Plotflow deserves 64 bits - don't kill it.

[Rick Thompson]

Please don't kill Plotflow. I hope people will let it be know that many of us really like plotfow. If you plot via AC you have to keep AC it open till it's done, and you have no way of knowing it's done unless you go to your print room to physically see. There is no feedback.

That's really 2 reasons to not kill it off. I have to plot. I have an Oce 9300 and printing takes hours. I don't have $16,000 for a new faster one. Mine works just fine plotting. I can see the Plotflow window, and when it's done I can go upstairs to do whatever is needed. With no feedback, I get more exercise than I want. At this point I want be able to move to 10.7, and that is disappointing.

[Karl Ottenstein]

Rick,

I haven't used Plotflow in years, so please help some of us out on how to vote. While it allows you to spool sets of drawings saved as PLT files, is there a reason that saving your plots as PDF doesn't work? I take it that there are devices (perhaps the OCE 9300) that cannot be used as a (PDF) printer?

In helping us understand why Plotflow is indispensable, you might get more votes from people who did not understand what it could do for them...

Windows users, and Mac users who are not upgrading to Mac OS X "Lion", can continue to use the old Plotflow from AC 14 as I understand it.

Cheers,
Karl

PS Clarification to Rick's desire to move to OS X "Lion" (10.7) - PlotFlow is a pure PowerPC (PPC) program and Lion provides no support for running PPC code. But, note that in the near-term, upgrading to 10.7 is not recommended as there are some performance issues being examined by Graphisoft with more details to follow after Apple issues the final release. Best for all of us to wait to upgrade until Graphisoft gives us a full compatibility report. [If you 'must' upgrade at release time, keep a clone of your prior OS X system so that you can multi-boot into your old OS if necessary. Hard disks are cheap; time isn't.]

[Rick Thompson]

Karl wrote:
Rick,
I take it that there are devices (perhaps the OCE 9300) that cannot be used as a (PDF) printer?

#1 - Time. It would take hours to print anything, pdf, whatever, compared with plotting.

#2 - The second issue is there is no feedback as to when the plot is finished unless you are using Plotflow. With printing you have the OS print panel that can tell you when it is finished, or if it stopped. If I plot with out going via Plotflow and the roll of paper runs out, or the toner needs refilling.. or a paper jamb, you simply have no idea to get up and go check. You can see in the Plotflow window that things have stopped.. so you are alerted to go check.

#3 - I'll add another. If you forget and open another pln without doing so in another instance, you stop the plotting, and that is a royal pain. You have to figure out what plotted and start agin with the balance.

It seems like a very simple program that could be re scripted that has a very high value to our work flow for some of us.

Thanks Karl for pointing out the need to clarify.