Half sized plots with Xerox 510 using PS driver?

[Gordon Price]

We have a 510, and in general I love it. However, half size plots have been
an issue. In R2002, the PS driver would rotate the image opposite the paper,
so we would get a clipped image. I finally gave up and used a second Windows
'printer' using the non PS driver for half sized, and the PS driver for full
sized. Before anyone asks, we used the PS driver for full sized because the
quality, especially for grey solid hatches, was just huge. Also, we are
using a 15" roll, with the plotter centering on what it thinks is 17" paper
(haven't any of these laser plotter people heard of half size 30X42?)
Anyway, I am now moving to R2005, and I am still having half size trouble,
but differenmt from before. Now a half size will print with the proper
rotation, but it wants to clip the image at 15". I also tried using a 22"
roll, so the plotter knew what it had, and setting the paper size to 15X22,
with a 1" X offset to get a fat binding margin. Prints with the right
orientation to the paper, but still clips at 15", this time off the width of
the roll, not the length. All this with the PS driver. The standard driver
is scewing and clipping the image, and the HDI driver is also causing grief
(don't remember what, and don't really want to use a HDI driver anyway).
So, has anyone successfully implemented 30X42 and 15X21/22 half size
plotting in R2005 using the PS driver? Am I just barking up the wrong tree?
It seems like at least one manufacturer of large format laser plotters would
get this right, but from what I have heard there are issues with 15" half
size on Oces, and Kips. But a cheap HP paintjet can handle it (if you can
find the paper on the smaller roll diameter. Ack!

Best,
Gordon

[Aaron Cunningham]

Gordon,

I know this is off the subject but I can't find anyone else that is using a Xerox 510db. Can you plot screened lines that are under a certain lineweight with this plotter? I have been trying everything I can think of but I cannot get a screened line to print that is under a pen width of .500 mm. I can produce a screened line that has a width of .500 mm or more but the appearance of this line is way to thick for what I want to produce.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, I have been playing with this off and on for a couple of months now and it's getting very frustrating.

[Tom Berning]

Gordon,

Are you using Xerox's AccXES tools to send you plot files to the plotter? If
you are, then you could just take the full size plot files and scale the
plots down by 50% in the Document Submit tab of the program. We are not
plotting many postscript files to our Xeroxs and the one I have in my office
doesn't have the postscript option installed so I can't test this process,
but I know the process works fine for plots created from the HDI driver.

Tom

"Gordon Price" <gordon(thorn)@albedoconsulting.com> wrote in message
news:419d329f$1_3@newsprd01...

We have a 510, and in general I love it. However, half size plots have
been
an issue. In R2002, the PS driver would rotate the image opposite the
paper,
so we would get a clipped image. I finally gave up and used a second
Windows
'printer' using the non PS driver for half sized, and the PS driver for
full
sized. Before anyone asks, we used the PS driver for full sized because
the
quality, especially for grey solid hatches, was just huge. Also, we are
using a 15" roll, with the plotter centering on what it thinks is 17"
paper
(haven't any of these laser plotter people heard of half size 30X42?)
Anyway, I am now moving to R2005, and I am still having half size trouble,
but differenmt from before. Now a half size will print with the proper
rotation, but it wants to clip the image at 15". I also tried using a 22"
roll, so the plotter knew what it had, and setting the paper size to
15X22,
with a 1" X offset to get a fat binding margin. Prints with the right
orientation to the paper, but still clips at 15", this time off the width
of
the roll, not the length. All this with the PS driver. The standard driver
is scewing and clipping the image, and the HDI driver is also causing
grief
(don't remember what, and don't really want to use a HDI driver anyway).
So, has anyone successfully implemented 30X42 and 15X21/22 half size
plotting in R2005 using the PS driver? Am I just barking up the wrong
tree?
It seems like at least one manufacturer of large format laser plotters
would
get this right, but from what I have heard there are issues with 15" half
size on Oces, and Kips. But a cheap HP paintjet can handle it (if you can
find the paper on the smaller roll diameter. Ack!

Best,
Gordon

[CraigV(fs)]

Gordon,

Looks like we are in the same boat right now. I've been dealing with
problems with the plot accuracy (see my posts earlier this month in the
group) and have just started using the HP650c driver to fix that. (Warning
to you: print out some site plans and check how accurate the boundaries
are...).

But, like you, I'm having trouble with the half-size plots. Our plotter was
set up before with the 15" roll moved over toward the 17" margin on the
spindle. That is how it needs to be when you scan-to-print a half size from
the Xerox scanner unit.

