Invisible Layout / Paper space

[artisteroi]

Ok here is the problem. Possibly the weirdest error I have ever come across.

I have a template file with various custom layouts in it. When a drawing is created we import the layout into the drawing. everything looks fine untill you go to print.

When printing, the paper space objects won't print if there is a view port in the drawing, so you only get what is inside the viewport. And contrarily if you delete the view port you can now print the paper space objects. I attached some pics.

The only other clue I can say, is that when switching to the layout space there is a read out on the command line that says

** Undefined block #-1

any clues anybody?

[Opie]

Have you tried to recover / audit the template or drawing?

[artisteroi]

nope but I will try it right now.

that worked. the audit found 5 invalid btr objects and erased them now the print works. hmm I sure would like to know waht caused it though. I will do some digging.

thanks for the suggestion

[Opie]

It would be nice to know what caused it, but AutoCAD is fickle sometimes. Drawings become corrupt without any real explanation. In other words, fix the drawing / template and do not worry about what caused it. It will waste a lot of your time.

[artisteroi]

I think I figured it out. My template file had a viewport in it. and when I deleted my viewport form the template I no longer had the problem. Must have something to do with a viewport being in a block. I will just tell my users they will have to make their own viewports after assigning our company templates. I don't know how to fix the problem to prevent it at this point, but I aggree with you about not worring about it. I have enough headaches from this program already.

still thanks for the help

[irneb]

Must have something to do with a viewport being in a block.

That's probably it. Viewports are only allowed in Paper Space, and AutoCAD defines paperspace using a special block called *PaperSpace - so when you place a viewport inside a block - you could expect some unexpected results.

The Recover / Audit solution of Opie is a definate. You have to run at least Audit before plotting. This is because AutoCAD stops the plot as soon as it reaches an error. Now if an error's somewhere in the drawing, AC starts placing lines in the plot from the 1st entity in the database. Then when it reaches the erroneous entity it stops - so all the other entities won't be plotted. The PaperSpace is not plotted since you've probably got Plot paperspace last turned on in the plot dialog.