Print to PDF not working

[vardeman]

I've gone through the updater and installed the PDF printer plugin, but when I try to print, it says:

To create PDF files, you must download the PDF plugin for Hero Lab. This is available as a free download from the updates mechanism.

 

[Colen]

vardeman wrote:
>
>
> I've gone through the updater and installed the PDF printer plugin, but
> when I try to print, it says:
> *Quote:*
> To create PDF files, you must download the PDF plugin for Hero Lab. This
> is available as a free download from the updates mechanism.


Did you restart HL? After installing, you need to restart it for HL to
"notice" that the PDF plugin is present.


Hope this helps,


--
Colen McAlister (colen@wolflair.com)
Chief Engineer, Lone Wolf Development
http://www.wolflair.com/

 

[vardeman]

OK, that worked. Thought for sure that I had done that before...

 

[kruelaid]

Every time I try to use the pdf plugin hero lab locks up: "not responding".
And yes, I've restarted the computer.

Any suggestions?

-using windows XP Pro on a fresh install. Everything else works.

 

[Colen]

kruelaid wrote:
>
>
> Every time I try to use the pdf plugin hero lab locks up: "not responding".
> And yes, I've restarted the computer.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> -using windows XP Pro on a fresh install. Everything else works.


Hi there,

We just released an update with an important correction to the pdf
output functionality, version 2.2a. If you install this, does the error
go away?


--
Colen McAlister, colen@wolflair.com

 

[kruelaid]

Hi Colen thanks for the reply.

Updated to 2.2a.

HL no longer locks up, but I have another problem.

Now this is the new problem:

Errors encountered during output:

PDF exception occured at line 861 in "pdfcanvas.cpp"!
[2600] PDF_load_font: Couldn't find encoding 'cp936'

 

[kruelaid]

bump

 

[Colen]

kruelaid wrote:
>
>
> Hi Colen thanks for the reply.
>
> Updated to 2.2a.
>
> Now this is the new problem:
>
> Errors scountered during output:
>
> PDF exception occured at line 861 in "pdfcanvas.cpp"!
> [2600] PDF_load_font: Couldn't find encoding 'cp936'



Hi there,


That's very strange. Do you get this error when you try to print a
completely blank hero, or only after you add certain things to it?


Also, try downloading and reinstalling the PDFCanvas addon from the
updates menu at the top-right to see if this fixes the problem.



--
Colen McAlister, colen@wolflair.com

 

[kruelaid]

Yes it's very strange.

I have downloaded and overwrote the plug-in.

Restarted.

Printed a blank hero sheet, still have the problem.

 

[Colen]

kruelaid wrote:
>
>
> Yes it's very strange.
>
> I have downloaded and overwrote the plug-in.
>
> Restarted.
>
> Printed a blank hero sheet, still have the problem.


Hmm, it's possible that it's not installing cleanly and an old version
of PDFCanvas is hanging around and causing problems. Try this:

Uninstall "PDFCanvas" from Add/Remove Programs in the control panel,
restart, and try printing to PDF. Hero Lab should tell you can't print
without installing PDF support. (This lets us make sure that it's no
longer installed.)

Now download and install the PDF Canvas package from scratch, restart
Hero Lab, and try to print to PDF. Does that work?


Sorry for the inconvenience,

--
Colen McAlister, colen@wolflair.com

 

[kruelaid]

Hi Colen,

Reinstalled pdf canvas (I've only ever had 1.3).

Updated everything.

Still have the same problem.

Can't make the pdfs.

KA

 

[rob]

At 04:46 PM 11/21/2008, you wrote:

Reinstalled pdf canvas (I've only ever had 1.3).

Updated everything.

Still have the same problem.

Can't make the pdfs.

Have you tried generating the PDF test page? When you install the PDF mechanism, it includes a small test program to verify that the basics are working correctly. You should find the PDF mechanism in the directory "crogram filespdfcanvas". In that directory, there is a program named "pdftest". Run that program and it should generate a simple one-page PDF file that has text in the center of the page. Make sure that the generated PDF file looks correct. If not, then there is a fundamental issue going on with the PDF mechanism itself. If the test page is good, then something is amiss with how HL is using the PDF mechanism. Please let us know which it is and we can continue trying to isolate the exact problem.

