Topic Title

I send a lot of drawings out to other consultants using save as PDF from the plot preview. Not always, but most of the time the PDF's don't show anything but my Logo in the title block (16k bitmap) Sometimes it doesn't even show that! The file size looks about right in comparison to printing via PDF995 so I'm suspecting all the info is there but its white on a white background.

Other consultants are starting to think I taking the ^(%$ after they download half a meg of white paper with my small logo in the corner.

Confused

John Rowan

Maybe try a different printer driver to test and see if it has the same result? Haven't seen anything like that here that I can recall.

I'm getting the same thing too - in fact I was up until 2am this morning getting something out that HAD to go out, and was just informed by my client that all she received were blank sheets. I ALWAYS do a preview before I tell it to 'SaveAs' but I don't check the resulting file(s) to verify that they get written.

I had this problem during beta testing and the only work-around I came up with was to change the printer to my PDF writer (mine is CutePDF).

I'm using the same print driver I've been using for ages, HP Designjet 500. The problem is intermitent which is the real frustration! Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I can't imagine it being the print driver but I'll give it a go tomorrow.

I believe this may be a bug. Is there another bitmap in the drawing that is outside the layout area?

I have a scanned image of my logo, but even when it is within the layout only my logo plots.

I have also had this problem. It seems pretty inconsistent, but when I have problems with it, my PDF files are always completely blank. However, I curretnly have a drawing that seems to be having problems with this pretty consistently. I'll send it to tech support.

v12.00.00

O.K. I can duplicate this when I added a image outside of the plot area, but my TTF's & SBF showup o.k. Only Linework is missing. The preview in Datacad looked o.k.


The image I put outside the print area was a GIF file, which I never use GIF's but it was just there in my documents so I grabbed that first FWIW.

Thanks Mark for the clue.
Thinking about it, the drawings I'm having problems with are where I have 2 or more drawings in one drawing file. In this case a sheet of floor plans and a sheet of elevations. I often adopt this method of drawing to tranfere plans data to elevation. Until the fix comes I must remember to sepeate the drawings into 2 files.

Thanks.

John

Hello John,

You can use an XRef of the plan in the elevation file, and that is as good as having them all in one file -- even better actually, since you can rotate the plan around (and X-Clip it, if it helps) so that it lines up with the elevation that you are drawing.

I've encountered the same thing when I cut and paste a detail off to the side of a complosed sheet that has an xref'd border with the bitmaps. When I do the quick layout in letter size, I see my detail, but the PDF is a blank sheet of paper. (Which the contractor was delighted to inform me of...)

John,

Just read your post & got a tad worried as I'm working on a project in DC12 & about to do a PDF output for the first time, never checked this before in DC12, assumed it would be o.k.

Phew...........just checked it out & alls fine, what plotter are you using, mines prehistoric, CALCOMP TechJET Designer 720, had it for ages, it just won't die.

Have you tried VISAGESOFT expertPDF, this is another one of those PDF print to driver thingy's, does lots more as well.

Over & out,

Clayton.

I send a lot of drawings out to other consultants using save as PDF from the plot preview. Not always, but most of the time the PDF's don't show anything but my Logo in the title block (16k bitmap) Sometimes it doesn't even show that! The file size looks about right in comparison to printing via PDF995 so I'm suspecting all the info is there but its white on a white background.

Other consultants are starting to think I taking the ^(%$ after they download half a meg of white paper with my small logo in the corner.

Confused

John Rowan

Clayton,

Save to PDF via DataCad will only work correctly if bitmaps are within the print area. Neil made a suggestion to XRef the elevation drawing into the plan drawing, but if the XRef contains a bitmap the PDF still refuses to show any lines in the print area. So Xref is not a solution at the moment and we will have to wait for DataCad to make a fix in a future release.

So, the two options available at the moment are to seperate all drawings into individual sheets or use a 3rd party printer such as PDF995 or Visagesoft (one I've not looked at yet).

I'm using a HP Designjet 500 which I've had for several years. It's been a fantastic printer and very economical with ink.

John

John,

I replied before I read the other forum replies, looks like I'll have to remember not to import any bitmap O.S. plans for planning applications. Back to Promap vector based ones then!!!

It's a good job I vector traced my logo ages ago in DC.

Over & out,

Clayton.

Clayton,

Save to PDF via DataCad will only work correctly if bitmaps are within the print area. Neil made a suggestion to XRef the elevation drawing into the plan drawing, but if the XRef contains a bitmap the PDF still refuses to show any lines in the print area. So Xref is not a solution at the moment and we will have to wait for DataCad to make a fix in a future release.

So, the two options available at the moment are to seperate all drawings into individual sheets or use a 3rd party printer such as PDF995 or Visagesoft (one I've not looked at yet).

I'm using a HP Designjet 500 which I've had for several years. It's been a fantastic printer and very economical with ink.

John