Advanced Batch Plot

Advanced Batch Plot

Win64, English

NTCL Soft
Plot/ Print multi drawings, multi Layouts, and multi sheets per Layout. The printing configuration of each drawing is automatically saved. Sheets auto-combined into one PDF file with Bookmarks.

General Usage Instructions

The procedure for batch plotting/printing is as follows: 

A. Active drawing plotting/printing

  • Set up a filter with object type (required), layer name, and block name (optional).
  • Select frame objects in the active layout or across all layouts in the active drawing.
  • Setup naming rule: Prefix, suffix, index.
  • Add frames to Frame Table.
  • Choose page setup override if desired.
  • Print and save the drawing.
  • Save the frame table to the configuration file.

 

B. Multi drawings plotting/printing 

  • Load drawings into the Drawing Table.
  • Set up a filter with object type (required), layer name, and block name (optional).
  • Choose a sort option.
  • Setup naming rule: Prefix, suffix, index.
  • Scan for frame objects across all layouts of all drawings in the list.
  • Add frames to Frame Table.
  • Choose page setup override if desired.
  • Print and save drawings.
  • Save the frame table to the configuration file.

 

C. Print the previous list of frames

  • Load previously saved.MPCF6 configuration file to Frame Table then print.

 

D. Three levels of Page setup

  • There are 3 level of page setup, sorting from highest to lowest priority:  First priority, Second priority, and Third priority.
  • First priority page setup only covers a few settings:  Plotter override, paper size override, paper orientation override, and scale to fit override.  It must combined with another page setup.
  • Second and third priority can be used independently or together with First priority.
  • The second and third priorities can NOT be used together.
  • If the user wants to apply one or more named page setups (s) for one or more sheets (frames), then those named page setups (s) should be third-priority page setups (s).

 

E. PDF combination mode

  • Sheet combination (Frame combination) can be applied only if an Autodesk® AutoCAD® built-in PDF printer is used.
  • Combination is not applied to other output formats such as DWF, DWFx, JPG, or PNG.
  • Each drawing file, and each sheet (frame) in a combined PDF will be bookmarked. 

Commands

Ribbon/Toolbar Icon Command Command Description

NTCL_ABPlot

Plot/ Print multi drawings, multi Layouts and multi sheets per Layout. Printing configuration of each drawing is automatically saved. Combine individual drawing sheets into a sheet set. Auto turn on/off Viewport inside a sheet. Auto ignore Null content sheets.

NTCL_ABFixPlotter

Find and replace missing plotter/printer in page setups; search and copy missing plot styles to current AutoCAD Plot style folder.

NTCL_ABXClear

Clear embedded extended data of Advanced Batch Plot App.

NTCL_ABOptions

Open Advanced Options dialog.

Installation/Uninstallation

The installer that ran when you downloaded this app/plug-in from the Autodesk App Store will start installing the app/plug-in. OR, simply double-click the downloaded installer to install the app/plugin.  You may need to restart the Autodesk product to activate the app/plug-in. To uninstall this plug-in, exit the Autodesk product if you are currently running it, simply rerun the installer, and select the "Uninstall" button. OR, click Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features (Windows 7/8.1/10/11) and uninstall as you would any other application from your system.

Additional Information

1. When printing to PDF, text objects in PDF files are round with yellow rectangles. To avoid this, the App will: in AutoCAD 2016 set the EPDFSHX variable to 0; in AutoCAD 2017 to 2023 set the PDFSHX variable to 0; in AutoCAD 2024 and above set the PDFSHX variable to 2.

2. When using a third-party PDF printer/plotter, usually, a . PLT file is created instead of a PDF file. Others may queue printing results in their application for further processing. Therefore, it is recommended to test a third party's PDF printer/plotter behavior before batch plotting.

3. In the future, a Frame Set Manager may be added.  At the moment, users can export Frames to Excel® and do advanced sort actions in Excel®.

Known Issues

1. In some cases, this App cannot connect Excel® in Microsoft® 365 (Office® 365). The NTCL Error message: "Cannot open Microsoft® Excel®" appears right after the app is called.

This error can be fixed by running "Quick Repair" on Microsoft® 365 (Office® 365). For more information, please refer to: https://www.NTCLSoft.com/home/troubleshooting

2. Excel OLE Table is printed with a black background and white text in AutoCAD 2022.  To avoid this, update to AutoCAD 2022 ver 1.1 or later.

3. Some third-party virtual printers may not be compatible with some versions of AutoCAD.Crash has occurred when trying to initialize ProgeCAD® 2022 virtual printer in  Autodesk® Civil 3D® 2016

4. When trying to open newer-version drawing(s) in an older version of AutoCAD/AutoCAD verticals, a message box "This drawing was created with a newer version of ..." may appear and require the user to manually interact.

Contact

Company Name: NTCL Soft
Support Contact: NTCLApp1@gmail.com

Author/Company Information

NTCL Soft

Support Information

For questions/comments/suggestions/bug reports etc. please send an email to NTCLApp1@gmail.com 

For more information about the license, please visit: https://www.ntclsoft.com/home/license-registration-guide

Version History

Version Number Version Description

1.1.0

Minor bugs fix: - Fix the DST file reading error.

1.0.0

Initial version.
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