Apple 410 Color Plotter 68K Drivers

[LadyAiluros]

I have been having great fun with a 410 plotter on my //e but it has limitations. I’d love to get it talking to my Mac Plus running System 6 for some graphical CADD shenanigans-were there ever Mac drivers released for the plotter, or were they in a specific piece of software I’d have to go find?

 

[joshc]

https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/apple-410-color-plotter.42272/post-458957

 

[cheesestraws]

Yes, MacPlot should sort you out here

 

[LadyAiluros]

Will it work under System 6 though? I did see that thread and clicked the link but it says it is for System 7 and the Plus runs System 6?

 

[cheesestraws]

Will it work under System 6 though? I did see that thread and clicked the link but it says it is for System 7 and the Plus runs System 6?

There are certainly MacPlot versions out there for system 6, though later ones required 7.

 

[LadyAiluros]

Yeah the oldest one I could find on Garden was that v. 4.0.5 for 7. I was hoping to not have to upgrade Internet Archive has nothing either ;;

 

[cheesestraws]

Yeah the oldest one I could find on Garden was that v. 4.0.5 for 7. I was hoping to not have to upgrade Internet Archive has nothing either ;;

I'd expect 4.0.5 to work under System 6; 4.0 does, if I remember correctly. Have you tried it or are you trusting what the Garden says?

 

[joshc]

I'd expect 4.0.5 to work under System 6; 4.0 does, if I remember correctly. Have you tried it or are you trusting what the Garden says?

This. A lot of the OS recommendations on the Garden are inaccurate because most people do not use System 6 so they just leave it unchecked when uploading files.

 

[LadyAiluros]

This. A lot of the OS recommendations on the Garden are inaccurate because most people do not use System 6 so they just leave it unchecked when uploading files.

Okay cool - today I learned! I'm more Apple II and PPC Mac so this is a blind spot for me! I always just figured the Garden knew what it was tallking about .... won't make that mistake again. I will report back when I get a chance to try it!

 

[cheesestraws]

Positive statements that are made are usually fine: if the page says it'll run under System 7, it will usually run under System 7. What isn't necessarily as reliable is omissions: just because something doesn't say it's System 6 compatible doesn't mean it actually isn't, if that distinction makes sense. This is, as @joshc says, just the perils of it being a community-driven site and isn't meant as a criticism of it: fewer people use 6 so sometimes the information about it just isn't as accurate.

 

[CC_333]

This. A lot of the OS recommendations on the Garden are inaccurate because most people do not use System 6 so they just leave it unchecked when uploading files.

Back when I had a place to put it, I ended up putting System 6 on my IIsi, because I couldn't get System 7 to run as well (there was some video choppiness in After Dark and elsewhere that I couldn't get rid of under 7, but it was mostly nonexistent under 6).

This was with the full 65 MB of RAM, too, so that wasn't the problem, and I don't think the disk had anything to do with it. Overclocking the CPU might've helped some, but I didn't really feel like bothering, because there wasn't anything I wanted to do that 6 couldn't handle and it was otherwise plenty fast since it was the IIsi's stock OS, so I just left it alone.

I also managed to track down copies of Maxima and Optima, and one of them (I can't recall which) enabled access to the full amount of RAM beyond 8 MB under System 6, which wasn't especially useful, but it was nevertheless fun from a "Because I Can" perspective.

c

 

[LadyAiluros]

So at this point I’d be happy to get it to go in any Mac. I am missing something probably obvious and stupid in my not-knowing-ness but I pulled 4.5 since it had an installer and ran it but I can‘t find the actual click here to run the program icon. There are folders but they have like Chooser and Control Panel things in them not the actual program.

 

[cheesestraws]

MacPlot is a driver like a printer driver, so you configure it through the Chooser. Beyond that, I don't know how it works, but it's definitely configured through the Chooser not through an application.

 

[LadyAiluros]

Ahhhh so then I need like Claris CAD or something to make the actual drawings?

 

[cheesestraws]

Ahhhh so then I need like Claris CAD or something to make the actual drawings?

Yes - or I think other less CAD-y vector drawing packages will do too. I've never actually used it, so my advice is very vague. But MacPlot is like a printer driver: it doesn't let you make the drawings (or really have opinions about how you make the drawings), it just deals with talking to the plotter to get drawings out of your chosen software and onto paper.

 

[finkmac]

I remember KeyCAD having plotter support.

 

[LadyAiluros]

Yes - or I think other less CAD-y vector drawing packages will do too. I've never actually used it, so my advice is very vague. But MacPlot is like a printer driver: it doesn't let you make the drawings (or really have opinions about how you make the drawings), it just deals with talking to the plotter to get drawings out of your chosen software and onto paper.

Like I said missing something obvious and dumb

Sighs in so much to learn …

 

[cheesestraws]

Sighs in so much to learn …

Hey, finding things one has yet to learn is a sign that one is actually going somewhere, not just going around in small circles. Don't say that as if it's a bad thing :-D

 

[olePigeon]

If I remember correctly, Adobe Illustrator won't work with the driver. MacDraw will, however.

It's possible you might be able to print to it using Inkscape, but I don't know. I don't think the Apple plotter supports HPGL.