Sbeth85 Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 In school I was taught to print via PLT. However I now work in an office and we mainly use PDF. The scale turns out correctly, plus we actually get to SEE what it's gonna look like before it comes from the printers. With PLT- I can publish it and despite Previewing I still don't know what'll happen regarding linescales or whether a hatch will jump to the front or not. Anyways, PDF seems like the way to go (though the colors come out slightly different than in PLTs)... so why in the world would I keep using PLTs? Is there such a thing as a PLT viewer? (I've searched online and didn't find any freeware). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkmcswain Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 First off, PLT is not a file format, it's only a file extension. Many "PLT" files are HP-GL/2 format, and there are some viewers out there. Although various print drivers (and the file types they produce) may have some subtle differences, you can consider DWF, PDF, and your PLT files all "plot files". We print both HP-GL/2 plot files and PDF files here in my office for various reasons, personally I print almost everything to PDF. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sbeth85 Posted January 22, 2014 Author Share Posted January 22, 2014 Basically, I'm working on my final project for school. I have been printing everything in PLT and I'm wondering if I'd have to redo a lot of linescales if I print in PDF at this point. I'm tired of sending stuff to the printers and getting back weird things. Is it worth switching over or not this late in the game? Are the PDFs qualitatively inferior or anything that would be noticeable? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sbeth85 Posted January 22, 2014 Author Share Posted January 22, 2014 rkmcswain- Thanks for the link. Unfortunately neither of the free links are working (the HP one goes to a site in German where I can't find anything relevant) and the OCE page isn't there anymore. Any other free ones you know of? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pablo Ferral Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 I used to plot to .plt files when I first started with CAD. They were the most convenient way of transporting files to the print shop - usually on floppy diskettes. Nowadays we can email files without having to worry too much about file size, and most drawings are only printed for issue to the workshop or job site. I'd stick to .PDF or .DWF if I were you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkmcswain Posted January 22, 2014 Share Posted January 22, 2014 rkmcswain-Thanks for the link. Unfortunately neither of the free links are working (the HP one goes to a site in German where I can't find anything relevant) and the OCE page isn't there anymore. Any other free ones you know of? I have not updated those links since it was published some 8 years ago. You might give this a shot. I don't know what changes have been made to Oce Publisher in that time: http://downloads.oce.com/ProductDownloads/Index/263 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sbeth85 Posted January 23, 2014 Author Share Posted January 23, 2014 Thanks, guys. It seems like PDF's the way to go and that PLT's pretty antiquated. Thanks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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