Topic: Objects not plotting from PDF

[alanjt]

This is the third time this has happened in a multitude of drawings.
If I print to PDF, then print the PDF to our plotter, some objects will be missing (lines or polylines), and I've had cross hatch not plot properly.
Thinking it was my computer, I opened the drawing on a different machine and received the same results.
Everything shows up in the PDF, but it just doesn't plot, regardless of what machine I plot the PDF from.
Has anyone had any experience with this? As it's only happened 3 times in the last year, I feel like it's something I'm doing to the drawing, but I can't imagine what.

The fix atm is plotting directly from cad, but then the PDF in the file can't be plotted.

[Peter2]

....then the PDF in the file can't be plotted.

I don't understand - where is "a PDF in the file"?

In print-dialogue of PDF-Viewer there is usually an option like "Print as image" (Adobe Reader, PDF XChange, ...). When you activate it then normally everything will be printed.

The disadvantage is that this option causes (can cause ...) a heavy load for PC and for plotter 

[Dave M]

Could the plotter be running out of memory?

[Jeff H]

Seen it happen.
Trying to remember if figured out what was going on.

Is any of those objects screened("greyscaled")?

[alanjt]

....then the PDF in the file can't be plotted.

I don't understand - where is "a PDF in the file"?

In print-dialogue of PDF-Viewer there is usually an option like "Print as image" (Adobe Reader, PDF XChange, ...). When you activate it then normally everything will be printed.

The disadvantage is that this option causes (can cause ...) a heavy load for PC and for plotter 

Sorry, the PDF that has to be stored in the project folder cannot be plotted.

Could the plotter be running out of memory?

I was thinking that, and I noticed that if I opened the same PDF and printed it as a scaled down 11x17 to a printer (not the HP plotter), then everything prints fine. The strange part is, I've created PDFs much larger than the one I'm creating and never had an issue. The file in question isn't that big.

I'm going to send a PDF out to the people we use to plot large plan sets and see if it plots correctly for them.

I have to find a solution though. I'm spending far too much time of this.

[alanjt]

Seen it happen.
Trying to remember if figured out what was going on.

Is any of those objects screened("greyscaled")?

No.
What's even stranger is, there was a portion of my sidewalk that wasn't plotting. I exploded the polyline, plotted to pdf, plotted the pdf and more, but not all of the sidewalk showed up.   

[Rob...]

Have you tried a different PDF printer?

[alanjt]

I tried printing the PDF from two different versions of acrobat.

[Rob...]

You haven't tried anything else, like the DWG to PDF plotter?

[mjfarrell]

plot small...

print large

[ChrisCarlson]

Everything is on plottable layers correct?

[rkmcswain]

I have seen this on multiple occasions, but not recently. Probably more so when were using AutoCAD 2011 products and the DWG to PDF.pc3 file.

What if you open the PDF in [whatever program you open PDFs in] and print to something else, such as:
* Another PDF
* DWF
* A different printer (that uses a different driver, like a small format Canon/Xerox/Brother/etc.)
* Fax
* XPS

Does the missing geometry appear on any of these?


Now having said that, a much more frequent problem we had was linework APPEARING on a hardcopy print from PDF -- that was neither in the CAD file -or- in the PDF.
Our theory in that case was that the PDF creation driver was adding this mystery geometry but storing it in the PDF in such as way that Adobe and other readers knew to ignore it, BUT the print driver did not know to ignore it and printed it.

I suppose your issue could be something similar. The PDF application knows to read it and display it, but the printer is instructed to skip it for some reason.

[Peter2]

It would be great if you could upload the PDF (or a part of it with similar behaviour).

...The PDF application knows to read it and display it, but the printer is instructed to skip it for some reason.

I know that for example watermarks can have the properties "Visible yes/no for display/printing/export". Maybe - as rkmcswain said - it is something like this.

[alanjt]

It would be great if you could upload the PDF (or a part of it with similar behaviour).

...The PDF application knows to read it and display it, but the printer is instructed to skip it for some reason.

I know that for example watermarks can have the properties "Visible yes/no for display/printing/export". Maybe - as rkmcswain said - it is something like this.

Yes,but what is setting this in autocad?

Also, I printed the PDF with Chrome and it printed fine.
I also printed the same PDF with Acrobat, but scaled down to 11x17, and it also printed fine.
I'm at a complete loss.

[rkmcswain]

I also printed the same PDF with Acrobat, but scaled down to 11x17, and it also printed fine.
 

So when printing this PDF from Acrobat, full size, the geometry is missing
But doing the same thing except scaled down to 11x17, it prints fine?
Is this printing to the same printer with the same driver, etc. (just the paper size is different?)

[Jeff H]

You might check PLOTTRANSPARENCYOVERRIDE.


Not sure if this helps but remeber looking at this when trying to figure it out here
http://kipamerica.blogspot.com/2011/08/pdf-quicktips-for-kip-systems.html

[rkmcswain]

Not sure if this helps but remeber looking at this when trying to figure it out here
http://kipamerica.blogspot.com/2011/08/pdf-quicktips-for-kip-systems.html

Nice technical article. Thanks for sharing.

[Peter2]

...but scaled down to 11x17, and it also printed fine...

(Not helpful for the issue, but this reminds me of the behaviour in Acad 14, where sometimes TTF where printed outlined. You have to scale the textstyle to 0.99 - this cause an internal regeneration and a correct printing.)

As said above if you can share the file other users with other soft- and hardware can test ...

[Crank]

Could the plotter be running out of memory?

+1

Try a pdf with less dpi.