PROBLEMS WITH IMAGE PLOTS IN ACAD 2000.

OUR ARCHITECTURAL OFFICE IS SET UP FOR WORKING WITH AUTOCAD 2000, ON WINDOWS 2000, AND USING AN HP DESINGJET 800 PS PLOTTER BESIDES OTHER PRINTERS. ALTHOUGH WE HAVE A LOCAL NETWORK, WE USE STAND ALONE INSTALLATIONS OF ACAD IN SEPARATE SEATS. THE PLOTTING PROCESS WORKED OUT FAIRLY WELL UP TO BEFORE I LEFT FOR THE 2003 HOLIDAYS. 2004 CAME AND LAST WEEK I TRIED PLOTTING A NEWLY REVISED SET OF THE SAME DRAWINGS (WITH XREF PLANS & ELEVATIONS ON DIFFERENT SHEET LAYOUTS AND ALSO IN SEPARATE SET UP FILES). HOWEVER THIS TIME, EVERYTHING ELSE BUT THE TIF IMAGES PLOTTED ON THE ELEVATION SHEETS. ONE THING I NOTICED IS THAT ONE OF THE MEMBERS OF OUR DESIGN TEAM HAD ATTACHED THE FLOOR PLANS AS XREFS IN THE ELEVATION DRAWINGS. THEN THOSE ELEVATIONS WHERE ATTACHED TO THE SHEET SET UP FILES. SOMEHOW DEATTACHING HERE AND THERE DID NOT DO MUCH TO HELP US.

I WANT TO KNOW IF WE ARE HAVING A MEMORY PROBLEM AS THE ONES I HAVE READ IN OTHER SIMILAR INQUIRES ON THIS DISCUSSION GROUP RELATED TO OLE, TIF, PNG and JPEG files. WE DO NOT GET ERROR MESSAGES, JUST BAD PLOTS.

IS THERE A SETTING THAT I AM NOT AWARE OF THAT MAKES AN ATTACHED IMAGE NOT COME OUT IN THE PLOT (BESIDES PLACING IT ON THE DEFPOINTS LAYER, OR IN A LAYER THAT USES THE 255 COLOR, OR CHECKING THE 'UNPLOT' OPTION FOR A SPECIFIC LAYER IN THE LAYER MANAGER)?

I LIKE TO KNOW WHAT WORTH IS GOING THROUGH THE HASSLE OF GETTING THE PLOT UPDATE FOR ACAD 2000? LAST YEAR, I TRIED UPDATING THE HP DRIVERS ON TWO PC'S BUT ALL IT DID WAS SCREW UP THE PLOTTING FROM THOSE MACHINES. NOW, WE ARE NOT ABLE TO PLOT FROM THOSE PC'S ANYMORE, BUT THE HP PLOTTER CAN BE USED FOR OTHER APPLICATIONS SUCH AS PHOTOSHOP, ETC...

ANOTHER PROBLEM WE ARE HAVING IS WITH HATCH PLOTTING, COMMON TO ALL MACHINES. WE USE THE 250-255 GREY COLORS TO SHADE SOLID AREAS. DESPITE OF USING THE DRAWORDER COMMAND FOR SENDING THE SOLID HATCH ENTITIES TO THE BACKGROUND ALL THE TIME, WHEN THE LAYOUTS ARE PLOTTED THE THICK BORDER LINES ARE OVERWRITTEN AND PLOTTED AS VERY THIN LINES. I ALREADY TRIED RUNNING "the HPSETUP.EXE in the AutoCAD folder and setting the "Line Merge" option" WITHOUT ANY CHANGE IN THE RESULTS, EITHER.

THX IN ADVANCE FOR ANY NEW INPUT

 

I am no AutoCAD expert. I assume that the design team member did NOT XREF
the floor plans as an overlay. It is my understanding that if he did, the
floor plans would be XREF'd in but not any XREFs made by the floor plans.
Does the other geometry show up but only the images are missing.

WINDOWS 2000, AND USING AN HP DESINGJET 800 PS PLOTTER BESIDES OTHER
PRINTERS. ALTHOUGH WE HAVE A LOCAL NETWORK, WE USE STAND ALONE INSTALLATIONS
OF ACAD IN SEPARATE SEATS. THE PLOTTING PROCESS WORKED OUT FAIRLY WELL UP TO
BEFORE I LEFT FOR THE 2003 HOLIDAYS. 2004 CAME AND LAST WEEK I TRIED
PLOTTING A NEWLY REVISED SET OF THE SAME DRAWINGS (WITH XREF PLANS &
ELEVATIONS ON DIFFERENT SHEET LAYOUTS AND ALSO IN SEPARATE SET UP FILES).
HOWEVER THIS TIME, EVERYTHING ELSE BUT THE TIF IMAGES PLOTTED ON THE
ELEVATION SHEETS. ONE THING I NOTICED IS THAT ONE OF THE MEMBERS OF OUR
DESIGN TEAM HAD ATTACHED THE FLOOR PLANS AS XREFS IN THE ELEVATION DRAWINGS.
THEN THOSE ELEVATIONS WHERE ATTACHED TO THE SHEET SET UP FILES. SOMEHOW
DEATTACHING HERE AND THERE DID NOT DO MUCH TO HELP US.