Plotting problem in Autocad 2000

[Garyb1971]

Hello,

We have just had a 3rd party convert some existing drawings to cad. Autocad 2000 was used and we now want to print them out.

The problem is that even though the drawing file size is only on average 160kb, when I go to plot them out to the size the drawing 'expands' to anywhere upto 8.5Mb and takes half an hour to print. (Normally it fails after 20 minutes, adding to my frustration) Obviously our existing drawings, which were drawn originally in R14 but are now converted to 2000, print quickly and with no problem.

I think it has something to do with the template file that is being used, but I have tried change the plot line width and it does not make any signifacant difference.

Any ideas, reasons or solutions would be much appreciated, as I have 50 of these to plot out and I want to be home for Xmas!

Thanks in advance Garyb1971

 

[Hindo]

Have you tried 'Printing to file' and then sending THIS from another application, ie not direct from autocad. If you haven't already try printing to DWF format and printing from Volo View Express (25Mb Download from Autodesk), or maybe to PDF and print from Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Another thing to try is adjusting the drawings slightly (depends if you want to do this), try removing any hatching and swapping any True Type Fonts (.TTF) for basic .SHX fonts ...both have worked for me in the past on problem drawings.

Regards

Marc

 

[SteveSmith]

Try selecting all the entities in the drawing, copying them into a blank drawing and printing from there. Also, have you purged the drawings?

Good luck, Steve Smith
Product Engineer
Staco Energy Products Co.

http://www.stacoenergy.com

 

[Garyb1971]

Thanks for your replies.

I have tried printing to file but it did not make much difference. On one of the existing drawings that plot OK the file size decreases when converted to a PLT file.
On the ones that I am having problems with the file size changes from 179kb to a 9042kb plot file(PLT) size.

I have purged & removed the hashing and it made about 1kb difference to the drawing size.

Still very baffling, anymore ideas?

Garyb1971

 

[RiBeneke]

There may be invisible things in the drawing that are getting plotted.
Try the following on a spare copy of the drawing :
ERASE
ALL
REMOVE (select all the visible things you do not want erased and do want to plot).
<enter>
Repeat for the other (paper) space.