Autodesk, Inc., has released a plotter drivers update for AutoCAD(R) 2000, AutoCAD(R) Mechanical 2000, Mechanical Desktop(R)4, AutoCAD Architectural DesktopTM 2, AutoCAD Map(R)2000 and AutoCAD LT(R) 2000. Note: The AutoCAD 2000 Plotting Update Patch is not required for the domestic or international versions of AutoCAD Land Development Desktop R2. AutoCAD Land Development Desktop R2 was released after the AutoCAD 2000 plotting update, therefore the update was included in the shipping version. This update addresses several customer-reported issues and includes two new HDI (Heidi(R) Device Interface) plot drivers. These new HDI drivers add support for more than 30 different CalComp plotter models and the AutoCAD DXB file format. In a continuing effort to support Microsoft(R) Windows(R) 2000 Professional, Autodesk has addressed the problems that disable AutoCAD 2000 plotting on release candidate 2. Autodesk has also worked with its hardware partners Hewlett-Packard, Oce, and Xerox to address customer-reported problems with each plotter driver that shipped with AutoCAD 2000-based products. Some of the issues that the Plotter Driver Update addresses are as follows: * Support for CalComp plotters * Support for AutoCAD DXB file format * Raster and Merge lines support for the HDI Hewlett Packard LaserJet printer driver * For all HDI HP-GL/2 HDI drivers, support for A3, B4, and B5 paper (including supported Hewlett-Packard LaserJet models) * Plotting from Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional (RC2) * Significantly improved performance of the Hewlett-Packard DesignJet Windows system printer driver under Windows 95/98 * For all drivers, improved quality for vector and OLE plotting * Resolution of several issues with Hewlett-Packard pen plotters * Resolution of crashes caused by certain Windows system printer drivers * Ability to use TXTQUALITY to control TrueType text quality * Improved support for Hewlett-Packard 7600 plot devices * HDI plotter drivers can now be updated directly from the manufacturer. This update is part of a continuing effort by Autodesk and its partners to provide customers with the highest quality support for peripheral devices. For complete details on the AutoCAD 2000 driver update, please consult the Plotter driver update readme information below. PLOTTING UPDATE README ---------------------- The Plotting Update modifies hardcopy drivers and DLLs in Autodesk(R) products that use the new Heidi(R) hardcopy subsystem. These products include AutoCAD(R) 2000, AutoCAD(R) OEM 2000-based applications, AutoCAD(R) Mechanical 2000, Mechanical Desktop(R) 4, AutoCAD Architectural DesktopTM 2, AutoCAD Map(R) 2000, and AutoCAD LT(R) 2000. The Plotting Update is a self-extracting zip file. Its installer runs automatically. The installer checks the registry to see which Autodesk products are installed. If you have more than one Autodesk product installed, you are asked to select the product you want to update. It is recommended that you update all Autodesk products. FILES THAT ARE ADDED OR UPDATED BY THE PLOTTING UPDATE ------------------------------------------------------- The file locations of the following files are relative to your AutoCAD directory unless you have changed the default Options for these locations. addplwiz.exe hcreg6.dll heidi6.dll oletohdi6.dll pc3edit.dll plcfmgr.dll plotcfg6.dll pmutil6.dll styleeng.dll (only updated for some products; see Note below) drv\calcomp6.hdi drv\calcomp6.drc drv\dxb6.hdi drv\dxb6.drc drv\gdi6.hdi drv\gdifont6.hdi drv\hpgdi6.hdi drv\hpgl26.hdi drv\hpgl26.drc drv\hpgl6.hdi drv\oce6.hdi drv\raster6.hdi drv\xerox6.hdi drv\xerox6.drc help\drv_ccp.cnt help\drv_ccp.hlp help\drv_dxb.hlp help\drv_hpgd.hlp PLOTTING UPDATE CONTENTS ------------------------ Optimized HP System Driver. This driver includes the following enhancements: - Plot file sizes are greatly reduced on Microsoft(R) Windows 95/98. - Detaching and reattaching a PMP file no longer causes an error. - Modified paper sizes display the correct units. Add Plotter Wizard. The wizard now installs updated drivers. HIF files are now language independent. Arc gaps. The arc gap problem is fixed in the generic HP-GL/2 driver and in the Xerox and Oce drivers. OLE object plot quality. Several OLE plot quality problems are fixed. The system path for OLE objects is restored to the Release 14 state. OLE plot quality on system printers has been improved for Landscape paper sizes because they can use the system path. Portrait paper sizes are still forced to the lower-quality raster path. If you are plotting a monochrome OLE object such as a Microsoft(R) Excel workbook, reducing the right-click OLE object plot quality to "Line Art" may help improve the quality of objects plotted using the raster plotting mechanism. If you are using a driver that supports the raster graphics pane in the PC3 Editor, sliding the "Balance" slider to the right also