This Client Server article is republished in its entirety from 2005 for reference purposes.

By Bill Dougherty, Bentley Software Support Analyst, Bentley Corporate Office 14 February 2005 Modified: 22 April 2005

When plotting with MicroStation V8 2004 Edition, you may encounter wasted paper in the output, caused by the orientation of an ANSI D or Architectural D size sheet on a 36-inch roll when using a HP-GL/2-based or HP-RTL-based plotter driver files.

Plor Orientation 

Here are some guidelines for correct plot output orientation from MicroStation V8 2004 Edition:

When you reference HP-GL/2 based plotter driver files, if editing the plotter driver file using Notepad, you notice the driver= line would reference hpgl2, as follows:

driver = hpgl2

The delivered HP-GL/2 based plotter driver files are:

Hp650c.plt Hpdjet.plt Hpgl2.plt Draftprop.plt

The HP-GL/2 based plotter driver files are fine for vector-only plots, without any raster attachments.

For an HP-RTL based plotter driver file, the driver= line would reference hpglrtl as follows:

driver = hpglrtl

The delivered HP-RTL based plotter driver file is hpglrtl.plt.

The HP-RTL-based plotter driver files are recommended for hybrid raster/vector plots.

Usually, most problems involve having the long axis of either an Architectural D size sheet or ANSI D size sheet plot across the roll, instead of in the direction of paper flow.

For an HP-GL/2 or HP-RTL-based plotter driver file, the size line in the plotter driver file would look like the following example:

size=(X,Y) /num=0 /off=(xoffset, yoffset) /name="pagename"

In an HP-GL/2 based plotter driver file, the X and Y entries would be defined as follows:

X = the length of paper spooled from the plotter, and Y = the width of the plot across the roll.

So for an ANSI D size plot using an HP-GL/2 based plotter driver file, the size line would look like the following:

size=(22.0, 34.0) /num=0 /off=(0.27,0.27) /name="ANSI D"

In an HP-RTL-based plotter driver file, the X and Y entries would be defined as follows:

X=the width of the plot across the roll Y= the length of the paper spooled from the plotter

So for an ANSI D size plot using an HP-RTL based plotter driver file, the size line would look like the following:

size=(34.0, 22.0) /num=0 /off=(0.27,0.27) /name="ANSI D"

Following these guidelines should enable you to plot your data oriented correctly on roll-fed plotters from MicroStation V8 2004 Edition.

Comments or Corrections?

Bentley's Technical Support Group requests that you please confine any comments you have on this Wiki entry to this "Comments or Corrections?" section. THANK YOU!