Plotter Recommendations

[kvaught]

I have the opportunity to get a new plotter and was wondering what other Solidworks user are using? I currently have an HP 350C. The main thing I am looking for is speed. This plotter will be on a network, used by six to ten other Solidworks users. Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[ctopher]

There are a lot of good ones. I suggest something that is multi-task printer/plotter without pens... Oce/Canon/etc.
We use OCE's.

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP0.1 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site

 

[SolidsMaster]

without pens Chris....pen plotters aren't even made by HP anymore. We used an HP755CM/PS plotter. A real work-horse but price plus and that was awhile ago. Make sure you get the appropiate size. If you ever do "E" drawings there is a big price jump for those. Or, go paperless!! A good laser will print out nice 11X17 prints for ref??

John

 

[kvaught]

We have a great 11 x 17 printer. Largest we do is 24" x 36". (Haven't had a pen plotter since the early 90's).

 

[mncad]

kvaught,

We use an HP DesignJet 500, color inkjet, does up to D size, uses rolls of paper. Seems to do a nice job, although, haven't used it a whole lot yet but so far it is good. Just curious, what 11 X 17 printer do you use? Would like to get one of those because cutting the paper to size (smaller prints, B and C, off of the plotter need cut to width) does get a little tedious.

mncad

 

[kvaught]

The 11 x 17 printer we use is a Sharp AR-C260M, Copier/Scanner/Printer hooked into the network. It does a very nice job with either check prints or photo quality renderings.

 

[Standing]

We use a 11 x 17 LANIER LD060 PCL 5e, Copier/Scanner/Printer hooked into the network. Our D size prints, are good enough for the machine shop to use. It took a year for management to agree to use the 11 x 17 prints. All our drawings are on a D size sheet then printed to 11 x 17. We tried using B, C and D sizes. To complicated for our engineers, to many sizes to pick from.

Bradley

 

[kvaught]

We tried to go strictly B-size, but that is not an option. We need a good D-size plotter that has speed and can handle the workload.

 

[rporter]

WE use a designjet 1050c plus from hp for a large format printer this is probably more than you need. HP has the new designjet 30 and 130 which will do d size printing that look like a nice printer. I beleive that one of them can be outfited with roll feed.

Roger

 

[Heckler]

mncad,

We also use a HP DesignJET 500....it takes rolls and sheets. It's a large format plotter but it will do all sizes (A-E).

Best Regards,

Heckler

"Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups" John Kenneth Galbraith

 

[krywarick6]

I'll second rporter with the HP 1050C. It does color too. One would think it to be a waste until you're trying to do a visual presentation of min/max dimension for the non-design type of people.

They like touchy-feely colors and understand them better than black & white.

Regards,

Christopher Zona
Litens Automotive Partnership
Concord, Ontario, Canada

 

[alexit]

"The main thing I am looking for is speed."

Stay away from the flimsy HP commerical junk, its fine for a small design shop or art studio but hasn't the ability to run hard.

Look at Oce if your budget limits you, or go with an industrial printer like the KIP 6000 (8 'D' size prints per minute) or Xerox 8825 (Sustained printing 7 'D' size prints per minute.)

For ten engineers in a company where paperless hasn't been thought of there is also the KIP 8000 (22 'D' size prints per minute)...

 

[smcadman]

We use B-size here, but my old job used an HP DesignJet 750C and it was a real workhorse. It plotted colored line drawings, but it was very fast with all-black. It also printed color photos pretty good too.

Flores