PLOT User Guide

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PLOTUser GuideVersion 11.6SP1

pdms1161/PLOT User Guideissue 280605


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PLEASE NOTE:

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information contained in this document may be subject to change without notice.

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For details of AVEVA's worldwide sales and support offices, see our website at

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Contents

1 About this Manual.........................................................................................1-1

1.1 Who the Manual is Meant For .................................................................................... 1-11.2 How the Manual is Set Out......................................................................................... 1-11.3 Conventions Used in the Manual ............................................................................... 1-2

2 Introducing PLOT..........................................................................................2-1

2.1 What PLOT Does ....................................................................................................... 2-12.2 Input Formats That PLOT Can Accept ....................................................................... 2-12.3 Output Formats That PLOT Can Generate ................................................................ 2-2

3 How To Use PLOT.........................................................................................3-13.1 Before You Begin ....................................................................................................... 3-13.2 Running PLOT............................................................................................................ 3-13.3 General Command Line Options................................................................................ 3-3

3.3.1Specifying the Plotting Scale............................................................................. 3-33.3.2Scaling the Plot to Fit the Paper........................................................................ 3-43.3.3Setting the Drawing Size from the Graphics ..................................................... 3-43.3.4Specifying How Arcs and Circles are Represented .......................................... 3-43.3.5Specifying the Pen Selection Mode and Plotting Attributes .............................. 3-43.3.6Dekink Filter ...................................................................................................... 3-73.3.7Splitting a Large Plot ......................................................................................... 3-8

3.3.8Adding a Plot Border ......................................................................................... 3-83.3.9Adding Cutter Control Markers.......................................................................... 3-83.4 Creating your Own Device Drivers ........................................................................... 3-10

3.4.1Soft Drivers ..................................................................................................... 3-103.4.2Soft Driver Examples ...................................................................................... 3-113.4.3Overriding Built-in Driver Defaults................................................................... 3-12

3.5 Messages Output by PLOT ...................................................................................... 3-123.5.1Normal Run-Time Messages .......................................................................... 3-123.5.2Warnings and Error Messages........................................................................ 3-133.5.3Modifying PLOTs Message File ..................................................................... 3-13

3.6 Getting Help about PLOT ......................................................................................... 3-153.6.1Checking the Command Syntax...................................................................... 3-15

3.6.2Checking the Program Version ....................................................................... 3-153.6.3Checking Driver Options ................................................................................. 3-15

3.7 Summarising the Contents of Plot Files ................................................................... 3-153.8 Running on Windows ............................................................................................... 3-17

3.8.1Screen Driver Printing..................................................................................... 3-173.8.2Screen Driver and Enhanced Metafile Output................................................. 3-173.8.3Shortcuts and Browsing .................................................................................. 3-17

4 The Device Drivers........................................................................................4-1

4.1 BENSON .................................................................................................................... 4-24.2 CALCOMP.................................................................................................................. 4-24.3 DXF ............................................................................................................................ 4-5

4.3.1Output File Contents ......................................................................................... 4-54.3.2DXF Options...................................................................................................... 4-6

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Contents

4.4 Hewlett-Packard (HP or HPGL).................................................................................. 4-74.5 HPGL2........................................................................................................................4-9 4.6 HOUSTON................................................................................................................4-11 4.7 LASERJET................................................................................................................4-11 4.8 LIST .......................................................................................................................... 4-134.9 PDMS .......................................................................................................................4-144.10 PENMAN ..................................................................................................................4-144.11 PNG..........................................................................................................................4-15 4.12 POSTSCRIPT or PS.................................................................................................4-164.13 SCREEN...................................................................................................................4-23 4.14 XDUMP.....................................................................................................................4-25

5 Driver Quick Reference................................................................................ 5-1

6 Changes to this Manual ............................................................................... 6-1

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1 About this Manual

1.1 Who the Manual is Meant For

This manual explains how to use the stand-alone graphical plotting

utility PLOT.

PLOT interprets plot files in a range of pseudo-code formats, as produced

by a number of AVEVA (and some third party) programs. It performs a

variety of conversions and other operations on the contents of the plot

file.This manual is relevant to anyone who needs to translate, plot or view

such a file, regardless of the source. The manual is not restricted to users

of any specific program that generates plot files, as long as the file format

is compatible with PLOTs input requirements.

No particular prior knowledge of plotting utilities is assumed, but it is

assumed that you are familiar with the basic operating system commands

for your computer.

1.2 How the Manual is Set Out

Chapter 2 summarises the function of PLOT and details the input and

output file formats that it can recognise.

Chapter 3 first explains some hardware considerations that you must be

aware of before you use PLOT. It then describes the range of facilities

available when using PLOT and the commands needed to control them.

Chapter 4 is a reference section that details the options available for

each of PLOTs output formats.

Chapter 5 is a quick reference guide and summarises the driver specific

options and the options that apply to drivers generally.

Chapter 6 describes the recent to changes made to this manual.

If you are a new PLOT user, it is suggested that you should read, as a

minimum, Chapter 2 and the first three sections of Chapter 3. You will

also need to refer to at least one section in Chapter 4, depending on what

you intend to use the PLOT output for.

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About this Manual

1.3 Conventions Used in the Manual

The following conventions are used in the text:

Command words are shown as a combination of uppercase and

lowercase characters, using a different typeface from that used fornormal text; for example, COMMandword. The uppercase part of the

word (COMM in the preceding example) is the minimum permissible

abbreviation. Where a command word is first introduced, or where its

use is defined, it will usually be shown in bold type, thus

COMMandword

Command arguments are shown in lowercase italic type, for example

argument.

Examples of interactive input and output sequences are shown in a

special typeface, thus

Example of Input/Output Sequence Typeface

Note: Examples of command syntax throughout the manual use

uppercase characters to make them easily identifiable within the

body of the main text. When running under some operating

systems, e.g. Unix, case is significant. You may need to enter the

commands using lowercase characters under such circumstances.

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2 Introducing PLOT

2.1 What PLOT Does

The graphical plotting utility, PLOT, allows you to interpret pseudo-code

plot files generated by AVEVA programs and to translate them into a

range of standard formats. After translation, the plot file data may be

sent either directly to a hardware device, such as a pen plotter or laser

printer, or to another file, or to a graphics screen.

PLOT handles both the file format translation process and thetransmission of the resulting data to a specified hardware device,

including interaction with the output device where necessary to ensure

that data transmission protocol is correctly observed.

PLOT can recognise source files in any of the formats described in the

following section and translate them into any of a wide range of output

formats by using the appropriate device drivers built into the program.

2.2 Input Formats That PLOT Can Accept

PLOT can recognise the following input pseudo-code formats

automatically:

PDMS

The format generated by default by PDMS graphical output modules.

This gives a binary format file that can define fully the viewing

parameters and line graphics for engineering drawings in

device-independent terms.

HPGL

A Hewlett-Packard plotter code format recognised by a range of

commercial plotting and printing devices.

This gives an ASCII format file that can define fully the viewing

parameters, line graphics, arcs and circles of engineering drawings in




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Introducing PLOT

HP-GL/2

This is the standardised version of the Hewlett-Packard Graphical

Language. It provides a more consistent functionality between plotters. It

supports many types of device including pen, laser and electrostatic. The

HP-GL/2 plotter code is compact, especially for vectors that have a specialencoding scheme. It is held in binary file format.

Although HPGL and HP-GL/2 are related, HP-GL/2 is not a strict

superset of HPGL. It is best for most purposes to regard them as entirely

different. HP-GL/2 is often available in a dual context with

Hewlett-Packards PCL.

DXF

This is the AutoCAD representation of a drawing in their DXF (drawing

interchange) file format. It is an ASCII file format, widely used to

exchange drawing file data. The file does not define the units that itsvalues are held in, so explicit scaling is needed when these values are not

in millimetres.

