Auto place fence and print macro

Question

Does anyone know how to write a macro that will automatically place a fence around the border of the drawing and print a specific drawing size to pdf? I'm not very code savvy and I didn't see anything already covering this. Thanks.

Lorys · Answer

this is an article I wrote a long time ago it still applies in all v8issX and Model space views... 
 you can create a keyin and link to F key but you need to customise it it would work if your in a model not sheet model and the border is a closed shape.. you run the f key and double click on the shape... you may need to change the printer to plt.cfg format.. .it could be adapted to sue sheet model, but you can just set your default printer for mstn and size etc in your workspace prefs and pres control p would run plotting in sheet view no need for fence... 
 -----------------snip-------------------------------------- 
 I made a script a long time ago that from a Function key launches place fence by element then waits for you to data point on the enclosing element then launches the plot function, select my default printer and default paper size and prefered pentable and can either print immediately or is defined to wait for me to hit the print button just incase I want to change the scale or other options... It needs to be customised to your requirements... 
 
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 Customised Key-ins for V8 plotting and also now V8i 
 Tips 
 I have several network printers available to me but I can only have one as my preferred printer. The network settings 
 only permits me to change the default paper size for the preferred printer. This article sets out how to have preferred 
 settings for all your available printers and have a pull down to choose your printer. 
 The first thing needed is to have several customised copies of printer.plt. For each printer, we need to 
 define settings such as pentables and the network path and name for each printer. Then we set a script in our custom 
 pull down (or function key/s) and define the paper size within the script. 
 Assuming you have already defined the path and network name of each printer and set the pentable of choice for 
 each printer and they are saved with unique name of the format &ldquo;name.plt&rdquo;. 
 Also we assume that printing will be done from a drawing that contains a frame or closed boundary element. 
 This helps automate the fence placement and activate the Print command. We also assume the reader is familiar 
 with the customise menu creation featured in previous articles by the author. This essentially has the workflow workspace> 
 customise>Menu bar> insert/ modify. 
 The script when executed expect the user to then double click on a boundary (in my case a construction element 
 which is not printable but will hold the fence). Then it automatically selects the right printer driver and path to the 
 network printer. Set my print preferences and choose the paper size I have set (my default or preferred size is A3 
 landscape). 
 It then has the option to wait and allow me to redefine the scale and print or just print immediately. And so the 
 script is as shown below. 
 place fence element;%D;DIALOG PLOT;PRINT DRIVER printer_col.PLT;print fullsheet 
 off;PRINT PAPERNAME A3;PRINT ATTRIBUTES CONSTRUCTIONS OFF 
 The above waits for me to hit the Print button, to make it print immediately we just append at the end. 
 ; PRINT EXECUTE 
 So reading through the script 
 &bull; place fence element;%D lets you place the fence by selecting an element via data point twice on the element. 
 &bull; DIALOG PLOT tells Microstation to bring up the printer dialog. Leave this out if you want instant printing. 
 &bull; PRINT DRIVER printer_col.PLT tells MicroStation to use my customised printer.plt called pinter 
 _col.plt (which in my case happens to be our laser printer which has its network path and network name 
 defined inside the printer_col.plt file as sysprinter /name="\xxx\colourZ" 
 PRINT FULL SHEETOFF is self explanatory. 
 &bull; PAPERNAME A3 sets the paper size by its windows name. 
 &bull; PRINT ATTRIBUTES CONSTRUCTIONS OFF makes construction elements invisible to the printer hence