pen plotter driver for protel 99SE

[[email protected]]

Hi,
I want to plot layout from Protel 99 SE directly on film, with my
HP7475A, Windows drivers arre not good because they are clogging pen
very quickly (their output is quite chaotic with many penups and downs
which produces un-acceptable results).
Could anyone tell me where to find such pen plotte driver?
Thganks in advance,
Bojan

 

[[email protected]]

Hi,
I want to plot layout from Protel 99 SE directly on film, with my
HP7475A, Windows drivers arre not good because they are clogging pen
very quickly (their output is quite chaotic with many penups and downs
which produces un-acceptable results).
Could anyone tell me where to find such pen plotte driver?
Thganks in advance,
Bojan

 

[[email protected]]

Hi,
I want to plot layout from Protel 99 SE directly on film, with my
HP7475A, Windows drivers arre not good because they are clogging pen
very quickly (their output is quite chaotic with many penups and downs
which produces un-acceptable results).
Could anyone tell me where to find such pen plotte driver?
Thganks in advance,
Bojan

Usually with film plotting the paper is the culprit. The ink you use
may also be the subject of the clotting. Does your plotter flow nicely
on bond? If so I would use a faster drying ink on the film. Is the Film
Vellum? If it is you are sure to be using the vellum with coating
adhered to it. This tends to clog the pen tip. You should use a lower
grade velum or mylar. These are closer to bond paper than are the more
exspensive films. Pen choice is also important in the defining of your
rendering. The pens ups and downs are because the plotter is reading
the drawing in a random manner or the program is drawn in that random
manner. You have two choices. Reconfigure your plotter or programmed
drawing so that all one pen movement is required at a time then the
next pen to plot will activate. These should be in the plotter driver
and manual you have with the plotter. The second option is reconfigure
your programmed drawing to different layers and assign pens to each
layer. With some CAD programms this is difficult but essential to
master. I have worked with plotting several different CAD software and
each one is different but achievable. Refer to your CAD manual or
contact your CAD representative. I do not believe that the drivers are
the culperate in your mishaps with the plotter. MY best resource for
plotters is Riverside Blueprint in California USA for any tips you may
have regaurding plotters, pens, ink or paper. Thier customer service is
quite good. I would ask for Percilla.

 

[indu]

Hi,
I want to plot layout from Protel 99 SE directly on film, with my
HP7475A, Windows drivers arre not good because they are clogging pen
very quickly (their output is quite chaotic with many penups and downs
which produces un-acceptable results).
Could anyone tell me where to find such pen plotte driver?
Thganks in advance,
Bojan

 

[Didi]

I want to plot layout from Protel 99 SE directly on film, with my

HP7475A,

Astonishing how long lasting these are! The one I allowed to retire 1-2
years
ago would still work, I suppose.

Windows drivers arre not good because they are clogging pen
very quickly (their output is quite chaotic with many penups and downs
which produces un-acceptable results).

Well penup/down is not exactly a "driver" (communication) issue, it is
up to the CAD software to prepare the output to the plotter without
them. I remember I had to do special checks not only on line
discontinuities,
but also cache a few lines and check the entire group before plotting
(20 years ago; this software still lives, although I run it on a PPC
emulation of the original 6809 based system, tens of times
faster than it used to run on a proud 2 MHz 6809..).
So my guess is you cannot influence that without some special
hpgl software - which may well exist, I just don't know.
What you can try is to manually set the pen speeds before
plotting, was something like... well, turns out I have forgotten
how is went, began with SV... may be SV1,5; (pen number, speed 1 to 10,
I think...).
Sorry for the useless posting. I wrote it that far and I'll post it
anyway, someone else might also have fun being reminded of the hp7475,
although it won't be much help to the OP ....
Ah, and I remembered about the speed. It was SVx; x being 1 to 10, I
think.
No pen number. Just "select velocity"....

Dimiter

 

[Peter]

Astonishing how long lasting these are! The one I allowed to retire 1-2
years
ago would still work, I suppose.


Well penup/down is not exactly a "driver" (communication) issue, it is
up to the CAD software to prepare the output to the plotter without
them. I remember I had to do special checks not only on line
discontinuities,
but also cache a few lines and check the entire group before plotting
(20 years ago; this software still lives, although I run it on a PPC
emulation of the original 6809 based system, tens of times
faster than it used to run on a proud 2 MHz 6809..).
So my guess is you cannot influence that without some special
hpgl software - which may well exist, I just don't know.
What you can try is to manually set the pen speeds before
plotting, was something like... well, turns out I have forgotten
how is went, began with SV... may be SV1,5; (pen number, speed 1 to 10,
I think...).
Sorry for the useless posting. I wrote it that far and I'll post it
anyway, someone else might also have fun being reminded of the hp7475,
although it won't be much help to the OP ....
Ah, and I remembered about the speed. It was SVx; x being 1 to 10, I
think.
No pen number. Just "select velocity"....

I agree with the above. I used to be heavily involved in drivers in
the 1980s pen plotter / CAD market, HP, Calcomp, etc.

Windoze has no *vector* drivers as such; it is up to the application
program to generate the vector data and squirt it out of a COM port or
whatever.

 

[[email protected]]

Hi all,
Thank you very much for your help, I will try Prescilla.. (does anybody
have email address? I live in Australia..) Yes, I agree that the
problems I have are not really a windows driver it may be the way
Protel generates the drawing, but I am not sure...
Loooong time ago I was close to a group of guys who made the plotter
driver for Ultiboard - it was actually a DOS application which was
reading the intermediate plot produced by the Ultiboard and output the
result to a plotter, They did it in such a way that the output was
sorted out like this: pads were plotted first with drill guides, then
tracks (beginning from centre line and the spiralling outwards. This
method of plotting NEVER clogged the pen and was used to directly
produce the film.. or layout on copper, using flat bed plotter and
resist ink. I still have this program but I would really like to
(finally) migrate completely into windows domain (because Protel is
so much better than ultiboard. Otherwise I would not bother..)
I was made aware some time ago that there were third party
applications that did exactly what I have described above, but they
were quite expensive and I never had a chance to evaluate any of
them...
Anyway, thank you again