RBPrice Posted December 27, 2013 Share Posted December 27, 2013 Why does it take a 3.60Mhz computer with 32 Meg of ram and twin terabyte drives 32 seconds to send a file to my hard wired plotter thereby frustrating my Type A personality? Windows 7 SP 1 Lenovo S30 machine And why when I create a PDF file, doesn't the Plot Stamp function work by putting the file path into the PDF file? Thanks a bunch Bob Price Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 Maybe you have plot spooling enabled? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RBPrice Posted December 28, 2013 Author Share Posted December 28, 2013 Well I do not think I have spooling enabled since I don't have a clue as to how to do that. BUT - if the command was spooled, meaning put into a buffer for processing when the machine was able to execute that command, then it seems to me one could keep sending plot commands until the spooling buffer was filled up thereby allowing one to use the PRINT command in rapid sequence and not get the "CAN'T DO THAT 'CAUSE ANOTHER PLOT IS WORKING" pop up. And the advertisements that keep popping up on this site are incredibly intrusive and annoying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana W Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 Well I do not think I have spooling enabled since I don't have a clue as to how to do that. BUT - if the command was spooled, meaning put into a buffer for processing when the machine was able to execute that command, then it seems to me one could keep sending plot commands until the spooling buffer was filled up thereby allowing one to use the PRINT command in rapid sequence and not get the "CAN'T DO THAT 'CAUSE ANOTHER PLOT IS WORKING" pop up. And the advertisements that keep popping up on this site are incredibly intrusive and annoying.For the plot stamp issue, on the options dialog, open and save tab, select Show full path in title.. Do you really want to publish your user name? As far as the annoying adds, if it is the header banner you need to have a discussion with whoever is building the browsing history on your computer. The adds are mostly based on that. There will be adds, the degree of annoyance depends on where your browser has been. If you are getting true popup adds then your browser/firewall/anti-virus security settings need to be modified. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 Print spooling is a function of your printer software unless you were experimenting with AutoCAD and purposely issued the _AUTOSPOOL command. As for the number of annoying ads you are seeing maybe your computer picked up a virus. It's cold and flu season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RBPrice Posted December 28, 2013 Author Share Posted December 28, 2013 Got rid of the adds - some evil thing got into my computer. As for the Full Path, that, I have found, is extremely useful when one goes into a file 30 years after it was created, and there is the exact link to the file neatly printed along the left hand edge of the dwg. And putting it on a PDF version of the file is the same: if a customer has been sent a PDF of something I designed for her a long time ago, it is a great way to recover the information. So we are back to the beginning: how come a workstation can't "instantaneously" send a PLOT command to a hard wired printer and why doesn't the Plot Stamp function work on a PDF version of a dwg.? Cheers Just saw the suggestion about my printer, an HP 7000 wide format thing. I will investigate that issue. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 My workstation has no problem sending a plot instantly to my local printer. Why your workstation can't do that is a mystery to me at the moment. I gave you one possibility already. I'll have to do some research to come up with other possibilities. Question: Does the Plot dialog box open immediately? Re: Plot Stamps. I don't have any need of them therefore I don't use them. Any layers turned off or frozen? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 Try turning off the background plotting feature and see if that makes any difference. "To turn it off, open up the OPTIONS (type in OP at the command line). Go to the PLOT AND PUBLISH tab. Near the left center area there is the option to toggle on/off Background Plotting. You have the ability to turn off Plotting and/or Publishing. I left the publishing on but turned the plotting off. Set it to fit your needs." Source: CAD-a-Blog by Brian Benton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana W Posted December 28, 2013 Share Posted December 28, 2013 why doesn't the Plot Stamp function work on a PDF version of a dwg.?It shouldn't make a difference, but sometimes the pdf print OFFSET is a little different, depending on the pdf driver version. Look at your layout. Is the plot stamp showing there? If so, is it inside the printable area? If not inside the printable area (dashed rectangle), it is selectable so you can move it, but this will only change that one layout. To change the plot stamp offset on all pages of a drawing at once you can manipulate the stamp offset distance in the Options > Plot and Publish > plot stamp settings > advanced button. