I have an HP Designjet T630 24"x36" plotter that's about 2 years old. It's been flawless, but the other day it started plotting everything sideways: instead of plotting 36" across the page, it's plotting 36" along the page, so each plot uses up 3' of paper instead of 2' as when it plots across, and then I have to manually trim off the 1' of excess. I've gotten online and installed a new driver but it's still plotting sideways. Anyone have this issue and how to fix it?
Yes, it's common, it's always been the plot area and the scale are just enough off to make it turn.
Sometimes it's the view or window, sometimes it's the set-up for the size, I have it if I try to plot with a 24x36, when I change it to archD no margins it works fine.
Do you have a maintenance plan for it? If not, try calling HP Tech Support to see if they can walk you through it.
I purchased the same printer to replace my HP DesignJet 500. It's basically like Russian Roulette to know what the print is going to look like. I often have to uninstall then reinstall the printer to reach some modicum of control. My PC never seems to know what media is loaded into the printer.
You may see if your "Print Preview" driver is up to date--last I looked they had one last modified 5/28/24. I almost always need to manipulate the orientation manually in this preview screen to have any chance of a predictable print.
Licensed Land Surveyor
Finger Lakes Region, Upstate New York
Somewhere in the printer settings there is an option to rotate the prints 90 degrees.
Thanks everyone for the responses. After trying all the suggestions above, I ended up using the HP Driver Download Wizard and installed the latest driver. That worked yesterday, but who knows what'll happen the next time I plot.
Regarding my HP DesignJet T630 printing from Win 11:
It's still a disaster but I have found that making it the default printer before I print from it sometimes helps.
It blows my mind that my PC printing software doesn't recognize the media that is installed in the printer. How many years have we been using printers with our computers?! The interface has zero consistency or reliability. Even when it appears to be oriented properly in the preview of the software it may still not print properly. Often a 5 minute printing job takes a half an hour and multiple misfires in order to complete. And yes, this is a rant....
Licensed Land Surveyor
Finger Lakes Region, Upstate New York
I have had the same experience with an HP plotter. It takes numerous iterations of the print settings in the HP driver in order to finally get the orientation/size/roll used etc that are needed. I try not to miss an opportunity to complain about HP's inability to issue a print driver that actually works. They are pathetic.
There was a time when HP was the touchstone for highest quality. Those days are long gone. It's consumer grade crap now. If you are buying consumer grade crap for your business you shouldn't be surprised when it acts, and is supported, like consumer grade crap.
There was a time when HP was the touchstone for highest quality. Those days are long gone. It's consumer grade crap now. If you are buying consumer grade crap for your business you shouldn't be surprised when it acts, and is supported, like consumer grade crap.
Norman, what brand of large format printer have you migrated to?
Licensed Land Surveyor
Finger Lakes Region, Upstate New York
I have an Hp T120 that I bought in 2015 to replace a DJ500 that was at the nickel-&-dime-me-to-death stage. Mechanically, the machine is well put together and functions well. The firmware/software, however, left much to be desired, and the tech support people in Mumbai were no help whatsoever. Loading a single sheet was hit or miss, mostly miss. After about 5 misses I brought out the big gun curse words, and SWMBO would go off shopping. Then one day I picked it up, carried it over to the open 2nd story window, and threatened to drop it onto the concrete sidewalk below.......
Not really, but I think some revision to the firmware & driver fixed it, because it now willingly loads a single sheet on the first try, and provided I pay attention to drawing orientation in the pop-up dialog, all is well.
