Oce 9400 installed on Macs

[oishiinc]

I would like to purchase a used Oce 9400 series 2 printer which is normally installed on a windows system. I need it installed to work from both PCs and Macs. It has been suggested by the seller that Perhaps i could set up a windows 2000 platform and load the apple talk protocol on the 2000 system. i would then need an IP address for the printer.

This a little fuzzy to me and I will ask for more info. Has anyone out there installed an Oce 9400 onto their Macs? One seller is in the Phoenix,Ariz. area and says that he has installed two systems there on Macs.

[ErichR]

As far as I know, it's gotta be a postscript printer to be able to be used with a Mac.

[willy]

If you are buying through a dealer, make them set it up. No reason for you to take the risk.

Otherwise, I get the best help when I ask about setting something up on an ethernet network or on a Unix network (assuming you have OS X). Unix has been around for years, and people are comfortable with it. Macs are viewed as unreliable fringe computers. I have to use both, so I know better, but no Wintel person will stick their neck out to tell you how to connect up your Mac. Concentrate on finding out how to put the OCE on ethernet with an IP address. The people you have talked to may mean to attach the OCE to a Windows machine on ethernet and then connect all the other PCs and Macs to ethernet. That would get everything on the network, and the OCE up and running. Then you need to transport the Mac files to the Windows machine for plotting. I don't know how the OCE queues up jobs for printing, so I cant help you there.

Good luck.

--Willy

[RickBern]

oishiinc-

I have a 25 Mac network mostly running OS 9 but with enough OS X installed to be able to comment. We have an Oce 9600 which is a very similar machine but with a separate processor, more paper handling and faster engine speed. I have 3 deeply held convictions:

USE POSTSCRIPT

Don't try to fool with the win2K print server idea. Oce sells a separate postscript simm for the machine. It may cost a little more but you're asking for trouble any other way. I use the Desktop Printer Utility to set up the printer via lpr. It's no problemo. After that it's like any other mac postscript printer. You have to know the queue name but any Oce tech can tell you that.

FIGURE OUT THE PLOT LOGGING

Oce tries to sell a megabuck application that only works on windows that won't account the plots sent via macs.

I had to write a filemaker database to get the info out of the machine's log file so we could bill properly. This required upgrading the controller (easier on a 9600) If they can't show you how to do it with the 9400 look real closely at a refurb 9600 because the ability to accurately bill will pay for itself real quickly.

DO IT

They are fabulous machines. We looked at the Xerox at the time we leased it and there was no comparison in the quality. They are pretty reliable and they have real competent service techs most of the time. Watching that machine spit out 4 D size drawings a minute makes the users real happy (they go home a lot earlier than they used to) and the partners real happy (the machine paid itself off in 40% of the time we anticipated when we made the purchasing decision-it's now kind of pure profit)

[RickBern]

oishiinc

Actually I have a fourth conviction which is not so deeply held.

The scanner is a good idea. We print a set and then duplicate it using the scanner. Rather than tying up an architect for an hour or two opening files and setting up sheets to print you can get a high school kid in to just scan, print and bind.

ps

I'm located in NYC. If you want more details my url is www.threedt.com-my email and phone number are there