Data from all sections of the DXF file is interpreted. This includes the

LTYPE and LAYER tables, and the contents of the Blocks section for

expansion of INSERT entities.

GPGP (or GP2)

This gives an ASCII format file that can define fully the viewing

parameters, line graphics, text and symbols for engineering drawings in


2.3 Output Formats That PLOT Can Generate

PLOT can translate an input plot file into a format suitable for driving a

plotter or printer directly, or it can send the translated output to another

file in a format suitable for inclusion into, say, a word processor or

desktop publishing document. It can, alternatively, send the translated

output to a graphical window for immediate viewing.

The device drivers incorporated into PLOT, which determine the outputformat, are as follows:

Driver Name Description

BENSON Pen plotter

CALCOMP Pen plotter

DXF AutoCAD drawing interchange file

HOUSTON Pen plotter

HP Pen plotter

HPGL Pen plotter

HPGL2 Pen and raster plotter

LASERJET HP PCL page description languageLIST Displays drawing contents



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Introducing PLOT

PDMS PDMS plot file

PENMAN Turtle plotter

PNG Raster graphics file

POSTSCRIPT Postscript page description language

PS Postscript page description language

SCREEN On-screen plot file viewerXDUMP X-windows bitmap file

These generic plot drivers determine the general format of the output

plot file only. The output generated is compatible with specific hardware

devices, as detailed in Chapter 4, but you may need to customise the

drivers to suit a particular plotter or printer. PLOTs soft driver facility

allows you to do this.

You will notice that four of the output drivers (HPGL, HPGL2, PDMS

and DXF) match input file formats. This means that you may use PLOT

to translate plot files between these formats in either direction; forexample, to translate from PDMS format to HPGL format, and vice versa.

CAUTION:

The HPGL format can exist in slightly different dialects. If you wish to

input an HPGL file obtained from an outside source, you must ensure

that it is fully compatible with the HPGL format that is generated by

PLOT. If it is not, you may need to carry out some preprocessing on the

file before using PLOT to convert it to a PDMS plot file.



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Introducing PLOT



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3 How To Use PLOT

3.1 Before You Begin

If you are going to use PLOT to generate hard copy directly, this can be

done by printing from the graphical window created by the screen driver.

This method uses a normal Windows Print control to select, configure and

use any available print service.

It is also to send plot files directly to a printer or plotter using the

Windows print command. This method allows the user to take full controlof the printing operation, and responsibility for the compatibility of the

file type with the device. For example the command to send a PostScript

file to a printer service that supports and recognises this file format

would be as follows for a shared printer:

print /d:\\servername\printer_name plotfile.ps

3.2 Running PLOT

The basic information that PLOT needs in order to process a plot file is asfollows:

The type of processing which is required; that is, the device driver

that is to be used for the file translation process.

The name of the input plot file that is to be processed.

The destination to which the resulting output file is to be sent.

The full syntax for the command to run PLOT is:

plot driver plotfile output [options]

The command arguments have the following significance:

driver = the name of the output device driver.

The available device drivers are:

BENSON

CALCOMP

DXF

HOUSTON

HP orHPGL

HPGL2

LASERJET

LIST



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PDMS

PENMAN

PNG

POSTSCRIPT orPS

SCREEN

XDUMP

A full description of the functions of each of these is given in Chapter 4.

The Hewlett-Packard HP/HPGL and, to a lesser extent, the Calcomp

plotter codes have been adopted as industry standards, and many other

plotters are designed to emulate one or other of them. The corresponding

PLOT drivers may often be used successfully with such plotters, but only

when the emulation offers true compatibility with the standard.

plotfile = the name of the pseudo-code file which is to be processed.

The file name must conform to the file naming conventions for yourcomputer.

PLOT automatically recognises the input plot file format used (PDMS,

HPGL, DXF or GPGP) by identifying some coding characters at the start

of the file, so there is no provision for you to enter this information.

output = the destination to which the output data is to be sent.

This is either a file name or the command prompt window.

If you specify a file name, this must conform to the file naming

conventions for your computer. The command prompt window is specified

by setting the output to be 0 (minus-zero).

The output data file can for instance can be viewed later be sent to a

printer or plotter using operating system commands or it can be viewed

with a suitable program, including Plot itself.

Plot files can also be sent directly to a compatible printer or plotter with

the Windows print command.

options = specific options to set values and control processing.

These allow you to control aspects of how the output files are produced.

Some options are general in their scope and apply to any output devicedriver; these are described in Section 3.3 of this chapter. Other options

are relevant only to specific device drivers; these are described separately

in Chapter 4.

Note: The driver-specific options must be enclosed between quotation marks

and if there is more than one option, they must be separated by

commas.

Some Command Line Examples:

plot pdms plot12 ulay.pl



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This command sends data from the file plot12 to the file ulay.pl in PDMS

pseudo-code format. The latter file could then be used as an underlay in a

PDMS drawing module, for example.

plot screen plota2 -0

This reads graphical data from file plota2 and displays it in a window on

your workstation screen. Remember that line 0 always goes to the

command prompt window.

plot hp view.pl view.hp scale=0.8 "CE Y"

Plot reads data from view.pl and writes it to the file view.hp, applying a

general option to scale the output dimensions to be 0.8 of those of the

input file. Another driver option specifies that the plotter has a physical

coordinate origin at the centre of the paper.

3.3 General Command Line Options

The following options are applicable to all drivers and may be combined

with any of the driver-specific options described in Chapter 4. You can

use all of these options with the soft drivers described in Section 3.4.

If an option is specified more than once, the last occurrence is the one

that applies.

3.3.1 Specifying the Plotting Scale

By default, the output plot data represents the plotted drawing(s) on the

same scale as the input plot file.

To change the plotting scale during the data processing operation, use

either of the command line options

SCALE=factorSCALE:factor

Here,factor is the required scaling factor (output scale)/(input scale).

For example, SCALE=0.5 will produce half-size output plots.

Note: This option is only valid on the command line, and is not

combined in the same string as the other options available with

soft drivers.

The option has no effect when drivers are scaling a plot to fill an

area. Drivers that do this are: Laserjet, PostScript, Screen and

Xdump.



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3.3.2 Scaling the Plot to Fit the Paper

Instead of predefining the plotting scale, as explained in Section 3.3.1,

you may instruct PLOT to adjust the output plot scale automatically so

that it will fit the available paper size. This option allows PLOT to handle

oversize input plots; without it (the default situation), processing will beterminated with an error message.

To specify automatic reduction of oversize plots, use the option

ADJUst

3.3.3 Setting the Drawing Size from the Graphics

This facility causes any drawing size defined in the input file to be

ignored and replaced by the size of a rectangle enclosing all graphics in

the file. The whole input file is read an extra time for this purpose.

To set the drawing size from the limits of the graphics, use the option

AUTOsize

TheAUTOSIZE option applies only to DXF, HPGL and HP-GL/2 input

files. It is useful in cases where the drawing size in the file is wrong for

any reason.

3.3.4 Specifying How Arcs and Circles are Represented

Most plotters are unable to plot true circular arcs and instead represent

them by a series of straight lines (chords). The more chords used, the

closer the approximation to a true arc.

By default, a complete circle is represented in a plot by 90 chords. To

specify a different representation, use the option

ARCSize integer

Here, integer is the number of chords per complete circle and must be in

the range 12 to 175.

For example,ARCS 120 will plot smoother arcs than the default setting;ARCS 25 will plot less smooth arcs, but will reduce the plotting time.

3.3.5 Specifying the Pen Selection Mode and Plotting Attributes

By default, any logical pen numbers (which usually correspond to

particular colours), line styles and line widths defined in the source

pseudo-code file (plotfile) are passed unchanged to the output file or

device (output). You can intercept these settings, and modify them to

achieve independent control of the way in which the output is plotted, by

using the PENS and associated ATTR (attributes) commands. PLOT canhave up to 256 pens, and can operate in the following modes:



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'Pens Yes' Mode

The default mode, which may be reset by using the option

PEns Yes

This options causes pen numbers, line styles and line widths to be passes

directly from the input file to the output file.

