Some entities won't plot

[BigRed]

I have some fairly large files (about 30 MB) of site plans. About a week ago, AutoCAD 2004 started not plotting some of the entities. The entities appear in the viewport, but not in the preview and what does not display does not plot. I've checked off the "Is there gas in the tank?" question by verifying that the layers are set to plot. There is no pattern that I can detect in what plots and what does not (although, with over 1,000 layers, that statement may not be conclusive; the drawing is the creation of a former employee).

 

Suggestions of any quality are welcome, because, despite having worked with AutoCAD since 1988, I am clueless about this.

[ReMark]

You are assuming that AutoCAD made the decision all on its own not to plot some entities? I wasn't aware AC 2004 had an artifical intelligence feature.

 

Something had to have happened either to your drawing file or the plot style you're using. Over 1000 layers on a site plan? Seems a bit extreme doesn't it? Do you use layer filters?

 

Have you tried uninstalling the printer/plotter and reinstalling it?

 

Have you gone over the STB or CTB plot style file with a fine tooth comb?

 

What are the system specs for the computer that is running 2004 and editing this massive (30MB) file? Must be a bear to work with.

[Glen Smith]

I'm betting on the STB/CTB having changed somehow. You say it was created by a former employee, are you plotting from the same computer and or username as when it was working properly?

 

Say what you will about the "is there gas in the tank" questions - when you finally figure it out, I'll bet it's something stupid. It always is for me anyway.

 

Glen

[BigRed]

For the general audience, I have found a pattern of what prints and what does not that may provide a clue to the problem. The entities that appear early when the file is opened get plotted. What arrives later does not get plotted.

 

For ReMark:

 

As I did not create the drawing, there does not seem to be a point in my having an opinion on whether the layer count is "extreme". It is what it is and it is my task to make things work.

 

The computer is a Dell Optiplex 755 and it does labor under the burden, but it is what has been provided.

 

I will inquire about having the printer reinstalled, but the problem manifested itself when printing to a printer, to a DesignJet plotter, or to a PDF file.

 

What am I looking for with the fine-toothed comb? Since I have done nothing with the plot style files since everything was working properly, a couple of weeks ago, the problem seems unlikely to be found there unless this AutoCAD did come with the optional A.I.

 

Thanks for responding.

[BigRed]

are you plotting from the same computer and or username as when it was working properly?

 

I doubt that the printers would recognize this as the same computer that my predecessor used, but there was no problem with printing these files until a couple of weeks ago, so the printers were okay with the setup since I'm here.

 

Thanks for responding.

[ReMark]

Let's face it...something changed. Now we have to figure out what that "something" is.

 

Entities that appear later when the file is opened tend to be those that do not plot. Is this a consistent behavior? Can you somehow isolate those entities?

[BigRed]

Entities that appear later when the file is opened tend to be those that do not plot. Is this a consistent behavior? Can you somehow isolate those entities?

 

It is consistent. By closing and reopening the file, I was able to get a screen capture of the partially loaded drawing that is identical in appearance to a plot. What sort of isolation do you have in mind? This drawing has about a half-million entities.

[ReMark]

What I had in mind was to isolate some of these "non-plotting" entities on screen by turning off or better yet freezing the others and doing a test plot to a normal 8.5x11 sheet of paper. Do the entities plot?

 

Half-a-million entities? Could it be that you have overwhelmed your plotting devices with data to the point that they "time out"?

[nukecad]

It does sound like this could be a memory problem.

Are you using the printers memory or your computers memory for processing prints?

 

You should be able to change which it is in your printer settings and see if it makes a difference.

[ReMark]

Have you made any progress?

 

Do smaller file size drawings exhibit the same behavior (entities dropping out of print preview and not being plotted)?

 

Is the plotter the same vintage as the computer?

[Glen Smith]

Half-a-million entities? Could it be that you have overwhelmed your plotting devices with data to the point that they "time out"?

 

Could be, but how would that have changed from the last time that the drawing printed correctly?

 

Glen

[BigRed]

Okay, everybody. No progress, yet, but I appreciate the suggestions.

 

Here's a bit of context that may save explanations later. I'm working with two drawings. The first is a plan of a manufacturing facility showing the building and the equipment. It is large. Its current size is 31.2 MB. The second drawing shows data access points in the plant and it uses the first drawing as an external reference. To my surprise, this file is a "tiny" 1.1 MB. File size, alone, would not seem to be the problem.

 

When I write of missing entities, I refer only to the plotting process. The entities are there in model space and on the paper space layouts.

 

So far, no other drawing (usually much smaller) has exhibited this behavior, but it is only a couple of weeks that the two drawings in question have done this. They printed properly before that.

 

The problem seems to be independent of the destination. The same entities are missing from the preview if I plot to an elderly DesignJet 430, a shiny, new HP ColorJet "all-in'one" machine, or either of two PDF makers (Adobe and Cute PDF).

 

In the plant drawing, freezing some of the entities that do appear did not result in any of the "missing" entities appearing in the print preview. In the access point drawing, both missing and present entities were from the plant drawing that was inserted as an external reference.

 

My working theory was that it was a memory issue and that, somewhere in the system, there was a virtual vessel that stopped accepting entities for printing when it was full, but the second of the two drawings that I cited at the start is not very large.

 

Just my luck. I'm the first one on the planet to have this problem!

[ReMark]

I don't think you followed what I said.

 

You can identify some of the entities that do not plot right?

 

You can isolate them as well by keeping the layer(s) they are on visible right?

 

And you can turn off or freeze the other layers right?

 

If the answer to all three questions is "yes" then do a test plot of just those entities. Do they show up in preview? Yes or No? Do they plot? Yes or No?

 

I am trying to determine if the problem is with the entities you claim are being loaded later when the drawing is opened. Isolate and plot those entities if at all possible.

 

If you think it is a problem with your virtual memory then change the settings but keep the min and max values the same. For a number to work with take the amount of physical RAM and multiple it by 2.5 and use that. Also, clean out all temp files.

 

One other test. Can you print the Xref separate from the rest of the drawing with no problem? Can you freeze the Xref and print the drawing with no problem?

[BigRed]

This was pushed aside so I could get some work done, but I have eliminated everything but the file as the source of the problem and, after the just-returned-from-holiday IT guy introduced me to the "Previous Version" feature, I was able to find the day when the file went from good to bad. I'm using the last good version to get some behind-schedule tasks finished, but if I don't discover what is wrong, a bunch of subsequent work will be lost. What I was doing when things went wrong was changing this drawing's gazillion entitiies to color-by-layer. When possible, this was done by editing blocks or Xrefs rather than exploding things. Obviously, this should not make some of the entities not print, but that's what I have until I can study it more closely.