Strange printing problem

Hi all:

I've been using Solidworks at my new employer for about a month. I've
come across a seemingly random printing issue. Sometimes, when I print
a drawing, some or all of the object lines in the drawing do not show
up. The dimensions, notes, tables and title block print, but some or
all of the views are missing. Everyone else here can print the same
files and have no issues, so it seems to be an issue with my specific
computer. Print preview shows everything just fine. It only happens
at the printer itself. Sometimes, I can reload the drawing or restart
Solidworks and the problem will disappear. Sometimes, this doesn't
work, either. Anyone else seen this?

Computer specs: P4 2.8GHz, 1GB RAM, Win XP SP2, SW 2005 SP4
Printer: HP Laserjet 8000 shared on a network

Thanks in advance,
John.

 

I don't know what your exact problem is. I have seen this due to the
printer running out of memory, but if it works for everyone else, then
it should for you.
I would HIGHLY recommend you do all you can to increase the RAM you
have on your machine. 1GB just isn't enough for any good size parts,
assy, or drawings. I'm also not sure at what point SW was able to
handle Win XP SP2. I know for a long time they weren't compatible, but
I don't remember what the issues were becuase that company I was with
wasn't upgrading at that time anyway.
Those are a couple things to look into, and I would also try to keep an
eye on which files it happens w/. Are they all larger files, or does it
only happen w/ drawings that have detail or cropped views, etc?

Good luck,
Steven

 

I have experienced the same problem. It has only happened with very
large mulitple sheet drawings. It also doesn't seem to be consistent.
Without solving the problem I have found that by first printing the
file one sheet at a time to a PDF file and then printing the PDF file I
can get the paper documentation I need. It does seem to indicate a
printer memory problem but switching printers to one with more memory
has not always corrected the problem. It seems to be internal to
Solidworks.

Marty Watts

 

John,

I've had the same problem.
I've written a macro that prints all drawings of an opened assembly (with
sub assemblies). It opens the first drawing of a part/assembly, prints it
and then closes it, then opens the next drawing, etc. While executing the
macro, suddenly a few drawings showed incomplete on the screen, and the
prints were also incomplete.
After executing the macro, I opened the drawings manually, and they were
complete. When I printed them manually, the prints were also comlete.

Each drawing consisted of 1 sheet.
The printer is a HP Laserjet 8100 networkprinter.
The incomplete drawings were assembly-drawings with a bill of materials.

I don't know the reason, maybe configurating the printer's driver: print
directly to printer, or RAW or something else.
When I've more time I'll experience with the driver's configuration and I'll
let you know.

Henk

 

Update:

I may have figured it out. On a particularly reluctant drawing (one
that consistently misbehaves) I made all of the views "high quality"
(whatever that means). So far, it's printing fine. BTW, in the past I
had tried checking "make draft views high quality" in the print dialog
box, but this did not help. I'll keep my fingers crossed. They're
installing a new service pack this afternoon (don't know which one), so
maybe that will help.

Regards,
John.