INSTALLATION AND OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS Autodesk Device Interface driver for EPSON ink jet printers for AutoCAD 386 Releases 10, 11, 12 and 13 Driver version 2.50E IMPORTANT NOTICE - DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY This ADI driver was developed by Seiko Epson Corporation. It is supported by Epson, not Autodesk. COPYRIGHT NOTICE (c) Copyright 1993-1997 Seiko Epson Corporation All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Autodesk, AutoCAD and ADI are registered trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. Autodesk Device Interface is a trademark of Autodesk, Inc. ABOUT THESE INSTRUCTIONS This document explains the installation and use of Epson's protected- mode Autodesk Device Interface (ADI) plotter driver designed for use with Epson's ESC/P 2 ink jet printers and AutoCAD 386. You can use this driver with AutoCAD 386 (DOS Extender) Releases 10 and higher that support ADI plotter drivers. This driver makes your Epson printer operate as an AutoCAD plotter. In addition to these instructions, please read the AutoCAD Installation and Performance Guide concerning plotting with protected-mode ADI devices, the AutoCAD User's Guide section on plotting, and your printer's User's Guide. INSTALLING THE DRIVER SOFTWARE To install the driver, copy the driver file plespde.exp from the distribution media to the AutoCAD directory on your hard disk that contains AutoCAD driver files. AutoCAD plotter-driver files have the form: pl*.exp. These files start with the letters pl and have the extension .exp. The location of plotter-driver files varies for different releases of AutoCAD. Usually, the plotter-driver files are located in the directories listed below in TABLE 1. TABLE 1 AutoCAD AutoCAD driver directory, Release location of plotter-driver files ------- -------------------------------- 13 c:\acadr13\dos\drv 12 c:\acad\drv 10, 11 c:\acad Install the driver file by using the DOS copy command at a DOS prompt. Use the appropriate command listed below in TABLE 2 for your release. TABLE 2 AutoCAD Release DOS copy command to install driver file ------- --------------------------------------- 13 copy a:plepsde.exp c:\acadr13\dos\drv\plepsde.exp 12 copy a:plepsde.exp c:\acad\drv\plepsde.exp 10, 11 copy a:plepsde.exp c:\acad\adiplot.exp If the distribution disk is not in drive a, substitute the correct drive for "a:". In some cases, your AutoCAD plotter driver files might be on a different drive or in a different subdirectory than listed in TABLE 1. If so, then substitute the correct drive and directory name in the copy command in shown in TABLE 2. Note: For Releases 10 and 11, you must change the name of the driver file in the driver directory to the special name "adiplot.exp", as shown in the copy command listed above. For Releases 12 and 13, copy the driver file name "plepsde.exp" without changing the name. CONFIGURING AUTOCAD You will need to configure your printer as an AutoCAD plotter before you can plot. 1. Start AutoCAD. 2. Release 13: Choose Configure under the OPTIONS menu or enter "config" at AutoCAD's command prompt. Release 12: Choose Configure under the FILE menu or enter "config" at AutoCAD's command prompt. Releases 10 & ll: Select "Configure AutoCAD" from AutoCAD's Main Menu. 3. Your current configuration will be displayed. Press Enter until the AutoCAD configuration menu appears. 4. Select "Configure plotter". (Do not select "Configure printer-plotter" in Releases 10 & 11.) 5. Releases 12 & 13: Choose "Add a plotter." AutoCAD will display the plotters which have drivers available. "Epson ESCP/2 Ink Jet printers" should appear as one of the plotter choices. Choose this. If it does not appear, check the installation of the driver file using the directions above. Releases 10 & 11: Select "ADI P386 plotter" from the list of displayed plotters. 6. Select your printer model and answer the screen prompts to configure settings for the printer. Additional information on the printer settings is provided below. 7. After you are done changing the Epson printer settings, answer any additional screen prompts about plot settings and printer ports. 8. Exit from AutoCAD's configuration process. Make sure you save your configuration when prompted to do so. EPSON PRINTER SETTINGS During configuration, you see a menu of Epson printer settings. Enter the desired number to change any of the settings. Information on some of the settings is provided below. Microweave Microweave, which provides smoother printing of shaded regions, is available on some printer models for certain paper types and resolutions. Set microweave to yes for best quality. Paper type Under the Additonal settings menu, you can set the paper type to plain, coated, glossy or transparency. When you select the paper type, the driver will reset some of the other settings for best performance. The driver also adjusts the amount of ink applied for best performance with that paper type. For