Print Dialog not retaining setup

Tim Neumann

This is for V12.1.7. On the print dialog box at section "print setup name" it won't keep what you select. I'll put in "previous plot" and then try to print to PDF's using PDFCreator with a batch lisp but keeps reverting back to default and prints hard copies. Put in a support request couple days ago but thought maybe someone else out there has run into the same problem. For the record this particular setup worked fine in V11.

Alexander Van Heuverzwyn

There has been a design change to the print dialog that will cause your script to fail. The meaning of the setup combo at the top has changed. It is no longer a stored setting. Instead one uses the combo to initialize the print dialog and as soon as you change something in the print dialog, the combo will be reset to 'none'.

In the current version if you want to reuse a previous plot again and again, you can use command plot, non-detailed option, with psetup name "_previous plot".
A neater approach is to avoid using previous plot, store the setup you want to reuse in a drawing , import it with PSETUPIN for each drawing, and then use it with command plot.

Kieran Liddicoat

I Also have this same problem. I find this method a step back from the previous versions on brics cad.
I was much easier to set up a print style, using the page setup method upon the creation of a drawing. that way nothing ever needed to be touched when it came to printing the drawing. I would find importing a print setup to new drawings from previous drawings tedious.
Another problem with using the new method is because  your are unable to retain a page setup in the layout tabs you are unable to view the entire drawing, making working in the layout tabs near impossible.
I suggested reverting back to the old method in future editions.

Scott McKenzie

 I have created a bunch of page setups in my template drawing.  My boss then created a button that uses -psetupin to redefine all of the page setups.  Problem is that the program does not redefine the page setups, it works sometimes but not consistently.  Is this a bug that should be filed or is this known about?  I have also noticed that when editing page setups, after clicking ok on the page setup dialouge I am sometimes prompted with an error and other times the program crashes following the error message (which states that an error has occured).  If I open my template and print the drawing everything prints as expected.  If I open the drawing in question, delete all of the page setups using the drawing explorer, click this button to reimport nothing is changed; I have even tried deleting the setups, saving closing, restarting and then importing to no avail....

Tim Neumann

I sent a support request on this a week and a half ago and no news yet. I prefer the old way because the lisp program took advantage of it. Now I have have to look into a another program to print PDF's in batches - Bluebeam comes first to mind. I guess the method Alexander referred to could be workable but the problem is I'm lazy and have no idea how to revise my lisp program to pull it off. Overall though I'm happy with V12 & what they're doing with it.

Alexander Van Heuverzwyn

The old QPRINT +'permanent previous plot setting in layout' could not be kept when we implemented support for multiple pagesetups, so now QPRINT always results in a print with current layout settings. We realize the 'QPRINT + previous plot' was quite handy for some but there will be no going back.

 We've been implementing other features  that give you more control over the printing process, even if it requires a change in procedure. It should be possible to do something very similar to the old previous-plot-QPRINT functionality if you take a macro (command "plot" "no" "" "_previous plot"  etc..) and put this behind a button in your menu. For example in order to print to a file using the previous plot, the macro would be (command "plot" "no" "" "_previous plot" "" "y" "n" "y").

Or create a template and put something like this behind a button: (setvar "expert" 5)(command "-psetupin" templatedrawing setupname)(command "plot" "no" "" use the imported psetup..). Using psetupin from a template file has advantages since the 'previous plot' option is a bit fickle: it's easy to get a batch of wrong plots if you just happened to do your last manual plot in a slightly different way. The EXPERT variable needs to be set to avoid the "do you want to overwrite" question from the program when you print twice.

If we find gaps in the functionality we'll fill them in. If there are bugs in psetupin we'll fix them as soon as possible. Meanwhile we'll extend plot functionality further. We'll add support for Publish, a batch plot utility.

Tim Neumann

Yes, a batch utility would come in handy as right now still have to use V11 when using my lisp program to generate multiple pdf's. Of course if anyone out there knows of a way to get this done with V12 at the moment please fill me in.

