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Viewports of pdf unerlays not plotting

25 REPLIES 25
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Message 1 of 26
designer17
20229 Views, 25 Replies

Viewports of pdf unerlays not plotting

I'm having a weird problem. I have a bunch of pdf underlays in model space with four viewports referencing them in one paperspace layout. The viewports are on their own non-plot layer and the pdf underlays are on a plottable layer. This isn't an issue on the original dwg that I copied them from.

 

-Everything appears fine in paperspace (see FIG. 1)

-When I go to plot, only the viewport on the right shows up. (see FIG. 2)

-If I move the viewports on the left to the right side, they plot.(see FIG 3)

-When I move the original right viewport to the left side it no longer plots. (NOT SHOWN)

-If I toggle each viewport in the original layout and draw a random line in model space all four of them plot(see FIG. 4)

 

-I've checked the vp and pdf underlay layers and properties-all are good

-I've tried creating new vp's and still have same issues

-tried creating a new dwg, copied in the pdf underlays and still have same issue

 

 

Anyone have any idea why this is happening?

 

25 REPLIES 25
Message 2 of 26
pendean
in reply to: designer17

As a test, of you plot the entire layout to a smaller sheet size (start at letter size), does the problem go away? what about the next size sheet up? and the one after that? and so on?
Message 3 of 26
designer17
in reply to: pendean

We use a smaller printer that prints 11x17 max for check prints and a full size plotter that we use sparingly.

 

I was initially trying to make 11x17 prints and ran the test you mentioned on both printers.

 

FIRST PRINTER MENTIONED:

A size=no viewports printed

B size=Only right vp printed

 

 

SECOND PRINTER MENTIONED:

All viewports showed up for each different plot size

 

 

I'm stumped. I've never had this issue with our small printer.

Message 4 of 26
pendean
in reply to: designer17

what's the small printer and what driver are you using?
Message 5 of 26
designer17
in reply to: pendean

HP LaserJet 5100 PS

Driver: PSCRIPT5  0.3.7601.17514  version 6.00

Message 6 of 26
pendean
in reply to: designer17

Win7 64bit by chance? You must install and use the HP Universal printer Driver for it to all work with AutoCAD.

And do you really need to use Postscript? PCL5 works fine here on our HP5100.
Message 7 of 26
designer17
in reply to: pendean

Yup, running win 7 64-bit.  As far as the drivers and printer setup, that is all designated by the IT department. However, while discussing my issue with our resident cad guru and walking him through all the steps I've done to isolate/resolve the problem we were able to determine it's not isolated to our HP5100.  The viewports are no longer showing up on our large plotter when plotting at 11x17 or smaller.  We also tried a couple other printers as well as printing to pdf and the issue appears whenever we attempt to plot at 11x17 or smaller.  We had the IT department look into it and everyone's stumped.

 

In the end, I decided I was wasting to much time on it and just converted the pdf's into image files then re-inserted them into the drawing and those showed up fine.

 

Anyways, thanks for your help.

Message 8 of 26
flemingjon
in reply to: designer17

I think I may have figured it out, I came across the thread as I was having a problem with the same PDF underlasy showing up in one VP and not another.  What i found is that when my VP does not include at least a small part of the PDF underlay outline it dosent show up, but as soon as I take my VP out to include part of the outline, it shows up.  I just created a VP the same and the one i have but stretched a small piece to inlcude the outline and it worked. 

Message 9 of 26
jimmygunz37
in reply to: designer17

This still seems to be an open issue and i have faced it many times. BUT i think i just found a solution. On a visible layer (non-printing does not work) draw a small line or point (preferred) somewhere on top of the pdf or line work through the viewport or within the boundary of that viewport. It seems to 'jump start' the viewport and the PDF becomes visible too. I haven't tried on all of my files, but it seems to have fixed the multiple viewports on my current project.

If this solved the issue, please click to accept as solution.

