Batch Plotting best practices

Fellow collegues, 

I am asking for the most effective way to batch plot several files. as of now we are doing individual sheets and is killing me. I have tried plot Organizer but I feel like it takes quite a bit of time to set it up. I have also used Create renditions from ProjectWise and love it but I don't have the right to mess with PW so I need to make sure that it is the most efficient way to batch plot before I go make a pitch to higher-ups. my question then is what way are you batch plotting that works the best?

Thank you in advance    

Open to all Software options 

ORD Release 3 update 9 10.09.00.91

PW 10.00.03.298

  • Print Organizer is great for what it is.

    If you have the authority to create DGNLIBs and make sure that they are included in your configuration, setting up Print Styles doesn't take long, and need only be done once. Those Print Styles can then be available to everyone on every project that uses those standards. All you need to do is add your drawings and assign the pre-made print style.

    Print Styles are saved into the active DGN file, so I made a blank, empty DGN with a DGNLIB extension (PrintStyles.dgnlib) and saved it to a known network location (I run the CAD standards here). I opened the Print Organizer dialog box and used the "Define Print Styles" dialog to create my print styles. For our main client, we only have two or three "types" of sheets to print: 22x34 black & white plan sheets, 11x17 true color exhibits and 8 1/2x11 "rehab sheets". We prefer to use the Sheet definitions in our sheet files so that the print area of each sheet is found automatically, but it's pretty easy to set up to find a "print shape" drawn into your files around a border. The Print style can be set for a lot of different options, including any pen table you normally use, and how to plot raster files.

    Then I was able to add that DGNLIB file to my Site (or Client) configuration so that it would be found and used automatically by anyone working on these projects.

    Print organizer is nice for plotting a bunch of plan sheets, and can even be used in concert with text substitutions in a pen table to provide some basic consecutive sheet numbering based on the print list order.

    I'm not as versed in ProjectWise, although I hear it can do great things. You definitely can look into that. However, that method of printing only works if you are in ProjectWise. Print Organizer works inside and outside of ProjectWise, in case not all of your projects are on the PW server. Here is the link to the ProjectWise discussion group so you can ask them more about that angle: https://communities.bentley.com/products/projectwise/content_management/f/content-management-forum

    MaryB

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