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- ADIPLOT
-
- A Shareware Printer/Plotter Driver for AutoCad 2.18 or Higher
-
- BY
- J. R. Applegate
- P. O. Box 33492
- Northglenn, CO 80233
-
- With AutoCad vs. 2 and above AutoDesk has included printer drivers for a very
- limited set of printers. Unfortunately these drivers provide far less
- resolution than the capability of most dot matrix printers. Furthermore, in
- the case of the Epson driver, only the FX series printers are driven. But
- AutoDesk has provided a way to develop your own device drivers through their
- ADI device driver support kit. It is the information in that kit and the
- ADI plot device driver provided with vs. 2.18 and higher that allowed the
- development of ADIPLOT.
-
- ADIPLOT is a series of programs for various printers that read an ADI plot file
- produced by AutoCad and generate a near plotter quality output on a dot matrix
- printer. Currently only Epson and Okidata printers are supported, but the
- program has been tested on Epson MX, FX, and LX printers as well as the Okidata
- ML92A. The plots produced are of a far greater quality than those produced
- by AutoCad's printer drivers. This is a result of using a plotter driver
- (PLGEN.DRV) to generate the vectors and then rasterizing the plot external to
- AutoCad, where far more memory is available for the printer bitmap.
-
- To use ADIPLOT copy the appropriate driver, ADIEPS.EXE (EPSON) or ADIOKI.EXE
- (OKIDATA) to your ACAD directory. You must then reconfigure AutoCad to use the
- ADI Plotter. On 2.18 and 2.5, this driver is plotter number 2. The config-
- uration routine will ask several questions. It is important that you select
- an ASCII output file (option 0) and a plotting increment of 1000 units/inch.
- THESE ARE THE ONLY SETTINGS THAT WILL WORK!! When plotting, AutoCad will ask
- you for a plot file name. I recommend that the extension .PLT be added to this
- name. After plotting you must leave AutoCad to physically plot the file. You
- can then run ADIPLOT by typing either ADIEPS or ADIOKI depending on your
- printer type. ADIPLOT will prompt you for the name of the file.
-
- I had originally planned to market this program for $99, since the only
- product I have seen that provides the same function is a hardware device priced
- at $500! But since I am a semi-starving grad student currently being supported
- by my wife I do not have the resources necessary to advertise and market these
- programs. I have long been a proponent of shareware (this file was written
- with PC-Write 2.71) and sysop of a BBS and so I am willing to buck the recent
- bad press that shareware has received. Please prove Mr. Button and others
- wrong by contributing a contribution of $25 for this product. This will allow
- you to receive my enhanced version (quad density on an FX!) as soon as it is
- available as well as the satisfaction of rewarding my efforts and encouraging
- me to develop new products. The price of PC software is skyrocketing. Only
- by encouraging freeware and shareware developers can you find low cost
- alternatives to this inflationary trend.
-
- A registration form has been included in REGFORM.TXT. Please enclose it with
- your contribution so you can receive my user group and product newsletter as
- well as information on new products.
-
- AutoCad and ADI are registered trademarks of AutoDesk, Inc.