Plotting suggestions - Easy way to print 100s of sheets

[draftingsaycore]

Our current setup is like this. We plot our plan sheets (ARCH D/ARCH E) from paper space. There are typically 2 to 10 of these sheets.

 

We plot our plant production sheets (Legal size sheets) from model space. There can be anywhere from 10 to 500 or even 1000 of these sheets. These can be cumbersome to print as we click previous plot and select a window around each new sheet we print.

 

Any suggestions to make this easier to plot? I was searching around and had read how someone worked at a place that could print multiple sheets in model space with one click as long as it had a certain title block rectangle around it.

[rkent]

You can create a script assuming the areas to plot are the same each time and they have the same number of them in each drawing. With the -Plot command, yes to Detailed Plot Configuration, in there you will assign to plot a window, define the coordinates among other things, then when you have a script that works for one area, copy and paste below, edit the lower and upper limits to define the next window, repeat how ever many times is necessary.

[draftingsaycore]

Thanks for the reply, however the number will change with each drawing. I can set the areas to plot to be the same. Right now I am trying to set up an excel sheet that I can enter the number of sheets required and it will generate the script that I can copy to notepad and save as a script file.

[DANIEL]

there is a batch plot utility available in 2005 but i'm not sure it comes with LT, you may need a full fledged version to get said utility, aside from that i'm not sure what options you have since the scripting seems as cumbersome as the printing.

[Organic]

The better practice would be to setup paperspace layouts for the plant production sheets also when doing it initially.

[Glen1980]

When we first got AutoCAD here we briefly had 2005LT before our subscription upgraded us to 2006LT and I don't remember either of them having batch plot. They might have had publish but that would need layouts setup for each print.

 

Try typing publish and see what happens if it tells you the command is unrecognised learn to script, I remember seeing several good threads on creating scripts that would look to files outside of autocad to print everything in a windows folder.

[tzframpton]

Or upgrade to the latest version of LT, use the default PDF pc3 file to publish your outputs to a "record set" of PDF's, then from there anybody can batch plot them at any time. This is only if you can operate with this scenario and don't necessarily have to plot directly from AutoCAD.

[draftingsaycore]

Thanks for the replies, we do use publish on the plan sheets. However, I always thought that there was a layout limit in AutoCAD, so I never pursued that path...

 

I have come up with a solution though. Using excel and mostly a bunch of IF statements I type in the number of detail sheets I'm plotting and it generates the script in the column A. (the x and y coordinates of the sheets and the sheet size is the same for every drawing, just the number of sheets change) I copy and paste column A to notepad, save it, and run it in AutoCAD.

[Dana W]

You have dissadvantages with LT and being pre-2007. No sheet set manager prior to 2007 nor in LT, no 'batch', and no Lisp in LT. I guess that's why it's 75% less in cost.

 

Publish is not happy with there being no page settups in modelspace for my drawing. I am getting 'extents' on one page for model with the layout tabs getting one page per each, but I am just testing it.

 

Those scripts are going to get complicated but you seem to have that in hand.

 

I might suggest a software upgrade to full ACAD. The workload seems to support it.

[designerstuart]

this may be a bit off topic but i wrote this script a while ago for a similar problem i had. didn't go as far as anything outside autocad, but when i had to change plot setup for 100 or so drawings, it sped up the process.

 

;;; enter your plot setup preference below each option


-plot
; Detailed plot configuration? [Yes/No] <No>:
yes

; Enter a layout name or [?] <xxx>:
xxx

; Enter an output device name or [?] <\\xxx>:
\\xxx

; Enter paper size or [?] <A3 (297 x 420 mm)>:
A3 (297 x 420 mm)

; Enter paper units [inches/Millimeters] <Millimeters>:
Millimeters

; Enter drawing orientation [Portrait/Landscape] <Landscape>:
Landscape

; Plot upside down? [Yes/No] <No>:
No

; Enter plot area [Display/Extents/Layout/View/Window] <Extents>:
Extents

; Enter plot scale (Plotted Millimeters=Drawing Units) or [Fit] <Fit>:
Fit

; Enter plot offset (x,y) or [Center] <Center>:
Center

; Plot with plot styles? [Yes/No] <Yes>:
Yes

; Enter plot style table name or [?] (enter . for none) <xxx>:
xxx

; Plot with lineweights? [Yes/No] <Yes>:
Yes

; Scale lineweights with plot scale? [Yes/No] <No>:
Yes

; Plot paper space first? [Yes/No] <No>:
No

; Hide paperspace objects? [Yes/No] <No>:
No

; Write the plot to a file [Yes/No] <N>:
No

; Save changes to page setup [Yes/No]? <N>:
yes

; Proceed with plot [Yes/No] <Y>:
no

[draftingsaycore]

That's exactly what I did except instead of extents I used window. By using Excel's IF statements and knowing the the height, length, and location of the sheets I can generate a specific script for each drawing. I only have a to type in the number of sheets required.

[DANIEL]

having multiple page setups should not be a deterant for using publish, simply set up a drawing with a set up that will print them even with there variety and then import that style and apply it to all the drawings that are being published. I do this every day, the only exception is having to do stuff in model space seperately but all that takes is another page set up ment for that.

[BIGAL]

Your really stuck with Lt I did a favour for some one and wrote plot all title blocks that exist in in model space it can have 1 or 50 it just finds them does not matter where they are and plots them. You may be able to do it with excell though if you can export out your title blocks how many with their insertion point then it can be done in excel. ATTEXT ?

 

Heres a copy of the lisp code it just uses a plot window based on the insertion point

 (PROMPT ".....PRINTING DRAWING TO plotter....")
(setq oldsnap (getvar "osmode"))
(setvar "osmode" 0)

(setq ss2 (ssget "x" '((0 . "INSERT")(2 . "Mytitleblockname")(410 . "Model"))))
(setq n (sslength ss2))
(setq index 0)
(repeat n
   (setq en (ssname ss2 index))
   (setq el (entget en))
   (setq inspt (assoc 10 el)) ; insertion pt
  (setq xmin (- (cadr inspt) 6.0))
  (setq ymin (- (caddr inspt) 6.0))
  (setq xymin (strcat (rtos xmin 2 1) "," (rtos ymin 2 1)))
  (setq xmax (+ xmin 813.0)) ; hard coded for 813 wide 6mm offset
  (setq ymax (+ ymin 566.0)) ;hard code for 566 high
  (setq xymax (strcat (rtos xmax 2 1) "," (rtos ymax 2 1)))

 (COMMAND "-PLOT"  "Y"     "" "Myprinter name etc"
       "A3" "M"     "LANDSCAPE"   "N"
       "W"   xymin   xymax "1=2"  "C"
       "y"   "Designlaser.ctb"      "Y"   "" "n"   "n"
       "y" 
   )

 (setq index (+ index 1))
)
(setvar "osmode" oldsnap)
(princ)

 

You just need the same thing but in excell then save as a script.