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About Archicad's documenting tools, views, model filtering, layouts, publishing, etc.

Pdf publishing: "Cannot write output file!"

ajgorexu
Participant
Hello,

I have a problem: when I try to publish my project or save as pdf, I got an error message "Cannot write output file!". Hopefully it is possible to PRINT it to pdf, but it takes much more time... I think I have checked all: my firewall, antivirus, system permissions, cleaned disks and registry, reinstalled my ARCHICAD24. I've shared also on a facebook group with my issue, but last thing, which they suggested and which I haven't tried yet, was to format the disk. It'd be greeeat to avoid this solution.

Maybe anyone fixed similar problem?

Thank You
ARCHICAD24

lenovo y70-70 touch / Windows 10 x64 / intel core i7-4720hq cpu 2.60 GHz / ram: 8gb / graphic card: nvidia geforce gtx960xm / ssd: sandisk sdssdh3 1t00
9 REPLIES 9
Miha_M
Advisor
Did you try to change the folder to publish into? It sound like you are on Windows.
Please put some info about you hardware, os and Archicad version into your signature, so people who'd like to help you know something about your environment.

| Archicad 4.55 - 27
| HP Z840 | 2× E5-2643 v4 | 64 GB RAM | Quadro M5000 | Windows 10 Pro x64
| HP Z4 G4 | W-2245 | 64 GB RAM | RTX A4000 | Windows 11

Barry Kelly
Moderator
Also if the PDF is open by you or someone else, you won't be able to write to it (or replace it).

If that is not it, try to save to an different location and check the PDF name for non-standard characters.


Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
ajgorexu
Participant
Miha_M wrote:
Did you try to change the folder to publish into?
Barry wrote:
If that is not it, try to save to an different location
Yes, I tried with changing the folder - when I just change file destination from desktop to another folder (everything located on D:\ partition) the result is the same

but... I just tried to save on external disk and C:\ partition and it succed! ❤️
On D:\ partition I can do it only outside of any existing folder, with new folders it works...
so problem partially solved, do you have any idea to fully fix it?

Thank You for quick response! I also edited my signature 😉
ARCHICAD24

lenovo y70-70 touch / Windows 10 x64 / intel core i7-4720hq cpu 2.60 GHz / ram: 8gb / graphic card: nvidia geforce gtx960xm / ssd: sandisk sdssdh3 1t00
Barry Kelly
Moderator
ajgorexu wrote:
On D:\ partition I can do it only outside of any existing folder, with new folders it works...
so problem partially solved, do you have any idea to fully fix it?

It sounds to me as if it is a file/folder permission problem.
It seems to me that you have the correct permissions on 'D' drive to create new folders but those new folders themselves do not have the correct permissions for you to save files into them.
Don't ask me why or how to fix it - this IT stuff is above my pay grade.

Can you manually create a simple text file in folder you are trying to save the Archicad file into?
If not I would be pretty sure it is a permission problem.
If you can then I am at a complete loss.


Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Miha_M
Advisor
It has to be some permission settings then, but I also don't know how you could solve this.
Maybe you don't have administrator access level on your user windows account on which you have your Archicad installation. Try to run the Archicad.exe file in the Program Files folder as administrator - right click the program icon and select "Run as administrator". Then try to publish again in that 'D' drive folder.
If this will work, then you could to change you user account permissions to Administrator and you won't have that publishing problems any more. Probably there is some way to change your account permissions just for accessing the 'D' drive as well, but that's beyond my windows knowledge.

| Archicad 4.55 - 27
| HP Z840 | 2× E5-2643 v4 | 64 GB RAM | Quadro M5000 | Windows 10 Pro x64
| HP Z4 G4 | W-2245 | 64 GB RAM | RTX A4000 | Windows 11

Anonymous
Not applicable
I am having the same issue and I don't know how to fix it. AC21 and the trial version of AC25 is showing the same error: "Warning: cannot write output file" when I try to save the document as PDF using CTRL+SHIFT+S.
I checked the permissions settings of Archicad25.exe file - everything seems to be ok. I have granted full control but the error keeps occurring.
Barry Kelly
Moderator
Can you save to a different location - say your desktop?
If so then it is probably a permission problem for where you are trying to save.
Or maybe the file path is very long or contains unusual characters?

Or can you save as to the same location by simply giving the file a new name?
If so then the original file is open or it could simply be selected in Windows Explorer with the preview open.

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
Also, make sure that the PDF file you want to save to is not opened in a PDF viewer.
Also, check if you have any special characters in the file name or the path of the PDF file you want to save.
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
AMD Ryzen9 5900X CPU, 64 GB RAM 3600 MHz, Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB, 500 GB NVMe SSD
2x28" (2560x1440), Windows 10 PRO ENG, Ac20-Ac27
Lingwisyer
Guru
Select Drive => Properties => Security => Group or User Names => [Relevant Group / User] = Read / Write / Modify

Relevant group would be if you are part of a home group or domain such as "x office Users" or "Administrators".



Ling.

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