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Josh Foster · Guest

Group,

I am planning on submitting either of these plotters to management for
review/purchase to suppliment our existing HP800. The HP will be kept for
color, etc; and I am looking for a fast/reliable B/W only machine for plan
issue, etc. This machine would probably replace our existing blue-line
machine also, especially if we add on the scanner option.

I would like to know of others experiences with reliablity and overall feel
of these 2 machines. Most reviews seem to put them neck and neck as far as
performance and cost. Should I shy away from one or the other due to
maitenace agreement personel, etc?

To be used in 10 CAD user, Civil Engineering office running LD 3 - upgrade
to LD 5 sitting in the box to be installed shortly.

Thank you.

Josh
--
Josh Foster
Hoelscher Engineering, P.C.
Fairview Heights, IL

Martin Shoemaker · Guest

I just got a TDS400. The plot quality is very good, but in my opinion
the drivers leave a lot to be desired considering the price. The inkjet
I had was WYSIWYG from the Autocad plot preview. On the TDS400 I have
to add tick marks in the corners to center the image properly. None of
the dealer's technicians know of any settings that will fix this. Not
much of an issue if you use only your own title block, but if you're a
consultant it can be a pain.

I've noticed that the paper size cut from the roll can vary by about
1/8" from plot to plot.

I would also have expected that the $2000 software for scanning to .pdf
would be able to automatically determine paper size. Barring that, they
could have provided a way to set the standard sizes an office uses so
scrolling through the size options would be (for me) 24" > 30" > 36" >
24". Instead I have to scroll through 20 options, and that's after
getting to the proper menu. It's also very hard for me to get paper in
the scanner straight -- the first thing the paper hits is a switch,
which starts the feed rollers to grab the sheet. To be fair, I cannot
hold the paper by both edges when inserting it, so this may not be a
problem for those who can.

I also had a problem with the delivery -- the moving company guys did
the initial unpacking, and they wore greasy gloves. We spent a lot of
time getting the grease off the units. They also used a worn out
Phillips screwdriver on the screws they removed, which tore up the screw
heads. I expect better on a $23K+ purchase. The service techs from my
dealer have been very good. We did have some trouble getting the
scanner running initially. Turns out Oce had shipped the plotter and
scanner with different versions of firmware that couldn't talk to each
other.

Be sure to take Autocad files and prints with you if you demo at a store
-- the issues I've seen would not have shown up in a demo done by store
personnel using their files and prints.

I've never seen a Kip so I can't comment on them. I wouldn't go back to
an inkjet, but I expected the automation on the TDS400 to be a lot more
advanced.

Martin

Josh Foster wrote:

wombat · Guest

The Oce can print to a standard sheet size without tick marks. Set the finishing cut method to standard and it will cut to standard sheet sizes. You can set default settings on the controller but remember custom properties in the driver will override the controller settings.

Martin Shoemaker · Guest

The issue isn't sheet size, it's centering. What I see is that the
inked area gets centered on the paper. If I have a vertical title block
on the right side of the sheet and nothing else in the drawing the plot
preview will be correct but the plot will have title block in the middle
of the sheet, not at the right edge. If you know of settings that will
make the plot match the plot preview without tick marks please post them
-- the techs who installed my plotter couldn't find settings that work.
Of course, they also ran out several hundred feet of paper trying to
tweak the settings, which implies they were stabbing in the dark rather
than knowing what works.

Martin

wombat wrote:
> The Oce can print to a standard sheet size without tick marks. Set the finishing cut method to standard and it will cut to standard sheet sizes. You can set default settings on the controller but remember custom properties in the driver will override the controller settings.

wombat · Guest

On settings editor go to View/SA/Printer/PDLs then HPGL-2. Change the PS No Clip setting. Can't remember which way but one way calculates the plot size based on the content, the other way calculates it based on the HPGL/2 PS command (plot size) which is the sheet size selected in AutoCAD.

Martin Shoemaker · Guest

Thanks. I'll try that.

Martin

wombat wrote:
> On settings editor go to View/SA/Printer/PDLs then HPGL-2. Change the PS No Clip setting. Can't remember which way but one way calculates the plot size based on the content, the other way calculates it based on the HPGL/2 PS command (plot size) which is the sheet size selected in AutoCAD.

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