HPGL 详细格式(PLT文件格式)

Using HPGL as a drawing interchange media

(Don't! Unfortunately many DOS/Windows insist on doing so)

Written by Paul Bourke
September 1992

This document is also available in Russian , thanks to Sergey Paramonov.
(You will need the Russian font set!)

 

---

 

Introduction

HPGL is the HP graphics language designed for specifying 2D graphical information for the HP range of plotters. It was not intended as an interchange format but some software suppliers use it as such. At least it is efficient and easy to write and read. This short note describes those aspects of the format which may be used to describe geometry. The language itself has a large number of instructions, most of the ones not touched on here relate directly to plotter devices, for a full description of the language the HPGL description is normally provided with an HPGL compatable plotter.

Basics

HPGL commands are basically two uppercase character instructions followed by any arguments, and finally ending in the separator character which is a semicolon by default. The arguments are normally separated by commas. String arguments are normally terminated by carriage return.

In what follows, all the standard HPGL commands are listed, those which are likely to be useful for data interchange will be discussed at the end of this document. Optional arguments for any command are shown in brackets.

Commands

     Instruction                Arguments

AA   Arc Absolute               x,y,angle(,tolerance)

AF   Advance page

AH   Advance page

AP   Automatic Pen Operations   n

AR   Arc Relative               x,y,angle(,tolerance)

AS   Acceleration Select        acceleration(,pennumber)

BF   Buffer Plot

BL   Buffer label               string

CA   Select Alternative Charset set

CC   Character chord angle      angle

CI   Circle                     radius(,tolerance)

CM   Character Selection Mode   switchmode(,fallbackmode)

CP   Character Plot             spaces,lines

CS   Select Standard Charset    set

CT   Chord Tolerance            n

CV   Curved line generator      n(,inputdelay)

CD   Digitize Clear

DF   Default

DI   Absolute Direction         run,rise

DL   Define Download character  charnumber(,pencontrol),x,y(...)

DP   Digitze Point

DR   Relative Direction         run.rise

DS   Designate Charset          slot,set

DT   Define Label Terminator    terminator

EA   Edge Rectangle Absolute    x,y

EP   Edge Polygon            

ER   Edge Rectangle Relative    x,y

ES   Extra Space                spaces(,lines)

EW   Edge Wedge                 radius,startangle,sweepangle(,tolerance)

FP   Fill Polygon            

FS   Force Select               force(.pennumber)

FT   Fill Type                  type(,spacing(,angle))

GC   Group Count                countnumber

GM   Graphics Memory            (polygonbuff)(,downloadbuff)(,replotbuff)(,vectorbuff)

GP   Group Pen                  (groupnumber(,pennumber(,numberofpens,(length))))

IM   Input Mask                 emaskvalue(,smaskvalue(,pmaskvalue))

IN   Initialize

IP   Input p1 and p2            x,y(,x,y)

IV   Invoke Character Slot      slot,(left)

IW   Input Window               x,y,x,y

KY   Define Key                 key(,function)

LB   Label                      string

LO   Label Origin               positionnumber

LT   Line Type                  patternnumber(,patternlength)

NR   Not Ready

PA   Plot Absolute              x,y(,...)

PB   Print Buffered Label

PD   Pen Down                   x,y(,...)

PG   Page Feed                  n

PM   Polygon Mode               n

PR   Plot Relative              x,y(,...)

PT   Pen Thickness              thickness

PU   Pen Up                     x,y(,...)

RA   Fill Rectangle Absolute    x,y

RO   Rotate Coordinate System   n

RP   Replot                     n

RR   Fill Rectangle Relative    x,y

SA   Select Alternative Charset      

SC   Scale                      x,y,x,y(,type(,left,bottom))

SG   Select Pen Group           groupnumber

SI   Absolute Character Size    width,height

SL   Character Slant            tantheta

SM   Symbol Mode                character

SP   Select Pen                 pennumber

SR   Relative Character Size    width,height

SS   Select Standard Charset 

TL   Tick Length                tp(,tn)

UC   User Defined Character     (pencontrol,)x,y

UF   User Defined Fill          gap1(,gap2,...gap20)

VS   Velocity Select            speed(,pennumber)

WD   Write to Display           string

WG   Fill Wedge                 radius,startangle,sweepangle(,tolerance)

XT   X Tick

YT   Y Tick

Output Instructions

The following instructions don't have any arguments but rather generate output from the plotting device. They are of no use for interchanging geometric data and therefore the form of the output is not discussed. See an HPGL reference book.

OA   Output Actual Position

OC   Output Position

OD   Output Digitised Point

OE   Output Error

OF   Output Factors

OG   Output Group Count

OH   Output HardClip Limits

OI   Output Identification

OK   Output Key

OL   Output Label Length

OO   Output Options

OP   Output p1 and p2

OS   Output Status

OT   Output Carousel Type

OW   Output Window

Escape sequnces

The following escape sequences are generally only applicable when connected through a serial interface to a physical plotter, they have nothing to do with data interchange and so their arguments will not be listed nor will the form of the output most of them create .

esc@ Set Plotter Configuration

escA Output Identification

escB Output Buffer Space

escE Output Extended error

escH Set Handshake Mode 1

escI Set Handshake Mode 2

escJ Abort Device Control

escK Abort Graphics

escL Output Buffer Size When Empty

escM Set Output Mode

escN Set Extended Output and Handshake Mode

escO Output Extended Status

escP Set Handshake Mode

escQ Set Monitor Mode

escR Reset

escS Output Configurable Memory

escT Allocate Configurable Memory

escU End Flush Mode

escY Plotter On

esc( Plotter On

escZ Plotter Off

esc) Plotter Off

Useful Commands with examples

Since plotters are very basic line drawing hardware devices it is not surprising that the most commonly used commands are those that draw lines from one point to another.

This operation is controlled by 4 commands,
PA - plot absolute
PR - plot relative
PU - pen up
PD - pen down

 

Pen up and down dictate when a line is actually being created, the plot commands do the movement between points.

For example to draw a line from (1,0) to (2,0) might be specified as follows

 

PU;PA1,0;PD;Pr1,0;PU;

 

There are two basic attributes that can be assigned to a line, as expected they are actually applied to the pens of the plotting device. They are:

SP - pen number
PT - pen thickness

 

The pen number normally acts as an indexed colour system, most commonly there are only 8 pens (colour) available.

The other geometry that can be specified is
AR - arc relative
CI - circle
EA - edge rectangle absolute
ER - edge rectangle relative
EP - edge polygon
EW - edge wedge
LB - label

 

There are a large number of settings for controlling text, these and further details of the above instructions will be left to the reader to experiment with or read in the full HPGL manuals.