Plotter setup

[Chudder]

Does anyone know how to get a Canon BJ-W3000 plotter working with ACAD 2008 and windows Vista. This is a fairly old plotter and is compatible to windows 2000/NT latest and ACAD 2000i Help!!!

[Cad64]

Good luck with that.
This is one of the problems you encounter when upgrading your OS. Sometimes older hardware is no longer compatible. Have you tried contacting Canon to find out if they have any plans to release drivers for this printer to make it work on Vista? I seriously doubt they will though. The same thing happened to me when I upgraded to XP. My Canon printer, which was less than 5 years old, wouldn't work anymore. When I contacted Canon tech support, they basically laughed at me and said I needed to buy a new printer. This is why I give Canon a big thumbs down on customer support.

[watso75]

Similar problem here too, canon were less than helpfull. I was fortunate enough to have Cad on a laptop aswell which had xp running, as far as my vista machine it was buy a new printer im afraid. Good luck though and if you find a solution let me know

[mahahaavaaha]

Hi yall!

If memory serves, the W3000 was an HP emulator with HPGL, HPGL/2 and RTL emulations. You could try with a generic HPGL2 driver. To test, go and download the WINLINE Vista driver from www.winline.com. I don't have a canon (except my trusty MP-C70) to test. The winline driver has to be bought and costs 200 AUS dollars but you can test it for naught.

Cheers,

Petri

[Belianis]

You can also use PDF Creator (it's free), print everthing to *.pdf (or *.jpg/*.bmp) and then print these files using Adobe Reader.

[CADken]

here's how to setup plotters/printers on a VISTA OS:

Unless Vista has the necessary drivers, the Add Printer wizard in Vista
insists on retrieving the driver for a network printer from the computer to
which the printer is connected. Since you can'€™t install the Vista driver on a
WinXP computer, that means that Vista fails to connect to the network printer.

You need to fool Vista into thinking that the network printer is actually a
local one, so that you can install the driver directly on your Vista computer.

Download the Vista printer driver and install it on the Vista computer.
You'€™ll be prompted to connect the printer to your computer. Choose the option to proceed with the installation WITHOUT connecting the printer.

Once installed, open Printers in Control Panel, right-click on the printer
and choose Properties. Go to the Ports Tab, click Add Port, select Local
Port, then click New Port.
For the Port Name enter exactly the network path and share name of your
printer, click OK, and double-check that this new port is selected with the
checkbox next to it. Click OK to close the printer properties.

[mahahaavaaha]

CADKen,

the problem here is that there IS no Vista driver for this model!

/Petri

[mahahaavaaha]

You can also use PDF Creator (it's free), print everthing to *.pdf (or *.jpg/*.bmp) and then print these files using Adobe Reader.

See previous message....

[CADken]

CADKen,

the problem here is that there IS no Vista driver for this model!

/Petri

sorry, missed that, my post above is just a general memo I sent out to employees here with VISTA trying to connect to our printers...

[Chudder]

Thanks guys, I will try using generic driver which was going to be my next question. If not its setting up another station solely to control plotting with xp or even win 2000 on it!!

I did try canon before starting this thread, could not even get through to talk to someone, gave up after so long on hold, good eh!!!