Most recent release: Fall 2007

The archive contains the utility (just one executable file!) that can be used to send plot/printfiles to a plotter/printer.

Status:

Alpha, beta, ....., omega (work in progress, never ready just like all the other software on the market :-) )

GoPlot is not a commercial program; I made this for my own use - and it works fine for me. You may use it at your own risk. You are not allowed to make money by selling this program. Nobody but me has distribution rights. The only places where you should be able to find it is where I placed it for download (currently: http://www.noliturbare.com).

Special features:

• Smart "Copies by plotter" option - the wanted number of copies is "told" to the device, meaning the file is sent once, rather than n times and the device produces the wanted number of copies from it's memory.
• Quality Level removal from HPGL2 plot files, so you can set the desired quality on the plotter, (it is not overridden by the setting that was made in the driver). Useful if you get files for simple linedrawings that were produced with a "Best" quality setting in the driver, that would take an long time to plot (you want to set Fast on the plotter). Or on the other hand files with large filled areas (solids) that were produced in "Fast" mode and would show banding in the plots (you want to set Best on the plotter).
• Note that the HPGL/2 functions are for DesignJets that work in HPGL/2 mode only, not the bare DesignJet 500 (using the PCL3GUI language) or DesignJets that work in PostScript mode.
• Note that the PostScript functions are meant for files that are conform the PostScript standard and may not work for PostScript printfiles created by a driver that adds a device specific header to the PostScript files.
• Note that with the functions described above a modified file is sent to the device. A couple of characters in the files are modified and a header will be prepended to the file.
• Show either the printerport (e,g, "LPT1:", "\\MyServer\ItsPrinterport") or the type of driver (e.g. "HPGL/2", "PCL", "PostScript") in the statusbar. The latter is read from the driverproperties, but note that not all drivers publish this information. This information will only be displayed when logged in as Administrator (or with admin rights).
• GoPlot does not convert plot- or printfiles, so the information on the type of driver is only relevant for you to confirm that the format of the files you want to send is compatible with the type of printer that you selected. If you use GoPlot with Oce machines, you should know that Oce drivers are only recognized in GoPlot by the name, which should start with "Oce 9", or "Oce TDS", or "Oce TCS".

• Optionally pass the long file name (including path) to the spooler
• Optionally trim the path from the name passed to the (DesignJet's) plotter display; especially for plot files from AutoCAD 2005 (creates long names that are useless for queue management on the plotter's frontpanel)
• Multi roll support for the DesignJet 1050C Plus with multi roll unit
• All options for supported printer types (HPGL/2, PostScript, Oce) on separate panels to avoid confusion; each panel is automatically displayed, based on the recognized plotter/printer type
• Move or remove the PJL header in PostScript files with such a header (for instance for HP PostScript devices), which prohibited the use of the special options
• Print one file from the list (right click menu)
• The program window is now resizable
• Most options will be saved now, so when you restart the application, you will start with the options as you used them before
• Extended support of Oce devices (through RCF), a.o. set printing, scaling, folding, rotating plots, adding, removing from trailing and or leading edge.
• Print a banner page per job on Oce machines to separate/identify these jobs and print a list of plotted files
• Print a banner page on HP DesignJet plotters
• Use as a central application in a network; place GoPlot on a server and make shortcuts on each workstation; the settings for each user will be stored in individual ini files
• Queue management functions are accessible in the menu: view the queue, pause/resume printing and clear the queue; actually the same functions as you get when you double click the printer icon (in the system tray or Start - Settings - Printers).

New features in GoPlot Plus (Fall 2007)

• Optionally keep GoPlot running in the system tray; just click its icon there to bring it up
• GoPlot can be configured to either run multiple instances, or 1 instance, depending on the name; if you don't want this, rename the executable to "goplot1.exe".
• Printer dependant settings are moved to a separate form

Installation:

Simply place the executable in a new program folder (the program could even be run from a diskette - but you probably don't want to do that ...) and make a shortcut. Double click on its icon to start it. You can also drag files to its icon and drop them to start the program. Drag and drop on the program's form is also supported.

The program uses the port of the selected printerdriver; not the driver itself, meaning that the data is not going through the driver again, so the driversettings, other than the port, have no effect. As a matter of fact, to use the program, you need to have a driver installed, but it does not matter which driver, as long as you have set it to the correct port. This may be an LPT port when your printer is connected directly to your PC, or a network path when the printer or plotter is connected to a (print-) server. You should note however that the special HPGL/2 functions and PostScript functions only work when a printerdriver is installed and selected that is recognized as one of these types of drivers. The program reads the type of driver from the driverproperties (if the developer of the driver decided to publish the type of driver). So to use these functions, I recommend that you install and use the proper driver for the device you are using.

Note: set the temp path with menu-item "Configure". It defaults to the program's installation directory. Also make sure that you have plenty of disk space, especially on the disk that is normally used for SPOOLing (by default Windows uses the disk on which Windows is installed).

Note:

This program does NOT write in the Windows registry, nor does it place hidden or other sneaky files anywhere on your system. The only files it writes during operation are 1. an .ini file in the user's home directory to store the settings 2. the SPOOL-files (using the Windows SPOOL mechanism, obviously, this is the function of this program), 3. temporary files at the location that you have chosen with "Configure" when you have checked any of the "HPGL/2 devices only" or "PS devices only" options and 4. job files, also at the temp location that you have chosen with "Configure", when you decided to save printjobs. The temp files are simply the modified print/plotfiles that are SPOOLed instead of your original plotfiles.

When you associate the plotfile extension (.plt, .prn, .000, .spl, or whatever) to this program, you can start the program and open the file by double click on a plotfile. I could have arranged this for you in a setup, or in my program, but I don't want to mess around in your system's Registry (I hate that myself with most other programs).

Support:

None, but comments are always welcome (use Contact in my FAQ section). If you want something special, let me know and I'll think about it.