Bartels AutoEngineer® - User Manual 2.5 SCM Plot Output

The SCM functions for generating HP-GL, HP Laser, or Postscript output are provided with the Plot Output menu of the Schematic Editor. SCM plots can only be generated with an element loaded. I.e., you should first start the Schematic Editor, and load the SCM sheet sheet1 from the demo.ddb file using the following commands:

File

Load

Sheet

File Name ?

demo

Element Name ?

sheet1

2.5.1 General Plot Parameters

Plot Device

The Plot Device function is used for specifying the plot data output device. The output can either be written to a file or directly to the plotter and/or printer. When plotting to a file, the desired output file name must be specified. When writing directly to the plotter, the name of the output port where the plotter is connected to (e.g., com2, lpt1 under DOS) must be specified. Take care that enough disk space is available when writing to a file and that the corresponding interface is correctly initialized when directing output to a hardware device. The plot functions will abort with error messages such as

Error writing ASCII file!

if neither of these requirements are met.

The system will prompt for the output device name after activating the desired output function if no default plot device is specified with the Plot Device function. Popup menus for fast plot file selection are integrated to the Plot Device, HP-GL Output, Postscript Output and HP Laser Output functions of Plot Output menu. Files ending on .ass, .con, .ddb, .def, .exe, .fre, .ulc and .usf are faded out from the plot file menus for data security reasons. New plot file names can be typed in via keyboard.

Plot Scale

The Plot Scale function is used to specify a scale factor for the plot output. The default scale factor value is 1.0. Plot scale factor value specifications can range from 0.1 to 100.0.

Plot Rotate

The Rotate Plot function provides the options No Rotate and Rotate Left. The No Rotate option sets the 0 degree plot rotation (which is the default). The Rotate Left option will produce a 90 degree counter-clockwise rotated plot output. Negative output coordinates might be produced when rotating plots. Some printers or plotters refuse to process negative coordinates. Positive output coordinates can be enforced however by replacing the origin of the plot element. I.e., the Set Origin function from the Settings menu can be used to set the origin to the upper left element corner before producing a rotated plot.

2.5.2 HP-GL Pen Plot

The Plotter Pen Width function is used to define the pen width for generating the HP-GL output data. The default plotter pen width is 0.3mm. Pen width value specifications can range from 0.01mm to 10.0mm.

The Plotter Speed function is used to control the pen plotter speed, i.e. the speed at which the pen can be moved by the HP-GL plotter. The system accepts either S input for maximum speed or non-negative integer plotter speed values in cm/s units. The default plotter speed corresponds with S (maximum speed). The maximum speed value specification is 99cm/s.

The Fill Mode HP-GL function provides the options Fill Mode Off and Fill Mode On. Fill Mode Off causes the system to refrain from filling the plot structures, i.e., only outlines are drawn for filled areas. Switching off the fill mode is most useful for fast control plots. Fill Mode On is used to select the default fill mode.

The HP-GL Output function is used to produce pen plots in HP-GL (Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language). The user is prompted for the pen number (1..99) and for the name of the output file (if no default output device was specified with Plot Device). Use the following commands to switch off the fill mode, set the plotter pen width to 0.1mm, and then plot the currently loaded SCM sheet to an HP-GL plot file named demo_s1.plt using pen number 4:

Plot Output

Plotter Pen Width

Plotter Pen Width ( 0.30mm) ?

0.1

Fill Mode HP-GL

Fill Mode Off

HP-GL Output

Plotter Pen Number (1..99) ?

4

Plot File Name ?

demo_s1.plt

The system will issue the following message after successfully generating the HP-GL plot:

HP-GL plot done!

A PG HPGL command is added to the end of HPGL output files to force a page eject and to prevent from subsequent plots being plotted onto the same sheet.

2.5.3 HP-Laser Output

The HP Laser Output function is used to produce HP Laser plots in PCL (Printer Command Language) format. HP Laser plots are automatically scaled to A4 paper size, i.e., neither plot scaling factor nor pen width settings have effect. Use the following commands to generate an HP Laser plot of the currently loaded SCM sheet and direct the output to lpt1 (e.g., for interfacing an appropriate DOS-connected laser writer device):

Plot Output

HP Laser Output

Plot File Name ?

lpt1

The system will issue the following message after successfully generating the PCL plot:

HP Laser output done (scale 1:...)!

The scale information in the status messages indicates any non-default scaling factor being used for automatic plot to sheet size scaling.

Binary copy mode is required for transferring PCL plot data to the desired output device. I.e., the /b option must be used when sending PCL files from hard disk to laser printer with the DOS COPY command as in

> copy pclplot lpt1 /b 

with pclplot being the PCL plot file name and lpt1 designating the output device.

2.5.4 Postscript Output

The Postscript Output function is used to produce output in Postscript format. Use the following commands to set the standard line width to 0.25mm and the scaling factor to 0.75, and generate a Postscript output file named plot1.ps for the currently loaded SCM sheet:

Plot Output

Plotter Pen Width

Plotter Pen Width ( 0.10mm) ?

0.25

Plot Scale

Plot Scale Factor (1.0) ?

0.75

Postscript Output

Plot File Name ?

plot1.ps

The system issues the following message after successfully generating the Postscript output:

Postscript output done!

2.5.5 Generic Output under Windows

A generic print/plot output function is implemented with the Windows versions of the BAE PC software. I.e., any print/plot output feature supported by the current Windows operating system configuration is also supported with the Schematic Editor of the BAE Windows software.

Use the following commands to activate the Windows print/plot menu:

Plot Output

Generic Output

The Windows printer dialog specifications for the number of copies, page sorting mode and page range are considered by the Generic Output function.

The All Pages option from the Windows printer dialog of the Generic Output function plots all elements of the currently loaded database class. This allows for the output of, e.g., all sheets of a schematic circuit. All SCM sheets are plotted according to specific plot parameter settings such as plot rotation modes.

The Selection option from the Windows printer dialog allows for the selection of the print area for generic outputs.

The generic output is automatically scaled to the print page format selected through the Windows printer setup if the size of the element to be plotted exceeds the paper size. The page aspect ratio is maintained when automatic plot scaling is applied. The status message of the Generic Output function provides information to indicate any non-default scaling factor being used for automatic plot to sheet size scaling.

2.5.6 Bitmap Plot Output to Windows Clipboard

The Output to Clipboard function from the Plot Output menu can be used under Windows for plotting a bitmap of the currently loaded element into the clipboard ready to be imported (Pasted) to other Windows applications capable of processing bitmaps. The whole element is plotted on default. The Clipping On option can be used to restrict the output to a mouse-selectable rectangle. The plot dialog box also allows for bitmap size specifications and plot rotation mode selection.

SCM Plot Output
© 1985-2024 Oliver Bartels F+E • Updated: 24 October 2010, 06:56 [UTC]