Ghost Lines - please help!

Ghost Lines - please help!

martinowen32
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Message 1 of 20

Ghost Lines - please help!

martinowen32
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I have a drawing (attached) and I'm seeing this problem regularly.

 

Screen shows a photo of my model space on my monitor

PDF shows the generated PDF on my screen

Print shows the physical printout of either paperspace or PDF

 

You can see that ghost lines appear from where I have trimmed the box underneath the arch, then offset and used a hatch. I see this a lot wherever I trim a line - it doesn't show on screen but only when I print.

 

Can anyone help? I've tried everything I can find myself but I'm at a lost end now.

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Replies (19)
Message 2 of 20

vinodkl
Mentor
Mentor

I could see that drawing is not attached. Please attach the drawing, so that we can help you out.

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ವಿನೋದ್ ಕೆ ಎಲ್( System Design Engineer)
Likes is much appreciated if the information I have shared is helpful to you and/or others.

Please mark "Accept as Solution" if my reply resolves the issue or answers your question, to help others in the community.
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Message 3 of 20

Alfred.NESWADBA
Consultant
Consultant

Hi,

 

>> You can see that ghost lines appear

...only on the paper-print. Am I correct that you have an HP-printer?

 

As the PDF looks correct I'm quite sure it has nothing to do with AutoCAD and not with the dwg-file, it's the printer-driver I would first spend my time to update it.

You might also try to open the PDF with a PDF-Viewer and print from the viewer ... do the lines appear again?

 

- alfred -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
ISH-Solutions GmbH / Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS
www.ish-solutions.at ... blog.ish-solutions.at ... LinkedIn ... CDay 2026
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(not an Autodesk consultant)
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Message 4 of 20

martinowen32
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Ricoh I'm afraid

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Message 5 of 20

martinowen32
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I do print from Acrobat 98% of the time. The printout is from the PDF

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Message 6 of 20

Alfred.NESWADBA
Consultant
Consultant

Hi,

 

>> I do print from Acrobat 98% of the time. The printout is from the PDF

So you open the PDF with Acrobat ... there it looks ok, then you print and get additional lines?
If that is correct? If so why are you thinking it has anything to do with AutoCAD?

 

- alfred -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
ISH-Solutions GmbH / Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS
www.ish-solutions.at ... blog.ish-solutions.at ... LinkedIn ... CDay 2026
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(not an Autodesk consultant)
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Message 7 of 20

martinowen32
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I guess because the ghost lines that appear were there before I trimmed them. Somehow it's like their still 'hidden' somewhere and can only be generated from Autocad. The printer wouldn't make lines up that happened to be exactly as they were before being trimmed right?

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Message 8 of 20

Alfred.NESWADBA
Consultant
Consultant

Hi,

 

can you confirm that you open the PDF with Acrobat and plot from Acrobat to plotter?

 

- alfred -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
ISH-Solutions GmbH / Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS
www.ish-solutions.at ... blog.ish-solutions.at ... LinkedIn ... CDay 2026
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(not an Autodesk consultant)
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Message 9 of 20

martinowen32
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Yes. This is what I do

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Message 10 of 20

Alfred.NESWADBA
Consultant
Consultant

Hi,

 

>> Yes. This is what I do

Thank you for confirming.

So a PDF that does not have lines in Acrobat has got lines when you print with Acrobat. So Acrobat is sending lines that are not displayed (or the driver creates ones) ... at no step here is AutoCAD involved.


If AutoCAD would be the source of the issue you should see the line when you open the PDF in Acrobat (or any other viewer). Then I would understand the question to look into AutoCAD.

 

- alfred -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
ISH-Solutions GmbH / Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS
www.ish-solutions.at ... blog.ish-solutions.at ... LinkedIn ... CDay 2026
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(not an Autodesk consultant)
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Message 11 of 20

pendean
Community Legend
Community Legend
Your PDF viewer is...?
have you tried aother PDF viewer? There are dozens of freebies out there.

Any reason you did not post your actual PDF and source DWG file here if you seriously want othes to help? pictures do not reveal the underlying problems, just the symptoms.


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Message 12 of 20

TheCADnoob
Mentor
Mentor

The geometry its self implies some vertices where you trimmed so the fact that you trimmed there could just be coincidental. 

Printers just translate the images from vector to hard copies so there is a good chance the problem lies with the printer. 

Have you tried printing the PDF from different work stations and to different printers? This would go a long way in helping to determine the source of the problem. Also if you could share the PDF (and source DWG) we can try to duplicate your problem. 

CADnoob

EESignature

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Message 13 of 20

martinowen32
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

No, I use DWG to PDF and use Acrobat.

 

PDF and DWG attached. Feel free to have a look!

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Message 14 of 20

martinowen32
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Attached in previous post

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Message 15 of 20

Alfred.NESWADBA
Consultant
Consultant

Hi,

 

your PDF looks fine, your PDF prints fine on my side.

If you are printing using Acrobat you might look into the Acrobat forum.

You might also search for a Ricoh forum, maybe they know issues like that and how to solve it.

 

I guess the AutoCAD forum can't help you as the PDF is working well, for me, and for you too as you write that in your system, opening it with Acrobat it also looks OK.

 

[EDIT] I also tried to import your PDF into a new drawing in AutoCAD ... no ghost lines [/EDIT]

 

- alfred -

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred NESWADBA
ISH-Solutions GmbH / Ingenieur Studio HOLLAUS
www.ish-solutions.at ... blog.ish-solutions.at ... LinkedIn ... CDay 2026
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(not an Autodesk consultant)
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Message 16 of 20

pendean
Community Legend
Community Legend
No extra lines appear when I print your PDF from Acrobat Reader DC to our three different manufacturers laser printers and our HP plotter.

And plotting from your DWG file directly to the same four devices adds no extra lines either.

What are you printing to exactly? did you try another printer? Does plotting to that printer directly from AutoCAD also make extra lines appear?

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Message 17 of 20

Anonymous
Not applicable

I have the equalproblem with autocad map. I have tried various options to plotted Autocad PDF(General Documentation).pc3, DWG to PDF.pc3 and always the seem error.

I have opened the pdf in Adobe Reader and export again and there isn´t changed.

In this case the background is a wms image.

I´m desperate

There is a solution?

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Message 18 of 20

bmF33NN
Community Visitor
Community Visitor

are you printing from a Richo printer?

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Message 19 of 20

martinowen32
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Ha! Yes, I am

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Message 20 of 20

bmF33NN
Community Visitor
Community Visitor

Me too, same problem. Turns out to be the printer driver. Others in the office have no problem and use a different driver for the same printer. I changed the driver and the issue cleared up.

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