can't specify 11x17 paper size in -plot script!

[james_moore]

Can anyone explain this to me?

I'm running ACAD 2018 (electrical).  I have a Ricoh MPC3003 printer on a network.  ACAD sees this printer through the configuration file MPC3003ENG.pc3.  The printer works fine with letter and 11x17 paper sizes except this:

-PLOT
Yes

MPC3003ENG
11x17
Inches

...should be a valid command sequence called from a script, but ACAD is rejecting the 11x17!  It comes up in the list if I hit question mark to view the possible forms, and as default it accepts 11x17 if I use a blank line there for the script.  I cannot use 11x17, or "11x17" or any other variation to specify this form directly from the script, or from a command-line based plot sequence.  What gives?

[pendean]

Why not create then use a dedicated 11x17 PC3 file instead of calling your default driver then specifying a sheet size? Same for all sheet sizes if that helps.

[Anonymous]

Some printers use "Tabloid"  (without the quotes) paper size interchangeably with or instead of 11x17, maybe give that a try. One of those "can't hurt"....

[james_moore · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, but neither really applies.

I've done extensive work with script-based (command-line based) plotting & thought I'd seen everything, but this issue is baffling.  Either direct to the system printer, or using the .pc3 configuration, it's the same result.  And there are no alternate 11x17 sizes like tabloid or ledger to choose on this driver's forms.

Now I'm sure it's a Windows driver related issue.

I switched to using the Ricoh driver vs the Microsoft-provided Ricoh driver, modified my script for the form name, and have no issue with that one.  Annoying, but not a big deal.  I hadn't used my direct-to-printer scripts for some time, since I prefer to do everything through DWGtoPDF these days and print to paper only as needed from there.  I guess the MS printer driver must have changed to one with a bug in it... I'll have to test it on one of my co-worker's ACAD & see if it's isolated to my machine or not.

Incidentally, my scripts were also used for Intellicad, which has issues with script-plotting if it involves form names that include special characters like quotes & spaces, so I used the MS drivers for access to simple form names.

[Anonymous]

After seeing the "Microsoft-provided Ricoh driver" mentioned, you jogged my memory- I assume this is a printer/driver automatically added by Win10 (?) I also had (different) issues with a Ricoh network printer using the "automatically installed" Win10 driver. These errors (drops, slow response, etc across all apps, not just Acad) disappeared when I removed and re-installed the printer the "old-fashioned" way using a manually configured tcp/ip port & driver downloaded from Ricoh. Sounds like Microsoft might need to do a bit of work on their "it just (maybe sometimes) works" method of detecting & installing printers....I thought it was just a glitch with either our Ricoh, or my PC, and since it behaved after the re-install of the printer I forgot all about it, but seems like it may affect a wider group, in different ways.