SoftDent Support for PCL 6 vs PCL 5

[kstatefan40]

I don't know if any of you do commercial computer repair, but if you do, I've got a quick thing to remember about the SoftDent Dentist program. If nothing else, this will put the issue at the top of the list on google and explain it to folks in my position.

SoftDent has sporadic support for PCL 6. If you are using a LaserJet with SoftDent, you will have to install PCL 5 drivers for SoftDent to be stable.

If you call SoftDent, they will tell you its a problem with HP... they blew off the receptionist at the office I am working at. After investigation, this problem isn't with HP (who developed PCL, by the way), its with SoftDent's programming. I've notified their techs of the issue and am awaiting a response from them. I will post here if I find a resolution.

Just food for thought for those that do commercial repair, it probably will not apply to everyone here.

[mairving]

Sometimes even PCL5 isn't good enough. I recently had a customer that connects to a Citrix application server remotely via a VPN. He had bought an HP 3055 All-in-one Laserjet network printer. I installed the printer on the server without any problems. The problem that I couldn't resolve was that this particular printer was a host based printer. The printer worked fine with most printing but when he tried to print AP checks it failed. The reason was that it uses an Adobe form generator for check printing along with a special magnetic cartridge. It wouldn't generate the form for the check using PCL6 or PCL5 on a host based printer. Fortunately he still had an older Laserjet 2100N that worked fine. Now he has 2 printers.

[cobra]

Originally Posted by kstatefan40 I don't know if any of you do commercial computer repair, but if you do, I've got a quick thing to remember about the SoftDent Dentist program. If nothing else, this will put the issue at the top of the list on google and explain it to folks in my position. SoftDent has sporadic support for PCL 6. If you are using a LaserJet with SoftDent, you will have to install PCL 5 drivers for SoftDent to be stable. If you call SoftDent, they will tell you its a problem with HP... they blew off the receptionist at the office I am working at. After investigation, this problem isn't with HP (who developed PCL, by the way), its with SoftDent's programming. I've notified their techs of the issue and am awaiting a response from them. I will post here if I find a resolution. Just food for thought for those that do commercial repair, it probably will not apply to everyone here.

Softdent needs a major overhaul....
I work for a dental company, one of softdents competitors. We do tons of conversions from softdent to our software. I have had to call softdent on occasion (preconversion) to troubleshoot some issues. I too have had to install the pcl5 drivers for printing, and for cetain hp printers. If it works.....