[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.

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

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.

Right, so that is the delivered pdf plot configuration file. Its impossible for me to tell if that file is in the as-installed state, or if it has been edited at some point however, I would think it unlikely to affect your MicroStation not being able to create a print.

Before looking for alternative reasons to solve your problem, it might be worth running an installation repair just to ensure everything is fine with your MicroStation installation. If you haven't done it before, its quite simple and takes very little time to complete, you just need to press the start menu, type APPS and locate MicroStation V8i, press modify then repair and leave any options as they currently are set as we arent changing anything aside from potentially fixing any breakage that may have occured:

 After that's done, try printing as before.

That hasn't fixed it unfortunately.

Ok, it was worth doing to rule out. So some other questions:

1. Can you screen capture what actually happens?
2. The file you are attempting to print, is it a local file or on Projectwise?
3. If on projectwise, perhaps make a packager zip of a single drawing, open up the Drawing DGN, ensure ref attachments are working and attempt to print.
4. Although you are using the default workspace PDF plot configuration file, are you using a custom shortcut/does your organisation have a customised workspace?

The other question - do all of your other drawings print correctly with this same driver? Is it only this file?

I have run across a few files in my years that just refuse to print. At that point, if the driver works fine for every other file, I will sometimes try recreating the file. I take a blank file of a known, good seed, re-reference my background files, attach the "bad" file and copy all of those elements through. This often gets rid of whatever corrupt bit of data was stuck in the old file, and the new file prints fine.

It may be worth filing a Service Ticket with Bentley, especially if this "fix" works. That may allow them to look at your "bad" file and figure out where the bad data bit came from.