Publish Command

[Anonymous]

At work I have been trying to Publish a drawing in AutoCAD 2016.  I am having trouble with the Publish Command.

I use the Publish command to plot multiple Layout Tabs, DWG to PDF.  My 'VP Freeze,' seems to not be working.  When the layout is finished publishing everything inside my viewport is not frozen like it should be.

In my layout tab and in plot preview the sheet shows as it should.  Also, in the Layer Properties Manager the layers that should be frozen are frozen.  Only whe it is finished publishing to a PDF everything that should be frozen is not frozen.

Any help would be much appreciated.  I feel it is something as simple as a setting in the Publish command, but I cannot find it.  I've Published many times before and this is the first of this issue.

Thanks

[pendean]

PUBLISH command does not change layer settings inside viewports: can you share a DG file with many Layouts where Publish does this for us to examine?

[Anonymous]

One would think; however, I think something is overriding my VP Freeze.  I've attached two screenshots.  The first is after the Layout Tab is done Publishing to a PDF and the second image is how it looks in Plot Preview and how it should look after it is done Publishing to a PDF.

[Anonymous]

are you creating the PDF's using AutoCAD's dwg to pdf? sometimes other pdf writers don't work so good. also try plotting to a different plotter, I've seen that make a difference.

[Anonymous]

Yes, I am using AutoCAD's DWG to PDF through the PUBLISH command. I haven't sent it to the Plotter yet, I want to make sure my PDF is correct before doing so.

[Anonymous]

oh, so you're saying it's just the plot preview that isn't showing correctly.

[Anonymous]

The Plot Preview is showing correctly, after AutoCAD publishes to a PDF is when it does not show correctly.

[pendean]

Where is the DWG file with the problem?

So PREVIEW and PLOT have the same result? and both are different from PUBLISH?

Are you using the PUBLISH command's PDF option, or are you using the "pagesetup defined in layout" which is set to pdf output?

[Anonymous]

I don't think I have permission to share it.  I can double check tomorrow with my boss.

If I go to the AutoCAD Home button in the top left, click PRINT, then click PLOT.  Everything works as it should (I just found that out, thank you for that).

So, yes PLOT and PREVIEW have different results than the PUBLISH COMMAND.  It is only when I use the PUBLISH command it publishes the layers that should be frozen.

However, I like to use the PUBLISH command, so I can select a bunch of different sheets to PUBLISH to the same file.  I am using the PUBLISH commands PDF option and the column next to that I have my ARCH D pagesetup that is defined in the Layout Tab.

Thank you for helping me, I feel like we may be getting somewhere.

[pendean]

Feel free to eliminate as much sensitive information from that DWG as you need: tings like client name, address, titleblocks etc. We only need a decent portion of the modelspace that looks like your screenshots in all the layout tabs in your file.

[Anonymous]

Attached please find the AutoCAD file, I am having the issues with the PUBLISH command.

Thank you for the help, hopefully you all are able to find something.

[john.vellek · Accepted solution]

HI ericHFABN,

I opened your drawing, ignored the missing XREF file, allowed display of Proxy objects, Purged the drawing, audited the drawing (it found 4 errors) and then assigned fonts to the styles that had missing ones (approx. 4 styles).

Then I ran PUBLISH, selected all the sheets, Selected Publish to PDF (AutoCAD PDF - General Documentation). I have attached the resulting file. Please let me know if the pages show up correctly or not.

[Anonymous]

Those sheets look good!

I ran an AUDIT and it seems to be working fine now.  I published my first page and it looks like the way it suppose to look.

Thank you all for the help!  (My mistake for forgetting about running an AUDIT and RECOVER)

[gonecrawfishin]

I am having the same problem, though the audit/purge approach has not fixed it. Civil3d 2013. 

[john.vellek]

HI @gonecrawfishin,

Civil 3D can introduce some new issues too but if you would like to share some files I am happy to take a look at this for you.

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

[gonecrawfishin]

Thank you. How could I send files (that are too sensitive for the overal public to see)?

I did find that if I publish the files that don't *need* Civil3d from within our AutoCAD LT 2013 license, the layers are correct. I can plot one sheet at a time correctly within Civil3D for the remaining. It's a peculiar bug; interestingly a coworker had the exact same problem on a different set of files last week, though I had never seen this before. 

