Dear Kip Product Manufacturer (and all Kip users too!)

We are receiving a Kip 6000 series with 2200 scanner later today. What would
be the recommended configuration and setup for Acad plotting?

1. All users plot directly to the Kip
2. The Kip is installed as a shared printer on a print server, then all
users point to that.
3. Something entirely different.

I look forward to hearing from you. If you have software or other items I
should grab now, please let me know! Thanks.

--
James Wedding, P.E.
IT Manager
Jones & Boyd, Inc.
Dallas, TX
XP/2 on P4-3.4/1G
LDT2005+C3D
http://au.autodesk.com
Sign up now for AU2004!

 

Good Morning,
We have been using a network folder that the end user submits the print job through Powerprint Request, which is Kips Plot job software. The plotter then checks using a configurable time interval to see if a job has been submitted.
The plotter then moves the job locally and processes. Pretty easy to configure and use. The plotter itself will have a shared printer which you can print directly to if you wish.

John Postlewait
IS Department
George Butler Associates, Inc.

 

Does that mean you're printing to file all the time? We tried that years ago
and found it to be REALLY cumbersome, but haven't looked at it since. What
does the user do at the Acad station to get prints out?

Thanks for your help!

--
James Wedding, P.E.
IT Manager
Jones & Boyd, Inc.
Dallas, TX
XP/2 on P4-3.4/1G
LDT2005+C3D
http://au.autodesk.com
Sign up now for AU2004!

 

Now that storage space does not come at the premium it did years ago, we have been saving the plot files as a way to quickly be able to produce a hard copy of a sheet or set. Does away with flat filing submittals etc.
In the project folders we keep a plot files directory with submittal dates as folder names and its pretty simple for someone to print a new set.
For one sheet checks we just plot direct.
One hint keep the Kip heidi driver on the network after you get it tweaked, and add a driver path in the config files.
Keeps everyone plotting the same.

John Postlewait

 

We used to plot to a network folder, but have started plotting direct to the KIP plotter. This seems to work better, no permissions for the network folder, and no mapping different departments to the folder. Everyone uses the same .ini file.
Plotting single sheets to the plotter is straight forward, but we plot most everything to file in the job pack, and the send colated sets to the plotter with the KIP PowerPrint Request software.

 

We plot directly to our Kip 6000, everyone is required to enter their
username (same as their network logon name) and the project number. This
way we can keep track of accounting.

 

We have 3 different methods available to us to plot to our 6000.

1. It is setup as a shared printer on a print server. We actually don't plot
from Autocad using the system printer driver. We will print long spreadsheets,
etc.
2. The Unattend Software requires a network share folder that you submit files
to via the Windows Request software. From Autocad you can print to file
directly to that path and Unattend will pick up the file and print it. I feel
we get better printed results using the HDI driver instead of the System Printer
Driver.
3. We plot to file, then use Windows Request to submit an entire set. This is
the method we use probably 80% of the time. Our users like the ability to go
back and get a plot for an engineer without having to plot the drawing again.

If you are using the 4.55 or 5.x version of the Powerprint Software make sure
you setup Windows Request to allow you to convert plot files and tiff files to
pdf's. Your reseller should be able to take care of that. It's handy to have.

 

Hello James,

Congratulations on getting the KIP 6000 and the Color scanner. We have browsed throught he posted replies and would like to contribute our suggestions and recommendations as well.

What you would need to have to accomplish AutoCAD printing would be 2 things: 1) KIP Windows printer driver 2) KIP Heidi driver.

Step 1)
As you've listed, choice 2 is the best option. Once you install the KIP windows driver, a port is created at the server. This port is configured to point to the IP address of the KIP printer. We no longer use the 'network folder' method of printing with Powerprint 5.x+. All clients connect to this network printer at the server. This makes it easy to use as many a times users find it hard to browse over networks to find the correct workgroup/printer. With the printer installed at the server, no additional parameters are required. Having done that, client PC's would have the 'shared printer object' on their workstations.

