How to Set Up Plotter Configuration Files for Different Layout Environments in AutoCAD

If we were to go into one of our layout environments, and if we were to type plot, you're going to see that it's mapping to a machine that's not here in our system. So what I need to do is I need to make it talk to somebody I want it to talk to. Now, the printer I'm going to be using will be my Drawing to PDF.

So I will choose Drawing to PDF. It's going to say 8 1⁄2 × 11, plot the extents of the drawing, center the plot. I'm going to say print it at 1-to-1, scale the line weights, but you can see that I need to put in a color table file.

I'm going to slide this over. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to create a new color table file. And I'm going to start from scratch and go next.

And I'm just going to call it VDCI-Standard-01. And I will finish it. So you can see that right now I'm in the process of working on the plotter characteristics for my 8 1⁄2 × 11 environment.

I'm saying Drawing to PDF, let it be an A-size sheet, 8 1⁄2 × 11, plot the extents. You know, I could even say plot the layout, and that would be fine. So plot the layout, plot it at 1-to-1, scale the layouts.

What this means is that when we get to the larger sheets like the 22 × 34, if we end up saying plot the 22 × 34 at half size, that would then print on 11 × 17, and it would be scaling the line weights down. And we have our color table file. I now want to edit the color table file.

There are three different ways that I can look at the color table file. General is pretty bland. The Table view, which slides across to the right.

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And the Form view, which goes up and down. So, for example, right now, color 1, which is red, would plot using object color, using object line weight, and it would be like a red line. Yellow would be plotted in yellow, using the object line type, line weight, and so on and so forth.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to select color 1, slide this bar all the way down, hold shift, and press color 255. So I have now selected all of the colors. I'm going to say plotted in black, 100% black, use the line type as defined in the line type table, but let the line weight—I'm going to say let it be a 0.25-millimeter pen.

Because I think that when most of us print, we understand that we tend to use one pen weight for the most part, and we heavy up some line weights and decrease some others. So I'm going to go save and close, come back in, and you can see that all of these colors have been assigned to black, 100% black, using a 0.25 pen. I'm going to slide down to color 253, select that one by itself, and say make it 40% black.

So color 252 is 100% black, color 253 is 40% black. This is again the poches. Now, every office has its own plotter color table file.

This is simply the one that we've been using here at VDCI. I'm going to slide up here, go to color 2, which is yellow, plot in black, 100% black, and use a 0.60 pen, save and close, and then I want to apply this configuration to this layout. I'm going to go OK.

Now, it's asking me where I want to save the plot because I've told it to plot. I'm just going to cancel the plot. So again, I've saved it to the layout, I can now cancel this. If I, for example, go to the model tab, go back over to 8.5 × 11, if I were to type plot, you can see that it's saying Drawing to PDF, A-size paper, plot the layout, scale the line weights, and there's my color table file.

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If I go to the 11 × 17 environment, and if I type plot, you can see it's again referencing to something else, but I'm going to say use the 8.5 × 11 environment. So what it's doing right now is it's importing everything from my 8.5 × 11 settings, but this is not an 8.5 × 11, it's an 11 × 17, so I'm going to choose 17 × 11 and apply it to the layout. I'm going to cancel, but again, if I go into the environment, let's just go to 8.5 × 11 to clear it, let's go back to 11 × 17.

If I type plot, ANSI B—you know what, I'm going to change it to ANSI B Expanded, because you can see right here, I don't have a whole lot of room at the top for my printing area. So I'm going to apply it to the layout, expand it, so 11 × 17 Expanded, plot to layout, 1-to-1, scale the line weights. I'm going to cancel. You can see that it's now given me a larger printable area up at the top and the bottom. I'm going to just do a Control-S to save the drawing right now.

My 22 × 34, I'm going to go into plot. Now what I'm going to do is I'm going to say use my 11 × 17 settings, expand the interface over here, so 11 × 17 is Drawing to PDF, it's an 11 × 17 drawing, it's calling for right here, I want it to be an expanded, ANSI D Expanded, 22 × 34, apply to layout. I can preview, we can again see where it would be printing, you can see our no-plot zone. So again, I'm Drawing to PDF, Expanded D, layout, scale the line weights, and use our color table file, and I'm going to cancel out of the plot. So what I've now done is I've saved plotter configuration formats to each of our individual layout environments. This way, when users at your office choose to print 8.5 × 11,11 × 17s, or 22 × 34s, those formats, the plotter configuration files, are already pre-assigned. You can anticipate standardization.

So I'm just going to Control-S to save my DWT file.