Using InterPlot Organizer
If you haven't already placed the plot shapes in your DGN files please refer to the document Preparing your DGN file for Interplot Organizer.
- Open Interplot Organizer by going to "Start>Programs>Interplot Utilities>Interplot Organizer.
- A dialog box opens asking if you want to open an existing plot set or Create a new plot set from files you select. Since we are creating a new set select the first option and press the OK button.
- The next dialog box that opens is where you add the DGN files you want to have plotted. You can add as many files as you want.
- Select the "Add" button and locate the files that you want to plot from. By holding down the "Ctrl" key and selecting the files with your mouse you can select multiple files and one time. Once you have them selected, press the "Open" button at the bottom right corner.
- Next you need to select the .set file for your needs. Select the "Browse" button and the "Select a Settings File" dialog box opens. Find the set file you want and select "Open". Then in the "Create Plots" dialog box select the "OK" button. This will submit your designs to Interplot Organizer. You may receive a message that the applied settings file contains a common section. Select yes, this is the section that assigns the plot queue.
- If you have a mix of Landscape and Portrait drawings, you will need a different set file for each. Load all the files that can use one set file (steps 4 and 5). At this point the "Create Plots" dialog box goes away. To open it again go to File then in the pull down menu select "Create Plots…". Then run steps 4 and 5 again selecting the files that will use a different set file and submit them. This will assign two different set files to your drawing.
Modifying your submitted plots
- Once you have submitted you plots into Interplot Organizer it will look something like this.
Even though the plots are submitted in the order the shapes were placed in the DGN file you may still want to move them around. With Interplot organizer this is very easy to accomplish.
- In the Interplot Organizer dialog at top, center you will notice four arrows.
The arrows from left to right:
- Move selection to the top
- Move selection up one
- Move selection down one
- Move selection to the bottom
- To move a file(s) up or down, select them and select the corresponding arrow.
- To rename the file. Highlight the file from the column "Plot Name" and right click the file name. Move down to "Rename" and rename the file to what ever you want.
My suggestion would be the sheet name. This will make it easy to sort the sheets.
Once you have them renamed simply select the column heading "Plot Name" and It will sort the plots for you.
- Once you have everything set the way you want it. You can save this as a design set. Go to "File" then select "Save As". This will bring up the save as dialog box. Once here find the project folder you wish to save it under and give it a name. MAKE SURE TO LEAVE THE EXTENSION .IPS. You can open this saved set any time and re-plot it with out ever opening Microstation. Also it is set to re-read the design file for any changes since it was last plotted. There are few things to keep in mind on re-plotting. They are:
- You do not add or subtract any new plot shapes
- Your modifications MUST be made inside the existing shapes you placed earlier
- If you do add or remove plot shapes you will need to remove the design file and any plots that came from it out of Interplot Organizer and re-submit ONLY the modified design file. Follow steps 4 and 5 to resubmit a design file.
- To plot the design sheets you need to select them. You can select one. A few or all of them. To select just one place your mouse on it and left click. To select a few, hold down the "Ctrl" key and select the files to be plotted. You can select all of them by going to "Edit" on the pull down menus then "Select" then "All Plots". After you have the file selected you want to plot go to "File" then "Print", then select the printer you want and select the "OK" button. You can also select the icon with the printer on it from the tool bar.
