CompuServe Messages

Ray: When you get ready to plot to the HP plotter, AutoCAD talks to the plotter and the plotter, with paper already loaded, returns the hard clip limits. This is the area that the plotter says it can plot within. AutoCAD takes these limits and, based on the drawing area and the scale, determines if the drawing will fit. If you know that the drawing really will fit, it's safe to say yes even when AutoCAD says it won't fit. This usually happens when you are plotting the display, the drawing is actually longer or wider than the paper, but the extra area has no entities in it. AutoCAD assumes that you are plotting the entire display and correctly advises you that it won't all fit. If you were to window the specific area to be plotted, it would most likely fit within the limits returned from the plotter. The problem becomes compounded, however, if you plot to a file and then send that plot file using a separate program. AutoCAD actually sends the blank area and then plot ends up being "shifted" when you later send the plot file, resulting in a drawing that doesn't end up entirely on the paper. I mention that because there are two possible solutions to your problem with communications parameters. There are several programs, most notably Fastbaud from Dickerson Enterprises, that let you change the communications parameters used to communicate with the plotter. It's designed primarily to send data at a faster baud rate (as the name implies) but may do what you want as well. The other possibility is to use a plot spooler. Most spoolers can communicate using any protocol, so you could match it to your other programs. But you wouldn't be able to plot direct from AutoCAD unless you then switched it back. David