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ISSN 1442-2255 : 5/10/2008 - 6:54:34 AM

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Printer/Plotting Software

Software to plot CAD output on printers with line weights has been around for years. We found four applications that promised to do the job and we put them to the test.

PrintGL

A shareware product from Ravitz Computing. PrintGL has been around for a while and the latest version we could find is 1.6i dated 1996.

We asked Geoff Harrod what he thought about PrintGL--

"PrintGL must have the world's most obscure, unusual and counter-intuitive user interface. It appears to be a die hard Unix hacker's idea of what a menu driven interface is. It does a good job if you can figure out how to make it do anything at all. It is impossible to recommend it to users generally just because of its baffling interface. You can however run it like a traditional Unix command line program with a plethora of cryptic slash-options—which is in fact less difficult than its menu."

We looked at PrintGL and Geoff is right.

PrintGLW pen width setup screen
The pen width configurator in PrintGLW. It makes not pretence of being a Windows application, decreasing its attraction.

The good news is that we also found WINGL, a Windows shell for PrintGLW (the Windows version of PrintGL and included in the same distribution archive). WINGL not only makes PrintGL a viable proposition, but a very attractive one. Ravtiz recommends generating plots for HP 7475 or 7440 plotters to use with PrintGL.

Summary
Cost	US$50 (+30 if you want the Win NT version specifically)
Download	PRINTGL.ZIP
Web site	http://www.concentric.net/~ravitz

WINGL

Here is a Windows shell for PrintGLW. Also shareware, WINGL is also dated 1996, so it's not brand new, but don't be deterred. It works very well and eases the interface of PrintGLW considerably.

wingl.gif (24753 bytes)
WINGL is simply a Windows interface shell that allows you to make the settings you want for your plot and then sends the commands to PrintGLW to do the job. It also allows you to save the configuration settings for reuse.

There’s a bit of learning curve -- even WINGL has its idiosyncrasies. Two quick tips we learnt fast. Set Magnification to 1 and set orientation by setting the correct width and height in PrintGLW > Windows/Margins

Some handy information provided in the WINGL Help file shows the default print areas (in inches) for various plotter page configurations.

To set window equivalent to	Width	Height
HP 7440 with A paper	7.54	10.14
HP 7440 with A4 paper	7.54	10.74
HP 7475 with A paper	7.84	10.2
HP 7475 with A4 paper	7.6	10.88
HP 7475 with B paper	10.2	16.38
HP 7475 with A3 paper	10.88	15.90

Summary
Cost	USD50 (45 day free evaluation)
Download	WINGL.ZIP
Email	The email address in the archive is incorrect. Good email address unknown.

PrintIt 95

PrintIt 95 is developed by FlexiComp in Brisbane, Australia. We downloaded the evaluation version from the Web to test it out.

PRINTIT.gif (22842 bytes)
Fast and easy to use, PrintIt 95 can also be configured to keep an eye on a specific folder and output any plot files that you write to that folder. The blue background text in this image is a limitation of the evaluation software.

It is easy to install and opened and displayed a plot file from IntelliCAD just as it was meant to. There is minimal documentation with the evaluation, which was a initially considered a drawback. In fact, not much documentation is required. FlexiComp recommends generating the plot file for the HP 7580A plotter. We used it on plots generated for an HP 7574 and it worked just fine.

Summary
Cost	AUD195 (free eval download)
Download	PRINTGL.ZIP
Web site	http://www.ozemail.com.au/~flxcomp

PrintAPlot

This application by Insight Development is by far the easiest to set up and use.

ppp.gif (18818 bytes)
Insert multiple plot files, batch process, define plot and pen templates and more. PrintAPlot is a comprehensive tool that is very easy to use.

It produced plots exactly as we wanted to see them—centered on the page, correctly scaled and correct line weights. The learning time to set up a plot, create a pen template and get a plot out was all of 15 minutes. Print-A-Plot also has a nice suite of extra features that would be very useful for many users. Design Drawing has had a close up look at PrintAPlot and a comprehensive review is online.

Summary
Cost	US$149 (introductory price, SRP US$199)
Download	None
Web	http://www.insightdev.com
Our Review

Plot!

This software is included with Epson 1520 and 3000 printers. It is only available bundled with a printer and it is not known whether or not it will output plots to other than these two printers.

We know that Epson Plot! will plot line weights because we output one of the sample plot files that came with it and it came out OK.

Attempts to plot output from IntelliCAD 98 have been unsuccessful and it seems that the reason for this is that Plot! requires an HPGL/2 file, which specifies pen thicknesses internally. Plot! does not have a facility to control pen thicknesses like the other software listed here. There is no support for Plot! so it’s every person for his and herself.