Plotting with new printer changes moves my layout sheet

Hello and thanks a for your help ahead of time.

We have a new printer/plotter in our office and Autocad cannot find the old one and so I have to select the new one. Here's the scoop:

When I am in the layout tab, everything is perfectly aligned in my layout sheet (24 x 36) and so I type plot and before the dialogue screen appears (We just got a new plotter) Autocad says: "such and such printer: This plotter config. cannot be used for blah blah blah.... The None plot device has been substituted." Which makes sense because that such and such printer is non existent. So i click ok. and the usual plot dialogue screen displays.

I select our new plotter and the exact size of my layout sheet (24 x 36) and click apply to layout and then preview it and it shows the layout cutting off my titleblock on the right hand side. So I cancel the plot (having applied the new printer and 24 x 36 config.) and look at my layout and either my layout sheet or my linework has shifted about 3/4" up and 3/4" to the side.

Why did something shift? My layout sheet was already aligned and at 24 x 36. I dont want to have to move it everytime especially if I need to print off older drawings which are set up with the non existent printer. Should I or could I make autocad ignore the old printer and tell it to recognize the new one so I wont ask me everytime i open an older drawing?

Thanks,

Hey,From my experience this is where there is a difference in the printers limits it can print too (like margins in word). If you change the plotter in page setup (from the layout tab) the dotted lines in paperspace will change showing you where the printers extents are. We overcome this by selecting to plot extents rather than layout and to scale to fit the page. This does throw the scale out however if you are measuring from the drawings. Possibly not best practice but if you just want a print out will plot the whole page.CheersOllie

Plotting scale to fit is usually not a good idea for technical drawings that are meant for distribution.

Try checking the "Center the plot" box. If that doesn't work, check the margin settings in the plotter properties. You may be able to get them closer to the edge of the paper. If that still doesn't work, modifying the title block to fit the limits of the plotter may be the only other option.

Thanks for the advice! I scoped out the Plotter Properties and figured out what I need to do.

I really appreciate the graphic RobDraw.

Your welcome. In our world, a picture really does say a lot and avoids language barriers which are common on this site.

really wish you shared what you did to fix this because I am having the same issue and selecting window and center the plot every time seems a bit redundant when you have to print 100 sheets.

print 100 sheets

You can also use PUBLISH or the way we do it is via lisp with preset sheet and plotter combos, works every single time only failure is when humans decide to move the title block, again we have a fix up for that also and me shouting loudly at who did it.

The latest PDF lisp we use produces A3 user selects range 1 99 all sheets produced as individuals and lastly they are combined also into 1 pdf. 12324-d01-d99.pdf

hey thanks for the quick reply! appreciate it, I read this last week forgot to say something.