New installations of AutoCAD 2017, one prints PDFs correctly, the other does not

[YZ]

This began since changing to 2017 a month ago.

 

On one of my staff's workstations, printing a PDF using the PDF export button is perfect. On mine, it tucks an A3 image in the top left corner of an A1 sheet.

 

Two examples are attached.

 

I cannot find the settings that control this behaviour. Does anyone know? Or any suggestions?

 

It is so weird. A4 and A1 work fine. But A3 on this one workstation, same dwg, same plot settings, fails consistently.

 

 

a3 title shown correctly.pdf

pdf in top corner.pdf

[Dadgad]

Off the top of my head, it sounds like the PAGE SETUPs in the dwg are different.

I would take a look at the PAGE SETUP MANAGERS on both machines, and figure out what is different.

[YZ]

Yes, that is what I thought it was also.

 

But it happens even with the same dwg.

 

PDF it from one machine it works. Same file on other machine, it is the wrong paper size.

[Dadgad]

Are the default templates being used on both machines the same?

Might they include differing PAGE SETUPS?

[YZ]

That is possible. I set these up using the Migration Tool, so they ought to be identical. I don't actually know much about "default template". How can I locate an installation's template? I am happy to check this out, thanks!

[Dadgad]

In OPTIONS, select FILES TAB, then look down to TEMPLATES, click on the DEFAULT QNEW TEMPLATE, hen see what is shown as your current default. You use this , obviously, to browse to, identify and to specify whichever template you want to be used for the QNEW command.

 

Different PROFILES on an installation could each have different QNEW defaults set.

So that, each specific individual, when setting up a personal Profile, can specify the one favored by that user.

 

The ones you MIGRATED, may well be different than the current defaults, use that technique to get to the bottom of the puzzle.

Edited September 6, 2016 by Dadgad

[RobDraw]

Are you using a named page set-up? If not, as a test, create a page set-up that works on the machine that gives the proper output and make sure to use that on the other machine.

 

BTW, I don't know how a default template would make any difference on an existing drawing.

[Dadgad]

 

BTW, I don't know how a default template would make any difference on an existing drawing.

 

I wasn't sure that it would, was too busy to stop and experiment, was just looking for things that might rather obscurely affect printing issues, that were not reflected in the Print dialog.

[YZ]

Thanks Dadgad. The "Template" options on both machines are identical, I just checked to confirm.

 

RobDraw, I am using named page setups, and one is "applied to layout". However, they are the exact same dwg, so two computers as producing different pdfs even though they use the same named page layouts.

 

That gets me to thinking, is it possible that the printer drivers are installed differently on both? I guess that might cause something.

 

It is still not clear to me where AutoCAD grabs the plot settings of the "EXPORTTOPDF" command. If I could find that out then I could look carefully at that on each of the two computers...

[RobDraw]

I think the EXPORTTOPDF settings are related to the PUBLISH settings but am not sure.

 

Instead of exporting, how about printing using the PDF driver? That way you can ensure total control.

[YZ]

Hey RobDraw, thanks.

 

The publish command seems to default to the "Save to Layout" page layout, which is the the same.

 

In saying that, I did not realise you could use the drop down in top left to change from printer output to PDF. So I tried that, and even though it is clumsier, it did output a correctly formatted A3 PDF, which is a big win for this thread.

 

The PDF driver, as far as I can tell, only allows one layout at a time. I love the EXPORTTOPDF for its simplicity at bundling all layouts in to one file, and defaulting straight to the folder that the dwg also lives in. It was one of AutoCAD's best new functions a few years ago, brilliant.

[YZ]

Wait, it is the ETRANSMIT function that goes directly to the same folder as the source dwg. I am getting mixed up. (one of my fave features, I'd love PDFs to do that also!).

 

I kept thinking along your lines RobDraw, and played with the settings. Though I had the "Landscape" option selected, the paper size was 297 x 420 (actually a portrait sheet). The printer worked this out, so I did not realise it was a problem.

 

So when I changed the default to "A3 (420 x 297 mm)" the PDFEXPORT started working again.

 

Sceen shot below for clarity, in case anyone interested. It does not solve, in my mind, why two workstations were behaving differently. But it does resolve the issue.

Thanks!