What plot limit settings does SSM use when plotting to "PDF"?

[JamesMaeding]

Yah, I should know this but discovered I don't.

Normally, our company plots using named page setups.

That says exactly what the limits, scale, pc3, and so on are.

To publish, we use the publish command and set to "plotter named in page setup" and so on, it all works.

We can save a .dsd file for next publish and its all set up.

However, it takes a few more clicks than the SSM, right click, Publish, "Publish to PDF".

People familiar with SSM and publish know that is using the default acad pdf plot driver and NOT a pc3.

You can tweak the settings of merge and so on easily for that, but the question is where are the plot window, scale, and other settings coming from?

Is it the last used plot settings? (It must be IMO)

Is it the last current named page setup? (doubt it)

Is it some template I am not aware of?

Is it magic? (starting to believe...)

I wish we could designate a .dsd as the one to use to publish a set, and plot to that with 2 clicks like the SSM has now for "Plot to PDF".

[dmfrazier]

"...where are the plot window, scale, and other settings coming from?"

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the question, but aren't they stored in the page setup of the Layout itself?

For a Layout, isn't the "window" always the "paper" and the scale always 1:1?

[JamesMaeding]

@dmfrazier 

You are using the phrase "the page setup of the Layout".

That would also be called the "last used plot settings".

It is not the same as a named page setup, and is easily messed up so odd if SSM uses that.

I think it does though.

I would say no to the second statement you made. The limits can be any chosen window or view, and scale also. The whole point of using named page setups in publish is you can fix that in 20 seconds or less.

[dmfrazier]

I apologize because I’m driving a bit blind since it’s after hours (on a Friday, no less) and I’m not at my computer, but I seem to recall that in order to be included in a sheet set, a layout has to be “initialized”, which I think means it has to have a “valid” page setup. Does that make it “named”? I don’t know. Yes, it does.

By “limits”, apparently you mean “plot area”, and I agree that this can be set to something other than the “layout” and the scale can certainly be set to something other than 1:1, but generally this is the case for a page setup applied to a layout tab. In any case, they are saved as part of the page setup.

Not sure if this helps or not.

[Added 7/1]

"People familiar with SSM and publish know that is using the default acad pdf plot driver and NOT a pc3."

Actually, when we publish to PDF, there is a PC3 that corresponds to the "PDF Pre-set" option on the Publish dialog:

But any page size and plot area settings that are saved in the PC3 (constituting the "defaults") can be (usually are) over-ridden by different settings that are stored in the (named) page setup applied to the layout.

[pkolarik]

Last time I tested this (it was several years ago, however) it was using the "applied" page setup from each drawing.

The page setup that, if you select one in a drawing and click "apply to layout" and then save the drawing, will show up in the page setup "Name" box when you hit the print button in a drawing. I'd always considered that one the "active" page setup in a drawing. We went away from trying to use that "publish to pdf" option in SSM because we couldn't get everyone to make sure the correct page setup was the "active" one in every drawing.

[TomBeauford]

Always hated plotting drawings from outside our office with horrible plot settings, window was the worst and often had to be picked for every layout as the window coordinates were different for every single one.

All our templates have layouts set to plotting layout and we have page setups for outputting every size we use for both plotting hardcopys and PDFs.

Never had a plotting issue. 

Best way to improve workflow is keeping your templates and detail drawing as functional & easy to use as possible.

[JamesMaeding]

@pkolarik 

I don't believe there is an active named page setup. (see my next post as I contradict that)...

There is only last used plot settings without a name.

I say this because I have programmed page setups in lisp for years, and never seen an "active name" variable, always looking for correction though too.

There definitely are named page setups of course, and you can use them to fill in the plot dialog or anything.

Notice when you set a named page setup current, and then change a setting like scale, the name goes to <None>? That would be really odd behavior if that named page setup was active.

I think it was a mistake for Adesk to do this, they should have allowed an active named setup and when you make changes they save to that setup.

The plotting tool we use implements that functionality by using a reactor to catch the current settings and save to the named setup that was set before.

Anyway, the "Plot to PDF" SSM command does not have a named page setup parameter, so all it can do is use last current settings - from what I am seeing.

This is why we never plot that way, its over simplified without telling you its assumptions.

I'm trying to figure those out, and likely need to test at this point as I'm seeing confusion about this idea of a current named page setup, there is none.

[JamesMaeding]

@pkolarik 

I was looking into your statement (and finding it true):

"Last time I tested this (it was several years ago, however) it was using the "applied" page setup from each drawing. The page setup that, if you select one in a drawing and click "apply to layout" and then save the drawing, will show up in the page setup "Name" box when you hit the print button in a drawing."

First, the page setup manager does indicate there is an "active" page setup:

And it does show in plot dialog like you said.

That may indeed be the answer here, and the plot dialog behavior threw me off.

I never really cared much either, that was most of the reason.

This is great, I will make a couple named setups and see if the SSM command uses the active one, as opposed to last used settings.

To get oddball last used settings, I can just plot a randomw window and not save it to the named setup and I will have distinct states to test with.

thx

[JamesMaeding]

@pkolarik 

So while I said there was no "current page setup name" variable in lisp, it turns out its the first 1 dxf group after the 100  group. In the lisp shown, I ran the the first setq statement (in VLIDE, select the statement, right click and hit Inspect), to see the dxf listing for the layout:

You can clearly see the (1 . "PDF") there. Also, it seems to have the plotting params after, which are likely the "last used settings" I talked about before. Its got both, so I'll test to see which is used in SSM....