topic FATAL ERROR when Plotting (RESOLVED) in Civil 3D Forum

FATAL ERROR when Plotting (RESOLVED)

sonny_morales — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 19:15:54 GMT

EDIT: Turned out to be simpler than i thought. We use dropbox for all of our files and i must not have it to start up with my machine, so when the power went out and I got my machine back up, dropbox wasn't open. Since all our files are kept online and only sent to my pc when i use them, something must have happened when the power went out and caused one of my files to not upload or something. Needless to say, once i opened dropbox app through windows, my plotting was back.

I am getting a fatal error anytime i try to plot layouts from my design file and I am at a loss of what to do. I have searched the internet and nothing seems to help, or the articles are from years back.

Note that this started happening after a power loss at my home and seems to be only affecting this one DWG. Unfortunately this one DWG has all my layouts for this project within it.

I have tried:

Audit

Purge

Wblock

Re: FATAL ERROR when Plotting

brian.strandberg — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 17:49:19 GMT

Are you printing one layout or publishing them all? I find sometimes doing prints 1 by 1 is more stable.

Make sure you use the same audit/purge tools on your XREF's as well, I find alot of issues are there.

Re: FATAL ERROR when Plotting

rl_jackson — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 17:54:11 GMT

Unfortunately, this one DWG has all my layouts for this project within it.

So how may layouts is that? As a general rule you should never exceed more that 10, others might say even less.

Can you give a description of what exactly is happening, is it starting then failing in process? Are all the layouts set to the same printer type etc...

Re: FATAL ERROR when Plotting

sonny_morales — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 18:00:10 GMT

I typically print 1 at a time but tried both ways with same error result.

I will audit/purge my xrefs and see if that helps. Thanks

Re: FATAL ERROR when Plotting

sonny_morales — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 18:02:17 GMT

It is 3 layouts. As soon as I hit print it either goes directly to fatal error message or locks up and freezes.

All layouts are set to same thing and have been printed fine previously. This started happening after a power outage, so not sure if thay corrupted file somehow?

Re: FATAL ERROR when Plotting

brian.strandberg — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 18:23:02 GMT

Occasionally no amount of cleaning will help, and I find I have to recreate the drawing. In that case, create a new drawing, insert the existing drawing into the blank drawing. Make sure you check Explode. I like the classic insert command for this.

To recreate the layout tabs, Right click on an existing tab (probably layout 1), and select From Template....

Change the files of type to .dwg, and select your defective drawing. The insert Layout(s) window will pop up, select the layouts you want to import to the new drawing.

Hope this helps, thanks.

Re: FATAL ERROR when Plotting

sonny_morales — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 18:32:57 GMT

How will this affect the actual design aspects of my drawing? All my grading work is done in this drawing.

Re: FATAL ERROR when Plotting

sonny_morales — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 18:38:01 GMT

I just got a fatal error when trying to create a new dwg. This is starting to look a lot more like a uninstall/reinstall.. UGHHHH

Re: FATAL ERROR when Plotting (RESOLVED)

sonny_morales — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 19:16:35 GMT

thanks for help, seemed to be just a drop box connection issues, edited original post with what fixed it.

That was close lol

Re: FATAL ERROR when Plotting (RESOLVED)

brian.strandberg — Wed, 27 Mar 2024 17:36:06 GMT

Always great when you can solve the issue. As to your question about inserting into a blank drawing, it retains all of your design information, bringing along objects used to create a surface for example.

Thanks.