I have not had this problem in five years. It mystified me then, and I still have no idea what is wrong. I'm using AutoCAD 2005Lt. It is a simple drawing, not a big file, although the drawing size is 36" x 36" (the last time it happened it was a large sheet size too). Here and there on the drawing I have Mtext using Times New Roman (same as last time). The drawing looks fine on the screen amd the print preview is good. Audit shows no errors. It will plot letter size on my regular printer correctly, but when I send it to the large plotter blotches of print are missing, like I've drawn a cloud here and there and blanked the print within it. The rest of the drawing is plotting correctly, except for the splotches. If I tell it to print a pdf, it does that correctly, and the pdf then plots correctly through Windows. If I scale the AutoCAD drawing down by 0.66 (so it is now 24" x 24") it plots correctly.
I'd think it was the plotter, and maybe it is, but in the past five years I've plotted hundreds of large size drawings without problem.
???????
Have you tried Draw Order: Bring to Front?
Are you using Text Masking or Background Mask?
Are you scaling in the drawing or in the plot dialog to change sheet sizes?
I know exactly enough to efficiently use AutoCAD correctly, but otherwise I haven't a clue, so I can't answer your questions.
I tried an experiment, copying some of the Mtext to the top of the page (so it will print first and not waste a 36 x 36 sheet. Everything around it plotted, but not the Mtext. I then erased most of the Mtext from the drawing, and moved the same Mtext to the top of the page. It plotted perfectly.
Therefore it is the amount of Mtext that is overwhelming whatever, maybe?
I think I would select an example of the MTEXT that is plotting correctly and view it's definition through the properties dialog box, and then select an example of the MTEXT that is not plotting correctly, in the properties dialog box, to see if your answer lay there. If I had to make a first guess that is where I would go.
I had the same issue recently with MText plotting woes in ACAD2012. Drove me nuts until I happened to notice that the particular layer my text was on was toggled to 'don't plot' in the layer properties manager. That's why my previews looked fine but the plots had white space where the text was. As someone I worked for used to say, most times it's something simple, but you have to find it!
Hope this will help. If not, try google-ing the particular problem and you'd be amazed to find you're probably not the only one with the same problem. 🙂
Reading comprehension FAIL on my part - sorry
If my reading comprehension skills were better, I'd have realized your troubleshooting so far has ruled out my babble. Carry on.:-$
I wonder if it could be a spooling problem. To check this click on "Properties" of for the plotter under "Printer and Faxes" of the "Control Panel". Under the tab "Advanced" you should select "Spool print documents so program finishes printing faster" rather than "Print directly to the printer".
:good:
