MAC Missing lines when plotting

[Anonymous]

Please/ begging/ desperate for help. I am using autocad 2013 on Mac and plotting to hp designjet 510. Lines are always missing when I print especially medium to thin lines or hidden lines or for example hatch tile lines. I use the plotter also on a pc and there are no problems at all. I changed the thickness of my lines in ctb and still have lines missing. I change percision to 1 and same thing. If I print draft, normal or best I still have problems. I know how to spool and use in built memory on pc but can not find something similar on the mac and dont know if that will help, as i printed same drawings from pc. It seems that when there are close lines together or dense lines in an area, it just skips them.  

Any advise would be great as frustration is high and starting to regret getting the mac. 

[Charles_Shade]

Welcome to the Autodesk Forums!

Do you have the latest Drivers for the HP on the Mac computer?

There may be better answers for you here. Mac Forum:
http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-for-Mac/bd-p/520

[maxim_k]

Hi,

Maybe the case of the issue is in HP plotter drivers. I personally have HP DesignJet 500 in my office and also have troubles with direct printing from Mac to this plotter (DesignJet 500) but it is opposite problem - I can not get thin lines on output. And it is not only from AutoCAD, but as I say from all Mac OS applications.
So in order to help you I have to ask some additional questions:
- what plotter software (drivers) do you use on your Mac?
- how about output from other applications?
- have you tried to plot to PDF file and open it in Preview.app? Do you see the same things (missing lines)?
- what do you mean by "I change percision
to 1 and same thing." ? Where did you change the precision?

Maxim

[maxim_k]

I just checked - the latest drivers for HP DesignJet 510 (and 500) are from Feb, 23, 2013, version 23.0.
Are you using those drivers? If no - try to download and install them from here:
h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=3737528&prodTypeId=18972&prodSeriesId=3737526&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=4142

Maxim

[Anonymous]

Maybe the case of the issue is in HP plotter drivers. I personally have HP DesignJet 500 in my office and also have troubles with direct printing from Mac to this plotter (DesignJet 500) but it is opposite problem - I can not get thin lines on output. And it is not only from AutoCAD, but as I say from all Mac OS applications.
So in order to help you I have to ask some additional questions:
- what plotter software (drivers) do you use on your Mac?
- how about output from other applications?
- have you tried to plot to PDF file and open it in Preview.app? Do you see the same things (missing lines)?
- what do you mean by "I change percision
to 1 and same thing." ? Where did you change the precision?

Hi Maxim,

Thanks for your help.

-I downloaded from hp the driver that said HP Designjet 510-24in Printer. There is on the site two links for the driver one says designjetps and one with out the ps and i can not find whats the difference. 

-I can see the lines in autocad preview and also in pdf and also in postscript when i import the image to photoshop. 

-in autocad command i changed persicion from 0 to 1. I read it here in the forum and i think it said it makes the drawing more accurate when printing. 

The lines that are missing i changed their line weight and still go missing. is there a way to spool on the mac incase the hp doesnt have enough memory or you think is something else? What is the difference between designjet 510ps and designjet 510. 

thanks again

[Anonymous]

Just to add. I also have this problem on two other printers, an A3 and an A4. 

I think its the autocad or the mac is the problem.

[maxim_k]

1. The difference between DJ 510 and DJ 510ps is in plotter model. If you have DesignJet 510, then use drivers for DesignJet 510, 510ps will not work at all, I think
2. Have you tried to print to your plotter from Preview.app? What results do you see?
3. Could you post your DWG file along with CTB file here? If you have troubles, you can send it to my mail: mkanaev at yandex.ru

I think it is not AC for Mac problem, because PDF output from AC gives acceptable results.
Let's go further in investigation, please answer to my 1-3 questions.

Maxim

[maxim_k]

And about spooling:
If you have acceptable results when you print from Preview.app, than you can use it to "spool" PDF files created in AutoCAD. If you batch publish to single PDF - no problem at all, if you have one PDF per sheet, you can select them all in Finder, right click on it an select Open. Preview will open all selected PDFs in one window, than just print the whole PDF set in one click.

Maxim

[Anonymous]

Hi again,

1- I downloaded and installed both dj 510 and dj510ps and they both do thesame = missing lines.

2- i printed from preview app and it is almost perfect.

3- Will email file and ctb 

Question, since plotting from preview app works. Can the drawing remained scaled as i selected initially in the autocad plot window? 

