Converting Problems

[RickG]

I had a file sent in PDF and the customer wants it plotted,

Well the problem is my plotter is old enough that I can only use MC to plot with ... no windows driver avalable.

And the file is a PDF but I can't seem to get it into MC.

I tried my normal converter but it states that it is an unrecognized format?

Isn't PDF a PDF?

does the newer format change things?

[mayday]

did you try selecting your plotter right thru acrobat? as far as i no you cant convert a pdf format picture.

[RickG]

Well MayDay,

like I said, I don't have a driver for windows for my plotter.

it's an old Houston Instrument DMP-161 and the best driver I can find allows Win95 and dosen't seem to work in my XP?

Any other thoughts?

[mayday]

quote:

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I had a file sent in PDF and the customer wants it plotted

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the same customer that wants the plot sent you the pdf? dont make sense. my confusion?

[RickG]

The customer wants it blown up so they can read the print easier and not just on the screen. They want a hard copy so I'll need to plot it. But I first need to get it into MC.

[mayday]

sorry Rick Im at a loss, dont know a way to do it.

[RickG]

Well I tried looking on the web for a better driver for my plotter. I didn't get too far. MayDay, where in Adobe does it ask for the plotter? Print selection?if so nothing there that helps. Thanks for trying.

[mayday]

Rick, you should be able to select print and use the plotter instead of the printer. Then select the paper size. all this right thru adobe acrabat. least thats how we do it. our stuff is set up on the network.

[steve f]

If the only way is through MC, then the file needs to be converted from raster to vector. Adobe Illustrator or ras2vec would probably do the trick but other than that I can't think of any other way.

[LNDCAD]

WinLINE makes windows plotter drivers for older plotters. I currently use it for an HP Draftpro EXL, and it works great. Look up WinLINE on the web. Price is around $200.00. If you want, I can try to print to a file and give you HPGL code. If you want me to try, let me know what plotter you have, and e-mail me the PDF file. You should then be able to send that to your plotter with DOS commands.

[RickG]

well I don't have Adobe Illustrator, and ras2vec gives me a file error message. But I can pull it up just fine in Adobe Acrobat 6.0.

[mattd]

Seems there's a work-around here.

Looks like the process for win98 also works for 2000 and XP pro.

Can't hurt to try.

[TheePres]

Winline has worked for me also in past on old HPGL-I plotter.

[RickG]

Thanks MattD,

 

Now comes the tweaking part.

Rick

[Richard Thomas - Mastercam UK]

RickG

 

I've turned on my email address for a day or two. If you like, send me the PDF and I'll see if I can print it out in a package called LeadTools Eprint. Basically it's a phantom printer driver, and it supports A LOT of different formats. For example, I should be able to "print" out your PDF as a BMP or JPG file, and then you can zoom in, or scale it up in a graphics app like Microsoft Paint.

You can find out about Eprint here:

http://www.leadtools.com/utilities/printer...nter_driver.htm

[RickG]

Thanks Rich,

 

You've got mail!

 

 

Later Rick

[Richard Thomas - Mastercam UK]

I couldn't turn them into DXF files for Mastercam, but I did create JPG files (at up to 600DPI) that can be viewed in any graphics prorgam.

HTH