Using an old HPGL plotter with Mac OS X apps

[User Bp]

I'd like to revive an old HPGL B-size plotter for some drawing made
using Ashlar Graphite on an OS X Mac. Graphite no longer bundles
a plotter driver, so I'm looking for something that either serves
as a plotter driver outputting to a file or a direct translator
from .dxf, .dwg or .eps to HPGL. Available .dxf and .dwg versions
run from R14 to 2008, I'm not clear on the differences among them.
There are quite a few translators _from_ hpgl, but none the other way.

There are reports that both InkScape and Open Office Draw can
do the required conversion. Libreoffice Draw does not appear
to support .dxf export. None are easy to deal with, I'm hoping
somebody can confirm it's worth the trouble to try them.

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska

[Howard S Shubs]

In article <jk6631$882$1...@news.albasani.net>, User Bp <b...@www.zefox.net>
wrote:

> There are reports that both InkScape and Open Office Draw can
> do the required conversion. Libreoffice Draw does not appear
> to support .dxf export. None are easy to deal with, I'm hoping
> somebody can confirm it's worth the trouble to try them.

I doubt very much it's worth the trouble unless you're trying to revive
it just because it's cool. Which it is, no argument. Supplies are
still available, but not from HP. HP sold that business.

Current HP printers... for that matter, probably almost ALL HP printers
made w/in the last two or three decades, can take HPGL and render it.
And they're a lot easier to get going than a serial device for which you
have no driver. You'll have to wrap the HPGL in a sequence, but that's
very easy to find, and if you can't find it, I'll get it for you. I
have my manual in the other room... let's seee...

From "HP PCL 5 Printer Language Technical Reference Manual", part number
33459-90903, first edition, September 1990, pp.16-10 to 16-11:

Enter HP-GL/2 Mode
<esc>%#B

where
<esc> is the escape character, ASCII 27
# is 0 for position pen at previous HP-GL/2 pen position
1 for position pen at current PCL cursor position
no default value


To put it back to PCL:

Enter PCL Mode
<esc>%#A

where
<esc> is the escape character, ASCII 27
# is 0 for position pen at previous PCL pen position (default)
1 for position pen at current HP-GL/2 cursor position

So put Enter HP-GL/2 Mode sequence into a file, add the rest of your
HP-GL commands after it, add the Enter PCL Mode at the end just to be
safe, send the mess to the printer (plotter), and you will have your
output. There may be some scaling issues, maybe. Try it first.

--
May joy be yours all the days of your life! - Phina
We are but a moment's sunlight, fading in the grass. - The Youngbloods
Those who eat natural foods die of natural causes. - Kperspective

[isw]

In article <howard-A17EFB....@news.giganews.com>,

Howard S Shubs <how...@shubs.net> wrote:

> In article <jk6631$882$1...@news.albasani.net>, User Bp <b...@www.zefox.net>
> wrote:
>
> > There are reports that both InkScape and Open Office Draw can
> > do the required conversion. Libreoffice Draw does not appear
> > to support .dxf export. None are easy to deal with, I'm hoping
> > somebody can confirm it's worth the trouble to try them.
>
> I doubt very much it's worth the trouble unless you're trying to revive
> it just because it's cool. Which it is, no argument. Supplies are
> still available, but not from HP. HP sold that business.
>
> Current HP printers... for that matter, probably almost ALL HP printers
> made w/in the last two or three decades, can take HPGL and render it.

Yeah, but watching them is B O R I N G.

Watching a high-speed plotter, now ...

Isaac

[Howard S Shubs]

In article <isw-044EF7.22431519032012@[216.168.3.50]>,

But FAST!

[User Bp]

Howard S Shubs <how...@shubs.net> wrote:

> Current HP printers... for that matter, probably almost ALL HP printers
> made w/in the last two or three decades, can take HPGL and render it.
> And they're a lot easier to get going than a serial device for which you
> have no driver. You'll have to wrap the HPGL in a sequence, but that's

The problem isn't rendering, the plotter will do that just fine.

The problem is getting files from modern software into HPGL format.
(Sorry, there was a typo in the original post about importing .dxf,
that's not the issue either). InkScape and Open Office Draw were
both reported to output HPGL files, but both are clearly hard to
work with and I'm not sure either one actually does it in current
form.

I'm not so much attracted by the "coolness" of the plotter, much more
by the 11" by 17" flatbed writing area and high line quality. And the
fact that it's already in hand.

One option, that I don't particularly like, is buying a Windows-based
plotter driver. Winline seems to be a well-publicised example. I have
a spare computer, but will have to buy a Windows licence and the plotter
software. That's likely to come to a few hundred dollars, admittedly much
less than the cost of a high-res B size printer. But, more than I wanted
to spend 8-)

Thanks for reading,

bob


>

[Howard S Shubs]

In article <jkefb2$rrq$1...@news.albasani.net>, User Bp <b...@www.zefox.net>
wrote:

> Howard S Shubs <how...@shubs.net> wrote:
> > Current HP printers... for that matter, probably almost ALL HP printers
> > made w/in the last two or three decades, can take HPGL and render it.
> > And they're a lot easier to get going than a serial device for which you
> > have no driver. You'll have to wrap the HPGL in a sequence, but that's
>
> The problem isn't rendering, the plotter will do that just fine.

If you can get it to work, sure. I was presenting you with an
alternative for existing HPGL files.