Plotter and Printer Hardware Considerations

Plotter and Printer Hardware Considerations
Positioning an AutoCAD drawing on the printer output is something of an art. Before you face a
deadline with hundreds of plots to produce, you may want to create some test plots and carefully
refine your plotter settings so that you have AutoCAD set up properly for those rush jobs.
Part of the setup process is to understand how your particular printer or plotter works. Each device
has its own special characteristics, so a detailed description of printer hardware setup is beyond the
scope of this section. However, here are a few guidelines that will make the process easier.

Understanding the Plot and Publish Tab in the Options Dialog Box
I mentioned the Plot And Publish tab in the Options dialog box earlier in this chapter. This tab contains several
options related to plotting that can be useful. Here’s a summary of those options and their purposes.



Default Plot Settings For New Drawings
The settings in this group let you control the default plot settings for new drawings and for drawings
from earlier versions of AutoCAD that are opened for the first time in AutoCAD 2008. The Use As Default
Output Device radio button and drop-down list let you select the default plotter or printer to be used
with new drawings. When selected, the Use Last Successful Plot Settings radio button uses the last successful
plotter settings for subsequent plots. This is how earlier versions of AutoCAD worked. The Add
Or Configure Plotters button opens the Plotters window. This is the same as choosing Files  Plot Manager
from the AutoCAD menu bar. From the Plotters window, you can launch the Add-A-Plotter Wizard
to add new plotter configurations. You can also edit existing plotter configurations.

General Plot Options
These options control some of the general plotter parameters. The Keep The Layout Paper Size If Possible
radio button causes AutoCAD to attempt to plot to the paper size specified in the Plot dialog box,
regardless of the paper size in the plotter. If the specified size is larger than the capacity of the plotter,
a warning message is displayed. The Use The Plot Device Paper Size option causes AutoCAD to use the
paper size specified by the system printer or the PC3 plot configuration file currently in use. Both settings
are also controlled by the Paperupdate system variable.
The System Printer Spool Alert drop-down list offers control over printer-spooling alert messages. The
OLE Plot Quality drop-down list lets you control the quality of OLE objects embedded in or linked to a
drawing. This setting can also be controlled through the Olequality system variable.

When the Use OLE Application When Plotting OLE Objects check box is selected, AutoCAD launches any
application that is associated with an OLE object embedded or linked to the AutoCAD drawing that is
currently being plotted. This helps improve the plot quality of OLE objects. You can also set this option
through the Olestartup system variable.
The Hide System Printers option affects the Printer/Plotter group’s Name drop-down list in the Plot and
Page Setup dialog boxes. With this option turned on, you see only printers that have a .pc3 file associated
with them. These include printers that have been set up using the Add-A-Plotter Wizard discussed
earlier in this chapter.