topic Re: Batch Plot only plotting one page in AutoCAD Forum

Batch Plot only plotting one page

SESTACIO — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 16:14:48 GMT

Hi, so recently I have been having an issue plotting multiple copies of a project. I go ahead and click on Batch Plot/Publish. Then organize the sheets in the order I want them to come out, then I enter how many copies I want (2 in this case). What prints is just two copies of the first sheet and that's it. It doesn't print out any of the other sheets. It's weird, it knows to print two copies of one page, but wont print out the other sheets. I have an image attached.

Recently I did create a new page setup made from an exact copy of an older one that I have used for years that has always worked with batch plot. Only difference is I added "Plot Transparency"

Let me know if you require any further details. Thanks to all in advance!

Re: Batch Plot only plotting one page

imadHabash — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 16:42:44 GMT

Hi,

Change AutoCAD's collating settings if you are sending the sheets to a plotter. Type "PUBLISHCOLLATE=1" in the command prompt without quotes, and then press "Enter." With this setting, the sheets print as one job without interruption from other jobs. If your plotter doesn't support multi-sheet mode, however, the setting may have no effect, or it may cause your plotter to print only the first sheet. >> Click <<

Re: Batch Plot only plotting one page

SESTACIO — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 18:13:42 GMT

@imadHabash PUBLISHCOLLATE is already set to 1. So I tried setting it to zero, then back to 1, restart CAD, and it's still not printing all sheets. Also, it is not printing in the correct order, it printed two copies of what should technically be the last page to come out for each set.

Re: Batch Plot only plotting one page

imadHabash — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 18:15:58 GMT

close your AutoCAD then restart it again .. now start publishing . any changes ?

Re: Batch Plot only plotting one page

SESTACIO — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 18:24:45 GMT

@imadHabash as mentioned above, I restarted CAD before I tried to print. Just for kicks, I just did it again. I set publishcollate to zero, restarted CAD. Then set it to 1, then restarted CAD again, then tried to print and it's still printing the last page two times instead of two full sets of 7 pages

Re: Batch Plot only plotting one page

pendean — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 20:10:20 GMT

Perhaps this is a location issue?

or your printer/plotter driver in your pagesetup can't do this

Or your defined-in-pagesetup "plotter" driver is the absolutely wrong thing to use for a multi-page PDF output from PDF and it might be time to try a built-in PDF option instead

if you want a quick answer instead of 100-guesses game, try another PC with AutoCAD on it at your end or use ETRANSMIT command to bundle your file to share it over here for someone to try.

Re: Batch Plot only plotting one page

SESTACIO — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 20:40:00 GMT

@pendean Funny thing is if I Publish to PDF, it works. That's not my problem though. I can't get it to Publish to the plotter for my 2 Hard Copies I Need. If I do File>Plot, "NAC TITLE" is my default Page Setup. I can go tab to tab and CTL+P and print individually using the same default page setup and it plots just fine. The minute I try to Publish it doesn't work correctly, and only prints out 2 copies of the last page.

Re: Batch Plot only plotting one page

pendean — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 22:50:56 GMT

@SESTACIO That's a plotter driver/hardware something else limit sadly, there is no fixing it inside AutoCAD unless we have access to all of your settings/driver version/make/model and someone has the exact setup you do and got it to work in the first place.

So... how would you like to proceed? In the interim, PUBLISH to PDF then print twice to your plotter from your PDF viewer of choice, it should work just fine I believe unless that too fails.

CTRL+P working/not working means nothing in this instance sadly, we don't have enough info about your setup or pagesetups to offer more than just guesses IMHO.

Re: Batch Plot only plotting one page

SESTACIO — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 18:10:35 GMT

@pendean

It’s definitely AutoCAD, I ran more tests that eliminate the possibility of it being the plotter driver. Not sure if you missed or misunderstood in my previous responses of me explaining that I have a Page Setup that works. When creating a personalized Page Setup you have to select a driver and setup all the other options you want, one of those options for me was selecting to “Print Transparency” (this is important to know since this Is playing a roll) then I saved it as “NAC TITLE”. Then I set NAC TITLE as my default plotter in Page Setup Manager so that when I CTRL+P, that’s the default. That is what I meant when I said CTRL+P works. If the plotter driver wasn’t working properly I wouldn’t be able to print single plots out correctly using that NAC TITLE, but it does work.

So I ran a couple more tests. So I ran a PUBLISH using the NAC TITLE as my default plotter, but this time I ran ONE copy of all pages. It worked and plotted all 7 pages in the correct order that I specified them in.. Interesting.... Then I tried again, this time two copies, and boom it glitched again. It printed two copies of the page A0.1, which should have been the last page to print out in each set. (look at batch plot order in picture)

So then I wanted to see if the “plot transparency” option had anything to do with it since that was the newest thing I had changed. So I made a new Page Setup. Using NAC TITLE as my base, checked off “Plot Transparency” and Saved it as a NEW Page Setup called “TITLE NO TRANSPARENCY”. So now transparencies will not be printed. I set “TITLE NO TRANSPARENCY” as the default plotter in Page Setup Manager on all 7 pages. Clicked on PUBLISH two copies, and magically it worked. I switched back to NAC TITLE, and again it glitched.

I have no clue whyyyyyy Publishing 2 copies with “Plot Transparency” is what trips it up. So in the interim, I will publish one copy at a time for now. IMO that’s just putting a band-aid on the problem. It could be my AutoCAD has a glitch and I need to do a repair install.

Is anyone willing to recreate this issue by making a Page Setup plotting Transparency then Publish 2 copies? This would be good way to see if this is a CAD Glitch in general or if it's just my AutoCAD

Re: Batch Plot only plotting one page

pendean — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 19:40:36 GMT

Excellent detailed review: now do this and report it to Autodesk when you get a chance, here is how https://knowledge.autodesk.com/customer-service/account-management/users-software/support-options#:~:text=To%20contact%20support%3A,to%20access%20help%20and%20support.

Re: Batch Plot only plotting one page

rkynaston36CVK — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 22:51:19 GMT

I fixed this by saving in model space and trying again