Batch Plotting Archive Drawings

[arthurnegas]

I need to get prints off hundreds of archived drawings. However the normal batch plot options are no good because the border is not a cell and they have not all been saved with the whole drawing in the view. However all the drawings occupy the same part of the design plane so if I could specify co-ordinates for plotting I think it would work. I don't want to have to open every drawing to sort this out. All ideas appreciated!

 

[aas1]

Interplot Organizer is software that works outside of Microstation to plot Microstation drawings using Iplot. It will allow you to define your plot area by x,y,z coordinates

 

[arthurnegas]

Thanks for your time aas1. Looking into it.

 

[joem01]

You could also plot using the 'Design Range'
This is the low x,y and high x,y of displayed elemnts for the plotting area.

 

[Lorys]

If the outer edge of the sheet has any unique feature it can be used in batch plot ie level or colour it is a polygon right? so if its the only polygon on a specif
level it can be used to set your batch plot boundary..

Better yet you could create a macro that would place a polygon on level 1 colour 254 ( invisible color to plotter)at the chosen coordinates, you could then msbatch run apply the macro to do this on all the archived drawings.
Then you could run batchplot to select polygon on level 1 colour 254.
Alot cheaper than buying Iplot and other 3rd party software..
Go to the help file and read up on msbatch its great with macros..

 

[LizardMan]

Arthur, Another effective batch plotting product is eQuorum's (formerly CADNET) batch plotting utility Plot Manager. Their configuration allows you to specify design range,shapes,levels etc for plotting criteria. Using Plot Manager with Plot Station allows you to inter mix and batch plot native MicroStation V7/V8, native AutoCad DWG, a variety of raster formats, HPGL/2, or PDF to almost any plotter or language format. If you're interested go to

http://www.equorum.com

for more info.

 

[arthurnegas]

Lorys - thanks for that. Have started doing a bit of reading on using msbatch to run macros.

Thanks LizardMan. Looked into the Interplot option but couldn't justify the expense. Have contacted equorum for a price for plot station.