It's a (Page) Setup!
Page setups specify the plotter, paper size, and other plot settings that you use to plot a particular layout or the model space of a drawing. AutoCAD maintains separate page setups for model space and for each paper space layout. When you click the Apply to Layout button in the Plot dialog box (or select the Save Changes to Layout check box and then click OK to plot), AutoCAD stores the current plot settings as the page setup for the current layout.
Whether you plot to scale or not, with different lineweights or not, in color or not, consider using a service bureau for some of your plotting. In-house plotting on your office's output devices is great for small check plots on faster laser or inkjet printers. Large-format plotting, on the other hand, can be slow and time-consuming. If you need to plot lots of drawings, you may find yourself spending an afternoon loading paper, replenishing ink cartridges, and trimming sheets.
Good plotting service bureaus have big, fast, expensive plotters that you can only dream about owning. Also, they're responsible for babysitting those fancy devices, feeding them, and fixing them. As a bonus, service bureaus can make blueline prints from your plots if you need to distribute hard-copy sets to other people.
The only downside is that you need to coordinate with a service bureau to make sure it gets what it needs from you and can deliver the kinds of plots you need. Some service bureaus plot directly from your DWG files while others ask you to make PLT (plot) files. Some service bureaus specialize in color plotting while others are more comfortable with monochrome plotting and making blueline copies.
When you're choosing a service bureau, look for one that traditionally has served drafters, architects, and engineers. These service bureaus tend to be more knowledgeable about AutoCAD, and they should have more plotting expertise than the desktop-publishing, printing, and copying shops.
Whomever you choose, do some test plots well before the day that important set of drawings is due. Talk to the plotting people and get a copy of their plotting instructions. Have the service bureau create some plots of a couple of your typical drawings and make sure they look the way you want them to.
If you do lots of plotting with a service bureau, look into whether you can charge it to your clients as an expense (just like bluelines or copying).
You can also give page setups names and save them. The advantage of doing so is that you can switch quickly between different plot settings and copy plot settings from one drawing layout to another. Named page setups are stored with each drawing, but you can copy them from another drawing into the current one with the Page Setup Manager dialog box (described later in this section).
If you want to get fancier, you can create named page setups in order to plot the same layout (or model space) in different ways, or to copy plot settings from one layout to another or one drawing to another. Click the Add button in the Page Setup area of the Plot dialog box to create a named page setup from the current plot settings. After you create a named page setup, you can restore its plot settings by choosing it from the Page Setup Name drop-down list.
For even greater control, right-click Quick View Layouts on the status bar and choose Page Setup Manager to create, change, and copy page setups. In the Page Setup Manager dialog box, as shown in Figure 16-9, you can create new page setups and modify existing ones. Click the Modify button to open the Page Setup dialog box, which is almost identical to the Plot dialog box. The primary difference is that you're changing plot settings rather than actually plotting. The Set Current button copies the page setup that you've selected on the Page Setups list to the current layout tab. With the Import button, you can copy a page setup from another drawing or drawing template (DWT) file.
