Hatching not Printing

[Anonymous]

Odd problem with hatching. I have a tech using AutoCAD LT 2017 and sometimes his hatch does not print even though it shows up in the print preview. It does not happen every time and sometimes some of the hatch will print and other portions will not. Often time all he has to do is reopen the .dwg and and reprint it but that wastes time and paper. I have no idea where to even begin looking for where the problem could be. Thanks in advance for any suggestions anyone may have. 

[pendean]

Could the hatch be on a noplot layer?
Could the hatch be set to a color that does not print, like color 255 (or 254), or RGB color 255,255,255?
Could it be the printer/plotter being sent to simply hiccuped if it is more random?

[Anonymous]

I thought about layers or colors but he will have multiple hatches on the same layer and color and some will print while other portions will not. 

He prints to the same printer that all of my other techs print to and he is the only one with the this problem. 

Currently I am blaming the ghost in the machine but I would like to see if there is a problem with his set up or if it is just a hiccup and he'll have to live with it. 

[pendean]

Unless the user can repeat the problem on demand I'm not sure there is an easy fix.

Is there something else i common with the times it all fails? say the printer has a heavy load at that same time from them or other users, or dare i say it, if the user is "in a hurry"?

[john.vellek]

HI @Anonymous,

I see that you are visiting as a new member to the AutoCAD LT forum. Welcome to the Autodesk Community!

 Is it possible to attach one of the drawings with the hatch that intermittently does not print? If so, please also give me your plot style too.  I would like to see if there is anything unique about the way the drawing is structured or if there is any corruption.

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

[Anonymous]

I have attached the file. The only thing that I have removed are the professional seals. Please let me know if you need anything else. 

[john.vellek · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous

Thanks for the file.  Can you also share your CTB file and your plot configuration? The easiest way to do this might be to add a Page Setup in the drawing and then use eTransmit to include the CTB.

Prior to doing that though, you should run AUDIT in your file as it has errors.  Please also run -Purge>Regapps as is has more than 4,000 that can be removed. Perhaps these steps will correct the print issue.

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

[Anonymous]

The problem usually seems to occur whenever they print a black and white copy for me to review. Typically for the final product they put the ctb to none so that the color print is as it is shown in the dwg. 

First time trying eTransmit so hopefully I did it correctly. Please let me know if you need anything else. 

[pendean]

I have to ask, since the two drawings are side by side and the only difference is the hatching (plus the fact that the unhatched is the default to plot):could this be a simple user error, not windowing the correct plan to plot? I can see myself doing it for sure

 

Is there a reason the user is hesitant about only having one single plan/title block, and use layers to turn on/off the hatching and notes when they are not needed? You sample file is akin to paper drafting, appears to ignore the power that CAD offers with layers and only drawing a base plan once to avoid errors. Just a thought.

[Anonymous]

In this case it was not windowing the wrong plan, most of the hatch was printed correctly but parts of the driveway and sidewalk hatch did not print this time. After I red lined it he showed me on the drawing how the hatch was in place but did not print. 

Short answer is that is how they've always done it. The template and method was set up long before I started here and I having been slowly working on making changes and I will certainly add that to the list of changes that need to be made. 

Thank you. 

[john.vellek · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous,

I am unable to break this print. The hatch shows up correctly regardless of the CTB in use.  You might try running Audit and Purge on the file as I was able to detect errors. Perhaps that is the cause of this intermittently not behaving.  If the problem persists you might also copy the contents and paste into a new clean drawing to see if it keeps happening.

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

[pendean]

How is the user printing monochrome? I noticed the file has no plot style table assigned to use with the Ricoh 4503 Color driver.

Do you have another monochrome-only printer the user can switch to for a while to see if the problem re-occurs? Or a dedicated monochrome-only Ricoh driver that the user can assign permanently in all their files to see if the problem goes away?

[Anonymous]

We purged>regapps the drawing and will continue to do that in the future and see if that fixes the problem. If the problem reoccurs I will add the file but hopefully the purging fixes it.

We will also try different printers if the problem reoccurs to see if it is a communication with the printer. 

Thank you for all of your help. 

[Anonymous]

You legend!

[cwwenterprises]

Open Layers Properties. Click off any red dots with minus signs in the printer icons column. The layer that your hatches are on will probably have one of these red dots showing. Before troubleshooting for solutions, try this.

[alen069 · Accepted solution]

Color 255 was exactly my issue! Thanks, you saved me a lot of troubleshooting time 🙂