How can I make microstation printing workflow more efficient?

Question

Hello, 
 I am new to microstation and I am having trouble with printing. I am able to get the desired output that I want, but the process is very long and cumbersome and inefficient. There must be a way to improve it right? 
 
 The problems I am having are; 
 1. Have to go through a long cumbersome process to get the printer set up properly 
 2. Microstation does not remember last print so each time I print, everything has to be reconfigured all over again 
 3. I cant figure out how to save the print configuration into the drawing layout so that future prints of the same drawing remember how its supposed to print (AutoCad APPLY TO LAYOUT) 
 4. Drawings with raster images take forever (sometimes up to 30 minutes) to spool to the printer during which time microstation is completely locked up, including other instances of microstation open to different drawings so all I can do is go get coffee and wait. 
 
 Prints must use a special printer, which is not the windows default printer. Each time I print the windows default printer is selected so I have to go to select windows printer and choose the right one. 
 Prints use a custom page size, so each time I have to go to configure windows printer, properties, advanced, page size, postscript custom page size, type in the size, ok, ok, ok, ok, print 
 Prints must be in monochrome, and most of the time the fence should be fit all so I have to select monochrome and select apply fence to fit all. 
 Approximately 1 out of every 10 drawings the correct fence is different than fit all. Unfortunately sometimes I forget to place the fence first and I have selected everything else and then I realize my mistake and I have to cancel out of the print and go place a fence and when I come back everything I just set is gone and I have to start over. 
 I have explored print organizer and print styles without any improvement. I followed a tutorial that someone posted on their blog that claimed to help you create a custom printer that is set up like you want, but in the end all I had was a print style that would do the select monochrome part for me. Which is no help because it takes longer to pull down a menu and select print style than it does to just select monochrome. 
 
 The printer and the page size never change, so if you could tell me how to make it always go to that printer with that custom page size, that alone would save a lot of time. 
 Even better would be if I could save the print settings into the drawing layout, like you can in autoCAD, so that I only have to tell it once whether the fence should be fit all or something different and from then on I can do single button printing, like in AutoCAD. 
 And if you can tell me how to make raster printing not take forever, or not lock up all open instances of microstation so that you can at least work on other drawings while you wait, that would be great! 
 Any help? 
 
 Thanks!

Duncan Macdonald · Accepted Answer

File print then click on the magnifying glass 
 
 Pick printer.plt 
 
 Then edit printer driver configuration 
 
 Customise these settings to suit and then save as from the file menu on the above dialog and give it a new name relevant to the printer you are using. Then use the magnifying glass in the first pic to load your custom config.

Josh Walker · Answer

Thanks that was very helpful. That got me like 90% of the way there. 
 I still cant save the print config to the drawing, but I was able to make a pltcfg file with all of the right settings except the desired fence. So for most drawings I just have to click set fence to fit all and that is the only thing I still have to do manually, everything else is now working preset.

Lorys · Answer

In the workspace config you can define the default printer to use , I even have a setting ( which right no eludes me I'm at home) the places a fence auto fit to the view drg element extents and as I dont leave any thing out side my frame or title block it always works with control p, forces the default or last used print setting and print driver and places fence ... 
 Along time ago I published a script that you can put on an F key and it will load auto plot and paper size and you just then either then press the print or if you want change a setting on screen ie mono, colour etc from its already chosen settings .. you can even put the execute command at the end then you just send it automatic to the printer, I set mine to make pdfs as that what I send to clients so I print from the pdf to see what they would most likely see too allowing for small differences in printers... 
 here is the article I wrote 6 years ago on how to make the custom F key script and how it works beware the keyin is one long line of text no word wrap even tho shown here with word wrap... 
 ------------------------------------------------------------ 
 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... 
 here is a snip of the article I posted in control alt delete mag.. 
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
 Customised Key-ins for V8 plotting 
 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. or an F key assigned 
 The script when executed ( an assigned F key is fastest way) expect the user to then double click on a boundary (in my case a construction closed shape 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. ( WARNING) the next two lines what should be one continuous keyjn script but word wrapping here 
 
 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 ( double click) on the element. 
 &bull; DIALOG PLOT tells Microstation to bring up the printer dialog. Leave this out if you want instant printing ( better not to.) 
 &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="\mel2\colourL6" 
 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 they wont print... 
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 today we would use he pltcfg printer files instead of the plt files

How can I make microstation printing workflow more efficient?

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