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Thread: Unable to print or plot larger than A4

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    Default Unable to print or plot larger than A4

    I am unable to print or plot anything larger than A4.
    This didn’t use to be the case. I have an A1 HP designjet 500 printer.
    It used to work fine but a few years ago Autodesk seemed to remove the ability to print to it from AutoCAD. HP forums seemed to indicate it was an issue with AutoCAD but they were working on a solution: HP Quickprint.
    It wasn’t a huge problem for me as I was transferring to REVIT and have fully committed to it.
    But as of R16 there seemed to be issues, and as of R17 I could only seem to print from Revit to another HP A4 printer.


    Although I purchased R18 on the maintenance plan, I have not as yet downloaded it as colleagues have told me it contains nothing of use to architects and does not address the plotter issues, and there is always such a hassle setting Revit back up after the long long download and install.
    And with projects needing urgent attention there was not time to invest in doing so, fortunately at that time A4 details and the like were all that were needed as hard copy output.
    Now I need to be able to plot to A1 (or 24” wide roll).
    The A1 HP designjet 500 printer seems to work, it can print from Word, Excel, and pdf’s etc (although does tend to hang after each sheet).
    Last week I came to try to plot to A1. I opened Revit (R17) and was surprised to find instead of a drop down to select an installed printer, it was fixed to my A4 printer with no option to change. That’s not how I remembered it.
    I previously printed to Cutewriter that would save as a pdf, which could then be printed at larger than A4 sizes.
    The HP designjet is installed, as is cutewriter, but neither appear in Revit.

    As an added complication, we had a tech guy here to address another issue with another computer being slow to access shared files, and it turns out that whilst I was away from the office he appears to have deleted programs including revit etc., and then reinstalled them but leaving me without the original settings or drivers that were previously installed.

    In the process he seems to have half installed the Windows 10 Fall update on both our machines which adds to difficulties. I say half installed because the install did not complete so none of the supposed ‘features’ of the Fall update are present. In the process he deleted all my restore points, including one I made as soon as I heard about the Windows 10 Fall update being imminent.

    Trying to sort my problems out I came across posts which suggest Revit does not work with windows 10, although they dated from around 2013. I hope that’s not true. Does anyone know differently?

    I also came across a post from an Autodesk support guy which suggests reverting to Revit 13 and ditching subsequent versions of Revit!!! So throwing away 5 yrs of maintenance support fees and 5 years work with files needed which can’t be made backwards compatible with R13. That is not a realistic option.

    I have considered purchasing a new plotter but I can’t afford anything too expensive. There seemed to be an A1 HP designjet plotter T120 at about £650 or a T520 at around £900. But these do not list Windows 10 as a supported OS. Or Revit as a supported program. I am also told they are being discontinued.
    Alternative large format printers seem to start from around £4000 climbing rapidly to around £15,500 +., which are simply not an option due to cost.

    I am sure I am not the only person to be in this position.

    I would be very grateful for any advice on how others have resolved, or found a workaround to the issue of printing to A1, and what works and doesn’t work.

    Maybe I have missed an option in Revit for printing to a second large scale printer.

    If anyone knows what is Autodesk policy for future support it would be helpful to hear…it seems as if we are living in a period of reducing support and eliminating critical functions in order to add irrelevant features. If I seriously have to throw away 5 years work to be able to print drawings, I would rather ditch Revit and all Autodesk products altogether and look elsewhere.

    I desperately need some help with information and advice…how are the rest of you coping?

    I hope to hear from you as soon as possible.

    Sorry for such a long post!
    Thanks,


    Robin

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    Default Re: Unable to print or plot larger than A4

    Interesting...the responses (0) so far and views seem to indicate no one else is trying to print A1 drawings? Or you all are using Revit 13!

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    Default Re: Unable to print or plot larger than A4

    Print just fine with Revit from letter size to E1...just got rid of the DesignJet years ago. We have a Canon plotter at my current office along with an Oce laser plotter.

    Question is, how is your DesignJet installed on your Windows? Is it directly installed or is it installed on the server and you are printing to the server share? If it is just the size of the sheet you want is not showing, then follow the steps here on the video to add more sizes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fETyUz5Io8o (I've had to do this on some installations, so it is not just you)

    As for the views vs replies, it might be the long block of text...people may be starting to read it then change pages thinking it is a rant.

    Oh, and yes, Revit works on Windows 10. From Revit 2016 and up, although I know some that got 2015 installed too.
    Michael "MP" Patrick
    "I only drink :coffee: until it's acceptable to drink :beer: or :whiskey: or :wine:"

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    Default Re: Unable to print or plot larger than A4

    Just a thought... as an Authorized Canon Parter, we have seen much better end-user results when the Canon print drivers are loaded locally rather than on the server. When installed on the server-side, some functionality is lost. For instance, the status monitor is not available. Have this application installed and activated provides you with solid back-channel communication with the plotter. Give it a try and see if it helps. thanks.

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    Default Re: Unable to print or plot larger than A4

    For canvas printings there's a service that allows to print on large formats, . I've ordered myself a Banksy wall art and now been expecting it in my place.

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