Printing Problem

[Roger Evans]

I have just had a print problem Revit 8.0

The Sheet has a coloured Part Floor Plan & alongside 2 Jpeg rendered sketches (saved as Jpegs & then imported)

The Sketches Print ok but the Plan does not print ~ only the text / annotations & dimensions are shown ~ nothing at all of the plan layout is printed

Making a new sheet with only The Plan & it prints OK
Making a new sheet with sketches only & print is OK

Is there anything I should be doing to avoid this problem? Message comes up at printing that raster printing will be used ~ never saw this before on previous versions

[Shaun v Rooyen]

Roger as a general rule here in our office we print with "Raster Processing", found in the setup diag.
We have found that "vector processing (faster)" seems to leave stuff out. Try checking the "RP" tick box and see if that doesnt help.

[Roger Evans]

Thanks for reply I Just got back from meeting the client & tried your suggestion changing to Raster printing

No Luck at all ~ I still have the same problem ~ The plan view is a shaded view & is ignored in printing whereas the jpegs print ok

Why I have this problem I don't know ~ I've been using combinations of Jpeg & plans on same sheet since 3.1

[independentdrafting]

I sometimes find if you change the appearance settings, in the plot dialogue window, this fixes this kind of issue. I also find if your printer is set to print to color but in the “appearance” dialogue is set to grayscale or black lines, you may also run into problems.

Let me this helps

[Roger Evans]

Addendum ~ Hidden Line Plan & Jpeg prints ok as normal ~it's just the shaded view plan that causes problem

Has anyone else had this problem?

[roy.70844]

Hey there Roger,
What plotter are you using? Do you have a different printer/plotter to try?
Saw this once on a HP DJ500 or 1000 (bottom of range colour, can't remember model).
Worked ok on deskjet 1200 at A3! Something to do with memory I suspect. I remember there is a thread on printing where Leonid says something about the plot file growing large (read huge) with shaded views. I'll have another look.

Roy

Edited...
Here we go.. (sorry but I don't know how to point you to the link, but do a search for Plotting Nightmares)

quote: LRaiz
Revit is sending a lot of data into printing pipeline; much more than any other application that I know of. The most demanding part of printing happens when Revit does hidden line removal using OpenGL.. That happens sometimes even if user selects Vector HLR. In order to carry out the operation Revit subdivides printing area into tiles and produces raster bitmaps for each tile in computer memory. It then sends tile bitmaps to a printer. Printer in turn must reassemble tiles using computationally intensive raster image processing (RIP). This part of entire printing pipeline (reassembling raster tiles) is the most fragile piece because printer drivers at times are not sufficiently debugged/optimized for RIP type of utilization.

I am afraid that what you experience is not entirely Revit's fault. It is rather Revit asking a printer driver to do more then it is capable of doing. Thus the problem might show itself on some but not all sheets and may even be intermittent.

The things to try if your printer is giving you troubles -
(A) make sure that as much computation as possible is carried in a computer not in printer. This includes -
A.1 Turn on "use computer memory" switch if your printer has one
A.2. Turn off spooling. Spooler mediating between Revit and printer may be chocking on too much data traffic. Have you tried it yet?
A.3 Print to file. The fact that you have some success with this confirms that the problem is in Revit/Printer communications.
(B) try different printer drivers (this includes using pdf or dwf format)

[Roger Evans]

Cheers Roy
Hp 1220C A3

Changing view to Hidden line & it prints ok ~ only shaded view gives problem
Jpeg size is only about 55kb & 75 kb

I tested similar with 6.1 & had no problem printing so I suppose Revit 8.0 has been doctored in some way to give me this headache

[roy.70844]

...I tested similar with 6.1 & had no problem printing so I suppose Revit 8.0 has been doctored in some way to give me this headache

Have you tried 8.1 yet?

If not, send me the project (if it's not too big!) I'll have a go on my 1220c

Roy

[Lashers]

Roger,

Could be printer memory?!? Shoot me a copy and I will see how it prints on my HP800.

I had problems like this before when I was using a 450c - had to "process the plot in the computer" - usually a print driver option. Even then it was a bit hit and miss.

[rhys]

Think Lashers is right, Roger sounds like memory problem "Print in computer"
usually solves this for me.

[independentdrafting]

Could always try printing to a dwf file and then print to your hp plotter. Its worth a shot...

[LRaiz]

Could always try printing to a dwf file and then print to your hp plotter. Its worth a shot...
This is because printing to dwf or pdf guarantees processing in a computer not printer. Another thing to check is to make sure that printing does not go through a spooler.

[Roger Evans]

Thanks everyone it appears I solved problem (at least for time being) by uninstall & reinstall printer drivers ~ my only headache now seems I need more ink after all these trials ~ PC World tomorrow again