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Autocad Plotting to HP Designjet 500

Printed From: CAD Forum
Category: EN
Forum Name: AutoCAD
Forum Description: Discussion about AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT, viewers, DWG and DXF formats, Design Review, AutoCAD web, Drive, add-ons
URL: https://www.cadforum.cz/forum_en/forum_posts.asp?TID=588
Printed Date: 10.Jul.2026 at 06:39


Topic: Autocad Plotting to HP Designjet 500
Posted By: dob1977
Subject: Autocad Plotting to HP Designjet 500
Date Posted: 27.Mar.2008 at 14:42

A company I work part time for recently purchased an HP 500 (w/gl2 card) for plotting. Before that, they had an HP 650c. Since I am not at their office, I sent them PLT files, which in turn they copy to the LPT1 port to produce drawings. I have only been able to plot using Autocad R14 which still has the 650C as it plotter.

My fulltime job has me using Autocad R2008 which, when I create a PLT file and send it to them...just spits out paper. I have went to HP's website and downloaded the driver for their plotter and installed it, but I just cant figure it out. Any help would be greatly appreciated, since I would like to move off of R14 to R2008 .
 
Thanks,
Randy


Replies:
Posted By: Vladimir Michl
Date Posted: 27.Mar.2008 at 15:08
This should work fine. Please note there are two plotters (and drivers) - DesignJet 500 (PCL and HPGL2 versions) and DesignJet 500+. Make sure you have the right driver, attach it to the port "FILE:" and plot your .PLT file.
The resulting file should be then copied (COPY /B) or sent (e.g. with GoPlot) to the plotter.


-------------
Vladimir Michl (moderator)
ARKANCE - https://arkance.world" rel="nofollow - https://arkance.world - Autodesk Platinum Partner

Posted By: dob1977
Date Posted: 27.Mar.2008 at 15:43
Thanks for the info. I am going to try that and see if it works. One thing I forgot to mention is that the way they send it to the plotter is through the command line program (ie..old msdos window). They just type
copy filename.plt lpt1
does this matter?
 
Randy

Posted By: Vladimir Michl
Date Posted: 27.Mar.2008 at 16:03
It does matter - a lot. As PLT files are not text files, they should definitely use the binary option for such Copy command - i.e.:
 
COPY /B filename.ext LPT1
 
This is probably the reason of the problems - and obviously not your fault...


-------------
Vladimir Michl (moderator)
ARKANCE - https://arkance.world" rel="nofollow - https://arkance.world - Autodesk Platinum Partner

Posted By: dob1977
Date Posted: 27.Mar.2008 at 16:28
Here are the results. I checked on the driver and the one I used actually covers all the different 500 series, so the driver is correct.
I then typed in the sequence you mentioned and it didnt plot correctly. What happens now is that it prints out the sheet, but its blank.
We are getting closer..at least it doesnt spit out long page.
 
Randy

Posted By: dob1977
Date Posted: 28.Mar.2008 at 19:36
so now all I get is a blank piece of paper with nothing on it when I plot. Is there anything else I can try? There is ink in the plotter so thats not it.
 
Thanks,
 
Randy


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