New to Plotting in Microstation

[Paul]

Sorry for the basic questions on plotting, but I am very new to Microstation
... and I am only familiar with plotting from AutoCAD.

First of all, it seems as if Microstation will only plot to files (or it
seems to give a .000 extension). What if I want to plot directly to a
plotter without having to create plot files ... is there some equivalent to
Autospooling ... or pathing to a UNC path to a plotter?

Second, if I can plot directly to a plotter ... how could a specifify number
of copies?

Third, am I correct in thinking INI files are the equivalent to 'Default and
Device Selections' in AutoCAD? Is this how people will typically create
default plot settings for everyone in an office.

Thanks in advance!
Paul

[Jack]

You can specify the plot port instead of a name (lpt1); I have my plot port
as a capture on lpt2. I find it easier to just to save the plots as files
(your .000, .001, etc extensions) and then copy these to the plotter port in
a dos window

Jack

[Bill Gilliss]

Paul -
On our small Windows NT network, we used the "net use" command at each
workstation's "DOS prompt" to alias everybody's non-existent LPT2 port
to the plotter's network port (JetDirect card):

net use lpt2: \\server\net01 /persistent

or something very similar - Windows 98 here at home doesn't have the
"net" command for me to check the syntax with.

Then, everybody prints to LPT2, says "yes" when the "Overwrite existing
file?" message pops up, and the plotter kicks in almost immediately.
Crude but completely effective.

I don't know how to specify multiple copies or how the INI files work
yet.

Bill
(also very new to Microstation - may be there should be a newsgroup for
us in-betweeners)

[Jim Weisgram]

"Paul" <pa...@technesis.com> wrote:

The other posts already describe plotting to LPT1 or 2 as the file name. There
are a few variations on this theme.

You can select the printer.plt configuration file, which will send the plot
directly to the default system printer.

Or, you can modify whichever "plotter.plt" config file you are using, so that
instead of creating a plot file, or being asked to overwrite lpt1, the plot is
sent directly to the printer device or queue. Look for the section in the .plt
file that looks like this:

default_extension/auto_incExt = '000'; default extension for plotfiles
;
; To configure a default output file name comment out the default_extension
; line above and uncomment this line. "lpt1" may be substituted with any
; desired filename - e.g. "$(MS_PLTFILES)plotfile.000"
;
;default_outFile/auto_overwrite = "lpt1"

Note the last line has a semi-colon in front, which means it is commented out.
And the first line is in effect. Place a semi-colon in front of the first line,
and remove the semi-colon from the last line. Also, instead of "lpt1" or "lpt2",
you may be able to specify a network queue, if you have one. Such as

default_outFile/auto_overwrite = "\\server\printer"

So far as sending multiple copies, I think the easiest thing is to create a plot
file (negating everything mentioned so far) and copy it to the printer multiple
times.

Regarding .INI files, I don't know about AutoCAD, but I think you are on the
right track.
--
Jim Weisgram
Oregon Department of Transportation
email: jwei...@hotmail.com
All opinions expressed are mine and not my employers (but they ought to be)

[Jun Pacaba]

You can specify the number of copies you want to print/plot if you use
printer.plt. This way it would make use of the system printer you installed.
By doing this you can access that printers system properties (no. of copies,
print quality, etc).

Hope this helps...

[Jun Pacaba]

Microstation can plot directly to your printer. When you are prompted for a
file name, type the port number instead where your printer is connected (usually
LPT1).

regards