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Issue:
This problem is most typically related to memory available during plotting, especially if it plots fine earlier in the day, when memory use is fresh, but fails to plot correctly later in the day, when systems are starting to use more memory and systems start to slow down with increased use. As plotting is one of the most memory hungry aspects of any software, especially CAD, this is when you are most likely to encounter problems, especially if the drawing is working close the memory limits and so any small change could be enough to push the printer over the edge.
Solution:
There are a number of things which may help:
1. Make sure drawings are as clean as possible by using Purge - File>Drawing Utilities>Purge. Purge removes any information that is has been added to the drawing but is no longer used, e.g. blocks inserted and deleted or exploded, layers created but not used, linetypes loaded but not used, etc. The original drawing may have many unreferenced objects that can be removed, and may significantly decrease the size of the drawing.
2. Make sure drawings have no errors by using Audit - File>Drawing Utilities>Audit. Select Y (Yes) to fix any errors. The drawing may contain errors. Any one of these could impact on drawing performance and processing during plotting.
3. Make sure the system variable ISAVEPERCENT is set to 0, rather than the default 50. This can slow down saves but makes sure the drawing size is kept as small as possible.
4. Open the Layer dialog and check the status of the "Plot" settings for each layer. If layers have a red line through the printer symbol they have been set not to plot. To set the layer back to plot, pick the printer symbol and this will clear the "Do not Plot" setting. Also, objects on layer Defpoints will never plot. In this instance, move the objects to another layer.
5. If you are plotting direct to the plotter, make sure the plotter has enough memory to handle bigger plots. The default setting for most plotters is to process in plotter. This means that the software sends down all the data at once to the plotter and the plotter processes this before plotting. If the plot size is larger than the memory on the plotter, once it reaches its memory capacity it will then plot what it has been able to process. Thus, sections of the drawing may not plot and if several plots are sent or memory has not been fully released then less of the drawing can plot each time it is sent to the plotter. This can often be overcome by adding more memory to the plotter so that it can process more data.
6. If you are using a print server, the amount of disk space available can have the same effect if the space allocated hits the maximum limit. This can be overcome by increasing the space allocated for plotting or adding a secondary harddrives.
7. If the option exists in the plotter properties (Control Panel>Printers) you can set the plotter to process "In Computer". In this instance, the plot takes longer to process and may prevent you using the software for longer periods but rather than send the entire plot to the plotter, the plot is processed in your computer and then sent to the plotter in smaller chunks and so is more likely to plot.
8. When you plot a drawing, it is not uncommon for it to create a temporary plot file that is significantly larger than the drawing file size, especially if the drawing contains a large amount of complex lines, many blocks, a lot of text and many hatches, especially the DOTS, AR-CONC, AR-SAND, SOLID and Gradient hatches - the ones most commonly used by landscape architects. To test the plot size, when you go to plot, tick the option to Plot to File before you pick OK and this will save the plot as a .PLT file, rather than sending it to the printer. Once complete, check the plot file size.
9. A good test to see if it is a plotter problem is to try plotting to a different device, e.g. A4 printer or DWG to PDF. If this produces a complete plot with no missing data, this indicates a potential problem with available plotter memory.
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