Carlson Software Forum

I don't use Carlson yet, but would like to take advantage of some advise.

I'm using an HP Draft Pro pen plotter with AutoCad 2000, Win 98. When
the plotter plots curves it draws many small segments instead of a
smooth curve. The curve ends up looking fairly smooth, but the plotter
spends alot of time drawing the tiny segments. This happens with the
curves contained in fonts also. So a .1" #3 is plotted with 50 segments
rather than 2 curves. This is making my plot take 4 hours instead of 2.
Also the end product is not as smooth as it could be. It appears that a
cold boot of both the plotter and the computer will fix this problem

half of the time<. Back when I used a pen plotter last (5 years ago
,R12) I remember something about this issue. Exactly what I don't

recall. I have saved the drawing in a R13 format to convert the LW
polylines to regular polylines. What settings could I have set wrong? I
have messed with viewres and it does not seem to affect the output.
Any ideas other than suggesting buying a newer inkjet printer will be
welcomed. JRL

This was a common problem with the "right out of the acad box" HP plotter
drivers with Acad 2000. You can download a new driver from the AutoCAD
drivers and downloads website. There is a correctional driver for the HDI
driver you are using, but there are still remaining problems with it. Color
254 (light grey for shading) will not ever plot. Color 254 cannot be
screened because the driver doesn't recognize 254. Color 253 is as close as
you will ever get and it was too dark for shading where you need text and
other info to show through. Although it is a little quirkier, I would
recommend you update to the HP Windows driver and use it for AutoCAD
plotting. It is fast, and all the problems have been worked out, with the
exception of printing TIF or JPG image attachments in paper space (half the
time they will print, half the time they will not, but the problem only
occurs in paper space). Oh yeah, one of the enhancements is that you will
have to pick "plot upside down" in order for it to plot right side up.
Clever.

A fellow surveyor


"Surveyor" <surveyor@yifan.net> wrote in message
news:3E441D35.7010406@yifan.net...

I don't use Carlson yet, but would like to take advantage of some advise.

I'm using an HP Draft Pro pen plotter with AutoCad 2000, Win 98. When
the plotter plots curves it draws many small segments instead of a
smooth curve. The curve ends up looking fairly smooth, but the plotter
spends alot of time drawing the tiny segments. This happens with the
curves contained in fonts also. So a .1" #3 is plotted with 50 segments
rather than 2 curves. This is making my plot take 4 hours instead of 2.
Also the end product is not as smooth as it could be. It appears that a
cold boot of both the plotter and the computer will fix this problem
half of the time<. Back when I used a pen plotter last (5 years ago
,R12) I remember something about this issue. Exactly what I don't
recall. I have saved the drawing in a R13 format to convert the LW
polylines to regular polylines. What settings could I have set wrong? I
have messed with viewres and it does not seem to affect the output.
Any ideas other than suggesting buying a newer inkjet printer will be
welcomed. JRL

Addendum - I just remembered you have a pen plotter so you perhaps don't
care about "color 254". Updating the HDI driver might do the trick for you.
JackG