Wide-Format & 3D Printer Blog

Beware the Risks of Plotters Bought From Discount Web Sites

Shopping online is awesome! In fact, 8-in-10 Americans are online shoppers; 15% of them buy weekly. That’s staggering and it makes Jeff Bezos very happy. When it comes to personal items, gifts, and other consumer (B2C) purchases, ecommerce is a perfect fit. But, there are some cases where it still makes sense to buy things in a more traditional way. For example, business-to-business, or B2B transactions, are usually better served with a more person to person experience. This is definitely the case of large-format printing equipment. Let’s face it, there can be risks to buy a wide format plotter from an ecommerce site.

Leading innovative change in the large-format equipment sector, Canon USA just leveled up another notch with the announcement of their new Canon imagePROGRAF TX Series. This newly unveiled family of printers is specifically designed to meet the needs of customers who have higher productivity needs. Look out, because once these models hit the street, there will be some major shakeups as the TX Series is sure to dislodge plenty of legacy systems in the field—ink jet and toner alike.

Bluebeam Revu 2017 Updates Revit Plugin

Recently, Bluebeam Revu 2017 users who also use Revit have experienced some issues with the Revit plug-in (Revu CAD & Revu eXtreme Versions only). Good news! Bluebeam has just released version 2017.0.20 that takes care of these issues and more. See what is updated.

TAVCO Services, Inc. is proud to announce our official inclusion in the Texas Department of Information Resources (DIR) platform via the Canon USA contract (DIR-TSO—3101). Now, Texas State agencies of all types can easily benefit from using TAVCO as a pre-authorized IT equipment vendor for any Canon or Oce wide-format equipment need. This is exciting stuff,and here’s why.

Let’s face it, electricity is something we just don’t think that much about. In fact, it is something we take for granted. We simply plug our electronics into a wall outlet and they magically work. But, the truth is, not all incoming electricity is the same. Sometimes, voltage fluctuates. It can rise or fall, or burst in a power spike. To the common user, these events are often not noticeable, but they can be troublesome, if not catastrophic to your electronic equipment. That is why it is a good idea to have your sensitive electronics, like printers, scanners, and plotters on some type of an external power filter, like an AMETEK ESP Conditioning System. Here’s why.

Canon recently announced the release of their updated entry-level “Le-Series” plotter/scanner systems. Built on the same technology and success of the preceding L24 and L36 models, the new L24e and L36e offer a variety of significant upgrades, of which you should take note.

When it comes to researching technology, in Google We Trust! So, in an effort to save you a chunk of time, we are providing a comparison chart that shows how the popular Canon iPF780 and iPF785 plotters stack up against their HP rivals. This let's you easily compare wide-format printers in a side-by-side format. 

When it comes to new large format printing systems for CAD and other technical printing applications, the PageWide XL Series from HP is getting a lot of attention. It is impressive to watch as pages simply fly out of the printer. This high speed is possible because a new technique called single pass printing. Unlike traditional ink jet machines, that use a reciprocating print head, single pass machines utilize a stationary print head that jet droplets of ink onto a traveling print media. On the surface, upgrading to the HP PageWide XL may seem like a no-brainer, but take a closer look. There are some limitations to know about before you decide on an upgrade.

Please enjoy this guest article from our friends at India CADWorks.

Construction industry surveys show that industry stakeholders recognize the need to improve their productivity. Despite this, some still do not recognize Building Information Modeling (BIM) benefits due to the prevailing ‘BIM myths’ that continue to perpetuate throughout the industry. 

Without a doubt, the Designjet 1050 plotter was a wildly successful model for HP. After all, tens of thousands of them were sold and installed throughout the United States during the early to mid-2000s. There are still a lot of those units in the field and in use today. But, we have reached the threshold of their usefulness. If you have one, there is a good chance that you are experiencing the law of diminishing returns firsthand. So, considering an upgrade may make sense. Here are a few things to keep in mind regarding your old HP 1050c plotter.

Large format scanning has become instrumental for many AEC (architectural, engineering, & construction) companies. Powerful CAD programs and other software applications, such as Bluebeam Revu, are changing the way construction documents are handled, viewed, marked up, and shared. But, what about the vast number of archived drawings stored in flat files?

Many business leaders are opting to get a large format scanner to digitize those files, but when considering a purchase, there can be some confusion on selecting the right solution. There are two primary types of wide-format scanninng technologies to consider. Both have there merits, but it really is a matter of application regarding which process it right for your situation. Read on to learn the difference between the two to determine which one is best suited for you - CCD vs CIS scanner technologies.

Everybody loves getting a promotion. Today, it is our turn. Since becoming an authorized Bluebeam dealer mid-2016, we have worked hard to provide our clients the very best Bluebeam customer experience possible. Today, all of our dedication and effort has paid off. TAVCO has now officially leveled up to Silver Bluebeam Partner Status. Here's whats in it for you. 

The comparison between which wide-format plotter technology is better, toner or ink jet, has been questioned within AEC companies for years. Historically, this has been relatively easy to examine. The cost of ink jet printing is higher, but the price of the toner-based equipment was more expensive than their ink jet counterparts. In the past, the break-even point was when the printing output reached 2,000 square feet per month. However, the playing field has changed. Ink prices have dropped, ink jet systems have gotten faster with the introduction of new single-pass ink jet systems. So, how do the two plotter technologies compare now? 

Please enjoy this guest article from our friends at A TopGun PC & Networking.

Small and mid-sized businesses are targeted by cyber-criminals more often than ever before. That is because automation makes it easy to attack them by the thousands, and many of them are easy targets because they don’t put up a good fight. It's time to improve the defense.

Please enjoy this guest article from our friends at India CADWorks.

The days of construction project teams (architects, engineers, and contractors) coordinating multiple drawings over light tables to detect ‘clashes’ between trade work packages and construction assemblies, elements, and components are numbered.