 print to run the width of the roll/sheet size. This means I have to cut each sheet to remove 12 inches of paper for every print. Unpleasant, paper wasting, and time consuming task. Have coordinated with HP support and have up dated driver, etc., but still have the issue. Had hoped HP would update the driver to fix, but currently still the same driver. There is an involved work around but time consuming and image quality not as good. I am wondering what large format printers (24" or 36" wide) you all have had good experience with that I might investigate? Thanks so much.

[Stress Co_]

For an affordable printer, take a look at the Canon TA-20 (24") or TA-30 (36").

https://www.usa.canon.com/internet/portal/us/home/products/list/professional-large-format-printers/t...

I have the predecessor to the TA-20, the iPF670.
My only complaint is it's finicky if you load precut sheets.
Otherwise, very satisfied.

Edit:
- I'm on a Mac
- I don't do a high volume of prints.

[Anonymous]

Strange, I've the T520 24" and haven't any issue printing (or better, plotting) from ArchiCAD. I use 594 mm roll and print full paper with 5mm margins, so I didn't need to cut paper after printed.

[Erwin Edel]

We've had a canon iPF770 for a few years now. Print quality is fine. We have it set to 'economy' mode and are still running (on the fumes) of the first ink tank. Nothing else has broken.

We had an OCE machine before and were spending a lot of money on replacing printheads.

The only downside to this model is that it only takes 1 roll, but we just shifted to only using A1 and A0 layouts to accomodate for that.

Since most of our output is mostly only digital (10 years ago you had to send out 6 copies of each set for permits and such) it is great that this printer doesn't have any problems with the print head 'drying out' or the ink going bad or whatever.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Doug wrote:
... I currently have an HP Designjet T520 (36inch), which unfortunately will not communicate well with Archicad in that it won't allow a 24x36 print to run the width of the roll/sheet size. This means I have to cut each sheet to remove 12 inches of paper for every print. Unpleasant, paper wasting, and time consuming task. ...

Besides talking with Borgo1971 below who seems to have no problem with this printer and might be able to advise why his works and yours doesn't... I just want to confirm that you are using PRINT, rather than PLOT from ARCHICAD? You say it is ARCHICAD... so will any other software on your computer print properly? A common workaround is to create a PDF file and to print from Adobe Reader / Acrobat, assuming it is somehow an ARCHICAD issue...

[Anonymous]

Karl wrote:
I just want to confirm that you are using PRINT, rather than PLOT from ARCHICAD?

In any case, I can print full paper with both commands. Normally I use PLOT because it's definitely faster. But plotting transparent fills mostly won't give right results, so if I must use PRINT (or save to PDF and print from Acrobat Reader or Apple Preview). But the only waste of paper I get are the 10 cm. when I load a new roll. Obviusly it's important to set correctly paper sizes (matching layouts), in Archicad for using PLOT and in print driver for using PRINT. My DesignJet T520 24" (but I guess it's not alone), when printing or plotting on roll, has only 5mm margins all around layout. With single sheets, the bottom margin rises to 17mm.