GBPLO

GBPLO is a printing application enabling you to produce drawing files generated in think3's and AutoCAD®'s environments as output on a plotter or printer, or on a file in the corresponding format or other formats.

The advantage of using an independent program to print drawings is that no graphics stations are occupied during printing. In fact, you can use GBPLO "concurrently" with the interactive program, continuing work with the latter while the plotter or printer is operating.

This document describes the following general topics.
Any product names mentioned in this document are trademarks used for identification purposes only.

Input and output formats

The input for GBPLO consists of drawing files in one of the following formats:

 Plotting think3 documents

In order to plot think3 documents using GBPLO, you will have to:
  • Save Drawings in one of the following formats (instead of the usual ".e2" format):
    • GBG DraftMaker  — extension ".d"
    • DXF  — extension ".dxf"
    • DWG  — extension ".dwg"
  • Save Models in one of the following formats (instead of the usual ".e3" format):
    • DXF  — extension ".dxf"
    • DWG  — extension ".dwg"

You can generate output in the following formats:

General methods for use

GBPLO recognizes the format of the input file automatically.

To specify the characteristics required at output, you can combine three methods:

  1. Supply a set of options directly in the run string (see section "Run string")
  2. Define a set of directives in an initialization file (see section Initialization file) indicated to GBPLO when you run the program
  3. Let the program, with its interactive "questions-answers" (see section Interactive mode), request the data necessary to produce the output.

It is a good idea to group together all frequently used directives which are not often modified in the initialization file, specifying special options in the run string, allowing the program to request those which are necessary (which cannot be omitted) and were left unspecified because forgotten or for some other reason.

 Run string options and Initialization file directives

If you specify the same mode both as a directive in the initialization file and as an option in the run string, the latter always applies: for example, if the format indicated in the initialization file differs from that indicated in the run options, the program prints with the values supplied by the latter; this allows the user to avoid modification of the standard parameters normally used for printing (initialization file), changing only those occasionally used in the run time.

Output to file and output to print device

GBPLO output, in any of the formats listed in section Input and output formats, can be produced in a file or directly on the print device (printer or plotter). The two methods are identical for GBPLO; in fact, it sends output to an "output device" defined by the user: the host system interprets the name of the output device as the print device, if there is one with a defined name, or as a file.

For this reason, and for clarity, the term "printing" is used both to indicate reproduction on a printer (or plotter) and with the extended meaning of generating an output file in one of the formats supported.