Slow Printing from AutoCAD 2018

[Anonymous]

Hello - 

It is probably important to note that I am not a user of AutoCAD, but we have some clients who use the product. One in particular has (hope you're sitting down for this) just recently upgraded to AutoCAD 2018 from AutoCAD 2000....

one of the complaints from one user is the speed at which the application prints, I suppose the old version did not do this. He says that there is often a significant delay between when he clicks the print option and when the document actually prints on their commercial copier. If he prints from any other application, printing is virtually instantaneous.

The printer in question is shared from their server. I created a new instance of the printer on his workstation to test, giving him direct access to the printer in order to see if perhaps overhead on the server may have been delaying the print job, but  i get the same results whether printing direct or through the server.

The printing preparation dialog, or whatever it is called in the lower right of AutoCAD that suggests the print job is being prepared, shows a time frame of 8-10 milliseconds on completed jobs, however, then end user reports 30 seconds up to two minutes before printing actually occurs.

he has said that the issue does not seem to affect others, though I am willing to bet that many users send a print job and don't immediately rush down the hall to check if their job printed quickly. My point being, we have not changed any AutoCAD specific settings on anyone's workstation, all users are printing to the same printer in the same manner, yet one person has concerns about the speed.

That said, are there some settings or controls in AutoCAD 2018 that can affect the speed of print job rendering? My best guess is that this may just be "normal" as newer versions of CAD are likely more resource intensive versus their old AutoCAD 2000, but at the same time, he is working with many of the same files that were historically processed in the older version, and he is comparing past experience to now.

What advice might you have for me?

Thanks,

-myk

[Anonymous]

Hello - 

It is probably important to note that I am not a user of AutoCAD, but we have some clients who use the product. One in particular has (hope you're sitting down for this) just recently upgraded to AutoCAD 2018 from AutoCAD 2000....

one of the complaints from one user is the speed at which the application prints, I suppose the old version did not do this. He says that there is often a significant delay between when he clicks the print option and when the document actually prints on their commercial copier. If he prints from any other application, printing is virtually instantaneous.

The printer in question is shared from their server. I created a new instance of the printer on his workstation to test, giving him direct access to the printer in order to see if perhaps overhead on the server may have been delaying the print job, but  i get the same results whether printing direct or through the server.

The printing preparation dialog, or whatever it is called in the lower right of AutoCAD that suggests the print job is being prepared, shows a time frame of 8-10 milliseconds on completed jobs, however, then end user reports 30 seconds up to two minutes before printing actually occurs.

he has said that the issue does not seem to affect others, though I am willing to bet that many users send a print job and don't immediately rush down the hall to check if their job printed quickly. My point being, we have not changed any AutoCAD specific settings on anyone's workstation, all users are printing to the same printer in the same manner, yet one person has concerns about the speed.

That said, are there some settings or controls in AutoCAD 2018 that can affect the speed of print job rendering? My best guess is that this may just be "normal" as newer versions of CAD are likely more resource intensive versus their old AutoCAD 2000, but at the same time, he is working with many of the same files that were historically processed in the older version, and he is comparing past experience to now.

What advice might you have for me?

Thanks,

-myk

[WarrenGeissler · Accepted solution]

Have them make sure that "Plot in Background" is NOT enabled. This slows the plotting down measurably.

[WarrenGeissler · Accepted solution]

Have them make sure that "Plot in Background" is NOT enabled. This slows the plotting down measurably.

[Anonymous]

Excellent. Just called the client and did a remote session to test that. Disabling background plotting made it respond immediately and work as he was expecting.

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Excellent. Just called the client and did a remote session to test that. Disabling background plotting made it respond immediately and work as he was expecting.

Thank you!

[WarrenGeissler]

Glad that worked for you!

[WarrenGeissler]

Glad that worked for you!