CAD 2010 plotting on HPdesignjet 500: DWG's not plotting, but no error?

Hello CADTutor readers, glad to have joined such an active forum.

My problem is a new one, didn't exist Friday afternoon, started Monday morning, ugh.

I have searched the forums and google to no avail.

I am attempting to plot .dwg created in CAD2010 on a HPdesignjet 500.

I plot the layout, it shows up in my plotting que, and disappears as though it is done.

Should mention it only shows up as a single line in the plotting que, where I find other projects show up as 2x lines of text per layout

CAD gives me the "plot and publish job complete" balloon bottom right, with no error to report, but of course, the sheet never plotted.

Like I said, this was not an issue 72 hours ago, and I have not changed anything on this system. Any ideas?

Thanks

Delete the plotter and reinstall. That should fix it.

Are you plotting via a parallel port or USB-to-parallel connection ("pigtail")?

Removed printer and reinstalled using both Control panel and Autodesk plotter manager, still not working.

I am connected via a USB to parallel port, which if I am correct is the cord with USB "head" one end into computer and a slightly different "head" into the plotter.

*edit below*

I have uninstalled the drivers as well, and tried some newer drivers from HP but they didn't work. So, cleaned em all out, reinstalled the printer using the drivers from the original disk, and I am still able to print from CAD2006, which will save me from any downtime tomorrow morning.

I've had a couple of problems plotting to our HP DesignJet 500+ from AutoCAD 2010 as well. My computer did not come with a parallel port so I added the "pigtail" (USB to parallel) to patch the connection between the back of the computer and the end of the parallel cable for the printer. That worked for a while then I had problems. So I then bought a PCI add-in card which gave me a parallel port. That worked for a while and then it too gave me problems. So now I am back to using the pigtail.

I've deleted and then reloaded the drivers so many times for this printer I've stopped counting. That's the problem with "old" technology. It is not in the best interest of HP or any other hardware manufacturer to continue support for their products as the OS is updated. I fear that when I finally get around to installing 2011 I will not be able to print at all using the DesignJet.

I hear you, and I just noticed that the HP 500 series has been discontinued, never a good thing when you own one!

I just find it odd that it was working and now it doesn't. I didn't make any changes to the system and no updates to anything since it worked last...

then again, nothing should surprise me when it comes to these "unexplained" computer issues.

Thankfully I can save 2010 files as 2004 and plot them through CAD2006, but that's less than ideal.

Is the problem confined to a particular drawing or doesn't it matter?

It's all drawings, some originally created with CAD2006 some with CAD2010.

Have you tried deleting the plotter from Windows, leaving the plotter on, turning off the computer, waiting 20 seconds, then turning the computer back on? Does it say "Found new hardware?".

Yes I tried that, and it installs the plotter fine, then I add it to my Autodesk plotter manager, select the plotter in the plot screen and it appears to plot fine, but of course nothing comes out and CAD does not report errors.

Yeah, I hear you. I've had that happen a few times too. That's was usually forces me to temporarily switch to another form of connecting to my plotter. It's either use the pigtail or use the add-in card. Right now I'm using the add-in card.

Ahhh so the add-in card allows you to use connect via another type of cord, and you have had better luck with this method? Will have to look into this. These card also improve print quality don't they, not that I need it.

No.

Let's back up. My computer came without a parallel port. All I had was USB. The plotter came with a parallel port and cable. To connect to my computer I had to either use a USB-to-Parallel pigtail or somehow find a way to add a parallel port (after the fact) to my computer. To do this I purchased what is called a PCI Multi I/O Parallel Controller Card. This card is installed in an empty PCI slot on the motherboard. Sticking out of the back of the computer, off this card, is a DB25 parallel port connector. The plotter's parallel cable mates up to this connector.

The controller card is plug & play compatible and supports PCI IRQ sharing. The version I have will work with Win98SE/ME/2000/XP/NT4.0/Server 2003/XP 64-bit/VISTA/Linux and DOS.

I can't say for sure if print quality improved or not.

Ok got you, I thought you were referring to the card upgrade for the plotter.

I am in the same situation then, I am connecting with USB to Parallel "pigtail", and there is no parallel port that matches the socket on the plotter.

Interesting...

Just find it odd that this was working and now it's not.

Thanks for your input.

Interestingly, after not trying to plot to the 500 Designjet for almost 2 weeks, I thought I'd try today and now it's plotting fine....odd.