Epson 7600/9600 for CAD?

Is anyone else using this printer for CAD? Do you need some sort of
HPGL-2 add-on to get sharp lines from AutoCAD? Will it produce the same
or better quality plots as say an HP 500/800/5500? Is postscript
neccesary to get good line results from Autocad? I haven't found any
information on using these printers for CAD drawings or even what
settings to use for velum or bond CAD type paper.

Any help?

 

Hi John,

I don't have any experience with this printer but I can answer your question
about PostScript. You really don't need it for AutoCAD. It used to be good
to have PS printers for PS Fills and for PS Fonts. But these days the fills
and fonts work very well so it's not needed as much.

Hopefully others jump in to give you some ideas on the Epson. I can add
that HP does work with us though so the System driver for the HP DesignJets
are optimized for AutoCAD.

Hope this helps.

Bud Schroeder
AutoCAD Test Development
Autodesk Inc.

 

Hi Bud. I purchased the Epson primarily to do photo-realistic site plan
renderings (and it's outstanding in that area), but I'm getting a sneaky
suspicion that vectors are not being handled as good as they could. The
info I've read about postscript always refers to vector ability in
Quark, Illustrator, or some other postscript "graphic" programs... but
aren't the lines and circles and other mathmatical entitiies in AutoCAD
(or other CAD programs) vectors as well?

I guess I'm using Autocad as a sort of page layout program as well, with
aerials or other bitmap images and vector linework overlaid - isn't that
exactly what the PS programs do? Could I be getting sharper lines
somehow? I've seen KEHPlot mentioned for the Epsons as being able to
handle HPGL-2 and I wonder if this wouldn't improve my results. The guy
who answered my call there the other day had no idea what I was talking
about - I could hear him turning pages in the background...

I appreciate the help and I'll be calling Epson tomorrow - I seem to be
the only one working on a Sunday!

Thanks

John Sieber

 

Hi John,

For pure raster output postscript is not going to be any better. My
experience is mostly with HP for the last 18+ years but it's going to be the
same across platforms. I have sent some nice Graphics (Raster Images) in
both Postscript and HPGL/2 RTL and no difference at all. Actually the
HPGL/2 drivers plotted the same files faster.

Now RIP can make more of a difference in getting large Graphic files out,
but AutoCAD knows nothing about a RIP. But if it did that would make a
difference on large Raster images your plotting.

BTW when I was doing Graphics full time before joining Autodesk I used PS
because it was pretty much the same from device to device. We used the PS
fonts and fills and always had GREAT output. But as time went by this was
not as necessary as it was in the past.

But again my experience has always been with HP large format and small
format devices. You should still check with Epson to see what the
recommend here. At least for there device. BTW Postscript will not be
optimized for AutoCAD.

Hope this helps.

Bud