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RBPrice Posted December 28, 2013 Author Share Posted December 28, 2013 Fisrt, YES the Plot dialog box opens immediately. Turning Off Background Plotting had no effect on the delay - still ~ 30 secs. And typing _AUTOSPOOL gives me the error msg. that it is an unknown command. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobDraw Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Have you contacted the plotter manufacturer to trouble shoot the plotter? It sounds like a RAM issue in the plotter. Does this happen to every file sent to the plotter? I've seen this happen with bloated PDF file sizes and complicated AutoCAD files. You should be able to find out the size of the plot files being sent (which will be different from the drawing file size) in your plotter cue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RBPrice Posted December 30, 2013 Author Share Posted December 30, 2013 (edited) Hi Rob - the problem seems to be with AutoCAD 2013 as I have had the HP 7000 for some time and it was not a problem with 2008/9. I do not know if the printer can have a buffer but will check HP later today. Edited December 31, 2013 by RBPrice Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobDraw Posted December 30, 2013 Share Posted December 30, 2013 Did anything else change when you switched to 2013? Have you updated the driver? I've seen situations where the HP drivers didn't work properly and the windows drivers were needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RBPrice Posted December 31, 2013 Author Share Posted December 31, 2013 Today's report - I checked with the folks at HP and there is no provision for a buffer for the HP OfficeJet 7000 Wide Format printer. The tech locked on to my machine and observed the 32 sec. delay in printing a simple detail dwg. and the essentially zero delay in printing a Word file. So that means that the problem is in the AutoCAD 2013 interface to the printer or some as yet unknown setting that I have not found. As for any change from 2008/9 to 2013 with the "new" computer, I do not recall noticing this problem early on and I am sure I would have been equally dismayed if it had occurred when I first made the switchover. And I still fail to understand why the Plot Stamp does not work on PDF files other than something in the AutoCAD 2013 code. Alas, tis still a mystery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RBPrice Posted December 31, 2013 Author Share Posted December 31, 2013 Just visited the Device Manager and checked to see if the latest printer driver was the most up to date and it was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobDraw Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 We'll get back to the plot stamp later. Have you tried disconnecting, removing the plotter, uninstalling the driver, and reinstalling the plotter? If it wasn't happening initially, something within AutoCAD has changed since the install. Do you or anyone else use a registry cleaner on that machine? A repair to the AutoCAD installation may be in order if the problem cannot be tracked down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RBPrice Posted December 31, 2013 Author Share Posted December 31, 2013 I can try doing that procedure on the Plotter Rob and see what happens. And yes, I do run a Registry cleaner program as part of a weekly health check on the machine: I have been doing that on this machine and the previous one for several years now. As for doing a "repair" on AutoCAD 2013, I can't since it is running as a plain vanilla version of AutoCAD Mechanical inside a Product Design Suite Professional package that doesn't really want to run AutoCAD 2013. 2013 does not show up in the list of programs in the Control Panel repair/remove listing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RBPrice Posted December 31, 2013 Author Share Posted December 31, 2013 OK - turned off the printer, disconnected the USB cable, deleted the printer from the system, plugged the cable back in, turned on the printer and went to the Control Panel where the system found the "new" printer which I made into the default printer. Sorry to say, nothing changed. Bummer !! Let me correct that - the first plot was a small 3D solid and it took maybe 8 - 10 seconds longer to start printing than the simple 2D detail drawing. So clearly file size has something to do with the delay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobDraw Posted December 31, 2013 Share Posted December 31, 2013 Some registry cleaners can mess up AutoCAD. Which one are you using? Just because it didn't cause a problem before, doesn't mean that it is not the culprit. If you knew exactly when the problem started, you could try a Windows system restore. The reason you give for not being able to do a repair installation may be the problem, also. Maybe a reinstallation of the package is in order. There are specific instructions for uninstalling AutoCAD which are available at from Autodesk. That is probably also true for the suite. I'm off to celebrate the New Year and may not be back 'til Thurs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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