Change PDF Plot Settings by Lisp

[woodman78]

Hi,

 

I am setting up a more expansive CAD system that will be rolled out across 100+ seats.  One of things I want to be able to change is the PDF Plot Settings.  As in the "Show Resultsin Viewer", "Include Layer Information" etc.  It would be better to be able to change those by lisp rather than having to tell everyone to go into the PDF settings and change them manually.

 

I would appreciate any help with this.  I have done some research on this online but haven't found anyone doing this as yet.

 

Regards,

Woodman78

[Steven P]

I have looked for similar and the answer I was getting was it can't be done.... I would like to be corrected though!

 

My solution was to make up a custom settings for the PDF plotter with what I needed (do it once) and then when I want to plot the LISP selects this custom setting - which is something you don't want to do but a few minutes setting that up lets you do what you want (and it has paid me back lots with time saving with my plotting)

[maratovich]

It is only possible to use Publish.
See for an example

[ronjonp]

Why don't you have this pc3 file shared on a network location? Then you can make all the changes needed and point the computers to the new location:

(vla-put-printerconfigpath
  (vla-get-files (vla-get-preferences (vlax-get-acad-object)))
  "O:\\Network drive"
)
;; Or 
(setenv "PrinterConfigDir" "O:\\Network drive")

or 

[woodman78]

Thanks for the help guys.  i appreciate it.  I will try that ronjonp.

[ronjonp]

34 minutes ago, woodman78 said:

Thanks for the help guys.  i appreciate it.  I will try that ronjonp.

Glad to help.

 

I've had this setup this way for nearly 20 years now and it works great. One caveat is if you have people that take home laptops .. then they won't be able to print without reconfiguring the plotter path.

[BIGAL]

Like Ronjonp I had something similar with multi floor printing, Rather than rewrite all the which printer? I get the persons id and then set to correct printer on that floor,  using a lisp to plot rather than use publish. In the case of pdf's it put them into a specific directory attached to the dwg creating if not exist. Only 1 program for around 20 people. Pretty easy to change their location just change the printer name. We had Mono, Colour lasers and A0 plotter.

 

We also use network printers with the pc3 files in one location. You can change the preferences for printer locations via lisp, I have a setup lisp that way all the network paths are correct and done instantly.

 

Laptops had two icons Autocad & Home and work this way as it runs all the correct pathing, using the profile switch, we set up the laptops with the majority of stuff required to reflect same as office. Its about having everything server based.

[woodman78]

16 hours ago, ronjonp said:

Glad to help.

 

I've had this setup this way for nearly 20 years now and it works great. One caveat is if you have people that take home laptops .. then they won't be able to print without reconfiguring the plotter path.

Thanks guys.  I have another way around the "I need to use it at home" thing.  I have rejigged all of my setup to run off a server in our organisation headquarters rather then in my office alone.  This gives others across the organisation a chance to seu the setup as it no longer needs access to our local server to run.  I have set it up in such a way that simply copying the setup directory to a usb drive and then renaming that drive to have the same letter as the server means it will work seamlessly at home without any alterations.  The plot PDF function will work as normal.  A different approach.

[ronjonp]

Glad you got it sorted :). You might also test that the access to these files remotely does not cause delays. We have a remote office and I took this same route at one point but the internet connection between the two was causing issues with slow file access.

[woodman78]

Bigal,

 

Would you be able to post that Lisp that you spoke of?  It would give me a good start.

 

Thanks,

Brian.

[BIGAL]

have a look at this it has the get's and put's.

set paths 2016.lsp

Edited March 21, 2019 by BIGAL

[woodman78]

Bigal,

 

Thanks for that.  I will certainly have a look.

 

Woodman78