HIPLOT Plotter Driver for Windows
Houston Instrument, A Division of Summagraphics Corporation
Version 2.20
The HIPLOT device driver allows a Houston Instrument plotter to be used
as a printer under Windows versions 3.0 and 3.1.
FEATURES:
The HIPLOT driver supports the following features:
+) Over twenty different plotter models including cutters.
+) DM/PL, HP-GL and HP-GL/2 plotter languages.
+) Color sorting.
+) Color mapping (driver chooses closest available color).
+) Draft and final velocity settings per plotter pen.
+) Pen and paper prompts.
+) Long plots (User specified paper length).
+) Multiple copies.
+) Scaling.
+) Device fonts.
+) True Type font support (filled or not filled).
+) Wide lines.
+) High and low resolution modes.
INSTALLATION
The following steps are intended to be a brief overview of how to
install the HIPLOT plotter driver. For complete instructions, refer
to your Windows User's Guide.
Windows 3.0 installation
1) Run Windows and from the Control Panel, choose Printers.
2) Select "Add" printer.
3) Under the list of available printers, select "Unlisted Printer."
4) Install the driver disc into drive A or B, then select this drive
under directories, then select the HIPLOT directory. The driver
HIPLOT.DRV should appear under Driver Files. Select HIPLOT.DRV
and then select OK.
5) Select "HI Plotter" under Installed Printers, then select
"Configure" to configure the driver for your particular plotter
model.
6) First choose the port to which the plotter is attached, then
select "Setup."
Note: Driver configuration data is saved in the WIN.INI file
on a per port basis. If you select a different port at
a later date, you will need to reconfigure the driver for
that particular port via "Setup."
7) Select your plotter model from the available models under the
"Plotter Models" list box. Next, select "Media" and choose
a paper size under the "Medias" list box.
Note: The paper size selected under medias MUST match the
paper size used in the plotter.
8) Select "Pens" to configure the pen attributes (size, type,
color, draft speed and final speed).
9) To make the "HI Plotter" the default printer, make sure it is
selected under Installed Printers (Printers Dialog Box) and select
"Active" under Status. Now double click on "HI Plotter" to make it
the default printer.
10) If the plotter is connected to a serial port, choose Ports
from the Control Panel and configure the port to match the
plotters communication parameters. If you have selected
HP-GL as the plot language, the plotter and port must
to be set to hardware handshake. If DM/PL or HP-GL/2 was
selected, xon/xoff or hardware handshake may be used.
Windows 3.1 installation
1) Run Windows and from the Control Panel, choose Printers.
2) Select "Add" printer.
3) Under the list of available printers, select "Install Unlisted
or Updated Printer."
4) Select "Install."
5) Install the driver disc into drive A or B, then enter A:\HIPLOT
or B:\HIPLOT.
6) When "Houston Instrument Plotter" is displayed, select "OK."
7) To make "Houston Instrument Plotter" the default printer,
select "Set As Default Printer."
8) Select "Connect" to specify port settings.
Note: Driver configuration data is saved in the WIN.INI file
on a per port basis. If you select a different port at
a later date, you will need to reconfigure the driver for
that particular port via "Setup."
9) Select "Setup" to configure the driver. First specify your
plotter model from the available models under the "Plotter
Models" list box. Next, select "Media" and choose a paper
size under the "Medias" list box.
Note: The paper size selected under medias MUST match the
paper size used in the plotter.
10) Select "Pens" to configure the pen attributes (size, type,
color, draft speed and final speed).
11) If the plotter is connected to a serial port, choose Ports
from the Control Panel and configure the port to match the
plotters communication parameters. If you have selected
HP-GL as the plot language, the plotter and port must
to be set to hardware handshake. If DM/PL or HP-GL/2 was
selected, xon/xoff or hardware handshake may be used.
SPECIAL NOTES:
+) If you are using a DMP-160 series plotter, you will need to
change the Chart Commands menu item to "DMP-60 EH/EF" in the
Configuration Menu. This allows the driver to change between
portrait and landscape modes. If this feature is not enabled,
only landscape mode is available. This only applies if you
are using the DM/PL plotter language. If you are in Automatic
Roll mode, only landscape is available regardless of this menu
setting.
Note: Chart Commands is only available when the plotter is in
Service Mode. Service Mode is entered by holding down
the Reset/Load and Online key during powerup (letter s
visible in upper right corner of display). For more
information on Service Mode, refer to your DMP-160
series plotter manual.
+) If a chart size can be loaded as either half chart or full
chart, load the chart as full chart. An example is a D size
chart on an E size plotter. The plotter's pinch roller should
be set to the D size position (NOT the E position) and the chart
loaded as full chart.
+) If you have a DMP-29 with ROM revision 003, you will need
to upgrade your plotter's ROMs to the latest revision. ROM
revision 003 doesn't work correctly with this driver.
+) If you receive the message "Error allocating segment for plot
data!", this indicates that your system doesn't have enough
memory to store plot data. If color sorting is enabled, try
plotting again with color sorting disabled.