improves the resolution of OLE objects that are plotted to the raster path. HP-GL long plots. HP-GL plotters can now handle long plots (The driver produces absolute coordinates instead of relative ones.) HP-GL DraftPro and other old HP-GL devices. These devices can now plot E size sheets. (The driver produces absolute coordinates instead of relative ones.) Microsoft(R) Windows 2000 plotting. This type of plotting is enabled. Random crashes with various Windows system drivers. Enhancements have been made to the GDI6.HDI driver to fix random crashes with various Windows system drivers. HP LaserJet. The HP-GL/2 non-system HDI driver now has A3, B4, and B5 paper sizes. A new "100 shades of Gray" color depth choice is available, and merge control is enabled (only for this color depth). Raster plotting problems are now fixed. HP 7600 series. Enhancements have been made to the HP-GL/2 non-system HDI driver to fix problems affecting the HP 7600 plotter series. CalComp driver. A non-system driver supporting most CalComp plotters has been added. DXB driver. A driver that plots to the Autodesk DXB file format has been added. COM port queries. AutoCAD no longer queries COM ports when configuring a plotter. Version display. The General page of the PC3 Editor shows the version number of the DRC file in use. The version number appears in square brackets to the right of the driver version number. True Type text quality. This responds to TXTQUALITY for all text styles. The configured paper size in PC3 files is now followed when new layouts are created. HP ColorPro CAD error message. Users of the HP ColorPro CAD may experience an error "The media size is invalid" when they select a paper size in the Custom Properties dialog box and have this Plotting Update installed. If you receive this error message, you are probably using version 4.20 of the HP system driver, and you need to download the latest driver from the Hewlett-Packard web site. Version 4.22 or later of the HP system driver fixes this problem. Raster file driver. The raster file driver now can plot undithered bitonal (monochrome) raster files (such as CALS and TIFF), when a monochrome plot style table is used. Note: the following fixes are applied only to AutoCAD 2000, AutoCAD Architectural Desktop 2, and Mechanical Desktop 4. They do not apply to any other products: Pen plotters. Pen plotters now respond reliably to physical pen assignments made in Plot Style tables. Virtual pen assignments. Virtual pen assignments are now respected. Virtual pens on CalComp plotters. If you used virtual pens with a CalComp plotter in Release 14, you had to define just "pens" in your CDCL file. With AutoCAD 2000, it is also necessary to define "colors" because they are used for area fills such as wide plines and True Type text. The following CalComp devices allow you to defined both colors and pens in CDCL: the TechJet Color GT, the GT/PS, the TechJet Designer, the 68000 series EPPs, the Drawingmaster series, Solus 4, and Econografix. The following CalComp plotters only allow you to define colors at the plotter's control panel: the EconoPro, the TechJet Designer 720, and the TechJet color. If you have one of these plotters, don't try to define colors using software, because the color definitions will be ignored by the plotter. A Microsoft(R) Word document, CALCOMP_VIRTUAL_PENS.DOC, is in the driver directory where the CalComp HDI driver is installed. The document explains how to define colors in software, using CDCL. The following is a brief summary of the CALCOMP_VIRTUAL_PENS document. You must create a color (RGB_COLOR) for each pen you define. First define the color, and then define a pen (COLOR_PEN) mapped to the color you just defined. RGB_COLOR(color#, R, G, B) Color# Same as physical pen number R Red value 0-100 percent saturation G Green value 0-100 percent saturation B Blue value 0-100 percent saturation COLOR_PEN(pen#, width, color#, line type) Pen# Virtual pen number used by AutoCAD Width Width of pen in plotter units (pixels); for example, for a 400 DPI raster plotter a 2mm line is 31 plotter units (2/25.4)*400 = 31 Color# Color number to map to, as defined above Line type MAJOR, FLAT, ROUNDED or SQUARE The following is an example CDCL file. &&&&CALCOMP DEVICE CONTROL * Universal PIN number USER_PIN(8378) * Color 1 is RED RGB_COLOR(1, 100, 0, 0) * Pen 1 is mapped to color 1, 4 pixels wide, rounded end COLOR_PEN(1, 4, 1, ROUNDED) * Color 2 is Yellow RGB_COLOR(2, 100, 100, 0) * Pen 2 is mapped to color 2, 31 pixels wide, major end COLOR_PEN(2, 31, 2, MAJOR) * Color 3 is a 25% gray RGB_COLOR(3, 25, 25, 25) * Pen 3 is mapped to color 3, 10 pixels wide, flag end COLOR_PEN(3, 10, 3, FLAT) ^^^^END OF FILE Other possibilities are available. For example, some CalComp devices support PAT_COLOR(ALL,255,0,0,0) to set all pens to black, instead of using RGB_COLOR to set each pen's color. Please refer to your CalComp CDCL manual.