Continue mapkey outside Creo

Question

Hi.
We have very specific drawingssettings set up in Creo. I have recorded a mapkey for printing different sizes of PDF. Problem is that Creo mapkeys cannot handle the windows printer manager and for now our printings are semi-automatic. How can I handle programs with creo mapkeys outside Creo? 
 
I use F6 to run the printing steps and end up with following view in "Printer View". Even though I have recorded the mapkey to change from \nivm374 printer to PDD995 it simply don't work. 
 
Anyone have a clue how to handle this type of issues? Somehow PTC handles this via File->Save As-> Quick Export.
 
I have also noted that it is possible to run a OS Script when recording a mapkey but I did not seem to get it to work either. 
 
Thank you for your time.
Regards
Fisnik

dnordin · Accepted Answer

Looking at your files, you're not doing any custom modifications to the files (like adding watermarks, adding the drawing revision to the filename,etc.), so why not just use the built in PDF conversion via FILE > SAVE-AS > EXPORT and use the PDF format?

The FILE > SAVE-AS > EXPORT method can be easily "mapkeyed", and the PDF configurations can be saved as profiles (.dop file extension) if you have different PDF export settings for different drawing types, etc. Unfortunately , the profiles cannot specify a specific pen table file, so if you use different pen table files for different profiles, you need to set the correct pen table file as the default before selecting the profile.

We use to do what you're currently doing for a long time, but scrapped the method once the PDF export from Creo Parametric was working well. The major reason we did this was for the capability of exporting to the PDF format with searchable text which I highly suggest doing. The PDF files we export are "full sized" meaning that a "D" size drawing is exported into a "D" sized PDF file. It's up to the user to choose what physical paper plot/print they want to create from the full size PDF file. When we used the postscript method, we modified the postscript file to add a watermark before converting the postscript file to a PDF file. It was handy because the watermark could not be removed via Adobe Pro because the watermark isn't recognized by Adobe as a watermark. We still add a (non-removable) watermark with the new method, we just had to change how we do it.

Regards,

Dan N.

GabrielZaha · Answer

You need to set the plotter_command option.Add the following line to your config.pro or to the printer configuration file(.pcf):plotter_command \nivm374\2101PRD002plotter_command print /d:\nivm374\2101PRD002This will send the drawing to the 2101PRD002 printer without opening the Printer View window.To create a PDF file via print command use:plotter_command <PDF_Generator_Program>For exampleplotter_command ps2pdfYou need to keep in mind that if you add the plotter_command to the config.pro then the command will be executed every time you select the print command.If you use the plotter configuration file the command will be executed only when you select that particular printer configuration.

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