Flat Circles

I am having a problem creating HPGL/2 (.PLT) files that have smooth (non flat) circles. I have a VBA routine that captures the plotting area and issues a plot command using a PC3 file to generate the PLT file. When I review the PLT file the circles have flat spots.

I have made sure the VIEWRES is set to 10000 before sending the plot but I still get flat segments. I also have made sure that WHIPARC is set to 0 (off).

The bizarre issue is when the same PC3 is used to send the data to a printer the circles are not printed with flat segments. This is being tested through the same VBA program that sends the file to the printer instead of creating a PLT file. All the settings are the same except send the data to the printer instead of creating a PLT file.

The problem is occurring on a machine running Mechanical Desktop/AutoCAD 2000i. The same file is checked on a machine running AutoCAD 2002 and the flat segments are not generated on the AutoCAD 2002 machine.

If anyone has suggestions of setting changes I have not mentioned I would appreciate the feedback.

Regards,
Tony Nichols

 

Are you possible plotting a non-wireframe view. Try setting the view to
2D-wireframe.

John

flat) circles. I have a VBA routine that captures the plotting area and
issues a plot command using a PC3 file to generate the PLT file. When I
review the PLT file the circles have flat spots.

still get flat segments. I also have made sure that WHIPARC is set to 0
(off).

printer the circles are not printed with flat segments. This is being
tested through the same VBA program that sends the file to the printer
instead of creating a PLT file. All the settings are the same except send
the data to the printer instead of creating a PLT file.

2000i. The same file is checked on a machine running AutoCAD 2002 and the
flat segments are not generated on the AutoCAD 2002 machine.

 

Almost all AutoCAD HPGL(2) plotter drivers produce "circles" that are
actually regular polygons, built from a series of very short straight
line segments (they only look like circles when printed on paper). I
have found only one HPGL(2) driver that produces real circles, the "Oce
9600 NGC 1.x 2.x" HDI driver.

Govert

 

Govert,

Thanks for the tip. I tried setting up an PC3 file based on the Oce 9600 and the PLT file was much better than the HP5si produced PLT file.

Regards,
Tony