Plot File to OCE - ADT 2005...Not Working For me

I am starting to go crazy...I need some help.

Problem: Some blacks are plotting odd grays, and screened areas are puke worthy.
Some of the text is distorted, and very light. I cannot take enough aspirin to make
this go away.

Description of what I am doing:

1. Drawings are in ADT 2005, PaperSpace of course.
2. Driver is latest HP 750C_(D_A1) by HP driver.
3. Plot Preview in AutoCAD looks sensational.
4. Plotting to file creating PLT files.
5. Commercial Reprographics company has given me a copy of OCE Repro Desk so I can
view my PLT file before I send it to them, in the hopes that I can fix this problem.
6. The reprographics company does not have any drivers for AutoCAD 2005, and it
looks like AutoCAD 2004 is an after thought.
7. I went to the OCE web site to download a driver for AutoCAD 2005. No luck. They
don't seem to have one, and the latest is for 2004.
8. I have screwed with this problem for over one week, and am getting desperate.
9. Last week they somehow plotted it very nicely, except that the dark and light
screens were somehow reversed. Now they have no idea how they did that. I don't
either.
10. They insist that although I am sending them a PLT file, in monochrome, that they
have to tweak the colors, but don't see any colors on my plot file....and that is
true because I didn't think I was dealing with morons.....and so I plotted it in
monochrome, with couple of screens for color 8 and 9, and 254.
11. If I sound like I am getting hysterical.....I think I am getting there ...won't
be long now.

Any ideas? Positive, and practical....no laughing please.

Thank you

Jack Talsky

 

If the Repro Shop has Repro Desk, then go to www.oceplancenter.com. and
download the Océ Client Tools. The client tools do have an AutoCAD 2005
driver. It will make an LDF file, which you can view BEFORE sending it to
the reprographer. The reprographer can print the LDF file with Repro Desk.
The scenario you described is the exact reason client tools were invented.
You have one printer. Your reprographer has another. LDF is device
independent unlike PLT files. Quoting a line from that _Starsky and Hutch_
movie, "Do it. Do it. Do it."

 

God Bless you my friend...

I went there and those tools, but didn't know that was what I needed.

Will do it in little while.....have a bunch of assorted ribs to eat first.

Thanks much. Now the other problem is the repro shop....they are not yet on 2005.
Is that going to keep the problem current, or will I be able to surmount it with the
correct drivers? I think they said they are using an Oce 9800. I am not sure, but
they did say they do not have AutoCad 2005.

Jack Talsky

 

Thanks.

Your suggestion has helped, but not completely. The screens are not looking good in
the preview...nice uniform patterns, and I also discovered that my lines were too
thin on my part, so I beefed them up, changed a font and that part looks good, but
.....

there is one problem I cannot resolve.

There are two screens used for some solid hatched areas...one is color 8 set to about
15% and the other is 9 set to about 5 %, but when I preview the plot in the new LDF
plot preview, I get one solid hatch, all the same gray value, no difference. When I
play with my ctb file, changing the screens drastically up or down, I still do not
get any difference between the two.

I have the pen style set to my own ctb file, and not the oce pen styles.

If I use a Virtual pen, then it works great for the screened areas, but everything
else is responding in gray values for their colors, instead of in black and white.

Crazy.

Jack Talsky

 

The repro shop will not need AutoCAD at all. You will send them LDF (Layered
Document Format) files instead of DWGs. Think of LDF files like PLT files -
except they can go to any Oce device that is running Repro Desk. This is
what you want. You can batch process your DWGs using Oce Publisher instead
of plotting through AutoCAD if you like. Once you get familiar with the Oce
Client Tools, you won't want to do it any other way.

 

Have you tried the Oce system printer driver? We have an Oce TDS600 and use
..pc3 files derived from the system printer drivers and have no issues at all
with plotting. Why are you using the HP drivers?

John

 

You should use a virtual pen. If you zoom in, you should see a difference in
the patterns.

 

To both John and Scott,

All is great now.

I could not use a virtual pen because then some colors came out with their value
instead of as black, but the screens came out perfect.

What I found after trial and error which is a wonderful method...

is that using the HP drivers is definitely the wrong way to go. In the past, the
reprographics company would tell their customers to plot to an HP 750C.

That worked in AutoCAD 2000, but not in AutoCAD 2005.

After downloading the new Oce Client Tools, I played with that, and found that if I
used the Publisher, I got a good plot, except that my screened areas (solid gray
hatching) were very grainy. The advantage is that one can plot all the files at
once.

By using the LDF driver for plot styles, the screens plotted very nicely, in a very
smooth gray pattern. Everything comes out the way I wanted, but I have to plot one
sheet at a time.

For the moment, all is good, and when I have more time I will see how to get multiple
drawings to plot with a good screened hatch.

Thanks.

I am off to the reprographic company now to see the results on paper, and to pick
them up....fingers crossed.

Jack Talsky

 

I am glad it worked out for you. The only part that seems odd is that when
you batch process files with Océ Publisher, Publisher calls AutoCAD which
invokes the LDF driver one layout at a time. So you should have gotten the
same output as using the LDF driver one file at a time.

 

well, that is what I thought too. Maybe later I will spend more time on it, and
find out what I did wrong, or if it is a defect having to do with screens or solid
hatches.

It may have something to do with a basic configuration setup for cluster or the other
one for screening areas for the Oce. I couldn't find the option for that on the new
drive, but in the old version there was a variable for that, and the cluster choice I
think gives the smoother version, and the other gave me the grainy version.

Jack