AutoCAD 2022 - Margins disappeared when printing PDF

[dbrblg]

Until today, I'd been using AutoCAD 2017, but have now been upgraded to 2022.

When it came to publishing a PDF, I notice that the margins have disappeared.  I set up the pc3 printer EXACTLY the same was as I did for 2017 and used EXACTLY the same publishing method, yet in the resulting PDF there are no margins at all.

The document page layout for, named "A4", has printer named ACAD.pc3, extents, monochrome.ctb, fit to paper, center plot and A4 paper size.

ACAD.pc3 Points to my printer (the exact same printer as  used on 2017) and paper sizes are filtered down to A4 and A3.

Every thing else is left at default.

Does anyone know why the resulting PDF has no margins whereas it did before?  What has changed and what do I need to do to get this back?

Thanks

[ The subject line of this post has been edited for clarity by @handjonathan Original: Margins disappeared when printing PDF ]

[dmfrazier]

In the PC3 editor, check to see if the standard paper size has been modified, or if maybe it just happens to be different than it used to be.

[dany_rochefort]

@dbrblg I've had similar problems in the past. You are probably suffering from a Window plot selection that has zoomed in too tight onto you template with a Fit to Paper that has locked everything in a wonky state without margins. 

Start a fresh page setup on a brand new drawing, once you've got it sorted, import your old drawing into your new page setup. 

[StephenThomasGrace]

Check your Options > Plot and Publish Tab
"Specify plot offset relative to:"
May be set to "Printable area"
try Edge of paper. That is what I always use.

-steve

[pendean]

@dbrblg You say PDF, then you write about using your own PC3 file that points to some driver. Are you using a 3rd party outside PDF driver? if so, did you test using only the 2022 PDF drivers that come with 2022 instead?

Did you migrate the old PDF drivers to 2022 using the automated migration tool by chance?

If not, and since we cannot see your screen, can you take a moment to share your PAGESETUP / PLOT command pop-up that created your PDF, and share that PDF (or a screenshot of it) here please?

TIA

[dbrblg]

@dmfrazier Checked this and the paper sizes are correct

@StephenThomasGraceTried both 'printable area' and 'edge of paper' and I get the same results.

@pendeanThere are no drivers other than the inbuilt ones supplied.  I've not installed any third party drivers; I've only ever used the 'create-a-plotter wizard' using the supplied options.

The page setup:

Original 2017 output:

New 2022 output:

Page outlines are in red for clarity as it is quite difficult to see in the later image.

 

[dmfrazier]

I would suggest re-creating your custom PC3 from scratch.

[dbrblg]

I've done that several times on four separate computers and I get the same results for everyone on every device.
Something has changed in 2022!!

[dmfrazier]

Are you printing to a PDF or to a Konica Minolta hardcopy printer?

[dbrblg]

I'm printing to PDF. @pendean wanted to see the page setup so this is reference.

[dmfrazier]

I appreciate your patience. Clearly, this is not an easy nut to crack, so more info is required to get to a resolution.

Was your earlier image of the page size info from your custom ACAD.PC3 file?

Were you showing a custom paper size or a modified standard paper size?

Have you tried it both ways? (Or maybe there's a standard page size that you can use without modification.)

[pendean]

As a test, since all of us over here do not have your exact setup and not likely to create it, get rid of this for now, use a stock PDF driver and see what else changes with the papersize (I suspect it will go to an oversize, but maybe not?)

[dbrblg]

@pendean tried using stock PDF driver with varying success with the margins. I can alter the printable area but it looks like the driver tries to keep the aspect ratio hence one of the four settings (top, bottom, left or right) will always be what it is set to but at the expense of the others so for example if I set top to be 20 it tries to maintain this but left or right values will be whatever they end up as in order to ensure the top is 20 and maintain the aspect ratio.

[dbrblg]

The more I look at plotting and publishing, the less I understand.

What happens if you use the page setup as follows:

with a pc3 file which points to a physical networked printer and then have the following publish setup:

where 'publish to' is set to a PDF printer. 

Clearly, I get a PDF, but this is highly contradictory as on one hand I'm saying use a physical printer and on the other hand I'm saying choose PDF.

My only guess here is that the printer is overridden and only the rest of the setup is used (extents, paper size, style etc)???

Also, the other issue is with the margins. 

If in the page setup I choose a PDF driver, adjust the printable area (via the properties button) and then click on preview, I get this:

On the face of it, this looks good as I actually have margins.  So I save this and then use publish, I end up with a PDF without margins:

There is something very wrong here as it seems to have forgotten about the printable area settings between me previewing and publishing.

I never had any of these problems with 2017. 

 

[dmfrazier]

"My only guess here is that the printer is overridden and only the rest of the setup is used."

You've told Publish to override the page setup and use AutoCAD's DWGtoPDF driver, via the provided PC3 named "AutoCAD PDF (High quality print)".pc3 based on the PDF preset you selected.

I suggest you compare the page size settings from your hardcopy printer with those from the AutoCAD PDF (High quality print)".pc3 that is stored in your printer config path. (Fingers crossed...)

[dbrblg]

Right, compared my physical printer pc3 settings against the AutoCAD PDF (High quality print)".pc3 with the following results:

The first thing to note are the paper sizes not matching - this is the physical printer pc3:

and this is the PDF pc3:

As there is no corresponding A3 and A4 page sizes in the PDF pc3 to correspond to these paper sizes in the page setup, I'm guessing this is where the problem could be?

So, I've added these paper sizes manually as a custom paper sizes and set them to their respective sizes.

Now you would expect the corresponding paper size in the PDF pc3 would match the paper size chosen in the page setup, right?

It gets stranger.  When I publish a PDF, I still get no border.  So I re-run and change the margins and suddenly I get this:

great...I'm on to something.  But no.  As the top border is only 15, I reduce this to 10 and I'm back to no border again.  Now I set the top border back to 15 again and I've still got no border - I cannot re-produce anything consistently.

[dmfrazier]

Note that in your 2nd screenshot it is unclear (invisible, actually) what standard paper size was selected to display.

"As there is no corresponding A3 and A4 page sizes in the PDF pc3 to correspond to these paper sizes in the page setup, I'm guessing this is where the problem could be?"

On my system, there are corresponding sizes, albeit with different (ISO) names:

I assume (but I don't know) that AutoCAD selects the page size that matches the overall width and height dimensions even though the name of the page size doesn't match. In this case, in the AutoCAD PDF driver (2023), there are three standard paper sizes defined for both A3 and A4 (one named "ISO expand...", one without the "expand", and one with "full bleed".).

Which one does AutoCAD select? I don't know.

Note that AutoCAD 2021 has a somewhat different set of selections for A3 and A4. The file date of the PC3 for 2021 is 10/11/2014, while the date for 2023 is 2/4/2021, so clearly the file has been modified since 2021.

Try modifying all three to match your desired margins. (Maybe?)

Another thing you might try (if you dare!) is to replace the new PC3 with a copy of the old one.

[dmfrazier]

"Another thing you might try (if you dare!) is to replace the new PC3 with a copy of the old one."

Please disregard this suggestion. I realized after posting that it's not the PC3 that has the page size (form) info, it's the driver (HDI) file. And I would not suggest replacing 2023's file with the file from an earlier version.

[cadffm]

for plotterconfigurations (.pc3) also in a .pmp file (linked to the .pc3).

[dmfrazier]

Certainly. But that is not where the "original" (unmodified) page size definitions are stored.