Transfer commands to plotter(LPT)

**JSoftware** · 29-01-2005, 05:46 PM

I've just gotten a plotter which was about to get scrapped. it came with a old(!) computer which contained autocad 3.1 which was used to draw and plot the drawing to the plotter.

Now i've found out that this plotter uses hpgl to plot and i read up on it. now i think i could write a delphi application that would be a little easier to use than this old pile of **** that the plotter came with. i can generate the code in a propper way that the plotter understands but then:

How do i send all this information to the plotter?
it's just plain text that i generate.. do anybody know anything on this "Language" hpgl?

regards Jeppe
ps. i don't know if my explaination was proper but i didn't have much time to write this..

**JSoftware** · 30-01-2005, 12:41 PM

is figured out!

**{MSX}** · 30-01-2005, 01:10 PM

Originally Posted by JSoftware

is figured out!

How did you do that ?

**WILL** · 30-01-2005, 01:10 PM

Nice Job!

Maybe you could tell us the results? Someone else down the road might benifit from it... maybe...?

**JSoftware** · 30-01-2005, 01:32 PM

i forgot an old friend of mine who was in the possion of the answer... (*cough*google*cough*)

ops:

[pascal]
var f: textfile;
begin
assignprn(f);
rewrite(f);
writeln(f,'IN;PD;PA10,10;PU;');
closefile(f);
end;
[/pascal]

now i just need to find out why it doesn't work.. it transfers the commands properly but the plotter won't understand it.. atleast i think so. do you know if i could need some sort of string terminator?

Regards
Jeppe

**TheLion** · 30-01-2005, 10:27 PM

does that still work in Windows 2000/XP ?

The reason I ask is that Win2000/XP is very grumpy when it comes to ports!

**WILL** · 31-01-2005, 12:36 AM

Originally Posted by TheLion

The reason I ask is that Win2000/XP is very grumpy when it comes to ports!

Oh a nice little library called 'ZLPortIO' can help with that.

Not sure about the website... jsut google for it.

**JSoftware** · 31-01-2005, 05:52 AM

Originally Posted by TheLion

does that still work in Windows 2000/XP ?

The reason I ask is that Win2000/XP is very grumpy when it comes to ports!

if you add Printers to your uses clause then it's possible

Regards
Jeppe

**Lightning** · 02-02-2005, 10:22 AM

Nice, i also used ZLPortIO for hardware access, it's an excellent fast and easy-to-use library that uses an extremly small .sys file for NT+ systems, you can access any hardware resource with it.