PLOTTER DRIVERS
9 messages in this thread
CAN ANYONE ADVISE ME ON HOW TO SET UP A DRIVER FOR AN EPSON HI-80 4-PEN PLOTTER
FOR USE WITH ANALYZE! 2.0? I HAVE A DRIVER ON MY DRAW PLUS DISK BUT CAN'T
FIGURE OUT HOW TO COMBINE THE TWO. ANY ADVICE WOULD BE APPRECIATED. THANKS!
JOE
Joe, I am not familiar at all with Analyze!, but I think that it's safe to say
that having a Draw Plus plotter driver will probably not do you _any_ good at
all with Analyze!. I could be wrong, but my guess is that the two programs
require very different plotter drivers. Plotter driver files do not generally
follow any common format, and since the programs are written by two different
companies, I think you'll find that the drivers have little in common. Maybe
someone else who has Analyze! can help you out more.
Joel
JOEL, THANKS FOR THE EFFORT. I GUESS I MAY HAVE TO WRITE SOMETHING MYSELF.
Joseph:
I'm not familiar with Drawplus, but if the plotter driver is a standard
preferences driver, then Analyze! shouldn't have any problems? Can you select
this driver through preferences?
Chris DeBracy MSS
Chris,
How did you go about getting Intuition to work with the overscan area?
Is it straightforward or should I be counting the "gotchas" on two hands and
feet? <grin>
Ariel
Chris:
They are not preferences drivers. They are special drivers used to
convert the plotter language output (HPL I think) to what ever the particular
plotter uses. A straight ASCII dump would really give them fits much less one
with cntrl characters (other than CR/LF).
Plotters use things like 'P 0,0' for 'position pen to location 0,0' and
'D' for pen down etc. Some use two character commands and many use the Hewlett
Packard Plotter Language. Most plotters have a command that allows them to
draw circles and even elipse figures. Most also have a command for writing
text but it is usually something like 'T T,4CR, T e,4CR, T x,4CR, T t,4CR'
where: CR is of course carriage return and the 4 would be the character size.
Again other specifications exist including font style. Some units will switch
into 'text' mode on command at the current cursor position but others require
that the position be specified for each character. 73, bill
Bill:
Just goes to show how much I know about plotter drivers. Want to hear my
theories for world peace? <grin>
Chris DeBracy MSS
Draw Plus has it's own internal plot driver and it's just a simple text file.
Draw Plus is a structured drawing product. Instead of dealing with pixels …
it stores things as drawing commands. So a circle is stored as a coordinate
origin and a radius. The draw file format is simple text so it could be
possible to create a draw file with a small program. I believe Analyze doesn't
generate structured drawings, so I don't think it will work with the Draw Plus
plotter support.
I suppose I ought to mention to the populace at large that I just finished a
two-month consulting project writing an IGES converter. The company that
contracted me now has a method for porting their internal drawings to other
systems, and I now have an indepth knowledge of the IGES format (well,
excepting the binary flavor, which we decided not to support). If anyone needs
any assistance with IGES I/O, *NOW* is the time to ask… before I forget it
all. 8)
Rick