To redirect one or more pens, use the command line option

ATTR integer1 integer2

This replaces input pen integer1 with output pen integer2. For example,

the options:

PENS YES,ATTR 1 4,ATTR 2 5,ATTR 3 6

This sets pens 1-3 in the input file to be replaced by pens 4-6 in the

output file, respectively. Line styles and line widths are passed

unchanged from the input file to the output file.

'Pens No' Mode

The option:

PEns No

This sets the individual pen numbers from the input file to be ignored

and all output to be plotted using pen 1. You might use this mode, for

instance, when the output is intended for a single-pen device.

To redirect the output to use a pen other than pen 1, use the command

line option:ATTR 1 integer

Here, integer specifies the required output pen number. For example, the

options:

PENS NO,ATTR 1 3

This causes all output to be plotted using pen 3, regardless of any pen

settings defined in the input file. Line styles and line widths are passed

unchanged from the input file to the output file.

'Pens Attr' ModeThe option:

PEns Attr

This passes only the pen numbers from the input file to the output file.

All line style and line width settings in the input file are ignored, the

settings for these in the output file being determined by the attributes set

for the corresponding pen number.

To specify the line style and width corresponding to any output pen, and

to redirect pens if required, use the option:

ATTR integer1 integer2 linestyle linetype width



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This substitutes output pen integer2for input pen integer1 and sets its

line style to linestyle and its line width to linetype with optional width

value.

Possible settings for linestyle are SOlid, DOt, DAsh, CHain or DChain.

The default, iflinestyle is omitted, is SOLID.Possible settings for linetype are Normal or Thick. The default, iflinetypeis omitted, is NORMAL. THICK is optionally followed by the width value,expressed in millimetres. Ifwidth is omitted the default line thickness is

set by the driver.

For example, the options:

PENS ATTR,ATTR 2 1 DOT,ATTR 3 1 CHAIN THICK

This sets input pen 2 to be output as dotted and normal thickness lines

and input pen 3 to be output as chained thick lines, both using output

pen 1.'Pens Same' Mode

The option:

PEns Same

The causes all input pen numbers, line styles and line widths to be

ignored. All output is output with pen 1 only (unless redirected), and all

with the same line style and line width (solid and normal thickness by

default).

To redirect the output to use a different single pen, and to specify the line

style and line width for all output, use the command line option:

ATTR 1 integer linestyle linetype width

Here, integer specifies the required output pen number and the other

arguments set its line style to linestyle and its line width to linetype with

optional width value.

Possible settings for linestyle are SOlid, DOt, DAsh, CHain or DChain.The default, iflinestyle is omitted, is SOLID.

Possible settings for linewidth are Normal or Thick. The default, if

linetype is omitted, is NORMAL. THICK is optionally followed by thewidth value, expressed in millimetres. Ifwidth is omitted the default line

thickness is set by the driver.

For example, the options:

PENS SAME,ATTR 1 4 CHAIN THICK 0.7

This causes all output to be output as chained thick lines with a width of

0.7 mm and pen 4. All pen settings, line styles and line widths defined in

the input file are ignored.



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3.3.6 Dekink Filter

The Dekink filter can streamline your plot files in a number of ways.

Plot files that are produced by some programs can contain instances

where the same line is drawn over a number of times (for example, wherean original wireline 3D model was involved). This extra information can

increase the size of the file unnecessarily. The coincidence removal

function of the Dekink filter corrects this problem, and so can reduce the

size of output files by a considerable amount.

The filter can employ either a travel or a connect method to re-order

the graphics. The travel method minimises the total pen travel distance,

whereas the connect method maximises the connection between vectors.

The filter travel method reduces the total distance that the pen needs to

travel, and the number of times that the pen is raised and lowered. This

can speed up the operation of pen plotters.

The filter connect method maximises the connection of vectors while

retaining all existing connectivity, including directions.

Note: For speed of processing, the filter makes most of its changes to the

plot file where items concerned are close to each other in the file.

Note that it may not remove all coincident lines when they are far

apart in the file.

The Dekink filter is selected by the option:

DEKInk resol coinc travel tabmin tabmax

The arguments are as follows and omitted parameters take their default

values:

resol Resolution value is specified in mm. Used to decide whether

lines are coincident or connected to each other.

Default: 0.025

coinc This selects whether coincidence removal is active or not.

The value is set to Y for yes and N for no.

Default: Y

travel This selects whether the travel method is active. Otherwise theconnect method is used.

Y = travel method; N = connect method.

Default: Y

tabmin This is the minimum size of the working table used by the filter.

Must be an even number in the range 10-600. The default value

is suitable for most purposes.

Default: 50

tabmax This is the maximum size of the working table used by the filter.

Must be an even number in the range 10-600. The default value

is suitable for most purposes.Default: 200



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After the input file has been processed, a report is produced on the effect

of the Dekink filter. This gives the change in the total distance that the

pen needs to travel, and the change in the number of lines in the output

file (both as percentages). For example:

DEKINK reduced pen travel by 68.99% and number of lines by43.93%

3.3.7 Splitting a Large Plot

The split option is a facility for dividing large plots into sheets. This is

particularly useful where an extra large plot needs to be divided into a

number of A0 sheets. The option is followed by two values that specify the

size of the constituent sheets in millimetres.

To split a plot, use the option

SPLIt width height

3.3.8 Adding a Plot Border

Where a plot has no border around its edges, you can add one with the

BORDER option.

This option has an integer parameter to define the pen number that you

want used for the border. Note that this is particularly useful when used

with the SPLIT option.

To create a border for a plot, use the option

BORDerinteger

3.3.9 Adding Cutter Control Markers

This feature enables the Dahle 3625 Plot Cutter (or similar) to take roll

feed output from a plotter and automatically cut it into individual plots,

stacking each plot.

The CUTMARK option draws marks at the edge of the paper to controlthe plot cutter, and repositions the plot away from the edge. This is used

with a roll feed plotter and the paper can be fed directly into the cutter

(which has sets of knives that operate on both axes). The CUTMARK

option can be used with any driver (but is probably only useful with the

Calcomp driver).

This feature can be used in conjunction with the WINDON option to

specify the distance that separates plots along the paper.

The CUTMARK option has up to eight parameters:

numstart This is the number of marks at the start of the plot.

Default: 0



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How To Use PLOT

numend This is the number of marks at the end of the plot.

Default: 0

pen This is the number of the pen to draw the marks.Default: 1

penwidth The pen thickness in millimetres.Default: 0.1mm

offset The distance that the plot is shifted away from the edge of

the paper (in millimetres).

macross The mark size across the paper.Default: 5.0mm

malong The mark size along the paper.Default: 2.0mm

msep Separation distance between marks.Default: 5.0mm



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Example

Paper Edge

Paper Edge

Drwg No

Figure 1 Cutmarks Example

Figure 1shows six start marks and one end mark. This could be produced

by:

CUTMARK 6 1 1 0.1 8.0 5.0 2.0 5.0

3.4 Creating your Own Device Drivers

3.4.1 Soft Drivers

PLOT provides a soft driver facility that lets you define your own named

device drivers, each based on a combination of a standard driver and a

set ofcommand options appropriate to that standard driver.

To define a soft driver, use the following command syntax:

soft_driver|standard_driver|option1, option2, ...

Here, soft_driver is the name to be allocated to your new driver,

standard_driver is one of the driver names listed in Sections 2.3 and 3.2,

and option1, option2, etc. are any command line options applicable to

standard_driver.

The three parts of the command are separated by | (vertical bar)

characters. The options (and any associated values) in the third part are

separated by commas. If the command line becomes too long, a \

(backslash) character may be used to allow continuation of the command

on the next line. Spaces at the start of continuation lines are ignored.



