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Not entirely. I dragged one out of storage at work a few months back to make a run of large format ARCH D-size assembly drawings for the shop floor - no sense i
by cartoonfoxes 9y ago
Not entirely. I dragged one out of storage at work a few months back to make a run of large format ARCH D-size assembly drawings for the shop floor - no sense in buying a large-format inkjet just for this task. The machine is older than me by a long ways, but is still in good working condition. AutoCAD ships with binary drivers for most of the common plotters of the day, so there was no real effort involved in setup.
I had a good amount of fun watching it go, though as others have stated, they can take forever to run. The output is gorgeous, and generating real honest-to-goodness engineering drawings on one is a special feeling.
I have a mind to try some blueprinting with it, if I can find a source of drafting film and compatible pens.
- gh02t 9y agoI wasn't suggesting buying a modern plotter, I was suggesting using a printing service as modern large format printers are expensive. Similarly I know pen plotters probably aren't totally out of use, but I can't find anywhere that offers them as a service you can rent (which was OPs question). Pen plotters have actually had a resurgence lately among hobbyists with the proliferation of affordable CNC controllers and stepper motors, but I don't think many professional shops are operating them regularly. I bet there are some artists using them however, as well as occasional users like you.