Multiple users printing over network

[MPI-crusher]

I am wondering how to have multiple users be able to print from the same file without having to re-establish the "print path" each time. Ex: User A (on Computer A) opens drawing that is stored on Computer B. He prints a layout, and then re-saves the drawing. User C (on Computer C) comes along, opens the newly saved drawing from the same Computer B, but when he tries to print it pops up with that AutoCAD Warning "driver cannot be found, etc etc." and then you have to re-select the printer. Every. Single. Time. I spent a few hours poking around the forums here and here, and it certainly appears that there is a solution (I think), I'm just being too dense to understand it!

 

The logic of mapping everything to one computer makes sense, I'm just not finding the place in CAD where I can do that. This is a small shop with few users and I'm the default IT guy since I'm relatively young and have some minimal understanding of computers. I took one semester of VB about 5 years ago, and while it was pretty easy stuff I don't think I'd be comfortable writing a script and running it on our network. The bosses are old school and unforgiving! Do I need to open one of these "pc3" files in notepad and edit it or something?

 

[updated before posting]: I've just tried the options\files thing mentioned in one of the threads I linked and I thought I had gotten everything mapped to the "root" computer, but it's still popping up with that dumb warning window whenever anyone but myself tries to print from their computer. I'm not sure that our printers & plotter are properly set-up at the moment. Here's a jpeg screenshot of the plot window, showing how our plotters show up when you hit print:

 

 

Also, I think it might be the "Print Spooler File Location" under Options\Files. Right now it's pointing at my temp folder, but there's like 1000 things in there and I don't know what I'm looking for. Here's a jpeg screenshot of my Options\Files with the print spooler pointing at my C: drive, and the others pointing at the new network drive.

 

 

Anyone have any ideas? Thanks for the help!

[MPI-crusher]

Well, looks like I need to poke around some more and find out how to attach pictures! I just threw those two jpegs up at imageshack, here's a link for them.

 

Ah-ha! I should have guessed that there would be a time delay in case people tried to upload pr0n or something innapropriate. Nevermind!

[EMS_0525]

If the printers and pc3 files are the same you shouldnt get a warning.... you can path everything to one location on a server... thats what our company does.

[MPI-crusher]

Okay, I guess I just don't know how to do that. I copied the entire contents of the temp file (c:\Documents and Settings\my.name\Local Settings\temp) on my hard drive onto the network drive and pointed the "Print Spooler File location" in Options\Files at it (shown in 2nd pic above), but it's still not working. It's obvious that I've ventured OT into printer territory, hopefully the mods will let it slide and someone who knows how to do this can walk me through the process. I don't really know anything about network administration or printers.

 

When we go to print, we just select the printer in the drop down menu in CAD, as shown in the first pic above (called "...4MV on betty", betty being the network computer I'm trying to map everything to). We don't ever select those pc3 options that are shown in the menu. Should we? Is there any special procedure for setting them up? Do they just run in the background? The printers and plotters we use show up the same in Control Panel (inserted below) as they do in the CAD drop down menu, and the pc3 files are not there (they're in both C:\Program Files\etc,etc and also \user.name\Application Data\etc,etc). I have a sinking feeling I'm missing something obvious but I am sadly clueless.

 

Do I just need to have these pc3 files and printers in one location on the network drive I'm pointing at, or does each individual computer need them? And if so, since they exist apparently in multiple locations, which ones do I keep and make sure are all the same?

 

Thanks for the ongoing help!

 

[profcad]

Verify the printer names are identical on all computers. AutocAD is looking for the name of the printer "4MV on betty". If there is an extra space in the name or at the end of the name AutoCAD will give you a warning.

[MPI-crusher]

Indeed, profcad nailed it. In addition to needing to modify each individual profile (since they're user specific at each machine not file specific over entire network) so that the printer items all point to the same network drive instead of locally, I also had to tweak all the printer names. I looked at my printers in Control Panel (see above) and compared to those on other machines. Verdict, totally hosed. Basically, we're a shop full of not too terribly computer savvy users, so anytime there was a printer issue they did creative loads of drivers. We had "printer on barney on bambam on betty" etc etc. (Yes, the owner is apparently a fan of The Flinstones). I just uninstalled all the drivers at a different computer, loaded fresh from the wizard, and made sure they had the same network path name as those used in the drawing.

 

Presto Chango! It worked! Problem, resolved, thanks for all the help. Here's a summary in case any other dense folks like myself find this thread and have the same problem.

 

1-In drawing file, have page setup use specific network name for printer.

2-In individual user profile, point the (4) items under plotter to the same location on a shared drive (you may have to create these, just copy from your computer).

3-On each other separate individual user's computer, set up profile the same (Options\Files) so that they point to same place on shared drive.

4-MOST IMPORTANTLY (and not so obviously to me anyway), go to each individual computer's control panel and make sure that all the printers have the EXACT SAME network name. I found uninstalling and then reinstalling to be most effective since I did them all at the same time.

 

Have a great weekend everyone, and thanks again!