Kurt Magness

I just found a great web site for wide format printer reviews and info. I want to buy a new plotter and they are realy helpful. www.wide-format-printers.orgwww.FineArtGicleePrinters.org these guys know there stuff and do not recomend any thing outher than HP's. The have lots of evaluation reports on all the plotters out there. Also I emailed microspot about the mac plot drivers for OSX and they said they are in the works and not out yet. They also seem kind of pricy for network solutions. I like to put my money inot hardware vs software. Kurt

It would be great if you would bring back the extend tool to VWKS 9.5 like you did with the trim tool. The old extend worked much better with multiple lines that needed to be extended. One click instead of two.

thanks for the reply. I already have the hp455 ppd installed in OS9 (sys folder, prefs printr prefs parsed PPD folder & extentions) on the machine with OS X . I can see the plotter in the print center but can't select it maually because no ppd is in the list provided. I tried to drag the the ppd's to the OS X system but do not know where to put them. This is what HP said in some emails: Kurt,Thank you for contacting Hewlett-Packard's Customer Care Technical Center.As long as all of the Macs on the Network are booted in native OS 9.x, thenyou may do as you're requesting. ANY Mac running OS X natively will not beable to interact with the RIP software. Kurt,Thank you for contacting Hewlett-Packard's Customer Care Technical Center.Actually, it won't work with OS X native at all. Classic mode, OS 9.1 only. I will try the 1055cm ppd and see what happens. Kurt

I just loaded os x and I am weeding my way through the process. I use Wacom and Kennsington 2 button/wheel mice and they have os x drivers for them that work fine. I too miss the windowshade aspects of os 9 in vws. Maybe there is a freeware version for os x? Still can not plot through my network yet. I thought having the computer that is running the rip program for the 455ca plotter would work running os 9, but even though I can see it on the network in os x's print center, it does not seem to have a PPD file to select that os x reconises. I guess I can run vw 8.5 ( because of the post script errors of vws9.5, see plotting problems ) in classic then export a file to it to plot (a pain!) or maybe save it in os x as a postscript then open it in the hp rip to plot? any suggestions out there?

Here's a couple of emails I received from HP regarding the 455ca plotter. Basically passing the buck back to our buddy's at Nemetschek. Kurt, Thank you for contacting Hewlett-Packard's Customer Care Technical Center. HP is still working on OS X solutions for our current products which we hope to deliver sometime in the spring. HP Barcelona (where the DesignJets are manufactured) hasn't given any time frame or even assurances that older products will have an OS X solution. We are still waiting for them to finish current products and then tell us what their decision is. Once again, thank you for contacting Hewlett-Packard's Customer Care TechnicalCenter. Kurt, Thank you for contacting Hewlett-Packard's Customer Care Technical Center. At this point, HP is still investigating the 'issue' that Nemetschek states ontheir web site is a memory leak. Since previous versions of Vectorworks printfine as do all other applications, HP is skeptical of the statement being made. Your best bet is to call in to our Mac DesignJet 455CA support group and have them open a case with this issue. That way, any research that is done will betied to a case number and you can be notified if any resolution to the matter is made. (208) 323-2551

i used to lament all the frustrations I had with computers and CAD. Ahh the good old days when drawings did not just vanish because of something I did wrong. Then I had to hand draft some work and used my old electric eraser to grind out half a drawing. Boy what a pain! Now computer glitches do not seem so bad

Hp does have good support but I doubt that they will fix this problem because the 455ca is no longer made. I am on a Mac system and I am very familiar with this problem. Exporting to VWKS 8.5 is the only reliable way to plot on the 455ca. I thad hoped that VWKS 9.5 would solve the problem but no, I still get the dreaded fatal post script error which freezes the RIP program. This is a weird problem because it does not occurr consistently. Sometimes it works plotting from VWKS 9.5 but most of the time it freezes the RIP. I have had problems all along with the 455ca and it's RIP software. Seems to be very picky even with 8.5. I network it between several Macs and the computers that are not running the RIP seem to work the best. Be sure you have the patch from HP if you are running Mac OS 9. Allocate at least 40 to 60 megs of RAM to the RIP. HP told me that they will not re-write the RIP for Mac OSX. So if you want to use Mac OSX, I guess the computer that runs the RIP would have to run OS9 or run in the classic mode and all others would be running OS 10? I am wondering if anybody has tried to use the 455ca with Mac OS X in a network environment? Hp says their more expense plotters that have the RIP on the plotter have alot less problems especially with Macs but for the money you can by another Mac & a "cheap" plotter. This I am realizing is maybe not the best solution because I spend many hours a month getting the plotter to work Kurt