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The name soft_driver must not be the same as that of any of the standard

device drivers. Names are not case sensitive; that is, upper and lower

case characters are treated equally.

All soft driver definitions are held in the file PLOTDRIVERS. PLOT looks

for this file firstly in the directory defined by the CADC_PLOT_DIRenvironment variable, then in the current directory and finally in the

same directory as the Plot Utility Program itself.

3.4.2 Soft Driver Examples

As an example, the soft driver definition:

PSRGB|POSTSCRIPT|BANNER Y,RGB,\

PTYPE 'statusdict begin 2 setpapertray end'

This defines a soft driver named PSRGB that uses the POSTSCRIPT

driver with options to switch on the banner page, select colour output and

set page type to select paper tray 2. The PTYPE string used here is a

fragment of PostScript that is specific to a particular model of printer.

For further details of the POSTSCRIPT driver options see Section 4.12.

The following command uses the soft driver definition:

plot psrgb plota22 plota22.out

It has exactly the same effect as the longer version:

plot postscript plota22 plota22.out

"BANNER Y,RGB,PTYPE 'statusdict begin 2 setpapertray end'"

As a further example, the following lines illustrate the use of the

continuation character (\) to enter a long command that defines all of the

former default postscript driver parameters:

PS_OLD|POSTSCRIPT|BA Y,LAY W,MAP 0 0 283.6333 197.2733,\

MONO,IG Y,PT a4,STEPS 300

When a plot driver has an RGB option to set the colour mix of pens, this

can be done with a soft driver. For example, the following driver sets the

default PDMS colours for the screen:

pdmsc|screen|RGB 1 .659 .659 .659,RGB 2 .8 0 0,RGB 3 .93 .604 0,\RGB 4 .8 .8 0,RGB 5 0 .8 0,RGB 6 0 .93 .93,RGB 7 0 0 .8,\RGB 9 .647 .165 .165,RGB 10 1 1 1,RGB 11 .803 .569 .62,\RGB 12 .4 0 .6,RGB 13 0 .75 .8,RGB 14 .2 0 .4,RGB 15 0 0 0

Each line in the PLOTDRIVERS file is the definition of a soft driver or, if

it begins with a # character, it is a comment.



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How To Use PLOT

When a soft driver is used with the command line options, the command

line options are placed after those from the soft driver and thus take

priority.

For example, the command:

plot psrgb plota22 plota22.out "BA N"

This has the same effect as the (similar) command above, except that the

banner page is switched off.

3.4.3 Overriding Built-in Driver Defaults

The PLOTDRIVERS file can also provide a method for changing the

default options of built-in drivers. This only applies when the driver is

used directly. It does not affect its use when used from a soft driver.

To change the default options of a built-in driver the usual soft driver

definition is used. However, both of the driver names are set to the built-

in driver name.

For example syntax:

screen|screen|RGB 0 0 0.2 0.2

This definition changes the background colour when the screen driver is

used with the plot command. Defaults defined in this way can be

modified by command line options.

The SCREEN and PNG drivers now have PDMS colours set as default

using this mechanism and the standard PLOTDRIVERS file. The

previous colours can be restored by deleting or commenting-out the

screen|screen| and png|png| definitions in that file.

3.5 Messages Output by PLOT

This section summarises the types of message that you may see displayed

at your command prompt window while you are using PLOT. Themessages are divided into two categories: those that you can expect to see

under normal operating conditions and those that you see only under

error conditions.

3.5.1 Normal Run-Time Messages

When PLOT begins to interpret a pseudo-code file it displays the message

to the command window

----- beginning of plot -----

When the file interpretation has finished it display the message



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How To Use PLOT

----- end of plot -----

(See Section 3.5.3 for details of how you can change these messages.)

3.5.2 Warnings and Error Messages

Warning messages are displayed for information only. They tell you about

any constraints on your use of PLOT or advise you of actions that PLOT

has taken automatically.

All errors during PLOT's processing operations are fatal. When an error

occurs, PLOT displays an appropriate error message on your command

prompt window and then terminates its data processing.

Typical messages, and suggested responses, are as follows:

Error: Cannot create/open output file

Check that the named output file is valid, is not protected from access,and is not already in use.

Error: Cannot open input file

Check that the file name has been correctly entered, that the file exists,

and that you have access rights to read it.

Error: Interpretation or data error

Check that the input file is in one of the acceptable formats: PDMS,

HPGL or GPGP. If it is, then the file may have been corrupted.

Error: Plot too large for media

Add theADJUST option to the PLOT command line (see Section 3.3.2).

The output plot is too large for the actual paper size (if output is to a

plotter or printer) or for the defined paper size (if output is to a file).

Error: Unknown device type

Check that the device driver that you have specified matches one of the

standard drivers listed in Sections 2.3 and Section 3.2, or is a valid soft

driver name.

Warning: Plot is adjusted to media size

This message confirms that theADJUST option has automaticallyrescaled the output plot to suit its destination device or file. No action is

needed.

3.5.3 Modifying PLOTs Message File

By default, PLOT uses its internally defined messages at relevant stages

of its processing operations. If you wish to display different messages,

such as messages in a different language, you can copy the standard

messages into a file, edit them, and then use this file as the source of

future messages.



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How To Use PLOT

To copy PLOT's default messages into a file, enter the command

plot -message

This copies the messages into the file PLOT.MF in the current directory.

You may then edit this file to change the wording of any of the messages.

When PLOT needs to output a message, it looks for the file PLOT.MF,

first in the directory defined by the CADC_PLOT_DIR environment

variable, then in the current directory. It finds neither file it uses its own

default message definitions.



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How To Use PLOT

3.6 Getting Help about PLOT

3.6.1 Checking the Command Syntax

To see an on-screen summary of the command syntax, enter the

command:

plot

With no command line arguments this displays the following information:

PLOT Utility

usage: plot driver file output [options...]

Drivers are: benson calcomp dxf houston hp hpgl hpgl2 interleaflaserjet list pdms penman png postscript ps

screen xdump

File is a PDMS, DXF, HPGL or other pseudo-code plot file.

Output is a file name or the command window.e.g. plot postscript drwg3.plt plotout.ps

plot screen drwg3.plt -0

The SCALE=value option provides general plot scaling.An options string is available for most drivers.e.g. plot hpgl2 drwg3.plt drwg3.h2 scale=0.5

3.6.2 Checking the Program Version

To check which version number of the PLOT program you are using,

enter the command:

plot version

3.6.3 Checking Driver Options

To check the driver options enter the command:

plot drivers

This displays the driver quick reference information for PLOT that can

also found in Chapter 5 of this manual.

3.7 Summarising the Contents of Plot Files

The LIST driver is used to provide a textual summary of contents of the

plot file.

The information includes:



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How To Use PLOT

The pseudo-code file format.

The file header block, if present.

Details of the drawing number, if available.

The dimensions of the drawing.

A list of the pens used to plot the drawing.

The total numbers of graphical primitives in the file: vectors, arcs,

circles, text strings and text characters.

For structured files there are the total numbers of definitions and

references, the maximum depth of reference nesting and the full list

of symbol names and reference counts.

For full details see the LIST driver section.



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How To Use PLOT

3.8 Running on Windows

PLOT has functionality to use standard Windows facilities and services.

The SCREEN driver has the facility to use the Windows printing service,

including network printing. PLOT can be launched directly from ashortcut on the desktop so that it can be used independently of other

products.

3.8.1 Screen Driver Printing

Start by displaying a view of a plot file by running PLOT with the

SCREEN driver. The view window can be selected with the normal pan

and zoom controls before a printing. A print is initiated with the

keyboard accelerator Control-P, the standard keyboard accelerator used

by Windows programs for PRINT. The SCREEN driver displays a

Windows print dialog to select the printer and set printing options.

