#Acad to PageMaker
4 messages in this thread
I don't know whether to ask the question here or at "Adobe". Several months
ago, I came across a writeup on what was needed to make plots on Autocad
for use with PC Pagemaker (I should have said "Aldus"). It seemed to have
something to do with saying the plotter was an ADI, and then using the PM
conversion program to display it on PM.
I know there are utilities to make the plot Encapsulated PostScript, and
also direct printing to a PostScript device. But I'm looking for the "lost
hint" on how to build the plot file so PageMaker can understand it. Thanks
All you have to do is go into Acad, plot the drawing you want, and whenin
the plot menu say yes to "Write Plot to a slected file". Then, give the
file a name and plot it. Exit, go into Pagmaker and insert the plot.
In order to do this with Pagemaker you have to configure it to be able to
read HPGL plots. You do this when installing, I can't remember the exact
menu, but it asks you something like which graphic formats you want to be
able to import.
One other thing, make sure Acad is configured for a HP plotter in order to
get the HPGL.
Jay
Thanks for the tip. My situation isn't quite like you described, but I'll give
it a try. I'm trying to go to a PostScript printer, not a HPGL. I have the
choice of producing Postscript files (apparently) right out of Autocad, but
then they are not "visible" on PageMaker (just a grey blob). Or I can
supposedly get out an ADI file, which PM can then read and translate into it's
own graphics. That's where I stand right now.
The ADI plotter option is much better for Pagemaker than the HPGL. The main
reason is that it produces file that about half the size of HPGL files. This
is important when you need to place a large plot in pagemaker. Windows has
some severe limitations on the size of its metafiles (that is the route that
things come into pagemaker.) There used to be a file on either this forum or on
the Aldus forum that described in great detail the exact setting for the ADI
plotter to work best with AutoCAD. I'll see if I still have the file and
upload it for you. I may also have a file that describes how to convert
AutoCAD's PS postscript file format to the EPS file format. This is an
alterntive. (the ADI format shows the graphics on the screen in pagemaker.)
By the way AutoDesk, don't you think it is about time to support EPS as an
output option for the postscript driver? The coding problems should be minima
So many packages can import EPS and the procedure to manually convert a PS file
to EPS is too tedious for most users to do on an ongoing basis. This might
help the problem of placing AutoCAD graphic into Pagemaker on the Mac. The
screen image copy and paste is O.K. for low quality, but there is now line
width control and the precision is limited to screen resolution. Small details
look like shit. Nuf Bitchin.