Missing english/metric toggle workaround (2005)

As we all know, through many on going threads, the removal of the metric/english toggle from the plot window has cause trouble for those of us that are mixing our units (ie design metric - print on english paper or design english - print on metric paper). Autodesk assures us that they are actively working on the problem and a solution will be forthcoming. They can not tell us at the moment when that will be so I developed a work around for myself using my three plotting options. Since my three options and their workarounds are uniquely different, I felt that is was in the spirit of these discussion threads to share them here. Maybe they will help some of you out their that are struggling with this to get by until a fix shows up from Autodesk.

So here we go:

1) HP 1050C Plotter - The Windows 2000 driver for this does allow for 5 custom page sizes (named custom 1 thru 5, can not seem to change that).
I will define metric equivalent sizes for ANSI A thru E paper sizes. I will use this system printer as a base in creating PC3 files for all my page sizes and
orientations for this plotter (separate PC files for both Metric and English). I will use these PC files to create pagesetups that reflect our available plotting
options for this plotter (ie page size/units, black and white or color printing using different CTB files).

2) HP CLJ 8500 - The Windows 2000 driver for this does allow uniquely named custom page sizes. You can define the required metric pages sizes,
ANSI A & B, and then use this driver as a base for creating PC3 files. The PC3 files will accept being pointed to these custom page sizes. HOWEVER,
when using these PC3 files to create pagesetups, AutoCAD seems to ignore the units of the custom page size and still presents inch scale units in the
pagesetups!!! To illustrate this I have attach the following files in the next replies in this posting:

8500custompage.jpg This shows the custom page size developed in the printer driver.
8500pc3.jpg This shows the PC3 file using the custom page size from the driver
8500pagesetup.jpg This shows the pagesetup still reflecting English units when it is looking at a custom Metric paper size!

So my only work around for this is to create metric pagesetups that reflect the english equivalent scale factors for my most used metric scales
(ie 1:1 = 1:25.4, 1:2 = 1:50.8, 2:1 = 50.8:1).
The english pagesetups will work correctly.

3) HP 5 Si MX - The Windows 2000 driver does allow uniquely named custom page sizes. However, like the 8500, AutoCAD will ignore the units.
Since this is an older laserjet, a HDI driver is available for it. PC3 files can be created using the HDI driver and custom page sizes can be defined
directly in the PC3 files. AutoCAD pagesetups will respect the units of these custom page sizes since they come from the PC3 file itself instead of
the underlying system printer. I will use these PC3 files to create pagesetups that reflect our available plotting options for this printer
(ie page size/units/orientation)

I hope this helps someone put there, I know it seems like a lot of work to get around something as small as the removal of this toggle button. However, what else are you going to do, work must go one and my users want access to the new functionality in the new release.

Todd Hudgins