The print dialog has a Print range group with the choicesAll andSelection. Select Allto print the whole drawing and Selection to printthe current view.

3.8.2 Screen Driver and Enhanced Metafile Output

The screen driver can produce Windows EMF (Enhanced Metafile) output

from the current plot file. EMF contains scalable graphics and is a laterversion of the popular WMF (Windows Metafile) format.

EMF output is initiated with the keyboard accelerator Control-S, the

standard keyboard accelerator used by Windows programs for SAVE. The

SCREEN driver displays a Windows Save As dialog to select the EMFoutput file name and directory. A copy of the output file is automatically

copied to the clipboard.

EMF output provides a method of inserting or pasting graphics into a

variety of document types.

3.8.3 Shortcuts and Browsing

Plot can be run directly from a shortcut from the desktop or menus. Here

is an example of a shortcut created on the desktop.

Target: C:\AVEVA\pdms\plot\plot.exe screen "*" 0 "AUTOSIZE"

Start in: C:\temp

Name: Plot



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How To Use PLOT

Target defines the command line to run Plot with the screen driver. Note

that the full pathname of the plot program is used and that the input file

is replaced by "*".

Start in is set as the directory that is most used for plot files.

Name labels the shortcut.

When this command is run from the shortcut a Multiple-File Open dialogand a Console window are created. Select one or more plot files and plotwill view them all in the order specified. At each stage the file can be

viewed and printed. Close the graphics window or press Q to move on to

the next file. After all files have been viewed Plot returns to the multiple-

file open dialog. Click Cancel to finish.

Other drivers can be used with the input file set to "*". For example the

list driver can be used to display summary information about the

graphical contents of the files.

Alternatively, the shortcut on the desktop can be used to drag and drop

plot files as well as browsing for them if the shortcut target is a small

batch file DragDropPlot.bat, containing lines such as the following:

set file=%1if "%file%" == "" set file="*"start /b C:\AVEVA\pdms\plot\plot.exe plot screen %file% -0 "AUTO"



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4 The Device Drivers

This is a reference chapter that describes each of the available PLOT

device drivers. The information in each section is organised under the

following headings:

Models

This lists the supported plotters or defines the translation done by PLOT.

For plotters, the list gives the definitive models for which the driver was

originally written, and any other plotters on which the driver has been

tested. The list also gives other models, from the same or another

manufacturer, if they are known to be fully compatible with the driver.

Description

This describes, in broad terms, the plotter device code or the translation.

Output

This describes the file format output by the driver.

Options

This describes any additional options or controls for the driver, forexample scaling or paper layout.

Note that such options must be enclosed between quotation marks in the

command line and if more than one option is used they must be separated

by commas.

Example

This shows the minimum command syntax applicable to the driver, using

the default settings for all user-configurable options.

If applicable, a further example shows the use of some of the morecommonly used options.

Note: The LIST driver differs in principle from the drivers described in

this chapter in that it does not translate input plot file data into a

different format, but instead provides summarised information

about the overall content of the file. The functions of the LIST

driver are explained in Section 4.8.



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The Device Drivers

4.1 BENSON

Models

This driver supports the Benson 1302 Plotter with intelligence level I0.This is a drum plotter with a roll paper feed mechanism. The

code-compatible Benson 1322 plotter is also supported.

Description

The device code for these plotters is based on the relative positioning and

drawing commands of the symbolic Benson format.

Output

The output from this driver is device code that is sent directly to the

Benson plotter. This code is easy to read and the vectors are expressedentirely as relative movements.

Files output by this driver are sequential and contain symbolic codes.

They are used only for maintenance purposes.

Options

None.

Example

plot benson view.pl -1

4.2 CALCOMP

Models

This driver produces code for the Calcomp 1040 series plotters using

906/907 plotter code. This data format is acceptable to most Calcomp

plotters.

The Calcomp 1040 series plotters are drum plotters with either cut sheet

or roll feed options, which can take media up to A0 size.

Description

The Calcomp device code produced by the driver is based on the use of

simple positioning, drawing, and pen selection commands. It can select

from up to eight pens.

Output


Calcomp plotter. The data is encoded and is unintelligible. The device

protocol means that the code is organised to include synchronising



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The Device Drivers

sequences and checksums. Transmission is synchronised by waiting for a

plotter response after each message.

The coded format for each data record is as follows:

(Preamble)

Sync

Bias

Data

(Checksum)

End-of-message

(Postamble)

Newline

(Response Request)

0-10 null padding characters

One or two specified synchronisation characters

Bias character; always a Space

Checksum character

Value of number-encoding radix (64 or 95)

End-of-message (EOM) marker

1-10 null padding characters

The message $? is output to request a good, 0, or1, response. bad, A ba d response ca uses the da ta

to be transmitted aga in.

Files output by this driver are ASCII coded and record structured. Their

content comprises all the data shown above, except for the request for

plotter response and its reply.

OptionsThe CALCOMP driver allows you to use options to control all low-level

detail of the plotter code format (as shown in the preceding table). You

can specify these options either directly, as PLOT command line

arguments (see Section 3.2), or indirectly, as parameters in a soft driver

definition.

The syntax for using each option is as follows (individual options must be

separated by commas):

[Key: int = an integer; val = a real number; Y/N =Yes or No]

BUfferint Sets device to use int data buffers (int must be 2 or 16).Default: BU 16

CHecksum Y/N Specifies whether or not checksum is enabled.Default: CH Y



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The Device Drivers

EOmint Sets the end-of-message character to int (int must be inthe range 0-127).

Default: EO 3

HEaderY/N Specifies whether or not a search address is to beincluded in the output header.

Default: HE YLIneint Sets the line length of the output data field to int

characters (int must be in the range 80-125).

Default: LI 119

NL Y/N Specifies that a newline code is to be output betweenlines.

Default: NL Y

PAdint Sets the number of padding characters to be used beforeSYNC and after EOM to int characters (int must be in

the range 0-10).Default: PA 10

RAdixint Sets the number conversion radix to int (int must be 64or 95).

Default: RA 95

RESponse Y/N Specifies whether or not a plotter response is expectedby the driver for output flow control.

Default: RES Y

SCale int Sets the plotter scaling factor to int. You can use thisoption with STEPS to compress and expand the data to

reduce the size (and accuracy) of the device code.Default: SC 1

STepsval Sets the number of plotter steps per mm (i.e. the plotterresolution) to val.

Default: ST 80.0

SYncint1 int2 Sets the number of Synch characters to int1 and theSync character itself to the control character

represented by int2(int1 must be 1 or 2; int2must be in

the range 0-31)

Default: SY 1 2

WAit Y/N Specifies whether or not the plotter is switched off-linebetween plots.

Default: WA Y

WIndonval Sets the distance to be left blank between adjacent plots

to val mm.

Default: WI 20.0

The defaults specified in the standard CALCOMP driver are equivalent

to the following options string:

"BU 16,CH Y,EO 3,HE Y,LI 119,NL Y,PA 10,PE Y,\



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The Device Drivers

RA 95,RES Y,SC 1,ST 80,SY 1 2,WA Y,WI 20"

As an example, to remove the preamble and postamble padding

characters, and to select no response control of the output flow, you would

either enter a command line such as:

plot calcomp pdms.plot pdms.code "PA 0,RE N"Alternatively, you could create the equivalent soft driver to do this.

For example:

calcompx|calcomp|PA 0,RE N

The new soft driver can then be used with the command:

plot calcompx pdms.plot pdms.code

Note: PLOT includes an alternative version of the CALCOMP driver

known as the CALCOMP64 driver. The latter version has the

following option defaults, almost all of which differ from those of

the standard CALCOMP driver:

"BU 2,CH Y,EO 13,HE N,LI 125,NL Y,PA 0,PE N,RA 64,RES N,\SC 0,ST 40,SY 2 22,WA N,WI 20"

You may use the CALCOMP64 driver as the basis for your option settings

if it is closer to your desired final specification.

