topic Re: Plot drawings with the MS print manager. in 3D Part & Assembly Design

Plot drawings with the MS print manager.

cschwill — Sun, 13 Dec 2020 02:08:11 GMT

Hi there:I'm new to this forum.I'm looking for a simple way to plot our drawings from CREO.With previous versions of PRO-E we used macro's to run plot configs with custom page sizes and plotter offsets.If I currently just select print, then choose the plotter, It auto

Re: Plot drawings with the MS print manager.

TomU — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 18:41:52 GMT

Define "much smaller".

There is an assumed 10mm unprintable border all the way around. This can be overridden with a line in the PCF (plotter configuration) file.

What sheet size is your drawing?
What paper size is being selected for output?
What version and build of Creo are you using?

Re: Plot drawings with the MS print manager.

cschwill — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 18:52:47 GMT

We are currently using CREO 2.0.

I am currently just working on plotting a B size landscape drawing.

Once I have a B size drawing selected, I chose the print, then select the plotter.

When I select the properties from the print pop-out control box, I see that it has auto selected the ANSI B (Tabloid) from the paper size options.

But to the right it displays the following.

Size is: 17 x 11in.

Printable area is: 16.61 x 9.66 in.

Re: Plot drawings with the MS print manager.

TomU — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 19:57:40 GMT

Do you have a PCF (plotter config file) defined for the MS Printer Manager? Typically it will be named "ms_print_mgr.pcf". If so, can you please post the contents. (Just open it with Notepad or any other text editor.)

Re: Plot drawings with the MS print manager.

cschwill — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 20:38:32 GMT

No. We currently do not have a PCF file for the MS print manager.

We have only PCF files related to the old map key plot commands for custom sheet sizes.

We would like not to have to use the map keys anymore.

Re: Plot drawings with the MS print manager.

TomU — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 21:20:49 GMT

Please check your running config (current session) in Creo and see if the "pro_plot_config_dir" option is set. If so, look in the specified folder and see if any PCF files exist. If not, take a look in your startup and/or working directories for any PCF files. We need to know for sure if an existing PCF is being referenced when printing to the MS Print Manager plotter.

Re: Plot drawings with the MS print manager.

MartinHanak — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 06:30:03 GMT

Christopher,

can you upload your B-size pcf file. Use How to attach file when you Reply to a discussion.

Martin Hanak

Re: Plot drawings with the MS print manager.

cschwill — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 13:46:23 GMT

Where would such a file be located if I had one?

Re: Plot drawings with the MS print manager.

cschwill — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 13:50:59 GMT

That pro_plot_config_dir points to a folder on our network.

there is no PCF file marked MS print manager in this folder.

The only PCF files in this folder are related to the map key plotter custom page sizes.

Re: Plot drawings with the MS print manager.

TomU — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 13:55:19 GMT

Either in your startup/working directory or the pro_plot_config_dir directory.

Re: Plot drawings with the MS print manager.

TomU — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 13:58:34 GMT

Interesting. Let's try this, open a drawing and then open the print dialog. Set the printer to the MS Printer Manager, then "save setting". This will create a PCF file that you can open (with a text editor) and see all the current settings. Post the file itself or even jus the contents here.

Re: Plot drawings with the MS print manager.

cschwill — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 14:01:07 GMT

That folder doesn't contain any B size PCF file.

Wouldn't there be a standard loaded when CREO was installed?

Re: Plot drawings with the MS print manager.

StephenW — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 14:04:10 GMT

No. If you don't have a .pcf file, you just get the creo defaults for printing.

Re: Plot drawings with the MS print manager.

MartinHanak — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 14:08:01 GMT

Christopher,

pcf files are also located in Creo2_LOADPOINT\Creo 2.0\Common Files\Mxxx\text\plot_config directory.

Martin Hanak

Re: Plot drawings with the MS print manager.

StephenW — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 14:14:22 GMT

Nope, I was wrong. They are in the text folder under plot_config

Re: Plot drawings with the MS print manager.

cschwill — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 14:57:09 GMT

So if I change my config setting so that the pro_plot_config points to this folder than I will just get the defaults that come with a fresh CREO install.

Re: Plot drawings with the MS print manager.

MartinHanak — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 15:00:42 GMT

Correct. You can also remove plot_config_dir from config.pro and Creo will use pcf files located in Creo2_LOADPOINT\Creo 2.0\Common Files\Mxxx\text\plot_config directory. It is also allowed to add your own pcf files into Creo2_LOADPOINT\Creo 2.0\Common Files\Mxxx\text\plot_config directory.

Re: Plot drawings with the MS print manager.

cschwill — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 15:32:15 GMT

Now, is there a way I can set CREO up so that a B, C, D etc drawing template format will print directly to our plotter on the correct paper size.

In other words I want to have is choose the paper size by what the drawing size is.

No map keys just print.

Re: Plot drawings with the MS print manager.

TomU — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 16:02:47 GMT

The paper size is stored in the PCF file. You can adjust the paper size to what you like and then save those settings as a new PCF file. Each one will show up in your list of printers. This way, instead of choosing paper size, instead you pick a pre-defined printer.

Of course, it makes it even faster to use a mapkey that automatically selects the desired printer and then pushes "print" for you. ex. "pa" = print to 'A', "pb" = print to 'B', etc.

Re: Plot drawings with the MS print manager.

cschwill — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 16:11:10 GMT

Is there no way to have it auto select the paper size based on what the template size is?