Sheet sets are they really this bad ?

My concern at the moment is the way that plotting a group of drawings makes the computer disfunctional for the period that the command is active....

When possible, we usually plan publishing around other things, like lunch, meetings, etc. When that is not possible, we can usually find something to do while it's publishing such as making sure the printer is loaded when plenty of paper for the job.

Having said that, if I really do need to do something else on the machine such as answer email, etc. - I just minimize AutoCAD right after starting the print/publish job - and I don't have any issues with it making "the computer disfunctional".

Last week, as we were finishing up a 33 sheet job, the sealing engineer was standing here while the set published and was very appreciative that it was being published automatically, without someone having to manually open each drawing. The 10 minutes we sat here doing nothing (while it was publishing) was insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

FWIW, I still occasionally often run across people who don't even use page setups. They still type in PLOT, pick the printer, pick the paper, etc. - EVERY SINGLE TIME. Some of them have graduated to picking "Previous plot", but I'm still amazed at how many people refuse to learn/use the tools that are available.

When possible, we usually plan publishing around other things, like lunch, meetings, etc. When that is not possible, we can usually find something to do while it's publishing such as making sure the printer is loaded when plenty of paper for the job.

 

Having said that, if I really do need to do something else on the machine such as answer email, etc. - I just minimize AutoCAD right after starting the print/publish job - and I don't have any issues with it making "the computer disfunctional".

 

Last week, as we were finishing up a 33 sheet job, the sealing engineer was standing here while the set published and was very appreciative that it was being published automatically, without someone having to manually open each drawing. The 10 minutes we sat here doing nothing (while it was publishing) was insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

1+... Even before Autopublish, back when I was working with Land Desktop & Land-Enabled Map (2006/2009 both), I'd usually start a publish job in another 'empty' session that didn't have any external DB connections, etc. so as to continue my work in the active session so-to-speak.

I've always planned around plotting, too. Our, soon to be replaced, plotters, which are in a different room, require a fair amount of baby sitting. So, I am not usually trying to do anything on my computer at plotting time. When I am at it, I've always accepted that to be an expected nuisance at plotting time.