Microstation Tips and Tricks: Managing Multi-roll Plotters Tutorial

Printer Job Language (PJL) can be used to compile small scripts that can extend the functionality of the standard Microstation plot drivers, and to switch rolls on multi-roll plotters like the hp designjet 1055cm plus.

The following is a sample script which is saved as "t:/CAD/Scripts/PJL/roll1.txt".

For detailed information on PJL: View the full pdf

For a multi-roll plotter, plot drivers should be created for each of the paper sizes on the rolls, for example roll1_297mm.plt, roll2_610mm.plt and roll3_841mm.plt. The plot drivers will be identical but each will reference a different PJL script.
Edit the first plot driver ("roll1_297mm.plt") so that the first line reads:
prefix=t:/CAD/Scripts/PJL/roll1.txt following our example on the previous page. The crucial line in the script is:
@PJL SET MEDIASOURCE=ROLL1
This ensures that when a plot arrives that has been created using the plot driver roll1_297mm.plt, the appropriate roll is loaded automatically. It is then worth creating a second script called roll_end.txt with just the following lines:

At the very end of the plot driver, add the line:suffix=t:/CAD/Scripts/PJL/roll_end.txt
This seemed to sort out problems properly resetting the plotter after a change in the loaded roll.