wrong paper size?

[cadtag]

Before IT came along and swapped servers, I used to be able to plot 11x17 on my HP m855 with zero problems.

Now, when i send an11x17, the printer sees an 11.34x17.34 print, and pauses until I manually pick the 11x17 tray on the printer control panel. Letter is fine, and an 11x17 PDF is fine, but any print direct from AutoCAD sends the screwy size information. (c3d 2014 fwiw). Frankly I'm kinda stumped on where to look for the problem -- everything appears correct, but it's a royal PITA.

Ideas??

[tedg]

There's no option to set it up to automatically select "11x17" paper tray in the printer settings?
Are you using a PC3 set up?

[cadtag]

Yes to PC3, and it's already set to automatically select paper source. If I force it to tray 2, then letter or legal size would have to have its own PC3

fwiw -- i tried forcing to the 11x17 tray, and the printer still thinks it's an 11.34X17.34 print job

[BlackBox]

Are you modifying an existing PC3, perhaps from a previous version, or server?

Have you tried setting up a new PC3?

The size being sent is controlled by the paper size used at plot, which I believe is configured/stored in PMP... Have you tried detaching/re-attaching PMP, or setting up a new PMP?

Now, the printer's properties, and defaults (they're different!) are stored on your Print Server, and presumably deployed through Print Management & GPO.


Cheers

[cadtag]

since the server name changed, I deleted all the pc3/pmp files and started from scratch

[BlackBox]

Do you happen to know that they just renamed the existing Server, or did they actually deploy a new 'server', even if from the same physical host on premise?

*IF* the latter, then the potential exists that the same printer was setup with different properties and/or defaults which dictate the handling of the page size sent (within the printer settings).

As example, I use an HP T7100 3-roll plotter: Control Panel, Devices and Printers, right click printer... Now compare Printing Preferences settings, to Printer Properties, Advanced tab, Printing Defaults.

Depending on what tabs result for your printing device, pay special attention to Layout/Output tab's 'Resizing Options' settings.


HTH

[cadtag]

new box, or at least a recycled box from another office. The added a virtual server for the printer queues, so the name changed, and it took some bitching and moaning to get them to even get a real printer driver (for some reason IT though i should just use the universal PCL driver -- and not access the unique printer features). Same hassle to get the T2300 installed with both PS & HPGL queues...

Old box is still around, but not plugged in. guess I need to attach that and see what driver is actually installed there. they renamed the old server, so my old PC3'w won't work anyway.

[BlackBox]

new box, or at least a recycled box from another office.

Same difference, for the purposes of this conversation.

The added a virtual server for the printer queues, so the name changed....

*IF* I'm understanding you correctly, that's pretty standard (in my very limited experience as IT Admin); my physical machine hosts 3 hyper-v vms (DC/File/Print, Exchange, RDSH [fka Terminal]), as example.

That said, check to see if they implemented NIC teaming? For best performance, the physical host *should* have all NICs teamed, then in hyper-v settings, assign that single resultant NIC to each VM for max performance, rather than say, a physical host with quad-NIC, and assigns 1 NIC to each the physical host, vms, etc. I presume you're using iDRAC, which *should* remain separate for maintenance purposes.

... and it took some bitching and moaning to get them to even get a real printer driver (for some reason IT though i should just use the universal PCL driver -- and not access the unique printer features). Same hassle to get the T2300 installed with both PS & HPGL queues...

I remember that; months of issues at my 2nd office further South! Here at the current employer, I just download the appropriate driver(s) from manufacturer website, and install that on my DC/File/Print server vm, which deploys printers via Print Management & GPO per machine, so multiple users can login as needed without any issues.

If they change IP for printers though, that can take some time to propagate DNS, even within the same local network.

If you have local Admin permissions, you can install your own driver, and share that printer, etc.

Old box is still around, but not plugged in. guess I need to attach that and see what driver is actually installed there. they renamed the old server, so my old PC3'w won't work anyway.

That is where I would start - load it up, and see if they'll leave it accessible yet not formally 'on-line' (so you can RDP as needed?), or even export the server's OS drive array (perhaps not Data drive array) to VHDx, so you can 'mount' from the network at your client (if using Win8.1 or newer)... This ability has been a great source of CYA, pulling from VHDx backups on the fly, etc.


HTH

[cadtag]

I fired up the old server, and connected to the old printer queue for the M855 -- 11x17s went through without any problems.

Looking at the printer properties that are available to a user, all the driver files are the same. The sole difference I can see is that instead of an IP port, the new printers is attached to the queue via a WSD Port. that's not a terminology I'm familiar with...

update: mounting the printer directly via IP, and skipping the server -- and all looks good. There must be something funky with WSD ports and Otto Cad

[BlackBox]

Glad you got it sorted, cadtag!


Cheers