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pro batch

zalb76

New member
Hi, I don't know if this is the right place to do this question, but I try.well I've the following question: how i can print drw files using pro batch in windows 2000 enviroment? when i try to use pro batch the system answer that the comand -plot (genereted by pro batch) dosn't exist. If is not possible use pro batch, someone kows another way to print a group of drw files?



TIA



Alberto
 
for ploting one group of drw you must plot as file (*.plt) and after that use one third party software to merge the files and plot
 
adicar can you please mention which is the third party software>

I too have same problem, I want to take printouts of around 150 drawings of various sheet sizes. Pls help.



Thanks,

Guru
 
You could always get a Toolkit app to do this for you. I have developed one for another company that does a huge set of prints already.

You can either try your hand at it (if you know C/C++, and have a Toolit license), or if you are interested, you can e-mail me and I can give you more details. [email protected].

Also, if you are not sure what toolkit is, you can download a few freeware/shareware apps from this site to try out for free.. They are under the Files -> Shareware section - the cooler of the two is 'Drawing Opener'.

Good Luck,

Richard
 
Hello Richard,

I have recently tried to use the printing functions of Pro/E, and have run
into some problems. Since the printer I am using is not a plotter, and
not one of the printers in the list of available printers (in the add
printer dialog), I have tried to use the MS print manager printer.
And now the problem comes... apparently, there is a problem with the
ProPrintExecute() function. If you wish to use one of the other printers
in the provided list, then all is fine, but when you choose the "MS
Printer Manager" printer (the default one), it doesn't work. There are
messages displayed in Pro-E that indicate all is going well, but nothing
actually gets sent to the printer. I have tried using other printers (in
hopes that one was compatable), but the closest I got was that it was
printing an additional blank page after every drawing.

At this point, I am using the following:
ProPrintPCFOptionsGet()
ProPrintExecute()
but, again this doesn't work for the MS Printer Manager.

I was hoping that someone may have a workaround (or a real solution) for
this problem. PTC knows of this problem, but has no advise to offer.

Possible solutions that I have tried, but do not know enough about, or
haven't implemented properly follow. Any comments/help would be
appreciated.

1. Load a macro to select the 'File->Print->OK' commands. The problem is
that the next dialog that appears is the MS print Manager one, and that is
not controlled from Pro/E. Is there anyway of pushing the OK button on
this dialog programmatically? If so, this would be the best solution, as
the default settings are what I want to use.

2. Somehow modify the info that is being sent to the printer. Possibly
eliminate the second page that is being printed. Note: the printer is an
HP Laserjet 5000N. This is probably not viable, but it is a thought
anyways.

3. Have Pro/E plot to a file instead of directly to the printer. Then
send the pliot to the printer. My problem with this solutions is 2-fold.
One, I am unclear as to how these plots are generated - i.e. is it printer
specific info etc. Two, how do I send the plot data to the printer? I
have tried the 'print' command from a DOS shell, but this just hangs (and
from what I can tell, it is only for text files).

4. Implement my own MS Print Manager class in C++ using the Microsoft
libraries. Is this even possible? How would I go about starting this, and
linking it to Pro/E?

Any help is much appreciated as I am at a real impass.

Thank you in advance,


Stone


[email protected]
 
Some month ago I did similar project.


At that time Iwas used this function.


status = ProPlotfileWrite((ProDrawing)p_mdl, wfilename, &plot_opts);


this functions can create a hpgl plot file. and then send plot file to plotter que directory. next another demon program automatically plot it.


Regards.
Edited by: tgjang
 
Hello,


If you don't want use probatch


There is another way to print a lot of drawings, its works also with WF2.


Write cell by cell in Excel a mapkey like this :


mapkey i001 #mode;#drawing;#retrieve;[number or syntax];%A0;~ Activate `main_dlg_cur` `ProCmdWinCloseAsyn.win`;


Then make a compilation in an another cell.


[number or syntax] : it depends what you use (i use only numbers to definefiles like 02001100001)


%A0 is the mapkey who use the pcf file and the rest is to close the drawings.


After make a compilation of the mapkey (for example) : mapkey imp \
mapkey(continued) %i100046;\
mapkey(continued) %i100054;\
mapkey(continued) %i100055;\
mapkey(continued) %i100056;


and work ! The whole files are print without do anything else


If someone want more explications you can contact me : [email protected]


regards, Bruno
 
Alberto,


Try sBatch from Spekan:


( [url]http://www.spekan.nl/innotiv/index.php?mnu=dwnl&sub=reco m[/url]). It works great, even inside Intralink!


Just create a batch file that prints the way you want, exit Pro/E, run sBatch, select the files and the mapkey and click Run. Go away for a while and your printer will be full!


I've had only one issue with it; it doesn't run in the background, so you can't do other work very easily while it's running.


-Paul
 

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