best performance, use the EPSON brand papers and films. For EPSON Photo Quality Ink Jet Paper, EPSON High Quality Ink Jet Paper, and other coated papers, select the "coated" paper type. For EPSON Photo Quality Gloss Film and EPSON Photo Quality Glossy Paper, select the "glossy" paper type. Paper-save mode (for tractor paper feed) If you set the paper-save mode to yes, the printer will suppress plotting of blank areas at the top and bottom of the plot in order to save paper. We recommend that this feature be turned on when using continuous fan-fold paper. Maximum megabytes of RAM to use This setting tells the driver how much memory it can request from AutoCAD. The plotter driver composes the plot image in the computer's RAM (Random Access Memory) before it sends the data to the printer. To optimize plotting speed, allocate as much RAM as possible; however, make sure this setting is less than the amount of actual memory that is available to AutoCAD. Caution: if the setting is larger than AutoCAD's available actual memory, AutoCAD will swap itself and the driver data in and out of memory during plotting, causing extremely long plot times. This setting is available only when you access the settings menu from AutoCAD's Configuration menu. Line width units Among the options for Releases 10 and 11, you can select the units for setting line widths. Line widths will be specified as integer values multiplied by the units that you select. PLOTTING Make sure your printer is connected, turned on, and on-line. Releases 12 & 13 1. Issue the Plot command from within the drawing editor. A plot configuration dialogue box will appear, allowing you to check and change the plot settings. 2. Choose the "Device and Default Selection" button to select the Epson printer as the current plotter. 3. Choose the "Change Device Requirements" button to make changes to the Epson printer settings. 4. Back on the main plot configuration dialogue box, use the "Pen Assignments" button to change the printed colors and line thicknesses. 5. Make any additional changes to the settings in the plot configuration dialogue box. 6. Press enter or select OK to start printing. Releases 10 and 11 1. Either issue the Plot command from within the drawing editor or select the plot file option from AutoCAD's main menu. 2. Select the portion of your drawing that you want to plot. 3. AutoCAD will display the Epson printer settings and AutoCAD's plot settings. You will be asked: Do you want to change anything? Answer yes if you want to change anything. Otherwise, plotting will proceed with the displayed settings. Note: You must also answer yes to display the current color, pen and linetype settings in order to change pens and line types. If you do answer yes in order make changes, you will see a table of entity colors, the associated pen numbers, and line types or widths. If you again answer yes when asked, you can reassign pen numbers (colors) and line types (line widths) to each entity color. Review the suggestions given below on line width choices. The default linetype for each color after initial configuration is set to 0.01 inches. Change these pen and linetype assignments now if you desire. AutoCAD will remember your changes between plots. 4. Answer any remaining screen prompts and printing will begin. STOPPING THE PLOT To stop the plot while AutoCAD is sending data to the printer, press Control-C. LINE WIDTHS Caution: when plotting lines more than one dot wide, be careful when setting the plot region of your drawing. If a wide line is along the edge of the selected plot area, part of the line may extend over the edge where it will not print. For example if you choose "extents" to select your plot region with a drawing that includes a wide border line, AutoCAD assumes the plot extends only to the center of the border line and does not print the outer half of the line. The border line will end up only half as wide as you expected. To avoid this, select the plot region using a window or a view that includes extra space to plot the wide lines. In Releases 12 & 13, set the line width directly for each drawing color. Choose the Pen Assignments button on the plot configuration dialogue box. In Releases 10 and 11, AutoCAD assigns a plotter pen and a printer linetype to each color in your drawing. You can adjust these assignments at each plot time. The driver and printer use the linetype value (0 to 255) to set the width of the plotted lines. You are asked, during initial configuration, to select the units used to set the line widths. Line type 0 is always the minimum that the printer can produce. Choices for units are 1 mm, 0.1 mm, .01 inch, and .005 inch. Also in AutoCAD Releases 10 and 11, be careful with filled solids and wide polylines. AutoCAD expects a specific pen width (usually 0.01 inches) for drawing filled entities with multiple line passes. To plot filled entities, change AutoCAD's pen width setting to the same as your linetype choice