Example

plot calcomp view.pl 1

plot calcomp64 view.pl 1

plot calcomp view.pl 1 "HE N,LI 110,PE N,WI 25"

4.3 DXF

This driver outputs a plot as an AutoCAD drawing in DXF (drawing

interchange) file format.

4.3.1 Output File Contents

This is an ASCII file, and is record structured. The records are organisedin pairs and these are called groups. Each group contains a group code

(an integer), and a group value that is in a format that depends on the

group code.

A DXF file is made up of four sections:

Header. This is preceded by a number of comment lines (as suggested

in the NEDC recommendations). This includes the units employed in

the drawing, and the date the file was formed. The Header section

itself includes the $LIMMIN, $LIMMAX, $EXTMIN and $EXTMAX

variables to specify the limits of the drawing and its extents.



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The Device Drivers

Tables. This section contains an LTYPE line types table defining the

definition of the line patterns available to the Entities section. It also

contains a LAYER and a style table.

Blocks. This is empty.

Entities. This contains all of the graphical elements of the drawingand their attributes. The entity types are LINE, CIRCLE, ARC, TEXT,

POLYLINE and VERTEX.

Note: Sometimes the first three sections are omitted, depending on the

type of data and the purpose for which it is to be used.

4.3.2 DXF Options

Several options are available that allow you to control the output from

this driver. These can be specified as command line arguments, or asparameters in a soft driver definition.

The syntax of each option is as follows (NOTE: individual options are


HEaderfilename The contents of the suppliedfilename are copied

into the DXF output file in place of the Header,

Tables and Blocks sections that would normally be

generated by the driver.

If thefilename is omitted, or the file cannot be

read, the driver will suppress the production of

these sections.

The file can be a complete DXF file. The copy is

stopped before the "0" "SECTION" "2" "ENTITIES"

sequence that starts the Entities section.

POlylines Y/N Specifies whether the driver outputs lines and arcs

as LINE and ARC entities, or as POLYLINE

entities.

Default: POLYLINES Y

UNitsvalue Sets the type of coordinates in the DXF output file

as INCHES or MM.

Default: UNITS MM

ZAxisvalue Selects the output of a Z value with all XY

coordinates. The value parameter defines the

constant Z coordinate value.

Default: No Z coordinate.

Example

plot dxf view1.pl view1.dxf "UNITS INCHES"



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The Device Drivers

4.4 Hewlett-Packard (HP or HPGL)

Models

PLOT incorporates two Hewlett-Packard drivers, HP and HPGL, both ofwhich support all Hewlett-Packard pen plotters and the standard HP-GL

file format. The reference device supported by these drivers is the

HP7580B plotter, but they also support the HP7586 plotter, with or

without a roll feed option, the HP7550 plotter, which has an automatic

sheet feed, the IBM 6184 and 6186 plotters, and many other plotters

which use HP-GL code. The drivers also support the HP7475 plotter,

which has more restricted line style capabilities than the HP7580.

Description

The difference between the two drivers lies in the type of HP-GL code

which each uses:

The HP driver uses only vectors and absolute positioning, and uses straight-

line chords to simulate arcs and circles. Each draw and move operation is

output on a separate line of the file. This makes this form of the code easier to

interpret.

The HPGL driver uses vectors and relative positioning, and uses true arcs

and circles. Draw and move commands are merged together, and as many

commands as possible are put into each line of the file. These features make

this the more compact code of the two

The drivers derive the plotter model number by interrogating the device,

so that they allow for use with the HP7475 with its limited functionality.

They similarly determine the paper handling capabilities if used with an

HP7586 plotter, to allow it to be used with cut-sheet as well as roll-fed

paper. They make special provision for producing long plots on roll feed

versions of the latter plotter.

Output

The output from this driver is device code which is sent directly to the HP

plotter.

These drivers do not mix the two types of HP-GL command, namely

graphical commands and communication commands, within a line of

output.

Files output by this driver are ASCII coded and record structured. They

can be used as input to other conversion programs to produce device code

for otherwise unsupported devices.

Options

Several options are available which allow you to control the output from

these drivers. You can specify these options either directly, as PLOT



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The Device Drivers

command line arguments (see Section 3.2), or indirectly, as parameters in

a soft driver definition (see Section 3.4).



[Key: val = a real number; Y/N =Yes or No; x y = x,y coordinates inmm]

CEntre Y/N Specifies if the physical coordinate origin for the plotter is atthe centre (Yes) or corner (No) of the paper after the default

positions of the scaling points P1 and P2 have been

established.

Plotters that use HPGL can be of either of these types. The

driver itself corrects for the type in the output file, by use of

the HPGL IP (Set P1 and P2) and SC (Scale) instructions.

Default: CE N for both HP and HPGL

High If selected, this allows the use of high-level commands andcompacted output code. If not selected, only low-level

commands and one command per line formatting are used.

Default: HI not selected for the HP driver

HI selected for the HPGL driver

MAp Derives the size of the plot from the plot file.

MAp x y Defines the position of the plot on the paper (x and ycoordinates of its origin expressed in mm). It derives the size

of the plot from the plot file.

MApx y val1 val2 Defines the position of the plot on the paper (x andy coordinates of its origin expressed in mm). It

defines the plot dimensions as val1 wide by val2

high.

Default: MA for both the HP and HPGL drivers

STepsval Sets the number of plotter steps per mm (i.e. the plotterresolution) to val.

Default: ST 40.0

WAit Y/N/P Specifies actions to take place between plots.

Y selects that the plotter is switched off-line and waits forthe operator.

P selects that the plotter completes the present plot and then

advances to start the next. N selects no special action.

Default: WA Y

The defaults specified in the standard HP driver are equivalent to the

following options string:

"CE N,MA 0 0 1109.5 787.0,ST 40,WA Y"

The defaults specified in the standard HPGL driver are equivalent to the

following options string:"CE N,HI,MA,ST 40,WA Y"



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The Device Drivers

Note: All of the options are applicable when the plot output is sent to a

file, but only the HIGH and WAIT options apply when the plot is

sent directly to aplotter.

Example

plot hp view.pl plot1.plt (output to a file)

plot hp view.pl -1 (output direct to plotter)

plot hpgl view.pl plot1.plt (output to a file)

plot hpgl view.pl -1 (output direct to plotter)

plot hp view.pl plot1.plt "CE Y,MA"

4.5 HPGL2

This driver supports HP-GL/2, which is the standardised version of theHewlett-Packard Graphical language. This attempts to provide a

consistent functionality between plotters and caters for pen, monochrome

and colour electrostatic and other devices. The code is compact, especially

for vectors that have a special encoding scheme. HP-GL/2 is a binary

format.

Although HPGL and HP-GL/2 are related, HP-GL/2 is not a strict

superset of HPGL. It is best for most purposes to regard them as being

entirely different.

HP-GL/2 is often available in Dual-Context plotters that also haveHewlett-Packard's PCL. The HP-GL/2 behaves differently under these

conditions and a driver option for PCL is necessary to ensure correct

behaviour.

Options

These options enable you to control the output of this driver. You can

specify these options either directly, as PLOT command line arguments

(see section 3.2), or indirectly, as parameters in soft driver definition (see

section 3.4).

The syntax for using each option is as follows (individual options must beseparated by commas):

[Key: Y/N =Yes or No; x y etc. coordinates in mm and other values; nandpen are integers.]

COpies n Print n copies of each drawing in the plot file.Default: COPIES 1

FF Y/N Specifies whether the formfeed character is output atthe end of the HP-GL/2 file. This is a communication

character was required previously for direct operation

of the plotter but may need to be omitted when a printspooler is being used.



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The Device Drivers

Default: FF Y

ECutter Y/N Enables the automatic cutter that operates after eachplot is completed.

Default: ECUTTER N

HIgh If selected the driver outputs higher level graphical

primitives such as arcs, circles, and line styles.Default: HIGH is not selected.

