topic Re: SSM Label Block Scale Field: (###) Not coming through on pdf plot in AutoCAD Forum

SSM Label Block Scale Field: (###) Not coming through on pdf plot

Crass — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 21:11:17 GMT

Hello All - I periodically have this situation where when plotting a set to pdf, some or all of the fields which indicate the associated viewport scale (in this case of a detail) show as a series of ######. I plot through Sheet Set Manager. They look fine in CAD. And it seems inconsistent. I can plot twice within 10 minutes for example and in one version they'll be fine and in the second, I'll get this error. I suspect it has something to do with server communication lag but I'd love to find a solution to this once and for all. I believe others have in past recommended exploding the block but that to me negates a major benefit to having a "smart" field driving this value.

Re: SSM Label Block Scale Field: (###) Not coming through on pdf plot

paullimapa — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 21:22:45 GMT

have you tried disabling background plotting?

Options>Plot and Publish>Background processing options:

Re: SSM Label Block Scale Field: (###) Not coming through on pdf plot

Crass — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 21:39:28 GMT

Thanks @paullimapa - I will try that. Do you just leave that unchecked always?

Re: SSM Label Block Scale Field: (###) Not coming through on pdf plot

paullimapa — Wed, 26 Mar 2025 22:00:13 GMT

Usually if problems are encountered with plotting in the background enabled, then disable.

Re: SSM Label Block Scale Field: (###) Not coming through on pdf plot

Valentin_CAD — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 09:42:58 GMT

@Crass ,

See if editing the Field and changing to a Custom Scale help.

How to use the custom scale of layout viewports in the title block in AutoCAD

Other related:

Re: SSM Label Block Scale Field: (###) Not coming through on pdf plot

Crass — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 11:23:23 GMT

Hi @Valentin_CAD - Thanks for sharing these articles though I don't know if they address the particulars of this situation. In the top article I don't know how I can set the field to object as the object, in this case the viewport, is created through the "Place on Sheet" operation through Sheet Set Manager. This is what the dialogue box looks like in the field in our block.

Re: SSM Label Block Scale Field: (###) Not coming through on pdf plot

Valentin_CAD — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 12:11:36 GMT

@Crass ,

May be.

Or try changing the Field category to Object and selecting Object and Viewport as Object type:

Re: SSM Label Block Scale Field: (###) Not coming through on pdf plot

Crass — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 13:00:02 GMT

Hi @Valentin_CAD - Yes, but when you choose object as the field you need to then select the object which is not possible in this case because as I stated above, the object (viewport) has not been created yet. Maybe I'm missing something...

I will accept the solution offered by @paullimapa as that worked (once)*, but I am interested in building a better block that doesn't present these issues to begin with.

* See further discussion below.

Re: SSM Label Block Scale Field: (###) Not coming through on pdf plot

Crass — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 13:03:38 GMT

Hi @paullimapa - Originally I had accepted your suggestion to disable background plotting/printing as the solution, but it doesn't seem to work consistently. For example, on this latest plot, on some sheets within the sheet set the scales read fine. On others they do not. Is there anything else we can try? This is very frustrating.

Re: SSM Label Block Scale Field: (###) Not coming through on pdf plot

paullimapa — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 13:26:03 GMT

I think I read another post recently where the solution another user did was to disable multi processing and that worked. But I’m not sure how valid that solution is since I’ve no experience with that.

Re: SSM Label Block Scale Field: (###) Not coming through on pdf plot

paullimapa — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 13:31:10 GMT

This is the post I mentioned though the issue there is a lockup when publishing

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-forum/autocad-2022-multi-page-publish-issues/m-p/13403431#M1151160