[john.vellek]

Hi @gonecrawfishin,

Please email the files to me at john.vellek@autodesk.com.  Is there a specific sheet or layout that I should look for in your drawing?

[john.vellek · Accepted solution]

Hi @gonecrawfishin,

Thanks for sending me the files.  Do you feel that Sheetsets make a difference in publishing this project? If so, please attach the DST file.

As I indicated in my email, I do see that many xref files (mostly image attachments and titleblock) are not present so my testing may not be conclusive.

I recreated your titleblock outline for testing purposes. I also modified the FINAL page setup to use LAYOUT instead of Views and other selections.

Here is what I have found so far:

Survey 

• Audit 2969 errors
• Purge removed orphaned DGN linetypes
• -PU>Regapps 80 Regapps removed
• Geometry is far from 0,0

Landscape

• Audit 21 errors
• Purge removed orphaned DGN linetypes
• -PU>Regapps 106 Regapps removed

Landfill

• Audit 113 errors
• Purge removed orphaned DGN linetypes
• -PU>Regapps 110 Regapps removed

Elec

• Audit 12 errors
• Purge removed orphaned DGN linetypes
• -PU>Regapps 111 Regapps removed

Civil

• Audit 29 errors
• Purge removed orphaned DGN linetypes
• -PU>Regapps 107 Regapps removed
• I removed the two ALTA surveys from two layouts so they did not increase the extents of the drawing beyone the papersize
• I zoomed extents and removed a block on two layouts that was far away from the rest of the geometry

I ran a PUBLISH and I think everything looks just like the layouts.  I did have to play with layers in a couple drawings to find out why the Extents were way off so I might have messed up the desired layer visibility  a bit.  I am going to send you a link to download my version of the files so you can re-test on your side.

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

[gonecrawfishin]

John,

I'm not familiar with sheet sets and .dst files. I had attached a .dsd file, which is what I've used to define all of the sheets that comprise a full drawing set. I should have mentioned that we use "FINAL" page setup. The .dsd file probably didn't have that saved into it. 

It's interesting that your audit found so many issues to fix. I had run audit on all the drawings before sending. Do you find that sometimes audit needs to be run multiple times, similar to how "purge all" sometimes creates frees up other items that could be purged? When reviewing these drawings, were you using 2013 software like mine, or newer? I had read that newer versions of AutoCAD are more capable of purging certain items that we've been struggling with, like unused linetypes. We've become accustomed to using the dxfout, reopen, purge, save method more lately, though that doesn't work on Civil3D objects; we have limited solutions for our Civil3D-2013 drawings. 

Why do you recommend using "layouts" instead of "views" ? I prefer views, because sometimes I'll keep unused viewports or images to the side in paperspace that I don't want to plot (my manager's stamp, details that I'm considering but not certain on, etc.) Is using "layouts" typically less buggy?

It looks like you successfully published! Colors aren't using our .ctb file but no matter. You managed to demonstrate layer control in the publish output. That was the main issue I was having: all layers were plotting in all viewports regardless of what I had frozen.

On your comments, yes geometry is far from 0,0 because it is georeferenced to the state plane coordinate system. What does -PU>Regapps do? 

-Jen

[john.vellek]

Hi @gonecrawfishin,

I worked with your files in AutoCAD 2018. It did find numerous errors.  I run the Audit process repeatedly throughout a drawing session especially when the files have so much geometry, xrefs and layouts.  I usually run Audit first and then PURGE (ALL) as the Audit will often create layers and such that can be removed with the PURGE.  A -PURGE>REGAPPS will also remove any registered applications. These can build up over time and seem most prevalent when working with Civil drawings.

I prefer Layouts as it creates more of a WYSIWYG environment.  I never keep geometry to the side as it makes my drawing larger, tends to reside there and never gets implemented, can screw up Zooming (I like to use extents to make sure there is no stray geometry).  I keep such information in  another file that I can easily xref, insert, or copy/paste from if necessary.

As far as the coordinates, how are you using the geographic location? When I use a geo feature, I input the location and coordinate system and then locate a point (0,0) in my drawing that corresponds to the location.

Geometry far from 0,0 can cause a whole bunch of other issues.

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