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AutoCAD Map 3D 2013 crashing after multiple prints

9 REPLIES 9
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Message 1 of 10
JanineW
970 Views, 9 Replies

AutoCAD Map 3D 2013 crashing after multiple prints

When plotting from AutoCAD Map 3D 2013, after 7-8 plots, the programme crashes (with a warning to report the crash to Autodesk).  This happens whether we plot to pdf or to the printer (HP 5500dn).  This is happening to every user in my office.  We print across a University wide network for the printer (which I think is using the HP Universal Print Driver), but the pdf creator is on each individual machine (no network needed).  It's irritating when you are trying to plot 15-20 figures and have to keep re-starting AutoCAD.

The machines are Viglen, 64bit, Windows 7, 8GB RAM, 3.3GHz

 

Any ideas anyone?

 

 

9 REPLIES 9
Message 2 of 10
Alfred.NESWADBA
in reply to: JanineW

Hi,

 

Have you installed the latest servicepack from >>>here<<<?

What type of geometry or references do you have in that drawings, e.g. do you have ortho-photos or pointclouds or other stuff in it that might require more memory?

Also verify that you have not checked the "use transparency" in the plot-dialog if not necessary (reduces RAM-usage)

You can try to toggle the sysvar BACKGROUNDPLOT or to use _PUBLISH instead of _PLOT (if possible)

When AutoCAD Map3D crashes ... what does the taskmanager tell you about the memory consumption of ACAD.EXE?

 

- alfred -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS ... www.hollaus.at ... blog.hollaus.at ... CDay 2024
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(not an Autodesk consultant)
Message 3 of 10
JanineW
in reply to: Alfred.NESWADBA

Hi

Thanks for your quick reply.  Sorry I made a typo, we have ACAD 2012, not 2013.

 

I’ve run the latest servicepack and can now print 11 things off the belt, so quite an improvement from 7.

 

The drawings are usually located tifs with a site outline on them.  Occasionally geo-referenced tifs with .shp files imported.  No point-clouds or anything particularly complicated.

 

‘use transparency’ is not checked in the plots

 

The task manager shows AutoCAD running normally up to the crash point, then it disappears, with no surge in use.

 

I haven’t previously come across BACKGROUNDPLOT, but it is set to the default 2

 

If it can't be fixed, at least it has been improved.

Thanks

Message 4 of 10
Alfred.NESWADBA
in reply to: JanineW

Hi,

 

>> The task manager shows AutoCAD running normally up to the crash point,

>> then it disappears, with no surge in use.

And how much memory is assigned to AutoCAD at the moment of the crash?

 

>> I haven’t previously come across BACKGROUNDPLOT, but it is set to the default 2

Try to set it to 0.

 

- alfred -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS ... www.hollaus.at ... blog.hollaus.at ... CDay 2024
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(not an Autodesk consultant)
Message 5 of 10
parkr4st
in reply to: Alfred.NESWADBA

This is a problem inherent to 2012 which disappeared with other problems with 2013.  You can download a 2013 trial and test it.

 

Dave

Message 6 of 10
JanineW
in reply to: Alfred.NESWADBA

Alfred:

I tried using BACKGROUNDPLOT set to 2 and set to 0 and it made very little difference.

 

Total memory assigned to AutoCAD at the moment of the crash was 272,960KB (when the backgroundplot was set to 2) and 270,040KB (when set to 0).  I got 11 and 10 pdfs respectively.

 

I noticed when testing that the number of plots you get seems to be set and is not dependent on the files you use.  For example, I was working on another job before I recommenced my testing.  I printed 3 things out when doing that job, then opened my test job and only got 7 pdfs to plot before the crash.  Re-started AutoCAD and got 10 before the crash.

 

Looks like this is going to be the best we can manage.

 

Dave:

There's no way I could pursuade my bosses to buy a new version of AutoCAD even if it did fix the problem.  Thanks for the advice though Smiley Happy

Message 7 of 10
Alfred.NESWADBA
in reply to: JanineW

Hi,

 

can you one time test to output to DWF instead of PDF? (btw: what PDF-driver did you use?)

Am I right that this problem only raises if you have georeferenced TIFF's referenced?

 

- alfred -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS ... www.hollaus.at ... blog.hollaus.at ... CDay 2024
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(not an Autodesk consultant)
Message 8 of 10
JanineW
in reply to: Alfred.NESWADBA

HI

 

We use Adobe Acrobat for our pdfs.  It's set up specifically for what we need and we've found it much more controllable than others like Cutepdf.  We've used it for years now and have never had any problems. 

 

If I publish the dwgs instead of print, all 14 I'm testing with came out without a problem.  However, I was struggling to get the pdfs to look correct with this method.  Unfortunate, as pdfs are now our main way of issuing our drawings.

 

Output as dwfs was fine, no crashes at all.  The only problem is, I'm not sure what we can do with dwfs Smiley Happy

 

The problem arises whether we're using geo-referenced tifs or not.  Even just simple 2D ployline drawings are affected.

 

The only new things are that we were put onto a new network a few months ago and were given a new printer driver for the HP 5500dn.  This problem arose about a month after that.  Do you think this could be the problem, or was it likely already in the program, we just hadn't come across it yet?

 

Thanks very much for all your help

 

Janine

Message 9 of 10
Alfred.NESWADBA
in reply to: JanineW

Hi,

 

>> We use Adobe Acrobat for our pdfs

Use the built-in driver (DWG to PDF.pc3), that's the most stable one when big data amount is active.

 

>> The only problem is, I'm not sure what we can do with dwfs

DWF is similar to PDF, but it's more vector oriented (compared to PDF is more text/character oriented).

And you can use DesignReview (free viewer from Autodesk >>>here<<<, or installed with Map3D already) to open it, to zoom/mark/print the content similar to Arcobat Reader).

 

>> This problem arose about a month after that.  Do you think this could be the problem,

>> or was it likely already in the program

It is critical in some situations when using a lot of raster files within drawings. So I guess you have not installed anything wrong. It's now to find a workaround for that situation so you can goon work and not stoped from crashes.

 

I would first try the internal PDF-driver and if that does not work then use the way with printing to DWF, and use then DesignReview to send it to the plotter.

 

Good luck, - alfred -

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS ... www.hollaus.at ... blog.hollaus.at ... CDay 2024
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(not an Autodesk consultant)
Message 10 of 10
JanineW
in reply to: Alfred.NESWADBA

That great Alfred, thanks very much for all your help.

 

I'll work with that as soon as I get chance.Smiley Happy

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