How to create plt files for drawings?

[albates1972]

In the near future, we are going to have to create a "plt" for our drawings.

Currently I cannot find anything on creating a plt. Either File-> print, plot or export does not have this option.

I think I will need sys admin help, but I am wanting to get the facts straight on what I need to request.

UGNX V5.0.4.1

Thank you,

Allen

 

[JohnRBaker]

Were you ever told that NX actually supports what I assume is some sort of plotted file format?

Note that we are now using 3rd party Plot despooler software from SDI and so you may have to contact them if you need support for something which was not originally part of NX's offically supported suite of plot interfaces. However, I will check with our people to see if there is something that we can do in this area, or whether you will need to take this up with SDI, the plot software vendor, directly.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[albates1972]

I am not too familiar with NX5 plotting.

When we used NX4 (I believe), we would create an hpgl file and manually change the extension to a plt. We did this so as to work with our ematrix PDM system. Probably not the correct way to do it but it worked.

Currently we are using pdf's for our dwg's but that will change. That's what I am being told now.

I might be a little foggy on the above details. I had a year layoff and got back into a newer version of NX.

Allen

 

[JohnRBaker]

OK, I checked this out with the person responsible for the NX plotter interface.

The '.plt' file was a UG/NX proprietary plot format which was last supported with NX 2.0 (which was released 8 years ago). With the advent of NX 3.0, we replaced the internally developed NX plotter code with a 3rd party package from SDI. This new plot software no longer supports the '.plt' file format. Note that in the 7 years since we've been using the SDI plot despoolers your's is only the second or third inquiry that we've had requesting help with '.plt' files. In the previous cases, the customers found that they could use the options offered by the new software even though this did require that they change their workflows.

Anyway, now you know what happened to the '.plt' file format and why it's no longer supported by NX.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[Arkance/PhoeNX]

If the plt file is just a hpgl file with a different extension it can be done.

A hpgl plotter needs to be setup using the printer administrator and then set to "Render File then Execute Program". This should point to a batch file which takes the output and creates a .plt file in a folder.

Anthony Galante
Senior Support Engineer

NX4.0.4MP10, NX5.0.0->5.0.6, NX6.0.0->NX6.0.5, NX7.0.0->NX7.0.1 & NX7.5.0.32-> NX7.5.2.5, Beta NX8.0.0.15

 

[looslib]

Why do you want to switch from a common format (PDF) to a proprietary one (HPGL) which has less viewers available? eMatrix should take either format into their system.


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[albates1972]

Our smaller company was bought out by a larger company which strange as it seems is about 10 years behind, technology wise is some areas.

We are currently in a migration to merge the smaller into the bigger companies PDM. So it looks as if we will be taking steps backwards as far as technology goes.

The smaller companpies PDM was ematrix. We will be going away from that to everyones dislike here.

Not sure what the new system will be. Just was requested about plt's.

Thanks everyone for your input.

Allen

 

[Toost]

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