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Slow printing VectorWorks 2009


Rocky

Question

One of my responsibilities is to make sure that our printers are working as intended, but I do not work with VectorWorks on daily basis, so this might be an easy question, but I havent been able to look it up myself.

We have 2 different kind of users, VectorWorks and VWviewers.

On some drawings printing in VWviewer (regular A3 and 2Ddrawings) can take up to 4mins to print, were the same drawings only take 10secs in VW.

I've tried to install VWviewer on a regular pc with WinXP but this one works without any delay

The only difference is that VWviewer users are using HP Color laserjet 5500 PCL6 we're as VW users are using Canon IR5500.

Obvious the problem is proberly the printer, however whenever the slow printing occours the PDF Creator is also terrible slow.

Is there any settings that I can adjust to make printing faster?

VectorWorks 2009 SP2 build 99197

thanks in advance.

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16 answers to this question

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Sorry for my lack of response, I've been away from work

The media is on autoselect, however i've tried plain paper and nothing changes, it is still slow.

I'm still wondering why its not every single drawing, but only every third that prints slow.

Are there any adjustments made to the drawings that can slow up printing?

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We also have a slow printing problem wit vw2009.

We work with OSX10.5 and VW2009 sp5, we have the latest printdriver for our HP designjet 1055cm, but still a drawing that print within 15min. in vw12 takes over 2hrs in vw2009.

Anyone a solution or advise about this problem?

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I'd like to chime in here, as well. I have a Designjet330, which has been working fine in Vectorworks for years. However, since upgrading to Snow Leopard...printing takes forever. It's not the actual print cycle that takes long but it's the spooling process. Previous to Snow Leopard, spooling would be maybe 2-3 minutes, then the plotter would kick in. Now, under Snow Leopard, spooling takes around 20 minutes, then plotting speed is typical. I'm curious if others have seen this change under Snow Leopard and if anyone has any thoughts as to why this would be happening and whether or not a tweak can be made to speed things up. The driver involved here is from Gutenprint...the one that has always worked for me is the HP Designjet 430 driver. Thanks in advance for any info.

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Although everything was up to date, I uninstalled all Gutenprint drivers, deleted the Designjet 330 from the Print&Fax preference window and started all over.

I first reinstalled Gutenprint 5.2.3 drivers, set up the printer and that actually seemed to help a little but still not like pre Snow Leopard. Spooling time was 10 minutes which, although might not sound like a long time, I feel it is. Pre Snow Leopard spooling time was about 2-3 minutes.

Then, I was curious to see if Gutenprint 5.2.4 drivers might help out this spooling time, so uninstalled 5.2.3 and installed 5.2.4. Spooling is taking forever under this set up. Why is beyond me. I'll delete this and go back to 5.2.3 I guess. Not much more I can do really. This 330 Designjet has been such a workhorse for me. It's frustrating to upgrade the system and have this happen. I understand it's a fairly old plotter but still....it was fine in Leopard, just one step back. If anyone has any other thoughts on this, something I might tweak, please let me know. Thanks.

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Yes, I was aware of that, so I did be sure and check those settings. What's crazy (and frustrating) is that my last plot is now spooling for 45+ minutes and is showing "10% completed". Obviously something is amiss but I just have no idea. I could delete this print spool file, restart and probably have this plot quicker but I was just curious how long this one will take. At this rate, all evening. Permissions have been repaired regularly...I just don't think it's that type of issue. Something in Snow Leopard changed, like Islandmon mentioned, that is affecting the spooling speed.

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Follow up:

I might be on to something related to this problem of mine. I disconnected the Parallel to USB cable...this goes from the Parallel to Parallel cable that is attached to the plotter, to the computer. Then reconnected it.....the next plot spooled for about 3 minutes, then printed...perfect! Since then, spooling is running about 9 minutes which is tolerable. Apparently, something is going on with the Parallel to USB cable. Although it's working now, I ordered a new one to see if this puts me back into the 3 minute spooling range. Thought this might be helpful to anyone having similar issues....thanks for listening.

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Follow up #2:

At best, spooling time is 9 minutes for a 2D shop drawing. At worst, goes on forever and needs to be rebooted. All in all, my conclusion is Snow Leopard/Gutenprint and this plotter, the 330 Designjet, don't get along. It is an old machine and I suppose time to consider a purchase. If anyone is in this situation, using a Designjet 330, and has better results, I'd be interested to hear from them. On another note..I'm considering purchasing an HP510 plotter. Curious to hear any comments about this one and how it prints in Snow Leopard. I see HP has drivers for this plotter and Snow Leopard so would assume it would be quick and efficient. Thanks.

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skfurn,

Probably the cable you are using does not support bi-directional communications between the plotter and computer. The only solution that I know of is X-Rip and cable from Macro Enter. $350 for both; supports the 330, 430, + older & newer Designjets under 10.6x. I also have a 330 and this is the route I will be going as the 330 has been refurbished by a local HP shop and is in excellent condition and ink carts are very available. Using an Epson Workforce 1100 for 13" x 19" prints now ($149.95 special price from Eponstore.com)

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Fred, this is connected to the computer by a "USB to IEEE-1284 Bi-directional" cable from ATEN. It had been doing fine prior to the Snow Leopard upgrade. I actually just purchased the HP 510 Designjet... a year old, used only a couple of times, on Ebay. The price was hard to pass up. I'm looking forward to getting it set up and hoping it performs well....from what I've read, it should. I guess I just felt it was time to move on and upgrade.....the 330 had become very frustrating for me. Good luck with yours and thanks.

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Hi !

I've got the same type of problem .

printing very slowly on a OCE TDS 400 with PS driver.

(6 to 10 minutes for one printing A0+)

With the WPD driver, we can't arrive to have the good hatches/patterns.

and we can no more print on PDF CREATOR or very slowly too.

We use VW 2009 on pc XP 32 bits.

that's the problem :P

can you help me ?

thank's

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