Bad printed output

[3DDave]

More of a complaint than a question:

WF5: I have a multi-sheet drawing that includes drawing symbols. When I print it using Generic Postscript as a multi-sheet drawing, the symbols are sometimes duplicated on sheets they aren't on in the drawing file, and sometimes they are also the wrong symbol group. If I print the sheets individually, this does not occur. If I use Publish, the same thing happens unless the resolution is set from 300 to 200 dpi.

I have long wondered about the sort of code reviews the PTC Detail product line manager has. They must not take very long. Regression testing goes quickly as well.

 

[dgallup]

I have never seen that, what build are you using? Are you using 32 or 64 bit?

We primarily use the print to postscript format and then covert it to PDF because it has always been robust.

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The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.

 

[geesamand]

We use the PS output option and have not had any problems like you describe.

The possibility is 1) the printer interprets the PS incorrectly or 2) the PS is generated incorrectly. Find yourself another PS printer or PS reader and see if the results look different.

David

 

[3DDave]

Just to clarify - there's no printing involved. This is what PTC produces through it's own generic Postscript driver.

If everyone had these problems, the PTC would probably fix it, but since it is sporadic the best way to fix it is with a code review, which PTC doesn't do such a good job with. Or maybe they do great code reviews, but have terrible source control, allowing changes made after approval to result in bugs.

Perhaps the plotting portion is working fine and there's a defect in the symbol definition that the plotting software chokes on, but only when producing multi-page outputs.

Here's a sample of how smart they are "13.718 0.784378" are coordinates in the PS file. In the X direction, 3 places, in the Y direction 6 decimal places. WTF.

And this beauty:

s
0.002 slw
8.48681 0.709759 m
s
gs
np
8.48681 0.709759 m
8.49911 0.741858 l
8.51077 0.709759 l
8.48681 0.709759 l
8.48681 0.709759 l
gs
f
gr

a moveto followed by a meaningless strokepath, which wipes the moveto off the stack. Then they have to repeat the moveto.

 

[dgallup]

I doubt there has been any change in the generic postscript driver in decades. What are you using to view the output since you said "there's no printing involved"? I always use GSview from Ghostgum Software Pty Ltd.

We do a lot of multi sheet drawings and have always found the generic postscript driver to be completely robust, unlike their PDF file creation. I have seen a lot more problems within Pro/E with phantom objects that only appear/reappear occasionally. I have deleted symbols only to have them reappear when I repaint the screen. Then you may or may not able to select/delete them again.

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The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.