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OSX+VW & plotting


louisevr

Question

Want to upgrade to OSX, but phased (10 x macs over 2 offices - old macs to be replaced, so too expensive to do it all at once).

Currently running VW10 on OS 9.2 plotting to a Xerox 2230ij via a dedicated plotter server mac with Macplot Raster. All currently runs fine.

My options as I understand it are as follows:

1: upgrade to Microspot X-RIP - but then can it work with OS9 as well?

2: change plotters to HP500 which has the jetdirect server - presume it can work with OS9, but a very expensive option as we would have to replace the plotter in each office.

3. upgrade to PC's and ditch the Macs (not my preferred option!)

Only once I resolve the plotting can we firstly consider upgrading computers, then consider upgrading to VW11.

Any ideas?

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We encountered the same problem, we had a HP 450C running with Macplot. We couldn't find a reasonably cheap solution for a mixed network OS9/OSX.

Microspot X-Rip only works on OS X, and it produces for our plotter very poor results (fat and fuzzy lines). Test a demo-version before buying! We now share the plotter with the built-in "printer sharing" of OSX and a printer driver from gimpprint. So we can plot only from the Macs already running under OSX. The plotter is connected to a Mac with a parallel-to-usb-converter cable.

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Adrian,

Think I must try to test something similar to your setup. I have again just read through the "need plotting advise" series of messages, and its it pretty mind-boggling how many problems people have with OSX, VW & plotting! Someone needs to wade through all of it and summarise! Not me, I'm dazed and confused already. All I know is to steer clear of X-Rip!

What speed of plotting do you get - I would imagine a shared printer would be much slower than a fully networked one, depending on the number of users that plot at any time?

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Gimp print has worked well for us with OSX and an HP 488CA. It should work equally well with the HP 450C. I'm not sure about the Xerox 2230.

Gimp Print has been a big improvement over the very poor OS9 compatible software provided by Hewlett Packard when we purchased the printer 4 or 5 years ago.

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the latest MacOSX includes thousands of printer drivers. If you don't get one for your Xerox there is also the EZ software package from the company that originated the CUPS printing system (the OSX printing system)

You could upgrade you best machin to Tiger and use it as a test bed to guage how you can make the transition.

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