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HP Designjet printing issues


IUP-CFA

Question

Hello

I am a tech support monkey for a university, and we have several installs of Vectorworks under our care.

My situation is this: When printing large-file-size files, from VW 12 on an xp machine, over ethernet to an HP jetdirect hooked to an HP designjet 500, the file prints about 1/10th of the file, then spools out the appropriate amount of paper, as if it was printing the whole file.

To clarify: when we send a small file to print, it works without a problem. If we send a file with a large memory size, it prints part, and then stops printing, but still spools out the full sheet of paper.

Right now, our working theory is that the file is too large to be sent over the ethernet line through the jetdirect without failing.

If anyone has any ideas otherwise, please let me know.

Again, our set up is:

VW 12

WinXP

HP Jetdirect

HP designjet 500

Thank you so much for your time.

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10 answers to this question

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Seems to be a common problem with VW12. Are the files in question ones which have been imported from earlier version software? I have 'solved' this problem temporarily by cut and pasting the drawing onto a new VW12 file; bit of a chore if there are many layers/scales/classes, but it seems to work. I recall a similar problem with VW7 (or was it 8?) which was cured with the subsequent updates. See my other posts about my similar problem.

Took me a while to locate my specific problem as I upgraded software, operating system and G5 all at the same time...and was printing to a new plotter! Seems in my case to be a problem between OSx 10.4.5 and VW12 as my other G5 on OSx 10.3.9 has no problem!

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Interesting, I have similar symptoms but only when printing over my wireless network (through an Airport Extreme Base Station) which uses the ethernet port. When plotting over the USB port, flawless.

This is an intermittent problem for me and seems to clear up temporarily after resetting the base station. Since the problem is intermittent, its hard to say if the ABS reset is really helping or if the plotter happens to prints with more consistently for some other reason (i.e. luck).

My files are native VWA 12 running OSX 10.4.4.

HP DJ 120nr.

Also, the plotter will stall for a while before spitting out the uncompleted sht. then the HP info panel shows the "wrench" icon (call HP). I spent quite a bit of time with HP (paid support) a few months ago and never resolved.

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I had a similar problem with my 500ps when attempting to print rendered elevations back in 9 and 10. The NNA mantra was update the drivers on the plotter. This did nothing. Viewports in 12 seemed to have cured the issue. Vectorworks also had a problem printing grayed layers with a non-postcript driver(the plot file would simply disappear from the que). Again the NNA mantra was to update the drivers. This also did nothing. Viewports seemed to have cured this as well. For what its worth, if you have not done so, set up a viewport to see if the problem persists. I feel your pain....

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If you are using a HP Design Jet printer with Windows 2000 or XP, it?s likely the SpoolSmart function is enabled. This often causes files to print incorrectly or drops certain objects. To resolve this issue, disable SpoolSmart.

Here?s how:

From VectorWorks, select File > Print. Click Properties. Click the Services tab, and then click Troubleshoot Software Problems. In the Troubleshoot Software Problems dialog box, remove the checkmark next to Enable SpoolSmart. Click OK when done.

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Like Mark, I run an HP (110plus nr) on a Mac system. The wireless component has been a huge disappointment, to the point where I am dismantling it and reinstalling a USB cable connection. I could rarely get more than 1 or 2 prints at a time before the printer would just stop - no warning, no message anywhere saying there was a problem.

It became quite infuriating and a huge waste of time as I nursed the printer along by feeding it a sheet at a time.

Again like Mark, no-one seems to know why, enquiries to HP or the supplier get no response. Wireless connection was a good idea - pity they didn't get it to work properly before releasing it.

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Hi David,

All I can say is ARRRRRG!

I haven't given up on the wireless network (I like being able to plot from my laptop at the conference room table!)

Still I feel like I'm "nursing" the plotter, not to mention the time, paper and ink I've wasted when its not working!

My backup is a 25' USB cable that I connect directly when I can't afford to mess around (most of the time). Unfortunately I plot from at least 3 different computers and with all my high tech gadgets, its decidedly low tech to string a cable across the room!

cheers, mmm

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Mark

I totally agree.

I really liked the idea of separation that wireless offers, but not with the poor performance the system operates at - although I hate it, I'll try to get used to the draped cable across the office. There is obviously a spooling problem somewhere, probably in the wireless receiver on the printer, because my printer likes yours is flawless when cable connected.

However - late development - a techie is coming over tomorrow to try something else - I'll keep you posted. It's definitely last chance though as far as I am concerned.

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