Print Organizer - Printing a file with multiple sheets

Check out this thread

communities.bentley.com/.../140690.aspx

I've had the same issue and that is the only reason I would like some functionality of Batch Plot to stay in the new releases of USTN.

Thanks for the link to the thread.  All of my styles are setup to locate my print border, they define a pltcfg driver, but do NOT define a printer.  This allows the style to utilize the user's default printer.  After reading the 140690 thread, I can now understand why changing the pltcfg would cause this, since my pltcfg's contain a print style definition.  The explanation given makes sense, however it is not 100% accurate. In the scenario where a user wishes to print to a printer other than their default printer, they use the File/Printer Setup (as suggested in the 140690 thread), and change their printer.  This alone is enough to cause the issue described in my original post.  Personally, this is not how I would expect the application to respond (neither do any of my co-workers, and others on this forum).  By changing the printer, you are not applying a new style. I believe the problem exists, because in the File/Printer Setup dialog, you are able to change the pltcfg and the printer.  If you change one or the other, or both, it must reload both into the settings and cause the print settings and border definitions to be lost.

We need the flexibility to print to different printers without creating an entire new pset for every printer.  Ideally we would have one pset file, and could EASILY switch to different printers or to a PDF file.  There are many issues with maintaining multiple psets for one project.

I agree with you. That is one of my biggest gripes about the program. I like PO but I still like Batch Print because we utilize the method of 1 file with many borders. When a borders are added or deleted you need to delete all of the sheets in the set and re-add everything. The solution of switching to separate sheet models is painful at best and very cumbersome in my opinion.

I agree with you. That is one of my biggest gripes about the program. I like PO but I still like Batch Print because we utilize the method of 1 file with many borders. When a borders are added or deleted you need to delete all of the sheets in the set and re-add everything. The solution of switching to separate sheet models is painful at best and very cumbersome in my opinion.

Perhaps Bentley could help encourage the use of sheet models by adding a tool/option to PO. Maybe something that would create a sheet model for each print in your pset?

Maybe your pset file is just that, a DGN file full of sheet models.  Either way, we need the ability to create a master print set file AND have control of where to send the plot, without a bunch of workarounds and creating multiple print sets.

One thing you could do would be to change your standard plotting workflow so that you always plot to PDF.  Then, if hardcopies are needed, you simply open the PDF and use the print function to create your hardcopies on whatever physical printer you want.  We did this at our company and have not had any issues - we even save some ink and paper this way, since often enough the on-screen PDF is suitable for whatever purpose the print was needed, or thought to be needed.  That was always the promise of PDF: the "paperless office".

There are probably very good reasons to require direct-to-printer/non-PDF-plot-file plotting workflows, though.  It just wasn't necessary in our case.

Adam - Not a bad idea.  I've heard of a few other consultants going this route.  Thanks for the reply.

There are a few topics that I want to address that have come up in this thread.

• For the next release of MicroStation we are adding a new type of print definition called Flex print definitions. Flex print definitions dynamically discover models and shapes at print time.  When you add a design file to Print Organizer you will also select a print style, which defines the printable area (if it is not already defined in the Print Preferences, ie – All sheet models) and how the plot should look. What you will see in Print Organizer is one plot definition in the list per design file just as you do in Batch Print today, not all the enumerated plots. This means that newly added models or print areas will be dynamically discovered at plot time without having to recreate or alter your print set. The existing behavior of having print definitions enumerated when design files are added to the print set is now called CAD print definitions and this is the default behavior. Stay tuned for more details in the next week or two.
• Blain, the issue that you brought up about the first sheet getting printed 100 times after changing the printer or print style needs to be logged with support. They will need to see the design file, print styles, etc. to help you troubleshoot this issue.
• To comment on Adam’s suggestion, we have several users that print to PDF first and then submit them to a physical printer for hardcopy.  
• Per Rod’s suggestion, we have the ability in InterPlot Organizer to create sheet models back into a design file based on the print definition. I am not sure how many users actually took advantage of it though. In a perfect world, everyone would use sheet models, but we’re not there yet.

As we get closer to a new release of MicroStation, I will be sure to post info on what we are updating with plotting in addition to Flex print definitions.

Regards,

Jo Terri