MAp Derives the size of the plot from the plot file.

MAp x y w h Defines the position and size of the plot on the paper.The default is to use the plot given in the plot file.

Default: MAP

PCL Y/N Specifies that the plotter is operating HP-GL/2 withPCL in a dual context.

Default: PCL Y

PWidth w1 [w2] Specifies the widths of the thin and thick lines in mm.The thinnest line width possible is selected by

specifying it as zero.

Default: PWIDTH 0.0 0.35

QUality n Sets the percentage quality level required from theplotter. Where this is available the plotter will trade

quality for speed or reduced toner usage.

Default: QUALITY 100

RGbpen r g b Selects colour mode and defines the red/green/blue

colour mix for the specified logical pen number (penmust be in the range 0-256). The colour values are in

the range 0 to 1.

Default: Monochrome

ROtate n Rotate the plot by 0, 90, 180, 270 degreescounter-clockwise about the plotter coordinate system

origin.

Default: ROTATE 0

The defaults specified in the standard HP-GL/2 driver are equivalent to

the following options string:"CO 1,EC N,MAP,PCL Y,PW 0.0 0.35,QU 100,RO 0"

Examples:

plot hpgl2 view.pl plot1.plt

plot hpgl2 view.pl plot1.plt "COPIES 3,ROTATE 90"



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The Device Drivers

4.6 HOUSTON

Models

This driver supports the Houston Hiplot DMP-40 and DMP-42 penplotters. These are drum plotters with media movement and registration

controlled by knurled gripping areas of the drum; they take A3 and A1

media sizes, respectively.

These plotters use Houston DM/PL III firmware, which is upwardly

compatible with DM/PL and DM/PL+.

Description

The DM/PL device code produced by the driver for these plotters is based

on simple absolute positioning and drawing commands and assumes that

there is a single pen.

Output

Files output by this driver are not record structured, but contain ASCII

codes. They are used only for maintenance purposes.

Options

None.

Example

plot houston view.pl view.out

4.7 LASERJET

Models

This driver produces output suitable for any printer that can interpret

Hewlett-Packards PCL page description language, such as the Laserjet

Series II devices.

Laserjet printers have a maximum resolution of 300 dots per inch (dpi),

but can also work at 150, 100 or 75 dpi

Description

Laserjet and compatible printers may be used to produce black and white

hard copy from graphical plot files. The PCL language has no facilities for

expressing graphical elements such as vectors; it provides instead a

group of raster graphics commands.



40/59

The Device Drivers

Output

The output from this driver is in device code that may be sent directly to

any PCL-compatible laser printer. Where the output is to a file, it

contains the complete PCL code needed to reproduce the printable

document defined by the pseudo-code plot file. This comprises a mixtureof PCL command escape sequences and 8-bit data that is not formatted

and not easy to inspect.

The Laserjet driver uses compression techniques to reduce the size of its

output files and, hence, the time needed to send them to the printer.

Further reductions in file size and data transfer time may be achieved by

specifying a lower raster graphics resolution (i.e. a lower dpi setting).

When multiple copies of a drawing are required, use of the COPIES

option gives increased speed by using the inbuilt printer facilities rather

than by repeated data transmission.

The drawing is scaled to a size that fills the printable area of an A4 sheet.

It is drawn automatically in portrait or landscape orientation to make the

best use of the available area.

Options

You can specify the LASERJET driver options either directly, as PLOT

command line arguments (see Section 3.2), or indirectly, as parameters in

a soft driver definition (see Section 3.4).



COpiesinteger This prints integer copies of each drawing in the plotfile. The default is 1 copy.

DPiinteger Sets the printer resolution to integer dots per inch,where integer may be 300, 150, 100 or 75. The default is

150 dpi, which usually gives a suitable compromise

between image quality, file size and data transmission

speed.

Examples

plot laserjet view.pl plot1.plt (output to a file)

plot laserjet view.pl -1 (output direct to printer)

plot laserjet view.pl -1 "CO 3,DPI 300" (print 3 copies of

each drawing at 300

dpi resolution)



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The Device Drivers

4.8 LIST

The LIST driver differs from the others in that it does not translate input

plot file data into a different format, but instead provides summarised

information about the overall content of the file.The information derived from the file includes:

The pseudo-code format in which the file is written (PDMS, HPGL,

HP-GL/2, DXF or GPGP)

The file header block (if it is a PDMS file)

Details of the drawing in the file, namely:

- The drawing number, with its identifying number in brackets if it is a

GPGP file

- The dimensions of the drawing, in mm

- The total number of vectors that make up the drawing

- The number of arcs and circles

- The numbers of text strings and text characters

- The numbers of block definitions, block references (or inserts), and the

maximum depth of block reference nesting. The DXF input file format

can contain blocks.

- A list of the pens needed to plot the drawing

- The full list of symbol names. Symbols are shown with a prefixcharacter to indicate how often they are referenced:

Prefix References

none unreferenced

+ once

* one or more times

The information may be sent to an ASCII file, or it may be listed at your

command prompt window (by specifying output to line 0).

For example, the command:

plot list pdmsplot.pl -0

This would list the content of the PDMS pseudo-code plot file

pdmsplot.pl, containing an A1 drawing, thus:

Interpreter: PDMSFile Header: piper 18/07/04 12.25

Drawing: 1Size 841 by 594 MMVectors 3403Pens 1 2

The list driver does not use any options but will display any that are

specified on the command line or from a soft driver as a combined optionsstring.



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The Device Drivers

4.9 PDMS

Models

This driver generates output in PDMS plot file format (i.e. PDMS

pseudo-code).

Description

This file format (which is also one of PLOTs valid input formats) is

intended primarily for transferring graphical data between the modules

of PDMS. PLOTs PDMS output driver also allows you to transfer data to

PDMS from other sources that generate HPGL or GPGP formatted

graphics.

Output

Files output by the PDMS driver are in binary format and comprise a

textual header block followed by the graphical data.

The header block contains:

Auser identifier - up to 6 characters - derived from the login user

name (truncated if longer than 6 characters).

The current date - in the format DDMMYY.

The current time - in the format HHMM.

The graphical data is a sequence of coded items, including pen moving

and drawing commands, pen changes, and paper size definitions. The

code is made more efficient by the provision of special codes for short line

drawing and moving operations, and for drawing horizontal or vertical

lines.

Options

None.

Example

plot pdms view.pl ulay2.pdms (output must be to a file)

4.10 PENMAN

Models

This driver outputs directly to the Penman Turtle Plotter.



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The Device Drivers

Description

The Turtle plotter has a pen with an up/down mechanism mounted on a

wheeled carriage that is connected for power and control via a flying

cable. It uses a home marker that it can detect optically to register its

origin.

Output


Turtle plotter. The device code uses simple absolute positioning and

drawing commands. Periodic returns to the origin, to re-establish a

datum point, limit the build up of positional errors during plotting.

Files output by this driver are ASCII coded and record structured. They

are used only for maintenance purposes.

OptionsNone.

Example

plot penman view.pl -1

4.11 PNG

ModelsThis driver generates output in PNG file format.

Description

The PNG (Portable Network Graphics) format is a patent-free

replacement for GIF and can also replace many common uses of TIFF. It

provides a means for the lossless, portable storage of well-compressed

raster images.

PNG is designed to work well in online viewing applications, such as the

World Wide Web, and for user interface and general usage.

Note that the standard PLOTDRIVERS file changes the default for this driverto use PDMS colours. To find out how to restore the colours to their previous

state and other details about modifying the default options of the built-in

drivers see the section on creating your own device drivers.

Output

Files output by the PNG driver are in binary format.

Options

The syntax for each option is as follows (individual options must be




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The Device Drivers

BItmap width height Defines the size of the bitmap image in pixels.Sizes should be greater than 16 x 16 and the

upper size limit is 8000 x 8000. The default size

is 600 x 400.

