Plotstream Overview for CAD Managers
On this page
 Comfortably delegate plot jobs to anyone
Control and prioritize plotting
Easy to deploy
Easy to support
Focus on design - not plotting
Gain control of your AutoCAD® plotting
Historical look-backs
Improve team productivity
Integrated with HP Remote Printing AEC®
Log every plot
No special drivers required
No special hardware required
Plot from your desktop without AutoCAD®
Plot to multiple file types and plotters
Plotting becomes a trivial task
Project-centric plot control
Reduce Costs
Reduce plot training
Saved agents can be used as project templates
Scalable to extremely high throughput
Underlying security assigns users and administrators
Works with AutoCAD® or any AutoCAD® vertical
Comfortably delegate plot jobs to anyone
Plotstream gives you the ability to configure critical project and plot
parameters so you can more comfortably delegate plot jobs. Simplifying plotting
for your team will reduce or eliminate "miscue" plot jobs, saving time,
resources and frustration - yours and theirs. Although plot jobs can be
delegated, you still have control over the queues where you can cancel,
pause, or change priorities if necessary.
 top of page
Control and prioritize plotting
Having Plotstream empowered users in the enterprise requires access to plot
control and prioritization tools. Plotstream delivers a queue management
tool that can delete, pause, and prioritize plot jobs. In addition, plot
jobs can be redirected to other devices should one be down for maintenance
or repair. These powerful privileges can be controlled using your existing
network security credentials.
top of page
Easy to deploy
Plotstream uses no special hardware or drivers, which greatly simplifies
deployment and maintenance. The Plotstream server can easily be installed by
someone who is familiar with AutoCAD®installation, plotting, and the
associated plotter hardware. Most of the Plotstream server configuration
decisions are related to AutoCAD®and the users' specific project
environment. The Plotstream server installation will automatically create
the necessary network shares for communication to and from the workstation.
The workstation installation is available from a network share created on
the Plotstream server and can be deployed in a no-touch manor. By default,
the workstation installation is a silent, pull installation but can also be
done remotely, scripted, or pushed, if the network has the capabilities. The
workstation installation delivers a fully configured installation.
top of page
Easy to support
The overwhelming response from our on-site services (FM)
providers and end users is
that Plotstream is easy to support. When asked about their support calls
from customers, FM providers comment, "We don't get any support calls - It
just works".
top of page
Focus on design - not plotting
A Plotstream enabled environment allows you to refocus efforts back on what
you do best - design. Your own expert(s) set and control the plotting
environment for your corporate standards and project specifications. Your
team can
then create the plots they want, when they want them.
top of page
Gain control of your AutoCAD®plotting
With the newfound control over plotting you can better utilize your team and
hardware resources. Plotting issues and delays are significantly reduced.
The plotting of multiple projects is easily prioritized, paused, or changed
on-the-fly. Multiple plotters can be engaged to increase productivity and
multiple Plotstream servers can significantly increase plot processing
volume. All are choices and control you did not have before.
top of page
Historical look-backs
Because Plotstream logs each plot, guesswork is eliminated and historical
information is easily accessible. Now you will confidently know how many
D-size plots were made for "Project XYZ" last month on the "ABC500" plotter.
Harvesting this information allows you to calculate efficiencies, project
plotting costs, throughput, consumable usage, and more. You can easily
access valuable data that can be used for marketing, estimating, budgeting,
process optimization, etc.
top of page
Improve team productivity
Now users can create one or hundreds of plots with ease. Traditionally, each
drawing file had to be opened in AutoCAD®, configured for plotting, submitted
to the plotter. Users would then wait on the drawing to be processed on the
workstation. Each drawing could take several minutes to configure, submit,
and process. This is repeated for each drawing in the set. On a large
project this could take hours or days while the user is not drawing or
designing anything. Plotstream automates this entire process. The Plotstream
server(s) performs all of the processing - not the users' workstations.
Users are able to do what they were hired for - designing and drawing.
top of page
Integrated with HP Remote Printing AEC®
Plotstream can detect the installation of HP Remote Printing for AEC®. No
additional drivers or plug-ins are necessary. Simply acquire the HP
subscription and plot.
top of page
Log every plot
Each plot produced through the Plotstream system is silently entered into an
easily accessible log. The logged information can be used to troubleshoot as
well as to calculate efficiencies, project plotting costs, throughput,
consumable usage, and more. Plotstream also integrates into several of the
industry leading cost recovery and print tracking systems. Plotstream data
is transparently passed to these applications without any user intervention.
