Slow to load the plot screen

I have an AutoCAD 2006 workstation that takes 60 seconds to display the plot screen, no matter what is in the drawing. This problem came up just recently. The computer has a gig of ram and a good CPU.

I don't know how to begin to diagnose this problem. What might cause this?

Almost certainly, its looking for a plotter that doesn't exist any longer or it can't find. Review your PC3 files and your system printers to make sure they are all accessible.

As a test, you can set your plotter (PC3 and PMP) paths to something like "C:\" and try again. If it is still slow, check your system printers.

Are you on a network and plotting to a system printer?

No problem before this you say? What recently changed?

I deleted unnecessary .pc3 files and removed unnecessary printers, and the plot screen now displays within 1 second.

I deleted unnecessary .pc3 files and removed unnecessary printers, and the plot screen now displays within 1 second.

Glad you got it fixed. Those delays are very annoying...

Glad you got it fixed. Those delays are very annoying...

He had 3 different print-to-pdf drivers installed, and a .pc3 configured for each.

I have exactly the same problem. There are some old plotters that still come up in the drop down list, but they are not even connected anymore. Also there are superseded pc3 files.

The trouble is, I do not know how or where to remove these. Could someone point me in the right direction?

You can find the location of your pc3 files by clicking on:

Tools > Options > Files > Printer Support File Path > Printer Configuration Search Path

An example of such a path might look similar to this (yours will be slightly different):

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2009\R17.2\enu\Plotters

You can get to this folder via Windows Explorer. Highlight the pc3 file you wish to remove by right-clicking on it and then select the Delete option.

Remove any inactive system printers also.

Thanks ReMark and RKMcSwain.

I have put the extension of this issue of mine in a new thread. (Don't know how to link to forum, but it is in Management & Output forum).

I probably should have started a new thread initially, still getting my head around the etiquette!

I have put the extension of this issue of mine in a new thread. (Don't know how to link to forum...)

To post a link to another thread, enter this:

[noparse]

[thread=39558]This is the link to thread #39558[/thread]

[/noparse]

(Of course you will have to enter the appropriate thread number)

Here is how the link will appear: [thread=39558]This is the link to thread #39558[/thread]