Printing to Phaser 7700: pictwpstops

[IDGRDHudson]

Here's a real head-scratcher. Running VW 10.1.2 on a 400mhz G4 512MB RAM w/ OS 10.2.6. Here's what I'm running into;

VW File A will print to our QMS 2060 w/ no problem. Trying to print VW File A using our new Xerox Phaser 7700 produces nothing. In the CUPS job log for the Phaser, it gives the error message "cant open PSStream for stdoutERROR: pictwpstops- got an error closing the PSStream=-50". So, I tried printing VW File B (also, no problem printing to the QMS) to the Phaser. The job printed without a problem.

I thought the problem might have been file size since VW File A was larger than VW File B (16MB vs. 9MB), so I tried to print VW File C (18MB) to the Phaser. This job also printed without a problem. I then found that the error occurred on VW File D (516K) but not on VW File E, which was a new file into which I copied the elements from VW File A.

So, if at this point you are not completely lost in my alphabet soup of a post, has anyone heard of this happening and what could cause some VW files to print and others to generate an error? This never happens when printing from MS Office, Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. Any insight would be appreciated.

Reggie Hudson

Insight Design Group

[Guest]

If you review thur the many posts with this error message -- you'll see there are a variety of issues that cause the problem.

One that can cause the problem is corrupted or bad fonts on the computer.

THe other can be corrupted or bad print data being stored with a file due to a legacy OS issue circa 10.2.3.

If you email me, I can send a script to you that will clear the print settings for you. If this works, it's the legacy print problem in the OS that caused the problem. If it doesn't work, then you have a font problem.

tech@nemetschek.net?subject=ATTN:Katie

[Kurt Magness]

There are two things I have found out that create printing errors. the corrupted font issue and using fill patterns other than the first row in the pallet. They were real frustrating at first. Either not printing at all or cryptic error messages. And most people are really frustrated when it works on a cheap desktop printer but not on the plotter. OSX and plotters appear to be more sensitive to these kind of issues. Now I know what to look for.

The first thing I do is try to print/ plot the file one layer at a time to see if some layers plot and others don't. Once you isolated the problem layer or layers then you can look more closely at what is in that layer. Then you must ungroup the objects in that layer (best to make a copy of the problem file first). The reason for this is custom selection will not pick up individual objects if they are in a group with others. First do a select all then look at the font menu and under fonts it will put a dash next to all the fonts it finds. Any non basic fonts are suspect. Switch one or all to geneva and then try to print. If it works then you found it or them. Isolate and reinstall from the originals. Do not just try to drag them over from another machine. Or if you do not have the originals (pirated copies), drag them onto your desktop first, over the network, from machine that have no problems, then put them in the font folder in your system folder. I put all non true type fonts in the OS9 font folder not OSX. If this doesn't find any thing, then I look for patterns. I custom select patterns rows at a time until it finds one or more patterns. You know when you got one when the fill box shows a pattern. Also it helps when you do a select all to click the show all button at the bottom of the window. This is important because objects can be beyond the limits of the screen and cause problems. This is especially true when new draftspeople leave all sorts of stuff out there in the file. A little 1/2" x 1/2" filled box, way out in space, or one letter in a text block, can cause the file not to print. Good hunting!