top of page
No special drivers required
Plotstream is designed to work with all AutoCAD®plot drivers and these are
only necessary on the Plotstream server. No additional drivers are required
by the Plotstream environment. This means any standard plotter controller or
driver that works with AutoCAD®will work with Plotstream. No hybrid
controllers are necessary. Should you want to create PDF files, simply
purchase and install a single copy of Adobe® Acrobat® on the Plotstream
server.
top of page
No special hardware required
Plotstream is a software solution that is not dependent on any specialized
hardware. There are never additional costs associated with Plotstream when
you add new plotters or upgrade AutoCAD®.
top of page
Plot from your desktop without AutoCAD®
From a workstation without AutoCAD®, you can submit AutoCAD® drawings to a
Plotstream server for processing. With all of the technical and project
specific parameters already set, virtually anyone in the enterprise can
create perfect plots. The Plotstream user interface is simple and intuitive,
requiring little or no training. You no longer have to request plots from a
CAD specialist and wait for the results. With Plotstream you have the power
to plot one drawing or a set of drawings to a plotter - in another office if
desired. Extending this "CADless" workstation plotting can greatly empower
you and your team.
top of page
Plot to multiple file types and plotters
Do you need to create DWF, TIFF, EPS, HPGL/2, HPGL, or PDF files of your
project drawings? Plotstream makes plotting to file easy. With a copy of
Adobe® Acrobat® on the Plotstream server, PDF files are quickly and easily
generated. DWF, TIFF, EPS, HPGL/2, and HPGL are even easier since no other
drivers are necessary. Just select and appropriate plotter configuration
file and submit.
top of page
Plotting becomes a trivial task
With Plotstream the attention, frustration, and angst previously associated
with plotting is all but eliminated. You now have a consistently applied
framework to control and monitor your plotting environment. No more will you
need to dedicate significant team resources and expertise to simply plot
drawings. Plotstream helps reduce the risk of releasing drawings at the
wrong revision level or incomplete sets. When you release a drawing set, you
know it has been produced to the specifications you require.
top of page
Project-centric plot control
Plotstream's project-centric control empowers you to configure enterprise
plotting defaults as well as the project specific overrides for everyone
within the scope of the Plotstream server(s). This configuration includes
CTB and STB plot styles, PC3 plot device files, XREF paths, font paths,
resource files, drawing file locations, and more. Once you configure these
parameters, anyone using Plotstream uses those same project settings.
top of page
Reduce Costs
Plotstream is designed from the ground-up to save resources and address the
real issues of add-ons, upgrades, integration costs, costly training, and
third-party hardware/software proliferation now faced by users in the
enterprise AutoCAD®environment. With Plotstream, you will save on AutoCAD®
licensing, third-party plot drivers, controllers, rippers, training, and
hardware. Plotstream offers an outstanding ROI that will free up valuable
resources.
top of page
Reduce plot training
Since you or another plot expert will make most of the plotting
configuration decisions, your remaining teammates can be spared additional
training for plotting. Plot jobs (agents) can be saved to file and used as
templates. By using these agents, Plotstream users do not need to be
plotting experts to create perfect plots.
top of page
Saved agents can be used as project templates
Plot jobs (agents) can be saved to file and used as templates. By using
these agents, Plotstream users do not need to be plotting experts to
create perfect plots. Template agents also provide another level of
consistency to the project team when it comes to plotting.
top of page
Scalable to extremely high throughput
With Plotstream you have many growth options - scaling up and scaling out.
To scale up, begin by adding memory or CPUs to the Plotstream server. That's
still not enough? Add another Plotstream server. Plotstream servers can be
configured as master/slave to load balance for the ultimate in high volume
plot processing. There is nothing extra for your end users to do. Their jobs
just complete much faster. Scaling out would include adding plotters. One
Plotstream server can drive multiple plotters. We will be glad to guide you
in designing the optimal configuration of hardware and software for your
specific needs.
top of page
Underlying security assigns users and administrators
Plotstream uses your underlying network security in designating and
differentiating Plotstream administrators and users. You are easily able to
designate administrators who can control the plot queue (PSQueue), configure
projects (PSConfig), as well as who can actually create plots (PSClient). If
you already have security groups for your CAD users, power CAD users, CAD
administrators, etc., you can control Plotstream.
top of page
Works with AutoCAD® or any AutoCAD® vertical
Plotstream is designed to work with all AutoCAD® DWG files. Though AutoCAD®
is not required on the workstation, AutoCAD®must be installed on each
server. This brings plotting access to the entire enterprise while still
delivering the high fidelity plots you are use to getting from AutoCAD®.
Since the server uses AutoCAD®to process the plots, custom objects that are
found in the verticals (LDT, ADT, ABS, etc.) are resolved correctly.
top of page
|