I've recently upgraded my pc's and they have windows XP loaded on them. After reloading AutoCAD2000 everything seems to work fine, EXCEPT for plotting! I've loaded the new XP drivers for the DesignJet 450C and can print test pages just fine. But when trying to print from within AutoCAD2000 I get the following error:
"This plotter config cannot be used. Either the driver cannot be found, the device cannot be found, or the driver has a problem."
The driver seems to be installed correctly... any ideas? Is this an AutoCAD2000/XP compatabitily issue? If so, any work-arounds?
No I haven't made a new PC3 file and pointed it to the new system printer. I'm not very familiar with all of this yet, is there a resource on the net that describes how one goes about doing this?
It's a plotter config file. Does the error message specifically reference the 450C? Is the printer new? Are you trying to print an existing model or paper space tab? If so, that page setup may have an old printer assigned to it. If the 450c is your system printer, then you should be able to plot without a pc3. After you clear the error, does your printer appear in the plot device drop down in the plot dialog? If it doesn't, go check and see if it's the default system printer.
If you still have a problem, create the pc3. Do this: In the "file" menu, open the "plotter manager". Select "add a plotter". In the first step, "begin", select "system printer" (it is your windows system printer, no?). In the next dialog, your printer should be listed. Select it and the rest is pretty straight forward. Once created, you will be able to create page setups using that printer pc3 if you're using layouts. You can also customize settings for printable area, paper size, resolution, monochrome, color, etc. and have several page setups using the same printer. Name the setups and save them with your template or master drawing. You'll only have to do this once. A little patience with r2000+ layouts and page setups will pay off big time in the long run.
If you have existing R2000 drawings that used a different printer, you're going to get that error every time you try plotting because acad is looking for the printer that was used in the original page setup or plot. Make sure you check "save changes to layout". This is the one (and only) complaint I have with r2000+ plotting. At some point you're going to get a new printer or plotter and all your existing layouts (page setups) have to be changed when you need to plot. It's a good bet that there's a utility out there that will update all your drawings; I've never looked.
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