VW 12.5 conflict w/ HP latest Driver for Intel Mac

[PeterT]

We just got a new Imac Core Duo running Mac OS 10.4.9. To load the HP driver for our HP DesignJet 800PS we had to use the latest HP Driver which is compatible with the Intel Macs. This is HPs Postscript Driver version 10.4.0 316, and PPD version 2.0.

Now when we do the "Print" command, in the pull down list of printer options there are 6 lines that say "UNSUPPORTED PDE" with a strikeout line going through each one.

These 6 bad lines occur between "Error Handling" and "Color Options". Although they seem to be just extra garbage, if you choose one of them, it crashes VectorWorks.

This does not occur using the same driver on the same machine in VW version 11.5.1, nor does it happen doing a print command for the same printer in a different application such as Microsoft Word.

The same 6 lines of garbage seem to occur printing to any one of our 3 HP printers from VectorWorks 12.5.0 AND 12.5.1(65397). It does not happen however with a print command to our Epson Stylus C42.

It apperars to be a conflict between the HP driver version 10.4 and VectorWorks 12.5 specifically.

Has anyone else seen this?

[Guest]

It sounds like the driver may not be properly installed.

I would contact HP directly on this issue. The errors being produced are populated by the printer itself and HP needs to diagnose what those errors mean.

[islandmon]

These are the file paths of interest:

/Library/Printers/hp/designjet

/Library/Printers/hp/PDEs

/Library/Printers/PPDs/Contents/Resources/en.lproj

[PeterT]

I did contact HP, but of course they said it was not their problem.

So upon further investigation I found it was not a VectorWorks specific problem, and was, in fact, a conflict with MicroSoft Plugins. I suspect this may also be a problem for anyone who installs MS Office 2004 on an Intel Mac and prints to HP printers.

Here is the followup email I sent to HP:

Mac Support,

I have learned that I may have misinformed you on my last email. I had only tested the problem against VectorWorks and MicroSoft Word, and there was no problem on Word, so I assumed the conflict was with VectorWorks only. As it turns out there is a problem with all applications except Microsoft applications.

What I have found is that on the Intel Mac there is a folder in the location /Library/Printers/PPD Plugins/ which contains six plugins that bear the MicroSoft logo. These six plugins are named hpColorOptions, hpedgetoedge, hpFinishing, hpImageQuality, hpJobRetention, and hpProofAndPrint.

In another folder, in the location /Library/Printers/hp/PDEs/ there are 12 plugins, six of which have the same names as the ones described above.

If I Get Info on the six duplicate Microsoft plugins, it tells me they are "PowerPC plugins". I don't know if they were installed by MicroSoft Office 2004, or by the HP Driver installer. But for whatever reason on an Intel Mac, they do not cause any conflict when printing from MicroSoft applications, but they cause problems from any other application.

By deleting the six MicroSoft plugins, the printing problem goes away for the non-MicroSoft applications. I have no idea what problems this will now cause with the MicroSoft applications, but for now they seem to be printing fine using the same named HP PDE Plugins.

Maybe someone at HP should inform MicroSoft that their duplicate Power PC Plugins are causing problems printing from every other application but their own running on an Intel Mac.