Exporting to PDF with printing problems

[Anonymous]

Ok so I am completely lost. I have been working on this issue for about a week now with no results. I have a massive file, ( that is  a different topic to discuss later) part of this file I am trying to export to pdf which works great (see Full Print Attachment), exports just fine no issues until I hit print. After I try to print all that comes out is a blank page. So I have  been experimenting with this. If I only export the right half of this image it prints fine (see right half attachment), If I do the left half it work just fine as well (see left half attachment), but if I try to do just the middle section (ran out of attachment spots) It prints blank pages. If i remove the assembly line ( the blue and green one) from the drawing the full image exports and prints, if I do just the assembly line it exports and prints. It makes absolutely no sense to me and this is something that I have to figure out quick. So please help me.

The reason for needing to export and print from pdf is so I can send the drawing to contractors and they can print it out.

[Anonymous]

You are probably running into a memory issue, try reducing the DPI of the PDF.

See if this helps, if not there are other options to try.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately this did not work.

[Anonymous]

How big is the DWG?

[Anonymous]

It is our plant layout so it is vary large with a lot of xrefs in it, but the section I am trying to export exports to pdf file size of 16MB. I have also tried just print to pdf and I get the same issues as well 

[Anonymous]

Try plotting to a DWF file, then print a PDF from that.

See if you can do that.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately this did not work either

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous,

Is it possible to share the file? If you need to do so privately you could share from your Cloud storage or I can give you an upload location.  I am happy to look at the file and see if I have the same issue. Please make sure that you have a named PageSetup and the plot style included (perhaps use an eTransmit).

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

[Anonymous]

Yes I can do this but I am unsure of how to do this with all the xref in it 

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous,

You can use the eTransmit command and it should bundle everything up for me into a ZIP file.

[Anonymous]

ok where would you like me to send it?

[john.vellek]

Hi@Anonymous,

I spent a few hours yesterday on this issue.  I found that many of your xref files had some drawing errors and one had over 500!

I opened nearly every drawing and ran AUDIT, PURGE, and -PU>Regapps. I am not sure that it had any affect on the plotting issue but I wanted to make sure the drawings were as clean as possible.

I think the large amount of data is causing the printing issue. You have 105 xref files attached to the host. To test what the size really is when the file is fully loaded with the xrefs, I tried an exporttoautocad and the resulting file is over 230 MBs!

I did test lowering the PDF Vector resolution. The lower I set the value the more of the model would print without errors.

I think that you will need to adjust the level of detail you are showing in your printing.

For instance, I did a screen capture of one little area in the drawing:

 I doubt that all the lines over other lines adds much clarity to the design and could be much more effective if the detail level was reduced.

This in combination with the size of the files getting loaded all at once  are the likely causes of your plots failing.

Perhaps you could eliminate some of the XREF files or create a unique layer in each one that simplifies or outlines the objects so when loaded into the host there is not so much detail.

I am going to play with this a bit more this morning but I think the reality is that things need to be lighter and simpler.

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

[Anonymous]

I totaly agree with you on the size and detail of the file and that is what I am slowly chipping away at, but I should be able to export a section of this file to pdf and print it. Ive done it with the whole file before and it has worked but for some reason here recently I have been having problems.

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous,

I am able to print portions of it although I reduce the vector PDF resolution to do it.  I uploaded all my cleaned files for you if you want to download them and see if they work any better for you.