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Strange printing problem

Hi all:

I've been using Solidworks at my new employer for about a month. I've come across a seemingly random printing issue. Sometimes, when I print a drawing, some or all of the object lines in the drawing do not show up. The dimensions, notes, tables and title block print, but some or all of the views are missing. Everyone else here can print the same files and have no issues, so it seems to be an issue with my specific computer. Print preview shows everything just fine. It only happens at the printer itself. Sometimes, I can reload the drawing or restart Solidworks and the problem will disappear. Sometimes, this doesn't work, either. Anyone else seen this?

Computer specs: P4 2.8GHz, 1GB RAM, Win XP SP2, SW 2005 SP4 Printer: HP Laserjet 8000 shared on a network

Thanks in advance, John.

Reply to
john_manly
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I don't know what your exact problem is. I have seen this due to the printer running out of memory, but if it works for everyone else, then it should for you. I would HIGHLY recommend you do all you can to increase the RAM you have on your machine. 1GB just isn't enough for any good size parts, assy, or drawings. I'm also not sure at what point SW was able to handle Win XP SP2. I know for a long time they weren't compatible, but I don't remember what the issues were becuase that company I was with wasn't upgrading at that time anyway. Those are a couple things to look into, and I would also try to keep an eye on which files it happens w/. Are they all larger files, or does it only happen w/ drawings that have detail or cropped views, etc?

Good luck, Steven

Reply to
cntryfun

I have experienced the same problem. It has only happened with very large mulitple sheet drawings. It also doesn't seem to be consistent. Without solving the problem I have found that by first printing the file one sheet at a time to a PDF file and then printing the PDF file I can get the paper documentation I need. It does seem to indicate a printer memory problem but switching printers to one with more memory has not always corrected the problem. It seems to be internal to Solidworks.

Marty Watts

Reply to
Marty

John,

I've had the same problem. I've written a macro that prints all drawings of an opened assembly (with sub assemblies). It opens the first drawing of a part/assembly, prints it and then closes it, then opens the next drawing, etc. While executing the macro, suddenly a few drawings showed incomplete on the screen, and the prints were also incomplete. After executing the macro, I opened the drawings manually, and they were complete. When I printed them manually, the prints were also comlete.

Each drawing consisted of 1 sheet. The printer is a HP Laserjet 8100 networkprinter. The incomplete drawings were assembly-drawings with a bill of materials.

I don't know the reason, maybe configurating the printer's driver: print directly to printer, or RAW or something else. When I've more time I'll experience with the driver's configuration and I'll let you know.

Henk

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Reply to
Henk Kemper

Update:

I may have figured it out. On a particularly reluctant drawing (one that consistently misbehaves) I made all of the views "high quality" (whatever that means). So far, it's printing fine. BTW, in the past I had tried checking "make draft views high quality" in the print dialog box, but this did not help. I'll keep my fingers crossed. They're installing a new service pack this afternoon (don't know which one), so maybe that will help.

Regards, John.

Reply to
john_manly

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