External content not printing

[Anonymous]

Hi all

I've been trying to find a solutions for this for some time but I've had no luck either here or on Google and it can't be that strange.. I mean someone must have had the same issue so I thought I'd ask around here.

So bear with me while I describe my problem

I have a external content (PDF with topografic map) that I have to use as a situation plan for a addition I am working on. The "scale" in the PDF (if a PDF can be said to have a scale is way off) and the scale I must deliver have to be in 1:500... municipal requirements

So what I have done is that I have created a worksheet and placed the external content there, by measuring on the drawing and comparing to known real-world measurements I've adjusted the magnification (roughly 1000%) it so that it has the correct scale.

Then I created a new subset and a new layout (A4 with all the needed info fields) and placed the drawing there, set the scale to 1:500, adjusted polygon outline to fit in the window... (the PDF was huge with lots of unneeded info)

Looks perfect on the screen but when I print.... I get the frame and info fields and nothing else!! The drawing content is missing from the printout 😞

If I skip the "adjust polygon outline" step and instead change the magnification on the placed drawing to "Fit to Layout" it prints but then the scale isn't 1:500 anymore.

Anyone got an idea? I'm stumped here....

/Jörgen

[Thomas Holm]

You should place your platform and Archicad version in your signature, it would make answering easier.

Your problem sounds like a common issue in Archicad 10. If possible, upgrade your program to the latest version (currently AC12) or at least use Help-Check for updates to install the latest update for your version.

If that doesn't help, try making all adjustments (scale, rotation, crop etc) to the pdf externally (Illustrator might work) before you mount it in Archicad.

A workaround might be to use Photoshop or some other photo editor to convert it to a TIFF or JPEG bit-mapped image and mount that instead. If you don't rescale the image when printing it should look fine.

But in this case I think the best advice is to go back to the city in question and request the map in DWG format instead!

[Anonymous]

Yes you are right, I should have posted versions... it's been fixed now 🙂

I am using version 12 so the ver 10 problem isn't the case here, HOWEVER I tried the same procedure on a machine at my daytime job this morning and that printed properly!! It might be an issue with my printer at home, Lexmark E120n

/Jörgen

[Thomas Holm]

joeri91942 wrote:
Lexmark E120n

Cheap inkjet printers don't always handle PDFs like programs such as Archicad expect. You might have to make Archicad publish/print to a PDF, and then open that in Adobe Reader and print it using the Advanced: Print As Picture option.
That sends a bitmap to the printer, which it should know how to handle.

[Anonymous]

Hey! That's not a cheap inkjet!!! It's a cheap laserprinter 🙂

Actually it's a very neat, fast, cheap AND Ethernet connected laser printer. Might not be the best for this since it's a bit limited on memory but for quick drafts it's hard to beat a network connected, 19 page-per-minute laser printer at just over 1000 SEK

/Jörgen

[Thomas Holm]

joeri91942 wrote:
limited on memory

That's the problem. And no Postscript, I guess?

[Anonymous]

That's right, no Postscript.. but still why does it print when I take the WHOLE drawing and "Fit to layout" but not when I scale to 1:500 and trim away a lot of information? I'm removing about 75% of the drawing when I trim it... it should be easier to print then, not harder

/Jörgen

[vistasp]

joeri91942 wrote:
Anyone got an idea? I'm stumped here....

Were you printing in draft mode? That sometimes makes a mess of things like this.

[Thomas Holm]

joeri91942 wrote:
That's right, no Postscript.. but still why does it print when I take the WHOLE drawing and "Fit to layout" but not when I scale to 1:500 and trim away a lot of information? I'm removing about 75% of the drawing when I trim it... it should be easier to print then, not harder

/Jörgen

What happens is that Archicad, not being a PDF editor in itself, sends its own print content to the printer, and then it sends the embedded PDF as a whole complete to the printer along with the transformation commands that you've applied when you embedded it, such as crop, scale, rotate etc., for the printer to handle. That's easy for a printer with lots of memory and built-in Postscript, that understands the commands and can handle the PDF transformations in its memory.

Not so easy for a resource-starved printer. I guess it finishes already when it finds the PDF is too big for its memory!

And please note, when you crop a PDF, even when you do it in Acrobat, what you do is just apply a visibility viewport. All the rest of the content is still there for the printer to handle. It's easier to print it all than to crop it, because the printer has apply your transformation everytime you print.

If you instead let Archicad Publish a complete PDF and print that through Adobe Reader's Print as Picture command, Adobe Reader applies the transformations and relieves the printer of the heavy job.