Topic: acad 2002 bombing out on plot preview...help

[diarmuid]

on some of the machines in the company, where i work, cad crashes out when the guys do a full plot preview. it seems to be problematic for over a year now with our tech people not having much success (they are not very good)

they aren't using any plug in software within cad itself. and it seems to be fairly problematic on one floor of the building.  my guess is the plotter that they are plotting to (the one on their floor) is what is causing the problem.  because i don't seem to be hearing any of the other cad people on other floors (plotting to different plotters) complaining to any great extent.

my own machine hasn't (maybe a very odd time but thats cad for you.)

but i need to be sure.

the version of cad that they are using is 2002  the drawings that they are using are 2002 format (including the xrefs)

i know that acad 2000 used to have that problem and issued a patch to repair the problem.  (it happened to me)



thanks in advance

Regards

Diarmuid

[hyposmurf]

Is there a patch for your problem on 2002 version,have you updated the plotter drivers & display drivers or reinstalled the existing?If all else fails and seen as this problem has gone for soo long have you reinstalled AutoCAD and seen if it clears the problem?

[diarmuid]

reinstalled autocad and the hard drive on some machines ( so i'm told) but problem persists.

i'm faily sure its the plotter but before i start making waves i'd like to be sure that there is no "just untick that box" type solution to the problem.

thanks in advance.


Diarmuid

[Keith™]

Check for plotting updates since AutoCAD handles the plotting internally. I know that 2000 would crash if you used HP plotters without the patch.

[Craig]

What OS are you guys running? One thing you may want to check on is you virtual memory. The other might be setting your plotter/printer memory within your OS. To adjust the Virutal Memory in XP Pro do the following:
1. Open System in Control Panel.
2. On the Advanced tab, under Performance, click Settings.
3. On the Advanced tab, under Virtual memory, click Change.
4. Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file you want to change.
5. Under Paging file size for selected drive, click Custom size, and type a new paging file size in megabytes in the Initial size (MB) or Maximum size (MB) box, and then click Set.

We have run inot this problem in the past and it corrected our crashing. Instead of "Letting" windows decide on whats best, we just set aside about 1.5gb of drive space

[diarmuid]

we are running windows nt 4 ( gas powered )  i know that this could also be the problem, running 2002 software on 1998 o.s., BUT..it seems to be running fine on most of the machines and is probably more stable than running it on XP machines, i think the common denominator is the plotter, the disicipline that is bieng affected is the mech/elec department.  if it was the archietectural department it would probably make more sence.

 

anyway, thanks for the help.  keep the info comming. i'm not at braking point yet.

[diarmuid]

it isnt the plotter is causing the problem.

they all seem to be crashing out at various types and sizes of plotters (a1 plotters, a3 lazer etc.)

so i'm back at square one.

keep racking the brains.

appreciate any help that comes my way

regards

Diarmuid

[Craig]

it isnt the plotter is causing the problem.

I wouldn't think it would be being you stated

cad crashes out when the guys do a full plot preview

Don't think previewing would have anything to do with the plotter. As far as running 2002 on 98 is more stable than XP is really incorrect. I have used ACAD with 3.11, 98, 98SE, NT4, 2000 and XP. XP is by far the most stable platform I have worked on. Of course its also going to depend on your complete computer package and the quality.

[diarmuid]

acad 2000 used to crash the whole time when you did a plot preview on some of the hp plotters.  and it turned out that IT WAS the interfacing between the plotter and acad 2000.  i have used 2002 on XP and i found it to be more unpredicatable than NT4( not nearly as bad as '98, but we all know about that ).  in fact i have found NT4 to be the most stable of all of the platforms, probably because it has none of the frils.

it has turned out that , that it is not the plotter that is the problem this time around because it is crashing on all types of drawings with different types and makes of plotters.  but the problem is only limited to a couple of machines contained on one floor.  my machine, to my knowledge has never crashed, when doing a plot prievew and we all have the exact same spec machine.  and i have been opening HUGE drawings (20mb+)

i have eliminated one possible cause of the problem, but it still remains.

i would appreciate any help in solving the matter

thanks for all the replies

Regards

Diarmuid

[Craig]

Have you tried to contact your local support where you purchased your Autocad from or do you have local support? As Keith stated, have you checked your plotter settings on the ones that are crashing and maybe update those plotter drivers?

[Mark]

So the facts to this point are:

It's not a plotter problem because it happens on different plotters. (are they all HP?)

It's not OS dependent.

Only affected on ACAD 2002.

It's not hardware because your machine doesn't have this problem. (Have you tried plotting to the same plotters with the same dwg's?)

How about graphics drivers? Do you all use the same graphics cards?

Have you re-installed ACAD 2002?

[diarmuid]

thanks ever so much for the replies guys i apprciate it.

we have reinstalled 2002 and we have also zapped the hard drive on some, but the problem still persists.  its not going to shut us down but its really pi55ing me off.  i'm not at the machine when it crashes, and i have asked the questions,

what were you doing when it went belly up? (doing a plot preview)

did you get an error message? (no)

did it just shut down to your desk top? (yes)

did it freeze/hang? (no)

did the machine even bleep? (no, it just went dissapeard back to my desktop)

what plotter were you plotting to? (it varied)

this one has me stumped.  i've posted it on the autodesk web site, so maybe one of their rocket scientist might have a fix on the problem.


thanks anyway guys

Regards

Diarmuid