Vault Batch Plotting - Possible Reasons for Errors?

[csmac2004]

All,

So I'm finally trying to utilize the 'Plot' functionality within Vault, but I'm finding it very frustrating to use. We are using Vault Professional 2011. The majority of my plot jobs are failing, with the only explanation from Vault being "Error: Could Not Process File".

Basically, I'm finding it very inconsistent. I have had plots go off without a hitch, and then the second time they fail. Or, they will fail 3 or 4 times in a row, yet work the 5th time? I've had it work with Inventor open, but the next time only when Inventor is closed. I've had them work if I had an Inventor file open, but the next time I had to have all files closed. Sometimes rebooting Inventor solves it. Sometimes only by rebooting Vault. Sometimes neither work!

So, my question is this. What are the possible reasons for this type of failure? Are people using this feature regularly with success? (Sorry, I guess that is more than one question).

I am seeing the inconsistencies when I use different plotters or printers so that doesn't seem to be the issue either. I am pre-dominantly printing to DWF (using the Autodesk DWF printer driver). I have the DWF printer set up to not prompt for a file name and to save them all in a set location. When this works, its a thing of beauty! But having to try 5 times or more just to get a plot to work is quickly causing this option, like so many other great features that just aren't usuable by us here, to go collect dust in a closet somewhere... Especially when some of my plots (usually over 100 drawings each to try and keep the plot jobs somewhat manageable) take about 10 minutes to open... Ugghhh..

I am running Windows 7, x64 with 8GB's of RAM.

Any thoughts here would be greatly appreciated. This is too good of a feature to just shelf!!! Thanks!

Scott

[csmac2004]

Here's a screen shot, not that it has much information (hence why I'm asking about this!!!)

[tra_topsoe]

Have you found an answer for this error?

A user has received this message recently while trying to do several batch print jobs.

I may have found one, but want to find out what others have found so far.

[tra_topsoe]

I should have just put what I found instead of asking what other people have found.

I am an IT support technician, so I got involved when one of our engineers asked for help when this trouble started, and this is the steps I took to resolve it with him.  It may not work for everyone, but hopefully it does.

Bob was asked to provide some prints to a contractor that was hired to assist during an expansion project at our site.  Bob went into Vault and tested how to get the 11x17 page to print correctly as a hardcopy and PDF, and was able to get the first DWG to print to his printer, but when he immediately went back in to create a new Batch Plot job and print it as a PDF, he would get the error message as stated in the original post: "Error: Could not process file".  I was at his desk and tried several different ways of getting it to print, but at first the only way seemed to be by closing the program, and going back into Vault and starting a new Batch Plot job.  I told him I would do some research, and found several suggestions in several forum posts, but no real answers.  But, one of the suggestions did get me to thinking about why the process would work if the user shuts down the software, and then restarts it, so I went back to Bob, and tried the following steps.  First I asked him to close all software associated with Autodesk (AutoCAD and Vault).  I then had him start up Task Manager of Windows to see what processes (Processes tab) start up when using Vault and while doing a Batch Plot job.  I was thinking that maybe there would be a process that we could find that was locking up, and stopping the software in the background.  Bob started Vault, and selected a DWG, and clicked on Plot.  The Plot Manager screen came up, so he excluded the layouts that he did not need, and chose the printer he needed to print to, and the clicked Submit, and everything worked fine.  He brought up the Task Manager several times during the process, and nothing looked out of the ordinary, as it worked and the processes associated showed CPU activity, and then after the print finished, the processes looked as if they had stopped.  But, this is where I think the problem really lies.  I asked him to leave the Task Manager up for a bit, and never saw the Vault application (Application tab) show "Not Responding", which would be the normal action of a program that has locked up, but I did notice that the two processes (Processes tab) associated with Vault were still changing the amount of memory they have utilized.  The CPU column did not show major usage, but the memory would go up, and then at some point after the job finished, the amount of memory started going down.  This led me to believe that something was still going on in the background, and it took time after the Batch Plot job to stop and reset itself to an idle state.  So after what was about a minute or two after the last job, I had him start a new Batch Plot job, but this time with multiple DWG files.  The Plot Manager screen came up, and he made the necessary changes, and clicked on submit, and it worked correctly this time as well.  Again, I had him wait for about another minute, or so, and all the while going back to Task Manager to watch the associated processes, and when it appeared the memory usage dropped and became steady, I had him try a third Batch Plot job.  Again, when in the Plot Manager screen, and after clicking on Submit, the pages printed correctly.

So I guess the only answer that I can give as a solution is that you have to wait for the process from the first job to completely stop before moving on to a second Batch Plot job.  The computer we are using is a pretty hefty machine: Intel i7, 16GB RAM, NVidia 2GB video card, etc., so you may see different results, and may have to wait longer depending on the resources on your machine, but waiting about a minute or two seems to work.