+) If you receive the message "Error writing plot data to file!",
this indicates that the drive that Windows uses for temporary
files is full. This message should only appear if you have
color sorting enabled and system memory is low.
+) If you receive the message "The Print Manager cannot write to
COM#", increase the Transmission Retry value to 150 or more
in the Printers Configure dialog box.
+) If you have a cutter, you will not get filled curves,
polygons or text.
+) If you have a DMP-69C cutter/plotter and it is configured
for HP-GL, the HP-GL origin must be configured to CENTERED.
+) If you have any problems installing or running the HIPLOT
plotter driver, call Technical Support at 1-800-444-3425.
+) To get updates for this driver, call the Technical Support
BBS at 512-873-1477.
VERSION 1.10:
*** CHANGES ***
1) Added support for the JetPro Series V100 printer/plotter.
2) The driver now supports pen prompting while color sorting is
disabled.
*** CORRECTIONS ***
1) Text produced by Microsoft Project is not clipped properly.
Fixed in version 1.10.
2) Invalid plot files are produced if HP-GL/2 is selected and
color sorting is enabled. Fixed in version 1.10.
3) Hatch patterns are not always updated correctly if DM/PL
is selected. Fixed in version 1.10.
4) Plots have additional lines when using RN-PDC (Radial Network -
Protective Device Coordination System) software.
Fixed in version 1.10.
VERSION 1.20:
*** CHANGES ***
1) Added support for the JetPro Series V50 printer/plotter.
*** CORRECTIONS ***
1) Multiple copies doesn't work if a V100 is selected and
the plot language is HP-GL/2. Fixed in version 1.20.
VERSION 1.30:
*** CHANGES ***
1) Added support for the DMP-100C cutter/plotter.
2) Added support for the DMP-69C cutter/plotter.
VERSION 1.30S:
*** CORRECTIONS ***
1) Horizontal and vertical lines (wide) are not always plotted.
Fixed in version 1.30S.
2) The driver's setup dialog box will not always display when the
Options button is selected in the Printer Setup dialog box.
Fixed in version 1.30S.
VERSION 1.40:
*** CHANGES ***
1) Added support for HIPLOT series plotters.
2) Added support for device/driver multiple copy control.
3) Added support for english or metric units.
VERSION 1.41S:
*** CORRECTIONS ***
1) The driver will always use the SEND Copy Mode regardless of
the Copy Mode setting. Fixed in version 1.41S.
VERSION 2.00:
*** CHANGES ***
1) Added support for True Type fonts.
2) Added support for Summachrome series printers.
3) The "Pen Settings" dialog box now includes a gray pen.
4) The "Reset All Pens" button in the "Pen Settings" dialog box
will default the pen colors as follows: Red, Yellow, Green,
Turquoise (Cyan), Blue, Magenta, Black and Gray.
5) The driver will search the pen carousel for the pen with the
closest width when drawing wide lines.
6) The maximum plot length for V50/V100 printer plotters has
changed from 120 to 182 inches.
7) The maximum width for V100 printer plotters when configured
with the roll option has changed from 11.0 to 14.8 inches.
*** CORRECTIONS ***
1) Plots have additional lines when plotting text from TurboCAD
software. Fixed in version 2.00.
2) Objects created with a solid linestyle are not plotted when
using Lotus Freelance. Fixed in version 2.00.
3) The hard clip limits are not reported correctly when using
Drafix Windows CAD. Fixed in version 2.00.
4) HP-GL/2 plots with vector lengths longer than 81 inches are
not plotted correctly. Fixed in version 2.00.
5) Printing from Quicken (version 3.0) will cause a UAE.
Fixed in version 2.00.
VERSION 2.20:
*** CHANGES ***
1) Final and Draft mode now controls the number of points
used for True Type characters. For Draft Mode, fewer
points are used.
2) The maximum plot length for V50/V100 printer plotters has
changed from 182 to 163 inches.
3) The maximum plot length for DMP40, DMP50, DMP60, DMP160 and
HI7000 series plotters has changed from 120 to 163 inches.
4) Added support for the SummaSign series cutters.
*** CORRECTIONS ***
1) Text is not plotted correctly when using applications
that don't support True Type fonts. Fixed in version 2.20.
2) True Type fonts are not plotted from Corel Draw when the driver
is configured for a cutter. Fixed in version 2.20.
3) The A0 paper size is not displayed with the correct metric
dimensions. Fixed in version 2.20.
4) Final and Draft mode is disabled for raster devices. Fixed
in version 2.20.
Download Driver Pack
After your driver has been downloaded, follow these simple steps to install it.
Expand the archive file (if the download file is in zip or rar format).
If the expanded file has an .exe extension, double click it and follow the installation instructions.
Otherwise, open Device Manager by right-clicking the Start menu and selecting Device Manager.
Find the device and model you want to update in the device list.
Double-click on it to open the Properties dialog box.
From the Properties dialog box, select the Driver tab.
Click the Update Driver button, then follow the instructions.
Very important: You must reboot your system to ensure that any driver updates have taken effect.
For more help, visit our Driver Support section for step-by-step videos on how to install drivers for every file type.