[V8i] Bentley pdf print drivers aren't working

Hi Tom,

When you say nothing happens, do you not get any messages in the Message Center?

Also, is your Drawing composition correct? In the print preview there is a line at the top edge titleblock yet none below so its just to rule out that your reference file isn't below the sheet area. I'm also a bit curious of your scale units; do you scale up your sheets and keep the references 1:1?

Hi Barry,

No there's no messages in the Message Center, doesn't seem to be any reaction from Microstation at all.

The drawing composition is correct, I've been able to print similar drawings in the past.

It's a 1:1 reference in to the model space of the drawing, and then that model space is referenced into the sheet at 1:100.

Tom Williams said:

It's a 1:1 reference in to the model space of the drawing, and then that model space is referenced into the sheet at 1:100.

The drawing looks like a railway electrification plan (which I've worked with in the past). When those files were composed it was as you said, model attached to the design model of the drawing  @1:1 and then a saved view of that is reference to the sheet at the scale needed. What is noticeable to me is that your scale shows 1mm (paper) to 0.0060m (design); I'm almost certain that should read 1:1 because you are printing the paper @ 1:1, the reference attachment is already downscaled. I don't know if you are US or UK based, but is the ANSI A paper size correct? My gut-feeling is that it isnt; reason being is that when I used to print long layouts like that, it was on special paper sizes which started as standard papers sizes e.g. A1/A0 etc... and with variations which went up in increments of A4 widths e.g A1+1, A1+2 etc...

Of course your organisation may do things differently but just my observations from the image posted

You're correct that the paper size isn't correct I'd just used that for a test. I've printed on all sorts of paper sizes before and it should work, there's just empty space around the actual sheet.

And yes it is an electrification drawing, UK based!

You're correct that the paper size isn't correct I'd just used that for a test. I've printed on all sorts of paper sizes before and it should work, there's just empty space around the actual sheet.

And yes it is an electrification drawing, UK based!

OK, the reason for asking was just to rule out any strange setting somehow causing the print process to fail.

1. I presume you have attemped closing and reopening MicroStation
2. Network Rail jobs are typically hosted on ProjectWise Online, is that the case or is this on your organisation's local server?
3. Is the pdf.pltcfg a customised version or the vanilla version delivered upon installation?

Yep I've closed an re-opened, it's been acting this way for a few weeks.

It is hosted on ProjectWise, but I've printed things hosted there this way before.

I'm not sure on the last point unfortunately, it might be time to contact my IT team for help.

So a pltcfg is a text-file which contains settings for how the PDF is to be printed. You can see at the top of your image that it says pdf.pltcfg. The question is where is that file located?

On your print dialog:

1. Go to File menu\Edit Printer Driver configuration file
2. Press the General Tab
3. Below the row of tabs there is an entry for file name, what does it show?

File Name:

C:\ProgramData\Bentley\Micrstation V8i (SELECTseries)\WorkSpace\System\pltcfg\pdf.pltcfg

Look at your configuration variable for MS_PLTFILES. It may be automatically saving to that location.