Plotting is a key step in communicating your design with non-AutoCAD users unless you are using AutoCAD WS or another way of hosting your designs for others to see.* While many users go straight to the PLOT command and never bother with page setups, page setups can make plotting a drawing much more consistent and easier if you need to plot your designs at different sizes or formats.* One reason to plot the same layout or design at different sizes might be for a check plot and the other to a specific scale.

Note: This article does not work for those using AutoCAD for Mac because it does not support ActiveX.

The following demonstrates how to plot a layout using a*PC3 file.* It first checks to see if a PC3 file is assigned to the current layout for plotting, and if not it assigns the DWF6 ePlot.pc3 file as the current plot device.* Using this same approach, you could plot all layouts in a drawing to PDF or DWF files without changing the current plot configuration, much like the way the PUBLISH command works.

(vl-load-com)
(defun c:QDWF( / doc)
*** ;; Get the current drawing
*** (setq doc (vla-get-ActiveDocument (vlax-get-acad-object)))

*** ;; Plot the current layout
*** (vla-PlotToDevice (vla-get-Plot doc) "DWF6 ePlot.pc3")
* (princ)
)

The vla-PlotToDevice function above is passed a valid PC3 file, but if you do not pass a PC3 file to the method it will use the plot device assigned to the layout which can be accessed with the vla-get-ConfigName function.

Note: The vla-PlotToDevice function will start plotting in the background or foreground based on the current value of the BACKGROUNDPLOT system variable.

Now that you see how to plot a single layout, you can plot multiple layouts using the vla-SetLayoutsToPlot function.

(defun cLOTALL( / doc)
*** ;; Get the current drawing
*** (setq doc (vla-get-ActiveDocument (vlax-get-acad-object)))

*** (setq lstLayouts nil
********* arSize 0)

*** (vlax-for layout (vla-get-layouts doc)
******* ;; Check to see if a plot device is assigned to the layout, if not it will not be plotted
******* (if (and
*************** (/= (strcase (vla-get-ConfigName layout)) "NONE")
*************** (= (vla-get-ModelType layout) :vlax-false)
*********** )
*********** (progn
*************** (if (= lstLayouts nil)
******************* (setq lstLayouts (list (vla-get-Name layout)))
******************* (setq lstLayouts (append lstLayouts (vla-get-Name layout)))
*************** )
*********** )
******* )
*** )

*** ;; Create an array for all the layouts to be plotted
*** (setq arLayouts (vlax-make-safearray vlax-vbString (cons 0 (1- (length lstLayouts)))))

*** ;; Add the layout names to the array
*** (foreach item lstLayouts
******* (progn
*********** (vlax-safearray-put-element arLayouts arSize item)
*********** (setq arSize (1+ arSize))
******* )
*** )

*** ;; Plot the layout to the device
*** (vla-SetLayoutsToPlot (vla-get-Plot doc) arLayouts)
*** (vla-PlotToDevice (vla-get-Plot doc))

* (princ)
)

The following demonstrates how to create a named page setup, and then assign it to the current layout.

(defun c:CustomPageSetup()
*** ;; Get the current drawing
*** (setq doc (vla-get-ActiveDocument (vlax-get-acad-object)))

*** ;; Get the PlotConfigurations collection
*** (setq plotCfgs (vla-get-PlotConfigurations doc))

*** ;; Check to see if the pagesetup already exists
*** (setq plotCfg (vl-catch-all-apply 'vla-Item (list plotCfgs "MYPAGESETUP")))

*** ;; If the page setup exists, the variable will be of type VLA-OBJECT
*** (if (/= (type plotCfg) 'VLA-OBJECT)
******* ;; Create a page setup for model or paper space accordingly
******* (if (= (getvar "TILEMODE") 0)*
*********** (setq plotCfg (vla-Add plotCfgs "MYPAGESETUP" :vlax-false))
*********** (setq plotCfg (vla-Add plotCfgs "MYPAGESETUP" :vlax-true))
******* )
*** )

*** ;;(vla-put-Name plotCfg "MYPAGESETUP")
*** (vla-RefreshPlotDeviceInfo plotCfg)
*
*** ;; Set the plot device
*** (vla-put-ConfigName plotCfg "DWF6 ePlot.pc3")

*** ;; Set the paper size
*** (vla-put-CanonicalMediaName plotCfg "ANSI_C_(22.00_x_17.00_Inches)")

*** ;; Set the plot units (inches, millimeters, pixels)
*** (vla-put-PaperUnits plotCfg acInches)

*** ;; Set what to plot
*** ;; - If using acView, set the ViewToPlot property
*** ;; - If using acWindow, call GetWindowToPlot
*** (if (= (getvar "TILEMODE") 0)
******* (progn
*********** (vla-put-PlotType plotCfg acLayout)

*********** ;; Set scale
*********** (vla-put-UseStandardScale plotCfg :vlax-true)
*********** (vla-put-StandardScale plotCfg ac1_1)*********
******* )
******* (progn
*********** (vla-put-PlotType plotCfg acExtents)

*********** ;; Set scale
*********** (vla-put-UseStandardScale plotCfg :vlax-true)
*********** (vla-put-StandardScale plotCfg acScaleToFit)
*********
*********** ;; Center the plot on the page
*********** (vla-put-CenterPlot plotCfg :vlax-true)
******* )
*** )

*** ;; Hide paperspace objects
*** (vla-put-PlotHidden plotCfg :vlax-false)

*** ;; Set the plot origin
*** (setq origin (vlax-make-safearray vlax-vbDouble '(0 . 1)))
*** (vlax-safearray-fill origin (list 0.5 0.5))
*** (vla-put-PlotOrigin plotCfg origin)

*** ;; Set the plot rotation
*** (vla-put-PlotRotation plotCfg ac0degrees)

*** ;; Set viewport plot behavior
*** (vla-put-PlotViewportBorders plotCfg :vlax-false)
*** (vla-put-PlotViewportsFirst plotCfg :vlax-true)

*** ;; Set lineweight behavior
*** (vla-put-PlotWithLineweights plotCfg :vlax-true)
*** (vla-put-ScaleLineweights plotCfg :vlax-true)

*** ;; Set plot styles behavior
*** (vla-put-PlotWithPlotStyles plotCfg :vlax-true)
*** (vla-put-ShowPlotStyles plotCfg :vlax-true)

*** (if (= (getvar "PSTYLEMODE") 0)
******* (vla-put-StyleSheet plotCfg "acad.stb")
******* (vla-put-StyleSheet plotCfg "acad.ctb")
*** )

*** ;; Assign the page setup to the current layout
*** (vla-CopyFrom (vla-get-ActiveLayout doc) plotCfg)
)

Hope you enjoyed the sample code.

Sincerely,
* Lee




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