Printing elevations w/ shadows

[patricks]

If I have a sheet with 2 exterior elevations with shadows turned on, why does it take sooooo long to send the sheet to the plotter? I mean I can understand the shadows bogging down the system when moving around in the view or in 3D or whatever, but why does it seem so slow just to send the sheet to the plotter? It's taking about 10 minutes just to send a single sheet to plot, containing 2 elevations with shadows turned on. Normally it takes about 30 seconds to send the sheet.

*edit* make that 15 minutes and the Revit progress bar is only up to 66% :(

*edit again* 17 minutes total to spool a single sheet :shock:

[sjsl]

That's becuase shadows are displayed and plotted as raster images, much slower as you now know. Everything else in Revit is by vectors. There is no work around except to buy a plotter with a Fiery engine and then theres no or little time lag. We have large color plots that can take up to 30 min to get them out.

Try exporting the image out as a jpeg and then import back into the sheet. Big difference?

[truevis]

Perhaps another reason to print to DWF, then from DWF Viewer to printer.

[patricks]

plotter with a Fiery engine

what is that? Currently we're running an Oce TDS600 large format laser plotter. Once spooled, sheets print in about 10-20 seconds each (vs. many minutes on our HP DesignJet plotter, which we still use for color).

[aaronrumple]

Perhaps another reason to print to DWF, then from DWF Viewer to printer.
No use. Still takes as long to output to DWF.

[knurrebusk]

Same with A2-A1-A0 PDF, even on a dual core Dell with 2 gigs of ram.
A3+ prints on a I9500 Canon is 20+ min.

[kpaxton]

I'll have to chime in on this one too. We've run into the same 'shadow-lag' that you have run into. I've found that using the 'export to jpg-then reimport and link on a sheet' method will work fine, as long as you get a large enough resolution. However I get concerned about making sure the scales correct and that someone doesn't accidentally move or scale it inappropriately. I perfer printing to PDF's or DWF's when it comes to shadowed elevations. You still will need to wait for it to process, but the result can be very nice indeed. Plus you end up with a file you can send anywhere (Client, Repro house, etc.) and have it printed anytime. IF you're just doing check plots, and the shadows aren't that important, then just turn them off. Save those for when you've got some time.

Hopefully the raster management algorithms will be getting better in the next release.

Kyle

[funkman]

Recently I printed off around 10 copies of elevations with 4xfull shadowed views. Although there was a lag, it wasnt too bad, and nothing more than 5 minutes in total.

While I feel your pain, was it unbearable? Certainly not for me. I spent that time collating and writing letters. Why wait for printers to print?

[blads]

I'm inclined to agree with Funkman on this, whilst in v8.0 it was a problem, v8.1 seems faster...

[patricks]

perhaps some of my lag time stems from the fact that our template has been copied and copied and copied as new versions are released. I'm going to try to re-create a new 8.1 template from scratch in the near future.

[BWG]

Perhaps another reason to print to DWF, then from DWF Viewer to printer.

We lose surface patterns when exporting to DWF and compound walls that have split regions take on the property of the lowest region on th face of the wall. When you are sending raster the files are very large. Print to PDF using hidden line and look at your file size. Then do the same image with edges shaded. The file sizes are a huge difference.

[BillyGrey]

Funkman, I wonder why you got such good print times? Anything special about your setup/plotter?


Tia

[funkman]

Funkman, I wonder why you got such good print times? Anything special about your setup/plotter?


Tia
Nope, nothing special - I have a HP DesignJet 500 with standard issued ram etc.

The computer may have something to do with it - AMD dual 4600+. The printer is also running off x64 drivers.

[BillyGrey]

I kinda had a "feeling" your situation might not be 100% typical.
I think your computer has allot to do with it :)

[knurrebusk]

Even the latest dualcore dell XPS is very slow with A0 detailed drawings/shadows.
Would like to test this file if it´s possible?

[blads]

Even the latest dualcore dell XPS is very slow with A0 detailed drawings/shadows.
Would like to test this file if it´s possible?I don't know about A0's but my DesignJet 500 with a bit extra ram (128Meg in total) and a P4 HT 650 it works just fine :grin:

[cosmickingpin]

I find it helps in some cases to send with processing in computer instead of in printer. Sure it sends one line at a tine, but it starts printing instantly and doesn't need to process the whole image before it starts printing. I might be wrong on this bit when I am printing large images like renderings that crash printers, it certainly goes faster in that case. I am not 100% process in computer will be faster in the case of shadows, but I would give it the pepsi taste challenge.

[patricks]

I find it helps in some cases to send with processing in computer instead of in printer. Sure it sends one line at a tine, but it starts printing instantly and doesn't need to process the whole image before it starts printing. I might be wrong on this bit when I am printing large images like renderings that crash printers, it certainly goes faster in that case. I am not 100% process in computer will be faster in the case of shadows, but I would give it the pepsi taste challenge.

how exactly do you do that?

[cosmickingpin]

I think it will depend on your potter driver but mine has this option (might be an HP thing and not possible with other drivers):




how exactly do you do that?