Installing and Setting up the plot manager

The plot manager is a stand-alone windows program. It can be used independently from any GRAFIS installation. This program runs on operating systems Windows XP/7/8 or 10. It can also be used on older PCs.

Installing the plot manager

The installation is started using the program PLOTMGR!.EXE. This file is found either on the Grafis CD or on the local Grafis workstation in the folder \GRAFIS\HILFEN. Double clicking the *.EXE file will start the installation.

The plot manager requires an independent directory on the plotter server – e.g. C:\PLOTTER. The plot server is the computer to which the plotter is connected. If the plot server is to be controlled via a network, the directory must be enabled or it should be a directory on the net drive. A target directory is requested at the beginning of the installation.

After successful installation, the plot manager setup will start, see Picture 1.

Setup the options in the following categories Plot command, Plot.bat - Configuration and Options according to the existing system.

If the plotter is connected to a serial interface COMx:, the following parameters must also be selected: baudrate, parity and protocol. These are found in Use mode command.

If the plotter is connected via USB or a network, select Send via Windows Printer Driver and activate Show plot command.

The scroll bar Calculate plot time specifies the criteria which the plot manager uses to calculate the estimated plotting time.

The remaining settings should be left unaltered.

All settings and options are saved in the PLOT-MGR.INI file in the current folder. An explanation of each option in this file is to be found at the end of this text.

The installation program adds an icon to the Auto start folder so that the plot manager starts automatically after user login.

The following files are required for setup and use of the program if the plot manager should not or cannot be installed with the installation tool: PLOTMGR.EXE (plot manager program), PLOTCTL.EXE (remote control program), SET-UPMGR.EXE (plot manager setup program). These files are copied to a folder for future use as the enabled target folder for plot files in the network. The PLOTMGR.EXE program file should be linked in the Auto start folder for automatic start up. Then, run SETUPMGR.EXE to complete PLOT.BAT setup and software configuration.