Step 2)
Install KIP heidi driver for AutoCAD. Upon installation of the driver, it's configured to point to the port location created with the install of 'shared printer object' as in step 1. This allows seamless integration of being able to spool the AutoCAD data over the Kip port to the IP of the printer.

Important to note:
Some users ask that they wish to use the Heidi driver and not the windows driver to print over the port. This is not correct. Heidi driver uses can and should use the kip port printing channel. We recommend using the KIP heidi driver printing to the KIP port created with the shared printer object.

Both these drivers are available on Powerprint 5SR3 CD and also on the KIP America web site.

Any additional questions, please feel free to email

thank you

KIP Digital Support /RM

 

Hey, just for the record, you should tell people that they can't run
Printman.exe over Remote Desktop. We fought that for about an hour this
morning....

RD is invaluable in managing my network and printers. Your software really
should work in a RD setting.

--
James Wedding, P.E.
IT Manager
Jones & Boyd, Inc.
Dallas, TX
XP/2 on P4-3.4/1G
LDT2005+C3D
http://au.autodesk.com
Sign up now for AU2004!

 

OK, so why use the HDI driver at all? What features are missing from the
Windows print driver?

--
James Wedding, P.E.
IT Manager
Jones & Boyd, Inc.
Dallas, TX
XP/2 on P4-3.4/1G
LDT2005+C3D
http://au.autodesk.com
Sign up now for AU2004!

 

I have 2 points to make about using the HDI instead of shared printer.
1) There is a feature in the hdi driver called raster photo mode which is a variable controlling the overall lightness of the output. And before the support tech's get on me I know that there are other ways to control this Anyway it can be useful especially if you are using Tiff's as a background in the plan views.
2) we set an additional driver path in acad to point to a common device driver used by all to eliminate driver trouble shooting from output error analysis.

BTW I didn't know printman wouldn't run from RD. I won't try.

 

The windows printer driver is a raster driver. It does not contain HPGL/2 rendering or postscript features.

 

Could this simple fact cause severe dithering of raster images when sending
from powerprint request to the printer (KIP 6000)?

rendering or postscript features.

 

Hi !
Powerprint Request deploys raster, HPGL/2 and postscript routines. Request uses pens and controls dithering patterns of how an inherent raster prints out. This is dissimilar to how windows driver works on HPGL or compatible outputs from AutoCAD.

 

We have a seperate pen setup in Request just for raster. It works ok on vector also. We adjusted the settings so that raster printed nice and crisp and the vector still printed well.

 

Hello Jim- I don't know if they are comparable, but we plot to a Kip 2000.
We have it set up with a print server as a share on the network and that
seems to work well for us. We have about 25 users, and are on a Novell
network. We run Land Development 2005 and our workstations are mapped to PC3
and CTB files on a secure network location.

Hope that helps.

Dave Plagge

 

Our office was already set up with an HP 1055CM. We plot to a file, then
use a batch file to copy the prints to the printer (for example: "copy /b
<filename> \\server\HP1055"). We bought a KIP 6000 to get faster plots. It
gives us 8 D-size sheets per minute instead of 1 sheet every 2 minutes,
using the exact same plt file.

It was helpful that the KIP can use the HPGL/2 plot files because we wanted
to take advantage of the "Lines Merge" option that HP printers have, so that
hatch doesn't cover up linework. I just created a different batch file to
copy the prints to the KIP (for example: "copy /b *.plt \\KIP6000\Print),
but we still use the HP print drivers to create the plot files. I didn't
even try the KIP drivers, since we didn't need them.

That of course isn't the manufacturer's recommended way of doing it, but it
works great for us.

Warning: It took about a month for the KIP technicians to get the plotter
calibrated correctly so that the paper was cut to the correct size, and the
KIP6000 had a loose grounding plate that had to be repaired to keep it from
jamming on every third plot... but now that the repairs have been made, our
office couldn't do without it.

- Aaron Lance