Having trouble plotting

[EngJW]

We have an HP DesignJet 650c running on Windows 2000. It is used for Autocad 2000. I sent an SW2005 drawing to it and nothing happens other than the paper twitching around a few times.

Assuming it is a driver problem, I could use some help. I downloaded the latest driver and unzipped it, but there are no directions about how to install it. It is just a set of files. The Readme says to insert a disc (of drivers?). I looked through the control panel and looked through the program files, but cannot find a place to put the files.

Should I move them into some kind of directory, and also do you have to overwrite any existing files?

Thanks

 

[DesignSmith]

Before you go to far along, you will want to get the 2005 sp1.1 which fixes an SPR where much to much data was being sent to the plotter, and causing buffer overflows. (2005 sp0 and sp 0.1)
----
You should still put in the latest plotter driver anyway.
In [Start] Printers, right click on your plotter and choose Properties from the pop-up menu. Goto the [Advanced] tab of the dialog and click [New Driver...]. In that dialog click [Have Disk] and simply browse to the hard drive folder where you have un-zipped the HP files. In there should be an OEM???HP???.inf file that you can select.
From there you should be able to just accept the defaults to have Windows update the driver for you. (or at most pick your plotter model out of the list of choices)


DesignSmith

http://www.DesignSmith-Services.com

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

As far as i can see, the HP Designjet 650c is a large format, HP-GL/2 type printer which appears to only be suitable for AutoCAD 2000 to AutoCAD 2005.

Is the zipped driver you have "pl532en.exe"?

Have you tried printing a DWG file?

& all the best.

 

[EngJW]

Yes, that's the driver I downloaded.

Maybe I should get a different plotter. What do others use with SW? Most of my drawings are D size. This one is old and if it breaks it might not be worth fixing. Unfortunately, money is tight here.

I did not try it as a dwg, but and Autocad drawing will plot ok. The problem I had with that is my SW drawing contains 8 sheets, but when I save it as a dwg it saves only the active sheet. I will need to solve that one before too long.

 

[rporter]

WE use a designjet 1050c plus from hp for a large format printer. They have the new designjet 30 and 130 which will do d size printing that look like a nice printer.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Use the Task Scheduler to "save-as" all the SW drawing sheets at one time.

& all the best.

 

[macPT]

I am now testing a designjet 650 that was used with Acad and was recovered from a malfunction. I'm trying to delay the buy of a new plotter for a couple of years.

With SW2005SP1.1 and WXP Pro SP1 and 2, it prints OK (using the built in drivrer from XP). I didn't test it completely but, giving the behaviour so far, I don't expect any bad surprises.

REgards

 

[Heckler]

Print to a PDF file then send it to the DesignJet.

Best Regards,

Heckler

"Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups" John Kenneth Galbraith

 

[EngJW]

Making some progress. Got the drivers installed and got the first to run. The top and bottom are cut off but that can probably be fixed with a little more effort. What I don't understand is that all of the text and dimensions are plotting as solid rectangles. I use red color for all dimensions but I don't think that is causing the problem because the default title block plots the same way.

 

[macPT]

This probably as to do with the dimensions of the selected sheet size (by default, the plotter may leave margins related to sheet dimansions, so this area is not printed). Maybe you need to define a custom sheet size, a bit bigger than the real size, to print all the area (in the end this extra sized sheet must be cutted to the standard size).


Regards

 

[EngJW]

I finally did get the drawing to fit on a sheet but selecting the oversize D sheet option.

The problem now is how to fix the text and dimensions printing as solid blocks. It has been suggested here that it is the driver, but the driver is the latest one from HP.

Is there another driver that is intended for SW?

Thanks

 

[macPT]

Unfortunately the "latest driver" is not always the "best working driver". You must try to find one that better suits your system.

Good Luck

 

[davidinindy]

In my expereince with Solidworks, and Cadkey... The HP drivers were never the best.
I'd downloaded a generic HPGL-2 driver before, but can't remember where I got it.
I'm still trying to find a driver that works. In the meantime, I'm just printing on 11x17 on our regular printer to get prints to look at before sending out files to the customer.
Our Acad group has been using the HP DJ600 too much for me to try much. We've got a DJ 750 sitting waiting to be installed on the network.

David