Tim Neumann

Attached is a lisp I used for awhile up until V12 came out. I first set Brics to print to a pdf (via pdfcreator) and then ran it to print a load of pdf drawings. Now with the way things are set up now can't do it using qprint so I was trying to figure out how to make it work using the plot command. I figure it can be done using a script but don't have a clue how integrate it into the routine. Thought maybe someone might be able to point me in the right direction or think of an easier way to do this. Thanks.

Code bprint:

(defun C:BPRINT (/ )

(if (not dos_dir) (arxload "DOSLib11.brx"))

(setq files (dos_getfilem "Select files to print.." "C:\\""Drawing Files (*.dwg)|*.dwg"))

(setq dwgpath (car files))

(if (/= files nil)

(progn

(foreach dwgfile (acad_strlsort (cdr files))

(command ".open" (strcat dwgpath dwgfile))

(command ".qprint")

(command ".qsave")

(command ".close")

)

)

)

)

Torsten Moses

Just a hint, under V12 you will need to use DOSLib V12 build :
(arxload "DOSLib12.brx")

Many greetings, Torsten

Roy Klein Gebbinck

@ Tim:
If your intention is to follow Alexander's advice try replacing:
[code](command ".qprint")[/code]
With:
[code]
(command
  "_.plot"
  "_no"            ; Detailed plot configuration? Yes/:
  ""               ; Enter a layout name or [?] :
  "_previous plot" ; Enter a page setup name <>:
  ""               ; Enter an output device name or [?] :
  "_no"            ; Write the plot to a file? Yes/:
  "_no"            ; Save changes to page setup? Yes/:
  "_yes"           ; Proceed with plot? /No:
)
[/code]

Tim Neumann

Thanks guys, maybe this will work until they get support for Publish.

Patrik Sparrman

Hi, Alexander how do I store and import a plot setup externally from a drawing?  I get mails with maybe 10-15 dwgs that I that I have to browse and plot to make quotations and I cant import everything to a template. V13 now its a slight pain not having previous plot. /Patrik

polo thefields

@Alexander Van Heuverzwyn:

The old QPRINT +'permanent previous plot setting in layout' could not be kept when we implemented support for multiple pagesetups, so now QPRINT always results in a print with current layout settings. We realize the 'QPRINT + previous plot' was quite handy for some but there will be no going back.

 We've been implementing other features  that give you more control over the printing process, even if it requires a change in procedure. It should be possible to do something very similar to the old previous-plot-QPRINT functionality if you take a macro (command "plot" "no" "" "_previous plot"  etc..) and put this behind a button in your menu. For example in order to print to a file using the previous plot, the macro would be (command "plot" "no" "" "_previous plot" "" "y" "n" "y").

Or create a template and put something like this behind a button: (setvar "expert" 5)(command "-psetupin" templatedrawing setupname)(command "plot" "no" "" use the imported psetup..). Using psetupin from a template file has advantages since the 'previous plot' option is a bit fickle: it's easy to get a batch of wrong plots if you just happened to do your last manual plot in a slightly different way. The EXPERT variable needs to be set to avoid the "do you want to overwrite" question from the program when you print twice.

If we find gaps in the functionality we'll fill them in. If there are bugs in psetupin we'll fix them as soon as possible. Meanwhile we'll extend plot functionality further. We'll add support for Publish, a batch plot utility.

I did try to create a button with _psetup and my template but it's my first time using macro. Do you have a printscreen where I can understand how to do the macro with _psetupin? Thank you

Jason Bourhill

@polo thefields:

I did try to create a button with _psetup and my template but it's my first time using macro. Do you have a printscreen where I can understand how to do the macro with _psetupin? Thank you

I have a Sample BricsCAD Setup on my website that includes some examples of using _PSETUPIN to pull in page setups from a template.

Regards,

Jason Bourhill

CAD Concepts

polo thefields

 Thank you Jason Bourhill !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everything is working well!