For you guys who download those big graphic plan files from European sources off the internet ....how do you plot these out?


I have a few (roughly) 36" by 60" plans which were done in GIF and PCX format. When I run them off on my plotter they come out stretched at about 1:4 ratio. I am using MS Kodak and Adobe Photoshop 5 LE for such. I can find any adjustments which will make them plot true scale. I can plot out most any other format true to scale, but these are puzzling me.


Are the European formats different than the USA formats?


Wm.

Most of my prints are from TIFF's. I use the software that came with my KIP2900 36" scanner/copier/laser plotter and works great every time.

I have done GIFs the same way but not very often. They worked fine.

I use Paint Shop Pro. It's nice as it has ruler bars I can pull up for figuring the enlargement ratio and for pre-print viewing. I've had no problems with image stretching and even printed a FW190 from a Russion site.

I had used Paint Shop Pro about two years ago and got it via the internet. Had it mounted on a small D:drive, and when that was replaced with a larger one, it would not transferr. They wanted me to buy another copy. I don't remember much photo manipulation in the program. It very well may have been placed on later versions.

I am having problems with two big pictures which I got a few years ago from a no longer active personal web site out of (East) Germany. One was a GIF of a Ta-154, and the other a Uhu in PCX format. It takes a few minutes, but I rotate the images to align with my plotter output, change format, and even box and crop out a section. Each looks good in the computer viewers, but no matter what is done, distortion and "gray" lines are the result at plot out time.

I have not had such problems when receiving similar files from N.A. based sites, and wonder if these are on some different sort of standard now? Most of the files are supposed to come out 36" wide by 244" long if my little Cm to Inch converter is correct. Maybe I need a plotter built in East Germany.



Wm.

Have any links to any sites with free plans?

Take a look at archives as there was a goodly number of them listed in this forum on 12/16/2002

I have a long list of links but was told that one of them would give you a virus. I have been unable to find out which one it is so I won't post it until I'm absolutely sure it's gone. Don't need any more guilt, thank you!