CHICAGO--Jan. 16, 2003-- Oce, a leading supplier of digital document management and delivery technology, announces the availability of newly updated Oce Publishing Tools that are available free to users of Oce Plan Center online services. The latest version of these utilities improves the ability of architect, engineer and construction (AEC) users to publish documents directly into an Oce Plan Center digital plan room. Oce Plan Center online plan rooms are hosted by reprographers throughout the United States and the United Kingdom, allowing them to host files for their customers in a secure "vault." Thousands of AEC customers of reprographers access these digital plan rooms daily to publish, view and order print-ready drawings online. New Oce Publishing Tools include two different utilities: Oce Publisher for AutoCAD and Oce Publisher for Windows. Oce Publisher for AutoCAD enables a user to assemble a list of AutoCAD formatted (DWG) files to be printed, pre-determine output options, preview the images in a what-you-see-is-what-you-print (WYSIWYP) viewer, and then publish the set to an Oce Plan Center digital plan room without ever leaving AutoCAD. Oce Publisher for Windows offers the same print preparation, preview and publishing benefits for individual files from within any Windows-compatible application. Oce Publisher for AutoCAD provides significant time-savings and printing accuracy improvements because it eliminates the need to produce PLT files in order to get CAD files print-ready. Since the work is done within AutoCAD, all reference files, fonts and plug-ins are taken into account for the highest fidelity output. Oce Publishing Tools leverage the same technology found in Oce Repro Desk, the market-leading reprographic printing software. Reprographers who are Oce Plan Center Authorized Hosts, as well as their AEC customers, benefit from an improved, seamless workflow. They are able to remotely submit and print CAD drawings directly from their design desktops to the digital print room. This advanced technology reduces errors by maintaining print fidelity throughout the life of the document, speeds up the distribution of revision information, and improves communication among project team members. According to Joyce Virnich, vice president of marketing for Oce-USA's Wide Format Printing Systems business unit, "We're pleased to further empower commercial reprographers and their customers with sophisticated new Oce Publishing Tools that take advantage of the latest technology to automate, simplify and improve the quality of digital design output. When used in the Oce Plan Center digital plan room environment, clients have the added security of knowing that their documents are going to image correctly on the Web and print accurately - without having to exit their design application to publish files for printing." Oce Publishing Tools are especially useful during the critical project bidding cycle, when construction documents are routinely revised and need to be quickly and accurately distributed to general and specialty contractors. Digital publishing to an Oce Plan Center plan room can save valuable days waiting for hard copies to be circulated, and provides a central access point to the most current document sets.