Plot Style Search Path

OK - Here's the issue. We have a standards directory with our accepted plot
styles - its locked down and everyone is pathed to it. HOWEVER - when we get
a consultants drawings or drawings from an owner that have a new pen style
table we don't have anywhere to put it. I don't want everyone dumping
'consultant' styles into the same directory as our standard.
How do I set the plot style table search path to more than one directory.
Ideally it would be set to ours standards directory and to one on the
individual computer. That way everyone can keep their consultants
information separate and we can still keep a clean standard.

 

We leave them in the same folder as the source drawings.

 

You can create a folder (some might have it be a subfolder of your current
Plot Styles folder) and then place a shortcut to that "consultant" folder in
your current Plot Styles folder.... next place any and all CTBs or STBs that
were passed along from outside sources into that new "consultant" folder...
just be sure the names of these Plot Styles do not conflict with existing
names...
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Tracy W. Lincoln
Assistant Moderator - Autodesk Discussion Forum
http://www.autodesk.com/discussion-announcements

 

Check out Profiles.

You can create a new folder containing the outside Pen Styles. Start AutoCAD
and link to this folder under Options -> Printer Support File Path ->Plot
Style Table Search Path.

Create a new profile. After you have done this copy your existing AutoCAD
desktop icon and use the profile start-up switch to call this new profile.

Now when you want to print outside drawings start AutoCAD with the new
desktop icon which calls the new profile and you will only see the Pen
styles listed in the new folder. For you normal work start AutoCAD using the
earlier desktop icon.

Patrick

http://www.multi-batch.com/

For your entire batch processing needs

 

Both Tracey and Patrick have given good solutions, and Chip too, but I like
the other two because it provides access to those consultant files when the
person doing that project is absent from the job and others require access
to those files.

In addition to their solutions, you ought to consider creating a sub-folder
for each consultant-project within the sub-folder for the consultant plot
styles. That way, anyone not familiar with the project who needs to plot
when the project person is not available can select the appropriate project
plot style.

I do not think having separate desktop icons is such a good idea anymore.
If you have many projects you can have many icons on your desktop. This is
unnecessary if you use the "In Place" folders for separate projects. When
you open a drawing to work, you select the appropriate project folder, and
open the drawing.

Once you have the drawing open, create Page Setups that point to the correct
Plot Style. Once that is done, that layout in that drawing will always plot
using the correct plot style regardless of what is its location, as long as
it is still there, and the appropriate Page Setup Name is selected when
plotting.

I have had experience where a person has many files on their own PC (at
work), and when they take a two week vacation or get sick more than one day,
the files are unavailable because no one knows their password, and the files
are on their C drive instead of on the network.

Just another viewpoint.

Jack Talsky