Message 10 of 26
adisistoC97S2
in reply to: jimmygunz37

Thank you for the suggestion! I have been tinkering all morning to try and fix this exact issue. This work-around seems to trick the pdf to display in the viewports. Definitely give this one a try!

Message 11 of 26
itunesjorge
in reply to: designer17

You have solve the problem that other "experts" can´t.  I dont know why it happens, but if you draw something "in white color" it doesn´t affect the print

Thanks, i have solved my problem thanks to you. 

sorry about my english

Message 12 of 26
itunesjorge
in reply to: designer17

You have solved the problem that other "experts" can´t.  I dont know why it happens, but if you draw something "in white color" it doesn´t affect the print

Thanks, i have solved my problem thanks to you. 

sorry about my english

Message 13 of 26
Emmsleys
in reply to: itunesjorge

@itunesjorge

 

I just wanted to follow up with you to see if you are able to explain in more detail what post or what resolved your problem (if time permits). 

 

Thanks.

 

 



Sarah Emmsley
Technical Support Specialist

Message 14 of 26
jimmygunz37
in reply to: Emmsleys

Emmsleys,

 

i believe he may be referring to my post about drawing a point or line through the viewport on the PDF... as he mentioned making the color of the line/point white, and that it doesnt show up in the print...

interesting there has been activity on this topic, and today i just had to use the 'trick' again since i initially posted... 

 

James

 

Message 15 of 26
Farrellda6
in reply to: designer17

jimmy: Have you found another solution to the pdf not plotting. I tried your method of drawing on the pdf thru the view port and that does work but it seems like it is a really "rigged" solution...

let me know if there is a better solution.

thanks

Message 16 of 26
jimmygunz37
in reply to: designer17

Farrell,
No i havent. While i agree it is a 'rigged' solution, it is still a solution.. ha... working with autocad for a few decades has taught me that sometimes you have to find out what works around some of the bugs in the program and use them to get you through the moment/drawing submission. For me, this problem has happened so infrequently that i havent looked further after finally finding a reliable/usable solution. But each time i have had the issue i tried 100's of different ways and searched 100's of threads/responses to remedy it to no avail. The reason i posted was to help everyone else to have the solution and potentially bring attention to and inspire autodesk to do something about it (which is the only other recommendation for an alternative/less 'rigged' solution i can think of)... 😉

I am glad it worked for you,
James
Message 17 of 26
Farrellda6
in reply to: jimmygunz37

Jimmy: I have finally bailed on using .pdf's. I now am using on .jpegs and these work just fine and are less memory intensive. I'm not a software 'mechanic' but there must be something inherently incompatible btwn a native .pdf and Autocad internal machinery.
I suggest simply saving your .pdf to jpeg.
Good luck.

David Farrell
Farrell Architects
214 803 1804
david@farrellarchitects.com
Sent from planet Earth
Message 18 of 26

Hi,

 

I don't know on which AutoCAD version you are, but for current AutoCAD release (2017) you can import the PDF into AutoCAD instead of referencing it. That gives you a much better handling in AutoCAD. Especially if the PDF was a vector-PDF you get all the vectors imported as AutoCAD geometry, directly ready to work with AutoCAD commands on them.

 

More info about command _PDFIMPORT is >>>here<<<.

 

- alfred -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS ... www.hollaus.at ... blog.hollaus.at ... CDay 2024
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(not an Autodesk consultant)
Message 19 of 26
jimmygunz37
in reply to: designer17

Yes jpegs seem to show up no prob, and i have done that in the past as a remedy for final print out.... but the jpegs are raster and i wouldnt start with them... personally i prefer line work as opposed to any imported drawings... but if i have to import a drawing i prefer Vector based info...

James
Message 20 of 26
frankWBK4G
in reply to: designer17

One of the conditions was already posted:  At least part of the PDF frame needs to be visible in your Viewport.

The most important condition is that your settings for PDFFRAME must be set to:  1

 

AutoCAD command:  PDFFRAME

You may enter 0, 1 or 2

 

You can go to "Help" to get the explanations of the 3 different settings, but it seems only one setting plots...  1

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