for these entities. AutoCAD asks for a default pen width during the configuration dialogue, and AutoCAD's pen width setting can be reset before each plot. COLORS You can assign a different printer pen color to each color in your drawing. Generally, use the default assignments where the drawing color number equals the printer pen color number. Note: AutoCAD labels drawing color number 7 as "white", but the printer pen number 7 prints as solid black. Pen 8 is also solid black, but on a color printer pen 8 always prints black using a composite mixture of the color inks. In Releases 12 & 13, 255 different printer pen colors can be plotted at the same time. Choose the Pen Assignments button on the plot configuration dialogue box. In Releases 10 and 11, AutoCAD limits you to only 15 of the 255 different printer pen colors in the plot at one time. You will be able to assign a pen number to only the first 15 drawing colors in your drawing. Any drawing color above 15 will plot in the pen color assigned to drawing color 15. For Releases 10 and 11, use only colors 1 through 15 in creating your drawing. Then, when plotting, you can reassign any of the 255 pen colors to the first 15 drawing colors. SPOOLING In Releases 11 through 13 the driver uses AutoCAD dispatcher functions for all communication with the printer. As a result, the driver supports the use of an optional separate spooler. The use and configuration of a spooler is described in your AutoCAD Installation and Performance Guide. USE PLOT-TO-FILE TO PLOT TO PORT You can use AutoCAD's plot-to-file feature to send the plot output to a file, and also to direct the output to one of the computers ports such as LPT1 or COM1. Using plot-to-file to plot to a port is useful in the following situations. Avoid the stop after plot setup: After you have requested a plot from AutoCAD, it normally pauses for hardware setup. To resume, you must press Enter. To avoid this stop every time you request a plot, use plot-to-file to plot to a port. Network printing: The driver uses special AutoCAD functions for direct printer data to the computer's parallel or serial ports. This enables AutoCAD to redirect data for AutoCAD's spooling and plot-to- file features. However, because AutoCAD uses low level functions to access the port controllers, network software may not be able to capture plot data directed to a port. Also, before sending data, AutoCAD queries the port. In a network setup or with a printer switch box, the port may appear "not ready" to AutoCAD and the plot will never get going. If you are having problems transferring data to a network or a switch box, the solution may be to route the plot data through AutoCAD's "plot-to-file" feature. Then AutoCAD will use higher-level operating system functions to transfer data to the port. The network or switch box should then be able to capture the data. To configure AutoCAD to use plot-to-file to plot to a port: A. Configure default plot filename. 1. Choose Configure. Either from AutoCAD's main menu, or in Release 12 under the Files pull-down menu, or Release 13 under the Options menu, 2. Choose Configure operating parameters. 3. Choose Default plot file name. 4. Now, for the filename, enter the name of the port from which the network will be expecting to capture plot data. Examples are: LPT1, LPT2 or COM1. Enter just the four characters of the port name, without a period or extension. If your network requires plotting to an actual file, enter that directory and file name instead. B. Configure plotter. Continue through the configuration menu. If you have not yet configured the plotter driver, choose Configure plotter at the configuration menu. Follow the instructions above for configuration, with the following changes. Since you will be plotting to a file, don't worry about the questions asking you to select the port. Just choose anything. When you get to the question that asks "Do you want to plot to a file" enter Yes. C. At plot time. Set up the plot as described in the PLOTTING section above. In Release 12 or 13's Plot Configuration dialogue box, set the "plot to file" box if it doesn't have an X. You shouldn't have to, but if you do select the "File Name" button, enter the network's expected port name as described above in A. After entering the port name (without a period or extension) you may get a message "The specified file already exists. Do you want to replace it?". This is not a problem, because it is always an existing port. Answer yes. Finish the plot configuration and then press Enter or OK to begin printing. In Releases 10 or 11, check the list of plot settings that AutoCAD will display. Included is a line: "Plot will (not) be written to a selected file." If the plot will not be written to a file, enter yes to change the settings. Then answer yes to the question "Write plot to file?" when you see this prompt. ---------- END OF INSTALLATION AND OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS ----------