Installing and Setting up the Plot Manager
The Plot Manager is a stand-alone windows program. This program runs on operating systems Windows 7 and higher (older Windows versions on request).
Choosing a suitable PC to act as a plot server
The plot server is the computer to which the plotter is connected or through which data is to be forwarded to the plotter. As a rule, this PC should be accessible from the local network or have access to the central data storage..
When controlling older plotters that still have a serial or parallel interface (LPT or COM), it may be worth setting up a separate, basic PC for this task. However, if the plotter can be accessed via the network, this could also be a virtual machine on the server, the file server itself, or even the PC on which the Grafis user is working.
More than one plotter can be connected to this PC depending on the number of serial and parallel ports available. Each plotter must have its own directory for its own Plot Manager. This directory can also be located on the network if the server is running around the clock. If the company has a central server that runs 24 hours a day, the plot directory can also be created there. The advantage here is that plots can be generated even if the plot server PC is switched off. The PC can then be switched on when plotting should start.
Installing the Plot Manager
The installation is started using the program PLOTMGR!E.EXE. This file can be downloaded from our website https://www.grafis.de/downloads-en. Double clicking the *.EXE file will start the installation.
The Plot Manager requires an independent directory on the plotter server, e.g. C:\PLOTTER. 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.
Setting up the Plot Manager using the supplied configuration programme "CONFIGMGR.EXE"
After successful installation, the Plot Manager setup will start, see Picture 1.
Setup the options in the following categories "Plot command", "Plot.bat -Configuration" or "ncat configuration", "Options" and "timer values" according to the existing system.
Area Plot command
In general, the Plot Manager offers four different ways of transferring data to a plotter.
1. Standard (with PLOT.BAT)
Select this option when the plotter is directly connected via RS232 (COM) port or parallel port (LPT) to an older PC
Setup programme creates a PLOT.BAT file through which plot files will be sent to the plotter.
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. There are also configuration presets for Gerber AP plotter series, which will be used with an own program to send out data.
But this way can also be used, when plot data will be sent to a plot software of the manufacturer of the plotter (e.g. with Algotex or TKT Brainpower). To do this, select the working folder of this software as target, ending with a "\" sign.
Use this configuration especially for older Wild or Zünd-Plotter with serial interfaces (RS232) Gerber AP series, Mutoh-AC or older Summa plotters with COM or LPT port.
2. Passthrough with Windows printer drivers
If the plotter is connected via USB or a network and has windows printer drivers, select "Send via Windows Printer Driver" and activate "Multiple driver selection". The plot data is then transferred to the device via the Windows driver (WINSPOOL). The specific printer driver is selected later within the Plot Manager itself.
This method is best suited to the following plotters: HP Designjet, Canon iPF and similar inkjet plotters, usually A0-width, which have Windows drivers and can process HPGL.
3. Sending data via network connection (ncat.exe)
The "Netcat" tool (or ncat.exe) is part of the open-source NMAP toolkit, which can be downloaded from the project’s website at https://nmap.org/download.html. As this tool makes it very easy and reliable to transfer plot data directly to a plotter, we have incorporated a dedicated configuration method for this in version 2.00 of the Plot Manager.
Once "Network" is selected as the transfer method, the configuration for the transfer appears below. The IP address and port must be selected. The port number for standard TCP/IP plotters is “9100”; Zünd, for example, uses “50000” for its devices.
This method is best suited to the following plotters: Summa plotters or Zünd plotters with a network connection.
4. user defined
This method allows the user to enter any commands manually, either individually at the command line or in a PLOT.BAT file.
Area Options
A plotter name can be specified for a Plot Manager installation. This is particularly useful when several different devices are to be controlled via the same PC. However, the name field may also be left blank.
The scroll bar "Calculate plot time" specifies the criteria which the Plot Manager uses to calculate the estimated plotting time. When calculating, a distinction is generally made between inkjet plotters (such as HP Designjet, Canon iPF, Algotex or TKT Brainpower) and pen plotters (such as Summa S-class, Graphtec or Zünd). With inkjet plotters, the processing time depends solely on the printed area and is therefore generally determined by the length of the plot image. With pen plotters, on the other hand, the plotting time depends largely on the length of the lines drawn and the complexity of the image. The slider is therefore usually set to the far left (inkjet plotters) or the far right (pen plotters). However, there may also be hybrid options to improve the calculation of the plotting time.
The option "Use fixed values for calculation" has been added with version 2.00 and serves to improve the prediction of plotting times, particularly for plotters controlled via Windows drivers. Here, the calculation values are optimised manually and remain permanently stored.
Area Timer values
The other parameters in this section should remain unchanged for the moment. An explanation of each option in this file is to be found at the end of this text.
All settings and options are saved in the PLOTMGR.INI file in the current folder. An explanation of each option in this file is to be found at the end of this text too.
Subsequent changes to this configuration can be made at any time by running the "CONFIGMGR.EXE" programme again.
The ‘CONFIGMGR.EXE’ programme must only be run if PLOGMGR.EXE is not running at the same time!
The installation program PLOTMGR!E.EXE 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), CONFIGMGR.EXE (Plot Manager setup program). You can download a ZIP file containing these three programmes from: https://download.grafis.de/misc/. This folder always contains the latest version of these files, named "plotmgr!xxx.zip".
The programme files contained in the ZIP file are copied to a folder which is then shared on the network to be used later as the destination folder for plot data. The PLOTMGR.EXE program file should be linked in the Auto start folder for automatic start up. Run CONFIGMGR.EXE to complete PLOT.BAT setup and software configuration as described above.