viewing & plotting .plt files

I have received some .plt files from an engineering firm I need to view and
plot. I have also just wasted an hour searching, with no luck, the blogs,
forums and Help information on how do that. There's lots of info on what
the file type is for, (generic printing) but not on specifically how to
deal with them.
Autocad (vanilla '06) doesn't see the files to open them, the DWF viewer
won't open them either.

I thought if I could create one maybe I could find out how to deal with it.
Help says:
"If the plotter is configured to plot to a file,...
Each drawing sheet's plot file is saved with the same name as the
sheet,
with the appropriate file extension for the file (for example, .plt,
...."
but I cannot find any "Plot to file" option, and if I publish to a DWF file
it's extension is, not surprisingly, .dwf.

It can't be that hard, so I must be missing something. Can anybody point me
in the right direction?

Thanks,
Joe

 

Search for a plt to dxf converter
There is one here: http://www.noliturbare.com/

 

http://www.softwarecompanions.com/viewcomp.html

We've been using this for years for the exact same reason you have. Well
worth the money which is not much at all.

Jeff

 

if HP-GL or HP-GL/2 or HP-RTL formatted:

http://www.swplot.com/splot.htm
http://www.normica.com/fr_e/fr02_e_produ.htm

HP-GL = vector data
HP-RTL = raster data

N.

 

Must have missed this one...
http://rkmcswain.blogspot.com/2006/03/update-plt-file-viewers.html

 

I did indeed miss it.
Thank you R.K., and thanks to all who replied.

I downloaded a couple of the viewers and found, although they can handle
..plt files I create, nothing can open the ones from the engineering firm so
they must be corrupt.

I also learned in the course of this that .plt files can be printed via DOS
command line if the plotter is on LPT1 rather than a network or USB. ..
probably not the case for most of us these days.

Joe

 

PLT (= PLoT) doesn't say anything concerning the format of the
content, if the plotter driver used is outputting e.g. PostScript data
you won't be successful in viewing with a HP-GL/HP-RTL plot viewer.

Therefore just ask the person generating the data which plotter driver
supporting which format resp. plotter language (e.g. PCL, HP-GL, PS,
BGL etc.) was used. Or open the file with an editor and check, if you
can see anything readable concerning the contained format in the
header of the plot file.

N.

 

Hi guys,

Many years ago I found a program that was exactly what everyone would
want to do this. A truly amazing product. It would even take a plot
file, and after viewing it on the screen, let you print it on your
laserjet, so even those dopey programs that didn't plot to laserjets
could output a plot there.

You could then include a plot in a report and email to someone who
could print it - great.

I have no idea if it's still available, but here's the first few pages
of text from the manual I still have on disk.

I hope this guy is a millionaire now - he certainly deserves it.

See if you can find a reference to it somewhere on the net and post it
back here.

Best regards,

Melanie


The manual:

S P L O T - The Pen Plotter Simulator V2.52
---------------------------------------------
Copyright (C) 1989-94 by Alexandr NOVY
All rights reserved.



U S E R ' S M A N U A L F O R MS-DOS V E R S I O N
----------------------------------------------------------
July 1994




1. INTRODUCTION
---------------

The SPLOT program is a highly effective tool intended for
simulating the pen plotter on the display of an IBM PC. The
SPLOT program is the very thing you need to make your work
with the plotter more effective. The SPLOT program will give
you a guarantee you will always draw on your plotter what you
really want. That is why it will save your nerves, your time,
your plotter, pens and paper, that means your money.


The SPLOT program can offer:

- active support of about 50 HP-GL instructions (according
to the type of your plotter).

- active support of 20 DXY-GL instructions (for ROLAND
plotters).

- possibility of exporting a picture to the printer and in
this way to obtain an output of a high quality. The SPLOT
program uses the best graphics resolutions available for
each printer that it supports and optionally uses data
packing to improve transfer speed. In this way the SPLOT
program will make a fast and excellent plotter of your
printer. It supports all usual types of printers including
color ones.

- exporting a picture to the HP-GL, HP-GL/2, DXY-GL,
PLOTCALL, DXF and PostScript formats.

- possibility of making picture cuts (the ZOOM function). In
this way you can scan, draw on the plotter or print only
the selected part of the picture.

- possibility of completing the picture with a text
including multilingual characters - in this way the SPLOT
program will teach your plotter German (Spanish, French,
etc.) easily and quickly without complicated switching
between character sets! The built-in HP-GL or DXY-GL
exports respectively, will make it possible. Due to these
exports it is also possible:

- to offer a highly optimized output for your plotter
(where each pen is grasped only once).

- to teach your plotter the advanced instructions you
would get only if you buy a more expensive plotter or
additional hardware (e.g., the SPLOT program can
simulate connecting an additional HP 17440A graphics
enhancement cartridge to the HP 7440A ColorPro plotter).


The SPLOT program can be used by:

- anybody who wants to work with his plotter in the WYSIWYG
style (What You See Is What You Get).

- anybody who wants to develop his own plotter program
applications. You can reach it with the SPLOT program
easily even if you do not own the plotter at all!

- anybody who wants to use his printer as a plotter
occasionally or constantly. In many cases using a printer
may be faster and moreover, this may be an alternative of a
high quality.

- anybody who wants to program a printer in graphics mode and
at a high level and who does not want to develop
complicated software which would enable it. In these cases
using the HP-GL language in connection with the SPLOT
program seems to be very advantageous for creating own
graphics outputs. The HP-GL language can be learned very
easily and in addition, it offers unexpected possibilities.



The SPLOT program is available in various versions
according to the type of simulated plotter. This means that
each SPLOT.EXE module is designated for a certain plotter
type. This principle gives the maximum reliability of
simulation of the given plotter type. At present versions for
the following plotter types are at your disposal:

Plotter type | Plotter syntax
------------------------------------------------------------
HP 7470A | HP-GL
HP 7475A | HP-GL
HP 7440A ColorPro | HP-GL
HP 7550A | HP-GL
HP 7570A/7575A/7576A DraftPro DXL/EXL | HP-GL
HP 7595A/7596A DraftMaster I/II | HP-GL
ROLAND DXY 1100/1200/1300 | DXY-GL / RD-GL I
ROLAND GRX 300/400 | RD-GL II




etc etc etc etc etc etc etc

 

If you would have read the thread, you would surely have seen, that I
have already posted a recommendation for SPLOT.

btw, is it really sensful to post the complete readme whereas simply
mentioning the product name would have been sufficient?

N.