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ADIPLT.COM: ADI Plotter driver for AutoCAD / LaserJet III
This is a shareware program. If you use decide to use it after a reasonable
trial period, please print the registration form, REGISTER.TXT and send it and
$50 to:
Robert McNeel & Associates
3670 Woodland Park Avenue North
Seattle, WA 98103
Lowell Walmsley cid 73417,1452
Direct questions and comments via the ADESK forum on compuserve.
Thank you. I hope it does you some good.
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Thanks to Mark Middlebrook 73030,1604 for prodding and documentation.
** Files **
ADIPLT.COM ADI driver
ADIPLT.DOC This file
REGISTER.TXT Shareware registration form
TESTPLT.DWG Drawing for demonstrating the driver's capabilities
** Introduction **
ADIPLT is a TSR program that handles the interrupt calls from AutoCAD and
produces output according to the selected options. Because ADIPLT uses the
LaserJet III's HP-GL/2 mode, the printer will actually behave like a plotter,
complete with different "pens" and hardware linetypes. You access these just
as you would with any other plotter: by answering questions during AutoCAD's
plot dialogue about the pen and linetype numbers for each color.
** Preparing the LaserJet III **
Make sure you have at least 2 MB in your printer (1 MB standard + minimum 1 MB
additional), otherwise you'll run out of printer memory on all but the smallest
of plots. It's probably best to have 3 MB total, especially if you do complex
plots. To check how much memory is in your printer, take the printer off-line,
and hold down the Print Fonts/Test button for about 3 seconds, until you see
"05 Self Test" on the printer display. After a minute or two, a test sheet
will be printed that lists, among other things, the amount of memory in the
printer (next to "RAM size"). This number should be at least 2048 KB.
Also, make sure you have the printer's Page Protection set to Legal. Check
your test sheet, and if it doesn't say PAGEPROTECT = LGL, then follow the
instructions on 4-20 through 4-29 of the LaserJet III manual for setting it to
Legal.
** Loading ADIPLT **
Load the driver before starting AutoCAD. You can do this by running it from
your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, or from the batch file(s) you use to start AutoCAD. It
takes up less than 5 KB of memory. DON'T load it from the AutoCAD shell or
AutoCAD won't be able to recover when it tries to come back.
There are several command line switches that allow deviations from the default
configuration at load time:
/Ln selects output to LPTn: (1-3)
/F enables plotting to file
/D disables plotting to file
/Ixx selects interrupt vector xxh
Any command line switch will override any configured default parameter. The
driver can't unload itself, but it will refuse to load more than once.
The driver is shipped set to defaults of:
LPT1: - Use /Ln
No file output - Use /F to override
Interupt vector 78 - Use /Ixx to override
If you also have a pen plotter, and want to be able to plot to both, you'll
need to maintain two sets of configuration files, and specify which set to use
by changing the ACADCFG envrionment variable. This procedure is described in
chapter 4 ("Performance") of the AutoCAD Installation and Performance Guide.
** Pens and Linetypes **
The different "pens" are set to:
Pen # lineweight
----- ----------
1 0.10 mm
2 0.20 mm (~extra fine plotter pen)
3 0.35 mm (fine plotter pen)
4 0.50 mm (medium plotter pen)
5 0.70 mm (broad plotter pen)
6 0.90 mm
7 1.20 mm
8 2.00 mm
9 0.35 mm
10 0.35 mm
11 0.35 mm
12 0.35 mm
13 0.35 mm
14 0.35 mm
15 0.50 mm
The different "plotter" linetypes are set to screened lines as follows:
linetype # % screen
---------- --------
0 100 (solid line)
1 10% (lightest screen)
2 20%
3 30%
4 40%
5 50%
6 60%
7 70%
8 80%
9 90% (darkest screen)
** AutoCAD configuration **
Once the driver is loaded into memory and the printer is ready, you need to
configure AutoCAD. The responses in {curly braces} shown below are for AutoCAD
386; comments are shown in [brackets].
Start AutoCAD, and from the main menu, choose item {5} [Configure AutoCAD].
Hit {Enter} to get to the Configuration Menu.
Before selecting plotter configuration, choose item {2} to allow detailed
configuration, and type {Y} to confirm that you want to do it. Hit {Enter} to
return to the Configuration Menu.
Choose item {5} to configure the plotter.
Type {Y} to select a new device.
Select Autodesk Device Interface plotter {4}; DON'T select the ADI P386 plotter
option in AutoCAD 386.
->Output format, 0 to 3 <0>: {3}
[Choose the Installed ADI Driver.]
->Hexadecimal interrupt code (INT 0XXh) <78>: {78}
[Use the default of 78h unless you have some conflict with other software.
The driver and AutoCAD must both be configured to use the same vector.]
->Does the plotter have multiple pens? <N>: {Y}
->How many pens does it have, 2 to 127 <2>: {15}
[The driver uses 15 logical pens; see section above.]
->Does the plotter have multiple dashed line styles? <N>: {Y}
->How many line styles are there, 2 to 127 <5>: {10}
[The driver uses 10 line styles for gray tone codes; see section above.]
->Is the plotter variable speed? <N>: {N}
[The driver doesn't use variable speeds, but it won't hurt to allow them.
Speed changes will be ignored by the driver.]
->Specify plot size in millimeters? <N>: {N}
[Specify page size as 8.0x10.0, and resolution as 1016 dots per inch:]
->Maximum horizontal (X) plot size in inches <11.0000>: {8.0}
->Plotter steps per inch in the horizontal (X) direction <1000.0000>: {1016}
->Maximum vertical (Y) plot size in inches <8.5000>: {10.0}
->Plotter steps per inch in the vertical (Y) direction <1016.0000>:
->Would you like to calibrate your plotter? <N>: {N}
->Select degree of pen motion optimization, 0 to 4 <4>: {1}
[Choose endpoint swap only.]
[You can default the rest of the questions, EXCEPT for:]
->Specify Rotate 2D plots 90 degrees clockwise? <N>: {Y} [if you want
landscape-oriented plots]
->Pen width <0.010>: {.003}
Once you've answered all the questions and returned to the Configuration Menu,
choose {0} to exit to the Main Menu, and type {Y} to keep your changes.
** Plotting **
To plot a drawing, use the PLOT command from the AutoCAD drawing editor, or
option {3} from the AutoCAD Main Menu. Make sure you set up the color-pen-
plotter linetype correspondences the first time you plot with the driver. See
chapter 13 of the AutoCAD Reference Manual for information on plotting.
Included is a sample drawing (TESTPLT.DWG) you can use to see the different
lineweights and screened linetypes. Plot Limits with the following settings:
Entity Pen Line | Entity Pen Line
Color No. Type | Color No. Type
1 (red) 1 0 | 9 9 1
2 (yellow) 2 0 | 10 10 2
3 (green) 3 0 | 11 11 3
4 (cyan) 4 0 | 12 12 4
5 (blue) 5 0 | 13 13 5
6 (magenta) 6 0 | 14 14 6
7 (white) 7 0 | 15 15 7
8 8 0 |
Plot will NOT be written to a selected file
Sizes are in Inches
Plot origin is at (0.00,0.00)
Plotting area is 8.00 wide by 10.00 wide (MAX size)
Plot is NOT rotated 90 degrees
Pen width is 0.003
Area fill will NOT be adjusted for pen width
Hidden lines will NOT be removed
Scale 1=1
Note that this is NOT the way you'd normally set up the pens and plotter
linetypes; it's just a convenient way to see many of the options available.
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