plot dialog in 2005 is TOO SLOW!!!

I have 57 ctb files in our plot styles directory. Five of those are our own in house standards (well, 1 is standard, and 4 are necessary evils). About 10 of them are legacy CTBs because my predecessor as CAD Manager allowed every project to have its own CTB files, rather than pushing for standardization, and the remainder are plot styles sent by consultants, associated firms, and clients, for whom we were plotting drawings. These typically only stay for the length of the project, but our projects can last for several years.

We also have 35 pc3 files, which corresponds to the number of devices we have, plus a couple of plotting to file options.

 

Hey AutoDesk
Since I agree, in large part, with Robert's comments, I am going to make you an offer to help make things better. I will make arrangements for you to send a team of engineers in here, for a week, or more, to sit side by side with some of my users, and deal with reality for a while. My only requirement is that if you do this, you must also find two or three other firms who will let you do the same with them - I know from my own career history that you guys have to deal with a wide range of user types, and while I think that my office is fairly typical of design oriented architectural firms, I don't want you basing conclusiions on a single sample.

I don't want to post too much contact info (not that I don't trust you, it's just habit), but call my reseller - Microsol Resources, and tell Emilio that I sent you, he knows how to reach me.

 

What I don't get it why they could not put out an unsupported fix for this.
It's not too hard to stop a program from repopulating a list box over and
over again. We're talking less then 10 lines of code here. So why is an
unsupported fix not available yet? Post it in the newsgroup and have it a
use at your own risk or something at the very least.

Any good VB programmer could reproduce the plot dialog without the bug in a
day. You might want to go over to www.cadvault.com and challange someone to
do it and see if they bite. I would do it if it wasn't for my already 80
hour weeks.

An AUGI meeting I was at had nobody using 2005 for several bug and
performance reasons. Plot and Layer dialogs were the main 2 I think. But
to me this is a scary situation when bugs and performance outway the new
features in a program.

Plottting for 1 has always been a headache and I still can't for the life of
me understand why from the programming side we cannot do simple little
things like pass a full filename for the ctb or stb files. I mean isn't it
easier to find a file if you have the full name rather than a partial name
and an Option setting for the Plot Style Paths. And the Plot Styles should
always populate the list with the ones that are in the drawing directory
also for those people that actually do work for various clients.

But we're messing with Microstation 8.1 plotting and I can tell you that
AutoCAD is light years ahead of that both from the user and the programmers
perspective.

--
Rodney McManamy
President
CADzation
-------------------------

-------------------------
518 South Route 31 Suite 200
McHenry, IL 60050
www.cadzation.com
Providing Industrial Strength
PDF & DWF Solutions to the
Global CAD Marketplace.

you an offer to help make things better. I will make arrangements for you
to send a team of engineers in here, for a week, or more, to sit side by
side with some of my users, and deal with reality for a while. My only
requirement is that if you do this, you must also find two or three other
firms who will let you do the same with them - I know from my own career
history that you guys have to deal with a wide range of user types, and
while I think that my office is fairly typical of design oriented
architectural firms, I don't want you basing conclusiions on a single
sample.

it's just habit), but call my reseller - Microsol Resources, and tell Emilio
that I sent you, he knows how to reach me.

 

Part of the beauty of AutoCAD is that is so customizable you can make it do almost anything you want it to.

I suggest you find someone that knows how to customize and you could solve all your problems.

I have no problem plotting with AutoCAD or with the layers dialog. Everything is there, it seems to me. And if you can't wait 3 or 4 seconds for a program to respond, you should really be taking Valium.

 

Nicley Said Joe....

We've been using 05 for a while now and it's running fine.

 

It works fine for those that don't have multiple directories of ctb files
located on their network. But the point is that it's been verified by
Autodesk that there is a bug that causes any change in the plot dialog to
repopulate the Plot Styles Listbox and hence it should be fixed by Autodesk
now. Those users having problems should not have to wait and upgrade to 2006
just to get a bug fixed.

--
Rodney McManamy
President
CADzation
-------------------------

-------------------------
518 South Route 31 Suite 200
McHenry, IL 60050
www.cadzation.com
Providing Industrial Strength
PDF & DWF Solutions to the
Global CAD Marketplace.

 

I had exactly this problem and took ages to process the plot. reduced .ctb files to 2 and didn't make any difference.
I switched off background plot options and it now works as fast as it did in 2004.
would like to use the background plotting option though so hopefully there will be a patch or something released soon.