But, when I set up my new driver using the HP650c.PC3, it wants to plot the
15" wide prints to a roll of 15" paper in the middle of the spindle.

I think the perfect solution would be for Xerox to release some firmware to
add a 15" roll option to the Xerox 510 control panel. For some reason it
jumps from 12" to 17"...

Craig

"Tom Berning" <tom.berning@woolpert.com> wrote in message
news:41a4e33e_2@newsprd01...

Gordon,

Are you using Xerox's AccXES tools to send you plot files to the plotter?
If
you are, then you could just take the full size plot files and scale the
plots down by 50% in the Document Submit tab of the program. We are not
plotting many postscript files to our Xeroxs and the one I have in my
office
doesn't have the postscript option installed so I can't test this process,
but I know the process works fine for plots created from the HDI driver.

Tom

"Gordon Price" <gordon(thorn)@albedoconsulting.com> wrote in message
news:419d329f$1_3@newsprd01...
We have a 510, and in general I love it. However, half size plots have
been
an issue. In R2002, the PS driver would rotate the image opposite the
paper,
so we would get a clipped image. I finally gave up and used a second
Windows
'printer' using the non PS driver for half sized, and the PS driver for
full
sized. Before anyone asks, we used the PS driver for full sized because
the
quality, especially for grey solid hatches, was just huge. Also, we are
using a 15" roll, with the plotter centering on what it thinks is 17"
paper
(haven't any of these laser plotter people heard of half size 30X42?)
Anyway, I am now moving to R2005, and I am still having half size
trouble,
but differenmt from before. Now a half size will print with the proper
rotation, but it wants to clip the image at 15". I also tried using a
22"
roll, so the plotter knew what it had, and setting the paper size to
15X22,
with a 1" X offset to get a fat binding margin. Prints with the right
orientation to the paper, but still clips at 15", this time off the width
of
the roll, not the length. All this with the PS driver. The standard
driver
is scewing and clipping the image, and the HDI driver is also causing
grief
(don't remember what, and don't really want to use a HDI driver anyway).
So, has anyone successfully implemented 30X42 and 15X21/22 half size
plotting in R2005 using the PS driver? Am I just barking up the wrong
tree?
It seems like at least one manufacturer of large format laser plotters
would
get this right, but from what I have heard there are issues with 15" half
size on Oces, and Kips. But a cheap HP paintjet can handle it (if you can
find the paper on the smaller roll diameter. Ack!

Best,
Gordon

[Gordon Price]

"CraigV(fs)" <craigv@xxx.net> wrote in message
news:41a50292$1_2@newsprd01...

Gordon,

Looks like we are in the same boat right now. I've been dealing with
problems with the plot accuracy (see my posts earlier this month in the
group) and have just started using the HP650c driver to fix that.
(Warning to you: print out some site plans and check how accurate the
boundaries are...).
I gave up trusting any plotter to be really accurate. Given that our drawing

say 'Do not scale' I don't worry much. But then, if no one is supposed to
scale, why do we show what scale everything is, and match all the scales.
Why not just make everything fit to page ;)

But, like you, I'm having trouble with the half-size plots. Our plotter
was set up before with the 15" roll moved over toward the 17" margin on
the spindle. That is how it needs to be when you scan-to-print a half
size from the Xerox scanner unit.
In R2002 we could use the non PS windows driver, and plot half size to 15"

paper, centered on the spindle, with the plotter told it was 17". BS
workaround, and the quality was not nearly as good as the full size prints,
but it worked. Now in R2005 that no longer works. VERY frustrating.

But, when I set up my new driver using the HP650c.PC3, it wants to plot
the 15" wide prints to a roll of 15" paper in the middle of the spindle.
Our problem is the only reaon we chose the Xerox was the print quality of

the PostScript output. If we abandone PS for HPGL we loose that, and then we
have no reason to even have the Xerox, we could have used the Oce with the
faster warm up time. Truth is, I can no longer promote Xerox as a viable
option. The rteasonwe can't plot half size to 15" paper is a bug, and their
attitude is 'Not enough peoiple us PS to make it worth fixing the bug'. With
an attitude like that, I don't want to help them make any money.

I think the perfect solution would be for Xerox to release some firmware
to add a 15" roll option to the Xerox 510 control panel. For some reason
it jumps from 12" to 17"...
Yeah, I keep hearing the rep say 'None of the large format laser plotters

understand 15"', to which I say 'Then all of those companies are @#$%
stupid, cause half size 30X42 is pretty common, and has been for some number
of decades ;)