Strange plot area difference

Mike

I've been running into an issue with 8.5x11 plans where PDFs plot correctly, but on our Sharp MX-3050N, the plot is shifted up and to the right. Settings as follows:

• LIMITS 0,0 to 8.5,11
• Plot area is set to layout

One thing I've noticed is that the plot area shown in paper space by a dashed white line shows up correctly according to the LIMITS setting for "Print as PDF.pc3" but when set to the Sharp .pc3 file, the plot area shows up as being from 0,0 to 8.1666,10.6667.

At Bricsys' suggestion, I updated the Sharp drivers on my computer, then in the Custom Properties > Layout tab, set the print position to -0.2,+0.2. This alleviated the problem on my computer, however it did nothing on one of the other computers in the office.

Has anyone else had this issue? How can I get the plot area for the Sharp set correctly according to LIMITS?

James Maeding

@Mike
For starters, try plotting using window, not limits or layout.
The laser printers all have quirks so we typically pick inside the exact trim line for window, then center the plot, then plot to fit since half size plots are not to scale. Or use exact scale if yours are. Picking trim lines at 0,0 8.5,11 is not going to work consistently as you are seeing.

Mike

@James Maeding said:
@Mike
For starters, try plotting using window, not limits or layout.
The laser printers all have quirks so we typically pick inside the exact trim line for window, then center the plot, then plot to fit since half size plots are not to scale. Or use exact scale if yours are. Picking trim lines at 0,0 8.5,11 is not going to work consistently as you are seeing.

It's worked fine for every other size plan we plot here, from ledger all the way up to 30x42. I certainly see the benefit to doing the window plot, but the hard part there is going to be talking my boss into changing the way he's been doing things for some 20+ years. I'm just the technical guy; he makes all the decisions when it comes to standards.

James Maeding

Hmm, takes same time to pick window as limits.
I've been doing cad for 20 years, and one thing I have learned is plotting procedures evolve constantly.
Between our pdf drivers, and lasers, its a monthly battle that is worth fighting as quality final output matters.
This thing of claiming experience and no change does not go together for plotting, and so many things with cad.
Limits don't have some specific advantage anyway, that will be a boring conversation.
More important is how you quickly set up a named page setup for publish command on multiple drawings.
If you find by window solves things, show your boss and ask for reasons why its not going to be used.
If you have good answers, he/she should listen to you, assert yourself.

Mike

@James Maeding said:
Hmm, takes same time to pick window as limits.
I've been doing cad for 20 years, and one thing I have learned is plotting procedures evolve constantly.
Between our pdf drivers, and lasers, its a monthly battle that is worth fighting as quality final output matters.
This thing of claiming experience and no change does not go together for plotting, and so many things with cad.
Limits don't have some specific advantage anyway, that will be a boring conversation.
More important is how you quickly set up a named page setup for publish command on multiple drawings.
If you find by window solves things, show your boss and ask for reasons why its not going to be used.
If you have good answers, he/she should listen to you, assert yourself.

Typically, once we have variables like lines merge, plotter, etc. set, we click Apply to save the settings. Occasionally we'll have to manually specify the plotter if we need to plot to a PDF or to our laser printer for ledger sized prints of larger plans. I certainly can see where it would behoove us to use Window and set it to the appropriate size though. I'll discuss it with him, and hopefully it'll go over the way things did when I suggested migrating to BricsCAD from... that other program.

Roy Klein Gebbinck

@Mike
Have you tried Extents + Center plot + (obviously) exact scale?

James Maeding

@Roy Klein Gebbinck
Extents is a bit dangerous IMO. Someone adds junk to a titleblock off to left and you are hosed.
I can almost say I never don't have some issue with some printer/plotter at our company. Its like a two tweaks forward, one tweak back game normally.

Mike

@Roy Klein Gebbinck not a bad idea on the surface, but we tend to end up with some charts and similar things off to the sides of the border, just in case they're needed in the future. Plotting Extents and centering would end up with parts of the drawing cut off in these cases.

I'm just going to talk the boss into changing to Window plots. It'll just be easier that way, and apparently one of my coworkers already does it that way.