 

[Leonal]

Hi, I have encountered the same error.

Trying the pdftest method creates a similar empty and unreadable 0-byte pdf-file.
Using Windows 7 RC 64bit.

My way around it is to use "print to pdf" instead with PDF creator.

edit: Sorry for the thread ressurection, but I found nothing newer on this issue.

 

[Colen]

Does this error still happen with the latest version of the PDF canvas library (v1.4)?

Also, which country do you live in? Do you use any language other than English on your computer? It's possible that something is triggering the PDF canvas library to try and load characters from some other language, which fails for some reason.

 

[Leonal]

Good catch!

I'm in South Korea, and while my Windows is English, I have it set to use Korean for non-unicode programs. Changing to English made it able to save as PDF, and also fixed another thing I was wondering about where I was unable to type with Scandinavian letters (æ,ø,å) inside the program.

While it solves the problem, unfortunately it's not an option for me as I need the Korean for Korean programs, but since print to pdf works fine I'll go with that.

Thanks!

 

[Colen]

That sounds like the problem then. I don't know much about the Windows language settings - can you set one program to use a specific language? I.e., could you (for example) tell Hero Lab to work in English but keep everything else in Korean or whatever you need?

Thanks very much for letting me know how you fixed this - I'll add this to my to-do list to investigate.

 

[Leonal]

As far as I know it's not possible to change the "Language for non-Unicode programs" setting on an program basis, but a Google search showed that it can be on a user basis. Thus, by creating a new user account and setting that to use English for example, and then using fast user switching between the accounts one can utilize several languages for non-Unicode programs without restarting the computer each time.

edit: Seemed like I wrote too fast, the setting changes for all users so one would have to restart either way.

 

[Sarcastic]

Printing Errors in Win 7

I've got HL on a Windows 7 platform, and I've been getting one particular error with HL using any game package, so methinks its the main HL program. It tells me that all my printer drivers are not valid. The first time this happened I re-installed everything and re-booted...problem solved...til next week. I still get this error even after re-re-installing HL and re-booting. I can print from any other program except HL. If this is an issue being worked on for the next HL update...then I can hold on till then....I've got HL on a Win XP machine as well.

Thanks.

 

[Colen]

I don't think I've seen that problem before. Hero Lab only uses the standard windows printing stuff, so I don't see how it could be causing a problem like this. When you say "It tells me that all my printer drivers are not valid", what is the exact error message that is reported? And what exactly do you have to do to trigger the error? Knowing that will help us track down the problem.

 

[Sarcastic]

I don't think I've seen that problem before. Hero Lab only uses the standard windows printing stuff, so I don't see how it could be causing a problem like this. When you say "It tells me that all my printer drivers are not valid", what is the exact error message that is reported? And what exactly do you have to do to trigger the error? Knowing that will help us track down the problem.

When I "Print Active Hero", I get the following message.

An unrecognized error occurred while outputting your portfolio. Please check to make sure you are using the most up-to-date printer drivers available. If after updating your drivers you still receive this error message, contact Lone Wolf Development technical support at support@wolflair.com for assistance. Be sure to include your saved portfolio as an attachment to your email.

This occurs no matter which data set (M&M, Cortex or Pathfinder) I'm using and regardless of how complex or not the document is. For example, to generate this message right now, I told it to print an un-edited character...the basic Cortex character sheet..no mods, nothing. I have updated everything...printer drivers, HL and all my data sets.

This also seems to freeze the program, although I get no error messages to that effect...until I use the Task Manager to force-quit. Then I get this:

D:\HeroLab\HeroLab.exe
3.5 203
ACCESS VIOLATION
Address: 0x005813ea
Type: bad read

I hope this helps with diagnosis.

Thanks for your assistance and input.

-Steve

UPDATE 1/23/10:

Okay, I've found that if I tell it to print/save as PDF (even if I cancel without committing), and THEN try to print...it prints fine. However, if I try to go straight to printing...it craps out with the above error(s).

UPDATE 1/25/10:
Scratch the above update. That route only lasted two minutes. I have replaced the drivers three times now...still no luck.