" ... with the use of Normica Software our support services became even more satisfactory."
Mr. Jörg Oppel, Hewlett-Packard Customer Care Center DesignJet Team Europe, Middle East & Africa; Technical Support Specialist (Commercial Hardcopy Support Devision)
"Since there is a wide range of high-quality CAD systems, we could not possibly include all of them here at HP DesignJet Support. We have installed AutoCAD, Microstation and ArchiCad, if, however, we receive test files from our clients for which we do not have the respective CAD software, we use Normica Software for processing the plot information.
Jörg Oppel (right) talking to members of the HP DesignJet team
With Normica software it is possible to view and edit HP-GL/2 plot files. Pen properties as well as proportions can be modified. This is also true for inadequate plotter settings, which can be corrected with Normica. In addition, the zoom feature makes it possible to extremely magnify the drawing in order to check details. Until we applied Normica, we frequently had to tell our customers: "We are sorry, but unfortunately we do not have your CAD software installed at our office." In some cases we opened the file with a text editor, in which it is possible to see the file structure via the commands used in the file. There are for example commands in the language used for the HP-GL/2 which mark beginning and end of a file or define the rotation.
You can trace every single pen and check if it is correct. Using this method the drawings can be checked, the effort doing so, however, is very extensive. For this reason this sort of check could only be done in special cases. Normica's tool-tip immediately shows which pen was used and what its characteristics are. A large number of our customers not employing any kind of CAD software themselves are, for example, printers and copy shops. They often receive files from their clients they cannot open without a CAD system and which they therefore have to plot without previous examination. We can tell from our experience that CAD users who do not have a plotter of their own often do not have extended knowledge of the plotter configuration, which results in numerous misplots and, moreover, costs much of their time.
We are very satisfied with Normica Software, since it makes us much more independent of the various CAD systems. Actually, what we do is not using CAD systems but to test-run plotters. If the hardware works properly we check the driver version and, if necessary, the driver configuration. If the problem had not be solved by then, we quickly came to our limits set by not having the tools required. We have made the experience that many errors result from pre-settings in the CAD system. Without Normica we did not have any possibility to detect errors in the file itself.
In order to provide the users of all available CAD systems with optimum support, we have introduced Normica some time ago, and by the use of Normica our support services became even more satisfactory. It is very comfortable to be able to see in the very moment of opening a PLT file. To have a software system at hand that helps us detecting errors is a great enhancement for us. Thanks to being extremely user-friendly and the outstanding quality of the screen display. Normica can also be used directly by the customer, thus enabling the customers to check their files on their own.
To me it is important to know Normica so that we can benefit from the advantages offered by this application. To put it in a nutshell it can be said that we have been able to significantly improve our support service by employing Normica. Simultaneously we reduce the time and costs spent on support tasks."