[maxim_k]

If you have Page Setup in AutoCAD for A1 output, then PDF "paper" size will be A1, and you when you will print to A1 paper from Preview you don't need to change scaling in Preview's print dialog

Maxim

[pendean]

PREVIEW is a good indication of what AutoCAD is sending out to the device: usually if it is perfect or near perfect then the trouble is in the driver or the device.

By chance, when you say missing lines, do you mean actual LINE objects, or just elements from say a Raster Image or 3D model or a Map?

[maxim_k]

I checked drawing you sent to me with your CTB file at home on my old HP DeskJet 930C printer,

I printed it on A4 sheet (maximum allowed on DeskJet 930) directly from AutoCAD and don't see any issues with missing lines.

Everything is in place. I use Gutenprint drivers for this old printer model because Apple and HP doesn't support it.

Tomorrow I'll check on DesignJet 500 in my office with HP drivers and give you feedback.

Could you tell which objects are missing? On which layers they are? which color do they have?

Maxim

[Anonymous]

Hello Pendean,

Lines missing are just normal 2d drawing lines. In preview and postscript are fine. Only problem is printing directly from the plotter.  

[drjohn]

Did you, by any chance, find the driver named hpdj500wx64pclen.  I had severe issues with my HP500 DJ and after a call to AutoDesk Paid Support  I still had no results and then tried HP free support and they helped me out with that "Universal Driver" as they called it.  Worked flawlessy ever since.

Possible caveat:  Running ACAD 2012 on PC here.

If you can't find it on the HP site, I have a copy. Post back if you want it and I'll attach it to a post.

Regards,

DJ

[Anonymous]

Hi. Is that for Mac or pc. I am running autocad 2013 on mac?
Thanks.

[drjohn]

---

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi. Is that for Mac or pc. I am running autocad 2013 on mac?
Thanks.

---

I'm runnin' 2012 on PC but this is supposed to be a universal driver (whether MAC is in the universe or not remains to be seen).

Hope it works for you.

If you have doubts, set a restore point (assuming MAC has those) before you install.

FWIW

HTH

Regards,

DJ

[edit]

Too large to attach. If you want it or can't find it, send me a PM with your email and I'll send it

[/edit]

[maxim_k]

Dear DJ,

hpdj500wx64pclen.exe is universal PCL driver for DesignJet 500 for Windows. It is PC executable and Macs can not handle such executables. Besides this inside this executable are true Windows components which can not be accepted by Mac OS.

Maxim

[maxim_k]

Hi Aboud,

I tested direct printing from AutoCAD for Mac to DesignJet 500 plotter in my office and got no issues with disappearing lines.
I use latest printer software from HP site (from the link I posted earlier).
To say true, output from Windows to this plotter works better, than from Mac, because on Windows I get thinner lines and overall output is better than from Mac and it is a fault of HP printer software for Mac.
AFAIK 500 and 510 models are almost identical with exception of more "on-board" memory and higher resolution capabilities in 510 model.
I sent you (via email) a picture I made from A1 sheet output of one of your floor plans - as you can see - all layers printed correctly.

At first I thought that it could be hardware problem with your plotter (print head fault for example), but if you say that from Preview.app you are able to get good results, I really don't know what could be the problem.
Try to set another resolution in DesignJet preferences when you plot from AutoCAD, check also color options in plotter settings (they could be ColorSmart/sRGB or Grayscale or Black only), I used:

and

for my test print.

Maxim

[maxim_k]

Hi Aboud,

It seems I found the culprit of your problem. Finally!

If when I plot from AutoCAD (and from Preview.app)  and set this settings for Print quality:

then:

I get "missing" lines on hard copy. Have to say that when I plot from Preview lines are missing to a lesser extent.

So I advice you to play with this settings to figure out which combination suitable for your plotter.

In fact, poor quality of printer software from HP is main case.

Maxim

[Anonymous]

Hi Maxim,

So far the no problems/ best print out i get is when it opens in the preview app and then print from there. I changed and played around with all setting in the autocad print box and nothing works. Actually when i put higher dpi and best .... it prints it worse.

I guess i have to print from preview which will be annoying especially when i have alot to plot. I will contact hp and see if they can sort this out. As you said, might be a hp driver issue with the mac, but then again i have same problem on my hp 1220c and my hp officejet 6500. Is it possible that all the hp drivers are not working with mac or is it the mac autocad?

Aboud