Heidi

[#1]

Hi,

Where I work, I am having a dispute with our computing support person. He
knows little about Autocad and I am having a hard time convincing him that
Autocad requires unique drivers. He wants to get a new printer for our
office but does not understand why Autocad should have any special
requirements. I have told him that to get Autocad to print properly, I need
a printer that is:
listed as an Autocad supported model or
has HDI drivers available or
has Optimized system printer drivers or
has HPGL/2 or PCL capability
He says he has talked to several printer manufacturers and they say that
Autocad will print "just fine" using the standard Windows system printer
driver. I have told him that this is somewhat true, but that a better
quality print is available if Autocad specific drivers are available. I have
said there is also the aspect of greater plotting options
Is anyone aware of any Autodesk documentation that deals with the merits
of using the Heidi driver for hard copies? Can anyone offer any additional
benefits of using specific drivers? Is there a comprehensive list of
companies and printers using the Heidi technology?

Thanks
RGA

[#2]

Windows system printer drives are generic. Sometimes they do not report the
actual printable page size correctly. AutoCAD originally had ADI drivers
because there was no standard for devices. When windows system printer
drivers became the standard, you would think the need for its own driver
would have gone away. This was not true due to limitations with wide format
devices. So ADI was replaced with HDI and the tradition continues.

"RGA" wrote in message
news:76E6ACF4B8BA1888F39B761B7FF83D18@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> Where I work, I am having a dispute with our computing support person.
He
> knows little about Autocad and I am having a hard time convincing him that
> Autocad requires unique drivers. He wants to get a new printer for our
> office but does not understand why Autocad should have any special
> requirements. I have told him that to get Autocad to print properly, I
need
> a printer that is:
> listed as an Autocad supported model or
> has HDI drivers available or
> has Optimized system printer drivers or
> has HPGL/2 or PCL capability
> He says he has talked to several printer manufacturers and they say
that
> Autocad will print "just fine" using the standard Windows system printer
> driver. I have told him that this is somewhat true, but that a better
> quality print is available if Autocad specific drivers are available. I
have
> said there is also the aspect of greater plotting options
> Is anyone aware of any Autodesk documentation that deals with the
merits
> of using the Heidi driver for hard copies? Can anyone offer any additional
> benefits of using specific drivers? Is there a comprehensive list of
> companies and printers using the Heidi technology?

[#3]

Ron,

There are a number of reasons/advantages from going with an optimized
plotter driver for AutoCAD over the system printer drivers - one is quality
but there is also performance considerations.

For small format printers, it probably doesn't matter, most system drivers
are ok unless

- you have a very slow network. HDI drivers often produce smaller plot
files.
- you need to use virtual pens, which plain system drivers do not support

For large format devices it is more likely to make a difference.

1) Heidi drivers (or optimized system drivers with back doors) are less
likely to run out of device memory than plain system drivers.
2) they usually do a better job of handling drawings with large amounts of
raster
3) in some cases they may offer better plot quality and speed for CAD
drawings than plain system drivers

In short, the best plan is to try plotting some of your typical drawings to
the device you are considering buying, using the driver that is available
for it.

Thanks,

-Rob




"RGA" wrote in message
news:76E6ACF4B8BA1888F39B761B7FF83D18@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> Hi,
>
> Where I work, I am having a dispute with our computing support person.
He
> knows little about Autocad and I am having a hard time convincing him that
> Autocad requires unique drivers. He wants to get a new printer for our
> office but does not understand why Autocad should have any special
> requirements. I have told him that to get Autocad to print properly, I
need
> a printer that is:
> listed as an Autocad supported model or
> has HDI drivers available or
> has Optimized system printer drivers or
> has HPGL/2 or PCL capability
> He says he has talked to several printer manufacturers and they say
that
> Autocad will print "just fine" using the standard Windows system printer
> driver. I have told him that this is somewhat true, but that a better
> quality print is available if Autocad specific drivers are available. I
have
> said there is also the aspect of greater plotting options
> Is anyone aware of any Autodesk documentation that deals with the
merits
> of using the Heidi driver for hard copies? Can anyone offer any additional
> benefits of using specific drivers? Is there a comprehensive list of
> companies and printers using the Heidi technology?
>
> Thanks
> RGA
>
>