CAD Mgmt: AutoCAD 2006 Background Plotting

Plotting in the Background (finally)
With AutoCAD 2006 you will be able to truly plot in the background. This is something CAD Managers have been waiting for a long time.

By default publishing in the background is turned on and plotting in the background is turned off. These settings can be changed in the Options dialog in the "Plot and Publish" tab or with the BACKGROUNDPLOT system variable:
0 = Foreground Publishing and Foreground Plotting
1 = Foreground Publishing and Background Plotting
2 = Background Publishing and Foreground Plotting (default)
3 = Background Publishing and Background Plotting

Hint: This is a little nerdy, okay, really nerdy, but if you can remember the idea "Publish now and Plot later" and a little binary (you remember binary don't you?) then you can easily remember the settings:
00 = 0 = Background Publishing off (0) and Background Plotting off (0)
01 = 1 = Background Publishing off (0) and Background Plotting on (1)
10 = 2 = Background Publishing on (1) and Background Plotting off (0)
11 = 3 = Background Publishing on (1) and Background Plotting on (1)

Plotting in the Background (sometimes)
If you use the PUBLISH or PLOT commands (or -PUBLISH or -PLOT) from a script file then the BACKGROUNDPLOT setting is ignored and publishing or plotting occurs in the foreground.

Plotting in the Background (are we there yet?)
To check the status of your plotting just hover your cursor over the AutoCAD status bar plotter icon.

More about AutoCAD 2006: www.autodesk.com/autocad