Running the PLMPrintBatch

You can use the PLMPrintBatch to print objects without running the software. These objects may be V6 or V5 files (such as .CATProduct, .CATPart documents, etc.), raster files (bmp, tiff, etc.) and vector files (CGM, HPGL, HPGL2).

This task shows you how to:

Before you begin:
  • Provided that you have a graphic board, the rendering style (Shading, Shading with Edges, etc.) can be taken into account when printing in batch mode.
  • All product representations are loaded and processed by the PLMPrintBatch. The loaded representations are identical to those loaded when running Open, which means that you cannot select the representations to be processed by the batch.
  • 3D XML format is not supported.

Access the Batch Interface from the Command Line

You can access the PLMPrintBatch interface from the command line.

  1. Open an MS-DOS panel.
  2. Access the following folder: C:\Program Files\Dassault Systemes\B424\OS_a\code\bin.
  3. Enter the command CATUTIL -Name PLMPrintBatch

Access the Batch Interface from the Batch Monitor

You can also access the print batch interface using the Batch Monitor in a session. In that case, additional options are available to you.

  1. Access the Batch Monitor interface either from the command line, or from a session.
  2. In the Batch Monitor dialog box, double-click PLMPrintBatch from the list.

Define the Batch Parameters

Before running the PLMPrintBatch, you must define the parameters to be applied.

Note that the printing parameters you define globally apply to all the objects to be printed, you cannot modify these parameters for each object individually.

  1. Click Properties... to set up the printing parameters.

    • The look of the dialog box changes according to the driver.
    • If the driver is provided by Dassault Systèmes, the Printer Properties dialog box is displayed.

  2. Depending on the location of the objects to be converted, click:
    • to search for a 3DEXPERIENCE object: see Searching for Objects.
    • to search for objects stored in other connectors (for example VPMV5, 3D XML, etc.). In the Connect to Database dialog box, enter the required connection parameters (if necessary) then click OK to validate.

    Important: Appropriate licenses are required to access objects in the provider you are connected to.

  3. Optional: If you are searching for objects stored in a database other than ENOVIA V6, click or if you are searching for file objects, click to access the dedicated search interface.

    For more information about how to search for file objects, see Searching for Files.

    The objects to be converted are listed in the batch dialog box.
  4. Click Default Printing Parameters to define the parameters used by default for all printed documents.
  5. In the Printing Parameters dialog box, use the Layout tab to define the page orientation, the image size and position.

    Notes: When the Use image format option is selected:
    • For documents other than .CATDrawing or .model, the printer's default paper format is displayed in the Form Name box.
    • For .CATDrawing or .model documents, User is displayed in the Form Name box (with a warning for the dimensions) if the format is not supported by the printer or, the appropriate format with the corresponding dimensions is displayed if it is supported by the printer.
    • For documents other than a V5 or V6 document, the printer's default paper format is displayed in the Form Name box.
    • If you are in the default printing parameters, the printer's default paper format is always displayed in the Form Name box because no document is associated with these parameters.

  6. Use the Visualization tab to define the visualization mode to be used for printing.
  7. Optional: If you are printing drawing representations, access the MultiDocuments tab to define sheet options.
  8. Click Save then browse your file tree to save your XML file in the desired location.

    Important: Running a batch printing using PrintBatch automatically generates a file named "PrintBatchParameters.xml" saved in a temporary folder by default. The generated XML file can then be manually edited to be used later on to run the batch directly without accessing the batch interface.

  9. Click Run.
    The selected documents are printed.
  10. In the Batch Monitor, access the Start tab.
    The name and location of the XML file containing the batch parameters you defined in the previous steps (as well as the name of the host computer if you run the batch in remote mode) are now displayed.
  11. Access the Processes tab then double-click a batch from the list.
    Information on the batch execution is displayed. See Running a Batch Directly for more information about this tab.
  12. Optional: Click Open HTML Report .
    An HTML version of the report is displayed.

    This button is activated only when a report has been generated. You can still visualize the report by opening the HTML file from the directory in which it has been saved.

  13. Click Close to close the dialog box then Cancel to close the PLMPrintBatch.
  14. Select File > Exit to exit the Batch Monitor.

    Tip: When the batch has been run at least once, an XML file containing the batch parameters is generated. You can reuse these parameters next time you access the PLMPrintBatch by right-clicking it then selecting Read input from parameter file.... This opens a file selection dialog box which lets you navigate to the desired XML file. When finished, click OK to validate: the batch dialog box is updated and displays the contents of the parameter file.

  15. To read the reports generated by the batch execution, access the folder c:\temp\batchID.

    See Defining the Batch Parameters for more information about this tab.

Edit the XML File

You can define your print parameters directly in the XML file. This parameter file can be used later on to run the batch from the Batch Monitor capability or from the command line.

  1. Open the "PrintBatchParameters.xml" file using your favorite text editor.
  2. To modify the name of the printer to be used, indicate the new printer name in the <PRINT_OUTPUT_PRINTER> parameter.
  3. Optional: If you are printing drawing representations, you can edit the sheet name and number in <PRINT_VISU_IMAGE_NAME> and <PRINT_VISU_IMAGE_NUM> respectively.
  4. Save your XML file.