	Product:	MicroStation
	Version:	08.11.09.459
	Environment:	N\A
	Area:	Printing
	Subarea:	N\A

Background

The following MicroStation Printer Drivers are stored in the directory … \workspace\System\pltcfg after a standard MicroStation Installation:

Printer.pltcfg

This printer driver is a MicroStation wrapper around the Windows printing system. It is the preferred driver for creating physical printed output.

The Bentley Windows printer driver operates in conjunction with an operating system device driver, provided by either the plotter hardware vendor, Microsoft, Bentley, or another driver developer.

The advantages of printing through a device-specific driver include access to manufacturer-specific features such as host-based color correction and paper handling (stapling, folding, etc), as well as efficient printing of OLE objects.

The disadvantage of the Windows printing system is that large amounts of raster data can cause less sophisticated device drivers to consume large amounts of host memory and possibly fail.

Rather than use a single printer driver configuration for all Windows printers, Bentley recommends creating a separate printer driver configuration file for each Windows printer you intend to use. Inside each printer driver configuration, specify the appropriate Windows printer name (and other default settings) in the Windows Printer properties.

The printer driver configuration may be also be customized to produce a plot file on disk, or a Windows Enhanced Metafile, rather than printing directly to a plotter.

Pdf.pltcfg

This is the Bentley printer driver used to create Adobe PDF files.

The printer driver configuration may be customized to include model/level content along with links and bookmarks.

Markup_pdf.pltcfg

The markup_pdf.pltcfg printer driver configuration file is a customized version of the standard PDF printer driver configuration file. It is used by the Markups dialog when creating Adobe PDF files, and therefore should not be renamed or removed from the workspace.

The properties of the markup_pdf printer driver configuration, including resolution, raster quality, and PDF features, are optimized for the Markup workflow.

Hpgl2.pltcfg

This is the generic Bentley printer driver used to create HP-GL/2 files. This driver is obsolete and provided solely for legacy purposes. The Bentley Windows printer driver in conjunction with an appropriate Windows printer driver is recommended for HP-GL/2 output.

The most significant advantage of this driver over the Windows printer driver is easier manual control over paper size definitions.

A major disadvantage is that the HP-GL/2 language does not contain direct support for raster data. All images are converted into pen commands, which may result in a significant loss of quality. This affects Raster Manager attachments, 87/88 elements, OLE objects, and gradient fills. To plot raster data, OLE objects or gradient fills, use the Windows printer driver or the generic HP RTL driver instead.

hpglrtl.pltcfg

This is the generic Bentley printer driver used to create HP RTL files. This driver is provided primarily for legacy purposes. The Bentley Windows printer driver in conjunction with an appropriate Windows printer driver is recommended for HP RTL output.

The most significant advantage of this driver over the Windows printer driver is easier manual control over paper size definitions. A major disadvantage is that all OLE objects must be rasterized when printed. Many manufacturer-specific plotter features are also unavailable when using this generic driver.

jpeg.pltcfg

This is the Bentley printer driver used to create either JPEG or PNG raster offline files.

This driver is intended for low-resolution web publishing only. It is not designed to produce printer-resolution raster plot files. To create printer-resolution raster plot files, use the CALS or TIFF printer driver instead.

png.pltcfg

This is the Bentley printer driver used to create either JPEG or PNG raster offline files.

tiff.pltcfg

This is the Bentley printer driver used to create either monochrome or true color TIFF raster offline files.

This driver is suitable for producing printer-resolution raster plot files.

cals.pltcfg

This is the Bentley printer driver used to create monochrome CALS raster offline files.

This driver is suitable for producing printer-resolution raster plot files.

Pscript.pltcfg

This is the generic Bentley printer driver used to create PostScript files. This driver is provided primarily for legacy purposes. The Bentley Windows printer driver in conjunction with an appropriate Windows printer driver is recommended for PostScript output.

Other language sources

Original Author:

Frank Reimann

MicroStation Printer Driver Information