Topic Title

There are a couple of problems we have experienced here and the guys have elected me to report them. I can't find a "bug report" forum, so I guess this is the best place for them.

1) When plotting to a file, if the user hits "ESC" or clicks the "X" to close the file before the "plotting time xx minutes" message appears, it acts like everything is ok but there are parts missing when it's actually plotted. Most other programs pop up a warning window saying "I'm printing, leave me alone right now" or something like that, and the printing continues normally. The big problem is the file is then corrupted and will not plot correctly. We found a way to get it to come back, but it's a pain to have the extra steps. If we delete an XREF in the file and then re-reference it, the file will go back to it's former state and plot properly.

2) Plot settings when batch plotting change on their own for some reason. We set up our plot settings and save the file for batch plotting. It usually works fine that first time, but if we pull up DCAD and batch plot later, suddenly everything comes out wrong (usually to whatever the default is in the check plot). If we open all of the files and go to Plotting then Setup everything is set as we had it before, but if we do not do a quick layout again with a right click to put it where it was before, it will not batch plot properly a second time.

3) In the Hatch and SPB Fill function, using the Continuous (Contiguous?) search, it often searches forever even though there are no gaps anywhere and Layer Search is selected. One of the guys noticed while it does work with a complete circle, it never works if there is an arch in the area you are filling. We figured out you can hit the Delete key to make it stop, but then you have to go around with a boundry to actually fill it.

I know it seems like a "complaint" list, but we love DataCAD and realize there will be bugs in any software as it's used on different systems, etc., but if you never tell the mechanic what's broken it will never get fixed, right?

Thanks!

Hi John,

The first one is something I have not run into, but certainly sounds like something that needs fixing. OTOH, it is like the the old joke: "Doctor, it really hurts when I do it!" "Well -- don't do it!"

The second one is probably because of the fact that when you change the Batch Plot settings in another project, it changes the settings "globally". This has it's good and bad points, obviously, but the good point is that you only need to change them once for the whole project.

Another related issue is that if each DataCAD machine doesn't have all the exact same paper sizes selected in the main plotter, this will mess up the Plotter\Settings in DataCAD. So, you need to uncheck all the paper sizes that you never use, like ANSI, or American, and leave only the Architectural and possibly the Oversized options checked.

The third item; Contour Search has been a bugaboo for a while now. It has been improved, but it is certainly not what it should be. It won't work with polylines, symbols, 3D lines, and if there is the tiniest gap, it won't work. Also, I think that superimposed lines may thwart it as well. You are forced to abort and pick the boundary by hand.