Computers

Re: Choosing a plotter

mmi — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:15:13 GMT

dlm:

Dust does wonders on the drum HA HA. Not to still this thread, But how old is it. There are updates on their web page, but I do know when we were looking at a new Oce we would have had to buy licenes for adobe, per seat.

Looks like they came out in 2003...it looks pretty ancient. The only updates I see are the windows drivers. I just don't use it if I can avoid it. I usually prefer 11x17's, and I can print them on the network laser copier in my office. If I have to plot something, I save it down to 2004 and plot from another workstation with ACAD 2004 on it.

Re: Choosing a plotter

mmi — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 18:51:30 GMT

If you're really not going to plot large sizes very often, go cheap and get something like an HP. They're slow, but pretty reliable, and pretty inexpensive.

Re: Choosing a plotter

Joshkvm5 — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 18:22:41 GMT

Currently it is just myself in the drafting department, we have two pm's that might be printing to the full sheets. I don't know that we will be printing a lot from the plotter a great deal. The shop likes to use the 11 x 17 sheets for fabrication, and the pm's generally print to 11 x 17 for their part of the process. I can see the need for the full size sheets, and like others have said the GC's have stopped sending prints for bid. The drawing bins have been empty for a year. Finding a plotter was put on my todo list for the year ...

I appreciate everyone chiming in, this is really good feed back. I've got a lot of home work to be done before making this purchase. Thank you all for the help.

Re: Choosing a plotter

dlm — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 18:11:03 GMT

Dust does wonders on the drum HA HA. Not to still this thread, But how old is it. There are updates on their web page, but I do know when we were looking at a new Oce we would have had to buy licenes for adobe, per seat.

Re: Choosing a plotter

mmi — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 17:22:44 GMT

We have an Oce` TDS400 that is the most tempermental POJ I have ever had the displeasure of working with. It is practically not usable to plot from Adobe. I can use Acrobat (reader) and it plots fine. setup the printer the same way in the real version of Adobe, and it never resizes or rotates correctly. Any of my machines running ACAD 2007 or 2008 get the blue screen of death EVERY time you plot to the Oce`. You can plot one sheet, but anything you try to do after that (close ACAD, plot another sheet, etc.) will lock your desktop right up. And none of our CAD stations can publish to it. It will plot thte first 2 or 3 sheets, and then it thinks it is finished with all 55 sheets of the job. One thing's for sure, mechanically it is very sound. Never breaks down, and good prints. Not bad on speed either. I wish it were more unreliable so we could kill it and get something different, but it refuses to die...just keeps on giving us fits.

Re: Choosing a plotter

dlm — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:51:20 GMT

Wow, you must have got a lemon or bad service with Oce. I have 5 drafters, and 8 PM's that all plot to the plotter. We plot large volumes, especailly know that the GCs have stop suppling hard copies for bid. The first plotter I had was an Oce 9400II, Built rock solid, very few service calls, ran the snot out it for 8 years. The Need for more speed and higher volumes prompted me to get a new plotter. The second plotter that we got is the Kip 5000. Ok machine, does the job but not as nice as the Oce. That being said though for the buck the Kip is the way to go. The biggest thing to check for, is service, no matter what brand you get. Get as many client numbers from the plotter manufacture and call about how the plotter works, its interface with windows and autocad and any other program that you might want to print to the plotter, and most important how is their service. Service, service service, can't say it enough, service is the biggest complaint that I hear about. If they can't get to you the next day then stay away. Good luck lot of home needs to be done.

Re: Choosing a plotter

mmi — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:02:46 GMT

Can't make any recommendations, but DO NOT BUY OCE`!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Re: Choosing a plotter

KenAllan — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 21:23:46 GMT

The important concern is not color but how much plotting do you do? Do you have to submit 5 to 10 copies to the architect. contractor? How drafting engineers do you have? Do your estimators use it to print out bid sets from downloaded pfs or tiffs?

We have a 4 person drafting dept and 2 estimators that use our plotter, it is a Xerox 510 wide format. It will also copy and scan, plotter and scanner are 2 seperate units so one can scan while someone else is plotting. It has its own router/cpu and is set up to be a network plotter.

Overall we are satisfied w/ its performance. Needs to have a good cleaning by tech support every 6 months or less to stay in good working order though.

Re: Choosing a plotter

lewis.dale — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:46:15 GMT

We are currently using a Gestetner AO45 or Ricoh RW-240 wide format printer. It is a wide format xerographic printer (uses toner like a Xerox machine) that not only plots drawings, but also copies and scans wide format documents. I've never really liked this particular unit because it doesn't print drawings to scale as accurately as I we need. The machine was designed to be used by contractors in the field where accurate scale drawings are not as critical. When I talked to the technical support people about this issue, they told me I needed to calibrate the plotter in AutoCAD. In more than 20 years working with AutoCAD, I had never heard of doing such a thing. I have a new machine ordered to replace it. The one we are getting is a KIP 3100. It looks pretty nice. I am expecting to get it toward the end of February. I'll be glad to be rid of our current machine.

Choosing a plotter

Joshkvm5 — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:07:34 GMT

We are looking at buying a plotter to print drawings. I figured here would be the best place to check first to see if anyone uses one, if so what are the things that i need to look for in buying one? It doens't have to be fancy, all we need is black and white. So ... if anyone has any suggestions i would love to hear them.

Thank you all.