Printing from specific paper trays

[Milkman]

I have an HP CM2320 printer with 3 paper trays. Is there a way to use a .pcf file to specify the tray to print from. We use specific colored sheets for different things and it would be nice to set up map keys that would print using different .pcf files that would select the tray with the desired paper. I thought there would be a command line option I could add to the line "plotter_command".

My .pcf file currently looks like this:

plotter LASERJET4

button_name HP LASERJET Printer

button_help HP LASERJET Printer

plot_drawing_format YES default

plot_segmented NO default

plot_roll_media NO default

plot_label NO default

plot_handshake software default

create_separate_files NO default

plot_with_panzoom NO default

rotate_plotting NO default

allow_file_naming NO

plot_name YES

plot_translate -0.130000 0.000000 default

interface_quality 3 default

plot_scale PLOT 0.930000 default

plot_destination printer default

plotter_command windows_print_manager \\W7SFIPROE02\HP CM2320 Printer

pen_table_file C:\PTC\user_local_proew5_pdm\table.pnt

plot_sheets current default

paper_size A4 default

paper_outline NO default

plot_clip NO default

plot_area NO default

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[dschenken]

At the least you'll need to find what commands the printer to use different trays. I suspect those will be appended to the plotter_command entry.

[dschenken]

OK - because HP makes everything harder than it needs to be.

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Peripherals/Printers_Scanners/Q_23762465.html

Suggests that creating a .reg file of the printer settings and then loading it for a workable solution. That might be the better solution as it doesn't seem to require as much poking to get it to work OK. The best thing is that there is only one level of software trying to control the printer.

This may also help. It covers the PCL and PJL commands that are used to control the printer.

http://www.piclist.com/techref/language/pcl/index.htm

Tray selection is shown in the http://www.piclist.com/techref/language/pcl/decoded.htm list. The list links to http://www.piclist.com/techref/language/pcl/source.htm

At the worst, consider getting 2 more printers. They don't cost very much and they can be named for the color paper they have, for what that's worth.

[DanielReid]

We just went through this exercise with a Ricoh plotter. In our case, we were sending HGPL output but needed to prefix it with something to specify a different tray than the plotter was defaulting to. It turned out the Ricoh doesn't use PCL but something else. In any case, we finally got the commands needed and injected that into the beginning of the output file.

However, I'm not sure how you'd do that by using the windows_print_manager and content within the .pcl file. Perhaps as David says, you can just append the commands to the plotter_command entry. In our case, we created a reference file with the appropriate header information and then used something like "copy /b <header file>+%1 <printer>". This takes the plotter command information (in the header file), merges the output plot file (%1) with it, and sends it directly to the desired printer (e.g. \\W7SFIPROE02\HP CM2320 Printer).

Frankly my experience, including recent experience dealing with performance as we batch print some manufacturing drawings right now, is the old-school "copy /b" is more efficient than windows_print_manager. Your results may vary.

[MartinHanak]

Greg,

if it is not possible to use solution mentioned by Daniel Reid and if you have some programming knowledge, then you can use AutoIt. This tool enables you to program user selections and clicks done manually when user prints a drawing using MS Printer Manager. AutoIt produced exe-file, that you can launch using Creo mapkey.

Martin Hanak