 

You have to realize that background plotting means that AutoCAD opens up
another session in the background to do the plotting. So it's going to be
considerably slower and I imagine the other session is also set to a lower
priority so you can continue to work in the current session. Any printing
and plotting of a large size engineering drawing is going to take some time.
It's a ton of information to send and for the plotter to interpret.

The ctb problem is not with the speed of plotting but rather with the speed
of displaying and making changes in the actual plot dialog box.

--
Rodney McManamy
President
CADzation
-------------------------

-------------------------
518 South Route 31 Suite 200
McHenry, IL 60050
www.cadzation.com
Providing Industrial Strength
PDF & DWF Solutions to the
Global CAD Marketplace.

files to 2 and didn't make any difference.

will be a patch or something released soon.

 

On anothere note, and I wil post this as a new thread elsewhere, but have any of you noticed that the dialog for matching OLE text size does not accept fractional values?

 

Actually, this is the first post I've made to this subject but I've been experiencing the same problem with the slow plot dialog box. To the point that we have resorted to rolling back to 2004 until a fix is sent out by Autodesk. I've been reading all the discussions I can find on this topic and haven't seen any proposed solutions that sound VALID either. I only have one directory of CTB files and one directory of PC3 files but I'm still experiencing the problems that everyone else has mentioned. 2002, 2004 both ran fine, what changed?????
As for the guy who posted the comment about not being able to wait 3-4 sec's for a dialog box, I would comment that I wonder how long it takes him/her to do other CAD tasks. You get in a rhythm when you're working - at least I do - and a 3-4 sec (or in my case 10-12) hiccup disrupts us. You're right, Autodesk should be posting a patch to this WELL BEFORE even a service pack or the next release. In the meantime, its back to 2004 for me. Incidentally, we are using Arch. Desktop 2005 and experiencing the same problems but on the ADT discussion groups the users are posting OTHER problems and they suggested I look to the AutoCAD discussion group for plotting issues.

 

It's not just the drafting rythm thing, although I agree. I want the guy who told us all to relax to come to my office and try to plot out a series of drawings, while my boss, the guy who shelled out all the dough to buy us these lovely computers and all this lovely software, stands over his shoulder expressing his views on the value of his investment in hardware, software, staff salaries, etc.

 

Yeah, I'm the guy that told you all to relax. Pay my airfare, lodging and a days pay and I'll come to your office to show you how to plot. I have no problem batch plotting, or plotting anything anyone wants on demand. I do it all day long.

I've set up so many custom buttons for different types of plots that they're starting to overtake all of AutoCAD's original toolbars. Someone asks for a plot, all I do is push the correct button. If I don't have the correct button, I make one after I'm done with the task so next time I'm asked, I can do it instantly.

All it takes is a little script or lisp writing, and some button customization and you too can be on your way to a happy plotting experience.

This of course, is assuming that you know your way around a computer and the network your working with.

 

SP1 is now available:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=4598395&linkID=2475161


--


Rick Moore
Barnes Gromatzky Kosarek Architects
www.bgkarchitects.com

 

We are running Windows 2000 Pro on IBM M Pros with 512 mb RAM; 1.8ghz. I have all ctbs, pc3s and pmps copied locally and the network printer queues are installed locally and am having the same delay in 2004.

Seems that the first time the plot dialog box is selected, there is a 15-20 second delay. If the dialog box is reselected within a few minutes it responds immediately. If we wait for 10 minutes we get the same delay again.

This is the chief complaint I have from users at this time. We are ready to migrate to 2004, but I want to get this issue resolved first if I can.

Tim

 

It sounds like the plot function is searching for plotters or plotstyles
that are no longer there.

John

have all ctbs, pc3s and pmps copied locally and the network printer queues
are installed locally and am having the same delay in 2004.

15-20 second delay. If the dialog box is reselected within a few minutes it
responds immediately. If we wait for 10 minutes we get the same delay
again.

to migrate to 2004, but I want to get this issue resolved first if I can.

 

nope...looked at that...
it does sound that way, but...nope.....

One thing that does help is to limit the number of TBL files in the folder.

Wonder if it is the depth of the folder.....
Hum...I'll test that...thnx.....

 

Does anyone know if 2006 addresses this issue?