PDFs crash Canon TM-300 plotter, but not Multifunction printer

[dashiel_zahr]

Good afternoon all.

When we try to print a PDF file which was converted from AutoCAD in A1 on our Canon TM-300 plotter, the spooler in Windows would always be a total of 6.00MB, spools up to only 2MB and the doesn't print at all. When attempting to cancel the job through Windows, it stays suck at the deleting process. We noticed that when printing from Acrobat, the flattening process stops at 98% for about 45 seconds and then proceeds to do what we described with the spooler. With the behavior is the same using Foxit Reader.

We have tried to print as an image and/or without spooling, but it results with half the drawing being printed and then the plotter stops. The plotter can only print the drawings as a dwg file directly from AutoCAD/DWG Trueview and from this alone we assume that there is a problem with how AutoCAD converts from DWG to PDF. 

We also noted that our Multifunction printer can print the PDF files in A3. Can anyone help with this issue? We use a mix of AutoCAD 2021/2022/2023 software.

[ The subject line of this post has been edited for clarity by @pendean Original: PDFs converted from AutoCAD crash the Printer spooler and do not print/ print half the drawing.]

[pendean]

Sounds like you need to contact Canon Support for problems printing a PDF to it, not this forum.

EDIT: did you try a different PDF viewer?

[dashiel_zahr]

We have already spoken to them but they have insisted that there is something wrong with the conversion process from AutoCAD to PDF.

[pendean]

@dashiel_zahr yeah, that's not a thing. Sorry. You can plot just fine straight from AutoCAD and your PDF works fine with other devices.

Perhaps you need to take the extra step of dumbing down your PDFs for that Canon (flattening can be done to PDF in all the PRO versions of PDF editors) and you can turn off all features in your PDF drivers that create those layers (layer information, merge controls etc.) and test again.

I don't have access to a Canon TM-300 but if someone does it might help them if they had access to your PDF to test I'm sure they can offer additional tips if any.

Best wishes.

[dany_rochefort]

@dashiel_zahr 

I used to have similar problems before is switched to a proper HP plotter. 

Basically it would not spool all the way and could no longer cancel the job, just like you.  I would need to restart the plotter, cancel the job in print window, once plotter restart that job was kept in memory and would eventually plot after a restart.  We had a Canon tech look at it, he forced printhead cleaning on every plotter restart, which made the problem even worse. Not gonna lie, i took me 45 minutes to plot 1 drawing. Once it got going tho, i could print a couple pages out before the problem would re-appear. It was never Canon's fault...

We got rid of it and bought the most basic HP plotter out there. A plotter only needs to do 3 things consistently : On/Off/Print.

[dashiel_zahr]

I'll try this method thanks.