Batch printing prints getting out of order

[SunnyTurtle]

I use a company batch that allows you to batch run scrips and lisp.

 

The only problem is that my i send my prints to the printer they all get out of order becasue they are sent as indivisal jobs and people look through them to find where there prints have snuck in.

 

It has just become to annoying and i was thinking there must be a better way.

 

I was thinking like a vertual printer that the batcher can send the prints to and then transfer them to the printer you want when they are all there.

 

What do you guys do. i would love people to vent out there printing frustrations

 

Cheers Turtle

[danellis]

Assuming that all your batch is doing is plotting, have you investigated the batch command?

 

This allows one to specify the order everything's printed in - of course there's no way round colleagues messing up the order when everything's printed, though!

 

dJE

[SunnyTurtle]

Hi there is no command called batch you sure it is not some 3rd party application you are using.

 

Yer I think a bit of physical violence would work on co workers who mess up my prints but I would just like to send all my prints as one print job with multi pages instead of many single page jobs. i Think this would greatly improve my chances of getting them in the right order

Edited September 18, 2011 by SunnyTurtle

[BIGAL]

If your plotting layout tabs and they are alphabetical you could sort the tabs before plotting I know the auto or batch plot I have just plots them all based on a list so adding a sort would be a good idea as we name our layouts by dwg No, the layout list is returned in the order created not what you see or in particular renamed.

[Dana W]

Investigate the Sheet Set Manager. A sheet set will always print layouts in order. You can probably modify your batch job to print one or more sheet sets in the background so you don't have to keep AutoCAD open to print. I only have LT here at the moment so I don't have the reference material at hand to tell you how it can be done.

[DANIEL]

for big jobs I send my batches to a printer that has a que I can send them too and then combine them into one job to keep others from slipping prints into the middle of my job, now that I'm on 2012 however I have noticed that it seems to process it all as one job now when you publish.

 

ps. I feel your frustration, i hate finding that some has rifled through my print job ......

[Sphiinx]

In my opinion, I would create at .tmp file, and set up your plotter configuration on it. So if your using the same title block for 40 drawings, take one, copy it out to your hard drive somewhere. Erase all the items in the drawing, even purge it. Go to your page set up manager in your layout tab your printing from and save the drawing as a template.

 

Then when you go to print your drawings, use the publish feature. Add your drawings, and highlight all drawings. (cntrl A) Then under the page setup column click on the pull down menu, and go to Import. Import the tmp file you made in the the first step. It should apply to all your drawings and give you check marks saying everything is okay. (probably best to sort the drawings by name, in reverse order, so they come out in order) Hope this helps.

[DANIEL]

In my opinion, I would create at .tmp file, and set up your plotter configuration on it. So if your using the same title block for 40 drawings, take one, copy it out to your hard drive somewhere. Erase all the items in the drawing, even purge it. Go to your page set up manager in your layout tab your printing from and save the drawing as a template.

 

Then when you go to print your drawings, use the publish feature. Add your drawings, and highlight all drawings. (cntrl A) Then under the page setup column click on the pull down menu, and go to Import. Import the tmp file you made in the the first step. It should apply to all your drawings and give you check marks saying everything is okay. (probably best to sort the drawings by name, in reverse order, so they come out in order) Hope this helps.

 

I use this same method, doesn't have to be a template though, can just be a drawing if you want but if you are using templates you might as well add your page set ups to it for this purpose as well.