Printing (Large Format)

[Sequoia D. Schroeder]

Note: I tried posting this on the "Microsoft Project"
forum, but got no bites, so I thought I'd post it here ....

We are having quite a bit of difficulty print Gantt charts
to our HP DesignJet 430 "plotter" (actually, 36" wide roll
feed ink jet printer). Only part of the data will print,
so it comes out missing the Timescale, the shading for non-
working time, and the right margin. We primarily use this
plotter for AutoCAD and do not have problems (although CAD
does not use the Windows drivers). I have also printed,
with the Windows drivers, successfully from Adobe Acrobat
5.0, ... except for PDFs of Gantt charts. Some of the
dwg's and PDF's we've printeed were quite large and
complex as well.

Our tech dept. tried installing a new driver, but that did
NOT help. I have found one article about printing to large
format printers on Microsoft's "Knowledge Base," but it
was not about our problem. I found nothing on HP's website
about printing to the 430 from Project, period.

Any ideas will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Sequoia

 

[Rob Schneider]

Note: I tried posting this on the "Microsoft Project"
forum, but got no bites, so I thought I'd post it here ....

We are having quite a bit of difficulty print Gantt charts
to our HP DesignJet 430 "plotter" (actually, 36" wide roll
feed ink jet printer). Only part of the data will print,
so it comes out missing the Timescale, the shading for non-
working time, and the right margin. We primarily use this
plotter for AutoCAD and do not have problems (although CAD
does not use the Windows drivers). I have also printed,
with the Windows drivers, successfully from Adobe Acrobat
5.0, ... except for PDFs of Gantt charts. Some of the
dwg's and PDF's we've printeed were quite large and
complex as well.

Our tech dept. tried installing a new driver, but that did
NOT help. I have found one article about printing to large
format printers on Microsoft's "Knowledge Base," but it
was not about our problem. I found nothing on HP's website
about printing to the 430 from Project, period.

Any ideas will be appreciated.

Thanks,

Sequoia

Problems like this are almost always related to the vendor's printer
drivers.

Your work with AutoCAD proves the printer works, but doesn't prove it
for Windows.

Your Tech Dept installed a new driver, but that only proves that what
they installed did not work.

Ideas:

1. Search more on HP's web site for help. This is a problem with the
printer driver, I'm pretty sure.
2. When the Tech Dept. installed the new printer driver, did they do a
test page to confirm it works?
3. I'm assuming that the printer is connected to to LAN. It could be
that the print job is getting corrupted (due to printer drivers and
communications with the print spooler) on way to printer. Try an
experiment: direct connect Windows PC to the printer
4. Another experiment: direct output from Windows PC (test output or
from Project) to a FILE: then use "copy" command to direct that output
file to the printer. This will help isolate the root-cause.
5. Another experiment. In project, create an Adobe PDF file of the
output. Then from Adobe Reader, print this file to the HP Printer while
connected to LAN, while direct connected to printer, using the FILE: test.
6. In Project, use PrintPreview to ensure that the the print looks ok
before directing to the printer. (Print Preview also needs a good
printer driver to function properly)
7. Check yet again with HP web's site that you do indeed have the latest
driver.

 

[Sequoia]

The plotter(printer) works with other Windows programs. I
have even used it to output a LARGE PDF (heavy graphics).
The printer driver the tech installed is indeed the latest
driver THAT IS AVAILABLE FOR WINDOWS 2000.

It seems that I can print anything I want to this plotter
EXCEPT schedules which originated in Project. I made a PDF
of a schedule and it failed too (though it printed fine to
other printers).

Very odd indeed.

- Sequoia

NOTE: e.mail address is now dead; I got too many virus-
laden e.mails last time I posted to this group and had to
delete the accound. I will not post a live e.mail address
to this newsgroup.

-----Original Message-----


Problems like this are almost always related to the vendor's printer
drivers.

Your work with AutoCAD proves the printer works, but doesn't prove it
for Windows.

Your Tech Dept installed a new driver, but that only proves that what
they installed did not work.

Ideas:

1. Search more on HP's web site for help. This is a problem with the
printer driver, I'm pretty sure.
2. When the Tech Dept. installed the new printer driver, did they do a
test page to confirm it works?
3. I'm assuming that the printer is connected to to LAN. It could be
that the print job is getting corrupted (due to printer drivers and
communications with the print spooler) on way to printer. Try an
experiment: direct connect Windows PC to the printer
4. Another experiment: direct output from Windows PC (test output or
from Project) to a FILE: then use "copy" command to direct that output
file to the printer. This will help isolate the root- cause.
5. Another experiment. In project, create an Adobe PDF file of the
output. Then from Adobe Reader, print this file to the HP Printer while
connected to LAN, while direct connected to printer, using the FILE: test.
6. In Project, use PrintPreview to ensure that the the print looks ok
before directing to the printer. (Print Preview also needs a good
printer driver to function properly)
7. Check yet again with HP web's site that you do indeed

have the latest driver.

 

[Gary Chefetz [MVP]]

Sequoia:

The following KB article offers an explanation:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;331974

--
Gary Chefetz [MVP]
http://www.msprojectexperts.com
"We wrote the book on Project Server"

*** Remember to look for line breaks in links posted to the news group, use
cut and paste for these.

 

[Carl]

I had experienced the same problem when printing to our hp DesignJet 488ca. Knowing the limitations mentioned in MS KBA 331974, my workaround was to create a new Gantt chart view based on a “smaller†Entry table so less data would be sent to the plotter. I created a copies of the standard Gantt chart view and Entry table, upon which it is based. I deleted all “non essential†fields from the table, such as: indicators, start date, finish date, duration, predecessors, resource name, etc. I scaled the view to print on ANSI D (22†x 34â€) format in landscape layout and everything printed as it appeared in print preview. Hope this “simple fix†helps.