Need help with RIP engine

[Bob Collins]

I am a total newbie to "serious" printing and large format plotting. I have in my office a new Encad plotter, but found we now require RIP software to support printing pdf to it and the like.

I am asking here as I respect the knowledge level and time-in-grade of so many of the users.

So who likes what, and what is recomended? And obviously the budget is a shoestring.

Thanks

[JHEM]

Bob,

What software are you using the Encad with?

See here: http://www.encad.com/Support/RIP-Suppor ... _links.asp

If your software provider isn't listed, let us know.

Regards,

James

[Bob Collins]

Hi James!

The usual suspects in a civil engineering GIS shop. AutoCAD, ArcVIEW, Photoshop. I did look through Encad's site, but found no solid info on RIP support for the newer model "T200+" that we have.

I do have a tech support query into them, and am awaiting reply, but figured someone here would know faster!

The short story is we received 30 PDFs of 24"x36" drawings from another engineering firm. They were loathe to release the DWGs. So, to send the PDF from Acrobat, everything sets up fine, but the actual print is a few random lines on the 24"x36" sheet. So for a stop-gap we are pulling the PDF into Photoshop and then saving as TIFF and then sending the TIFF to the plotter. Slow and painful for sure, but it is okay for the time being....