LAyouttype Defines how the image is placed in the bitmap,where type is one of the following:

FIT reduces the width or height of the bitmap

so that it fits the image exactly. This is the

default.

CENtre places the image in the centre of thebitmap.

CORnerplaces the image at the top left cornerof the bitmap.

RGbpen r g b Selects colour mode and defines thered/green/blue colour mix for the specified

logical pen number (pen must be in the range 0-

15). The colour values are in the range 0 to 1.

The background colour of the image is black by

default but this can be changed by defining pen

0, e.g. RGB 0 1 1 1sets it to white.

SIze width height Defines the minimum plot size in millimetres

that is scaled to fill the bitmap image.Increasing the size of a number of plots to a

common value means that their pixel scaling is

also the same. This is important if the bitmap

files are to be manipulated by other programs.

TRan Sets the image background to be transparent.

Example

plot png in.dxf out.png "BITMAP 32 32"

4.12 POSTSCRIPT or PS

(The POSTSCRIPT and PS drivers are identical.)

Models

These drivers produce output suitable for any printer that can interpret

the Postscript page description language.

The driver default options give output suitable for immediate use with

the commonest laser printers, which take A4 paper and which produce



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The Device Drivers

monochrome and grey-scale output at a resolution of 300 dots per inch

(for example, the QMS-810 printer).

The drivers provide a very wide range of options that may be used with

PLOTs soft driver facility to create drivers for other forms of Postscript

output (see Section 3.4). For example, printers with different paper sizesor with paper tray selection.

Description

Postscript is a widely used page description language that efficiently

describes the appearance of text, images and drawings on the printed

page.

Output

The output from these drivers is an ASCII record structured file that

conforms to the standard structuring conventions for Postscriptmultiple-page documents. It contains the complete Postscript program

needed to print the document defined by the input pseudo-code file.

The output is in device code that may be sent directly to the laser printer

or may be included in another document as an illustration. The laser

printer is treated as a plotter with a single pen, grey-scale pens or colour

pens, which can draw vectors in all line styles for both normal and thick

lines.

The drawing is scaled to form an image that fills the specified paper size,

with options to set margin widths, page orientation, and so on. Other

options allow you to control features such as a summarising banner page,

page headers and footers, and page layout.

It may be useful to override the parameters of this driver in the

PLOTDRIVERS file, for example to use PDMS colours by default. See thedescription of this file for further details.

Options

The POSTSCRIPT/PS drivers provide many options. You can specify

these either directly, as PLOT command line arguments (see Section 3.2),or indirectly, as parameters in a soft driver definition (see Section 3.4).

For convenience, the descriptions of the driver options are split into two

functional groups:

Layout options, which control the overall page presentation.

General options, which control the banner page and the detailed

graphics plotting (including monochrome/grey-scale/colour, scaling,

resolution, etc.).





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The Device Drivers

[Key: int = an integer; string= a text string]

Layout Options

LAyouttype Defines the output page layout as type, where type is one of the

following:

Drawing - this produces a PostScript file that takes dimensionsfrom the input plot file and the output is matched to the

input. It is unscaled and is not rotated. This layout is

suitable for use when a PostScript file is to be used later

to produce a pdf file.

Landscape - uses the whole page for graphics. The drawing isrotated by 90 degrees and is positioned into the bottom

right-hand corner of the image area of the page. If the

width and height allow it the drawing will be output

unscaled and the message '1:1 SCALE' is displayed and

is repeated in the annotation of the output file. If the

drawing is oversize it will be rescaled to fill the page

(retaining the original width/height ratio).

The output file is a complete PostScript document that

may contain many pages and may start with a banner

page.

The values from the MAP option are used directly with

this option. There are no margin or other adjustmentfactors. The positioning is applied before the rotation,

its x values increase to the right, and y values increase

upwards.

Portrait - this is identical to the Landscape layout except that it ispositioned into the bottom left-hand corner of the image

area of the page and there is no rotation of the drawing.

Whole - uses the whole page for graphics, except for a 7 mmmargin on all four sides. The drawing is rescaled

(retaining the original width/height ratio) and rotated tofill the page as efficiently as possible. The output file is

a complete PostScript document that may contain many

pages and may start with a banner page.

Margin - uses the whole page for graphics, except for a 26 mmmargin on all four sides (to allow for punch holes and

header/footer texts, etc.). The drawing is rescaled

(retaining the original width/height ratio) and rotated to

fill the page as efficiently as possible. The output file is

a complete Postscript document that may contain many

pages and may start with a banner page.



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The Device Drivers

Figure - this layout is identical to MARGIN, except that thedrawing is not rotated.

Include - produces a file suitable for inclusion in anotherPostScript document. The layout is identical to FIGURE,

but the file contains none of the general Postscriptcommands to print pages etc. (since these will be

provided by the document in which the file is included).

Default: LA L.

The LAYOUT MARGIN and LAYOUT FIGURE settings provide locations

for three header texts and three footer texts at the left, centre and right

of the page, in the top and bottom margins, respectively. These are set as

follows:

TLstring Sets the left-hand header text (TL=Top Left) to string.Default: empty string.

TCstring Sets the central header text (TC=Top Centre) to string.Default: empty string.

TRstring Sets the right-hand header text (TR=Top Right) to string.Default: empty string.

BLstring Sets the left-hand footer text (BL=Bottom Left) to string.Default: empty string.

BCstring Sets the central footer text (BC=Bottom Centre) to string.Default: empty string.

BRstring Sets the right-hand footer text (BR=Bottom Right) to string.Default: empty string.

Note: If a header or footer text is to include spaces, stringmust be

enclosed between single quotes.

You may include the following special characters within header and

footer texts:

# is replaced in the printed output by the current page number (withpages being numbered automatically, starting from a number which

you may define).

% is replaced in the current date (in the format day, month, year).

PAgeint Defines an initial page number for the translation of the #character when using automatic page numbering. The

default is PAGE 1.

As an example of the page layout options as part of a command:

plot ps drg.pl drg.out "LA M, TL 'Page #', TR Figure, BC %"

This sets the page layout as follows:

Layout is of the type 'Margin' (i.e. 26 mm margins all round).

Left-head header reads 'Page 1', 'Page 2', etc.



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The Device Drivers

Right-hand header text reads 'Figure'.

Centred footer shows the current date.

General Options

BAnner Y/N Specifies whether or not a banner page is output at thehead of the document.

Default: BA Y

EOt Y/N Specifies whether the EOT character is output at theend of the PostScript file. This is a communication

character required previously for direct operation of a

printer but may need to be omitted when a print spooler

is being used.

Default: EOT Y

IGraphics Y/N Allows the use of the initgraphics command. (You

should not normally need to change this setting.)Default: IG N

PType string Sets page type to string. Where stringis a sequence ofprinter specific PostScript commands to be inserted into

the output file at the point where paper size and tray

selection might take place. This option does not affect

anything else (e.g. scaling).

For example, below is an example of the PostScript

command to set up a printer to select a particular paper

try, perhaps one containing A3 sized paper. The

PostScript string used with PTYPE is not standard and

needs to be obtained for each model of printer. Below

are two examples showing how the printer specific

commands might look like to select a particular tray

and to select manual feed.

PTYPE 'statusdict begin 2 setpapertray end'

PTYPE 'statusdict begin /manualfeed true def end'

Default: PT

MApx y val1 val2 Defines the position of the plot on the paper (x and ycoordinates of its origin expressed in mm). It defines

the plot dimensions as val1 wide by val2high.

Default: MA 0 0 283.6 197.3

STepsval Sets the printer steps per inch (i.e. the printerresolution) to val.

Default: ST 300

GRay Selects grey-scale output to represent colours.MOno Selects monochrome output.RGb Selects RGB colour output (using default

colour definitions).

Default colour representation: MONO


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Documents

PLOT User Guide