Repair PLT file – Manual Solution

PLT-HPGL plotter file is standard Vector Image files. It gets corrupted due to corruption of system files, unexpected system shut down, unsupported format and virus attack. Recover plotter file data using manual solutions discussed in this article.

PLT File Format :

PLT stands for Plotter File (PLT). It is created using Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language (HPGL). It is ASCII based standard file format used by Hewlett-Packard plotters. It is used to create pictures using lines instead of dots. Hewlett-Packard plotters commonly use PTL as its primary printer control language. It stores 2-D graphical information. These files can be scaled to different sizes without losing the picture quality. It contains series of two letter codes to declare starting point, followed by optional arguments for plotting.

Programs used To open PLT File :

• AutoCAD
• gnuplot
• ArtCut
• ABViewer
• CadStd
• PLT Viewer
• Corel WordPerfect office X6
• ShareCAD

Causes of Corruption

• Virus attack
• Corruption of system files
• Unexpected system shut down
• Corrupted program used to open PLT files
• Outdated drivers
• Hardware issue
• Unsupported format
• Use of virus infected storage devices

Read about how to repair PLT file and fix corruption issues.

Common Errors

• "Error in Saving PLT File"
• "Invalid Printer Driver Configuration File
  E:\v8\Plotting\ Xyz.plt. See message center for more information"
• Cannot find a device file that may be needed to run windows

Repair PLT Files

Solution # Update the drivers in system

Follow steps to repair PLT file:

• Click start.
• Type in search "device manager"

  

• Search the category and then right click device and click "update driver software".

  

  

Solution #

Convert plt to other formats using online converters such as DWG, SVG, PDF, GIF, PNG etc.

Solution #

Uninstall the program used to open PLT file and download it again from trusted source to reinstall.

Solution #

Repair Registry by following :

Use Windows Registry Checker tool (Scanreg.exe)

Method 1

Follow steps :

• Click Start, type "cmd" in the start search box.
• Right click on "cmd" and select "run as administrator".
• Type command :
  scanreg.exe /restore

Method 2 :

Use online free tools to repair registry such as ccleaner.

Solution #

Diagnose and repair system file errors to repair PLT file :

• Click start.
• In search type command prompt.
• Select command prompt, right click and choose "Run as administrator".
• Type command :
  chkdsk [drive letter]: [switches]
  chkdsk [drive letter]: /R to repair system file errors
  /F- Fix errors on the disk.
  /V - Display the name of each file in every directory.
  /R - Detect bad sectors and recovers corrupted data.
  /L: [size in KB] - Can only be used with a NTFS disk. Change the chkdsk log file size to the number size in KB as user type.
  /I- Can be used with NTFS disk. Performs a less powerful check of index entries.
  /C- Can be used with a NTFS disk. Does not check cycles of files within the hierarchy of folder structure.
  /B- Can only be used with a NTFS disk. Clears the list of bad clusters on disk and rescans all the allocated and free clusters for errors.
  

Solution #

Conclusion

In this article we discussed about file format, common errors and causes of corruption. Also explore about manual solution to repair PLT file. If above solutions fail to restore file then use a third party tool to recover PLT hewlett packard graphics language file data.