Still not sure if this will get picked up by Trimble (or is useful), but at least we are showing due diligence and following Dave’s suggestion…
When one is fixing an automobile, dishwasher or a computer issue, the first step is being able to duplicate the issue. What it will probably take to solve the export problem is an end user to figure it out and post the solution. It is entirely possible that it may require reinstalling Windoze.
Recently I had an issue with a PDF printer driver for a program called File Center. File Center support did not have a clue why their driver was not installing. The root cause was a third party app installed by Foxit Phantom PDF that was required for something in Foxit. It took me a day or three to figure this mess out and come up with the correct version of the app to work with the rest of my software.
Thanks RLGL - sadly none of the people who have been affected by the issue are able to go deep enough to find the root cause of the problem and then solve it. Trimble did replicate a while back but not sure where they go to with it.
As for reinstalling Windows, Chaz went through the hassle of doing that, only for it to bug out again.
I am seriously thinking of buying a cheap HDD, installing windows and sketchup/layout 2019 with only the smallest basic few basic programs and seeing how long it goes before falling over unless 2019 is more robust.
Samyell thanks for the generate a list guide, thats very useful, I have used it for the 3 machines and will compare and report back, 
@samyell, I would definitely try a newer version of the Nvidia driver as yours is almost a year old. Display drivers are one of those things often broken by Windows updates.
I have 2019 installed and it seems to work fine other than the PDF issue remaining. As I said I just havent had time to do a clean install of windows on either of my systems and given your experience Im a bot loath to try. From what I understand there were a lot of updates under the hood on 2019 and only a few visible feature improvements. 2019 does seem stable and runs well for what Im doing - less bugsplats and issues since upgrading, but still the persistent PDF export issue.
If you share the lists then we can put them all into a spreadsheet. I’ll do the same for my PC at home which also has the same export error…
Thanks Anssi - I’ve just checked through the ‘update driver’ area in ‘computer management’ and it said that I had the latest but then went to the Nvidia website and downloaded the actual latest from them which is now installed. Weird that the latest one shown by windows is so far out of date…?
Graphics driver is updated but the export issue is still there. I’ll make sure I check the graphics card driver (on Nvidia site) next time there is a windows update as I guess this can cause other issues.
RLGL - how did you ascertain that the printer driver was the problem. Is there anything we can learn from you to help us to find the root of this issue. If you are able to shed some light I’d appreciate it but understand that, if it took you several days to figure out that it may not be possible for me to work through this or may be too specialist to explain to me.
How did you do this? Were you editing the actual code for the software? I definitely don’t want to get into that in this instance personally but keen to understand how the problem was resolved…
Here are my 3 lists, Sam updating video drivers makes no difference, I update via Dell as well as MS updates, something must overwrite and take priority, I still think its the various pdf interactions, maybe Adobe as the other p.c.'s do not have it installed (as far as I am aware). The dodgy pc is the Dell 7910 InstallList dell _Geforce.txt (7.1 KB)
InstallList dell 5510.txt (12.6 KB)
InstallList dell 7910.txt (10.8 KB)
Hello,
I’m still following this thread even though I have got my layout to export to pdf. It runs smoothly. Thats after 2 years of not working.
I did a clean install of windows 10 onto a new SSD. That cured the issue.
My feeling as to the origin of the no export thing was for me.
I installed Norton Utilities thinking it might speed up loading times. It was soon after that I came upon the no export problem. I uninstalled the Norton Utilities but that did no change it.
Later I thought that maybe it had removed a critical component for the export to pdf to work. I really don’t know if this was the case or just a coincidence. But it’s clear in my case a clean SSD & a clean install cured it.
dmyimcuk: I did the same, but after nearly a year its fallen over again with the same problem with LO 2018. If it helps I do not use Norton Utilities so maybe that’s one thing ruled out. A clean windows install will cure it …but for how long, it is an update issue outside of LO that conflicts.
Combined list of programmes from my PC and Chaz’s 3 PCs with a pivot table on the right to show what programs are on both machines.Computer Program List 20190430.txt (62.2 KB)
The driver for File Center did not install.
I was in the process of doing a fresh install of Windoze ( about every 18 months for maintenance ) So to figure out what was happening I removed all apps and paid attention to what was being and the order of installation while watching the installed programs list. All the while monitoring what the File Center printer was doing. The file center tech support had manually installed the printer driver but it had ceased to work at some point due to the third party app. Like I stated this took some time to get everything to play together.
Thanks for the info @RLGL - sounds like a bit of a process to go through.
I’m not sure how I’ll find the culprit during the clean install process as @chaz_plan said it all worked fine (straight after clean install) and then suddenly stopped again. Also, I just don’t have time to spend days reinstalling as I only have 1 PC to work on so can’t be out of action for too long.
Can you provide a little more detail on what / how you were monitoring please; were you doing a test PDF export after each app was installed to check that it still functioned or something else?
Great work Sam:wink:, maybe someone can spot something… seems like we have a number of parallels with machines (Dell, video etc) and we both run Adobe. I will try out a new HDD and fresh install that I am sure will work (for a while at least), adding SU LO 2019 without Adobe and see how stable that is, that said its taken nearly a year for the last fresh install to stop working…
Yeah, could be a long wait! I just don’t think Im gona have time to do a full reinstall in the near future… I guess if you install on a fresh HDD and keep it pared down to the minimum (in terms of apps) the problem probably won’t reer its head anyway so we could still be in the dark on this…
I had two scenarios to work with. While trying to install file Center 1: The printer driver would not install. 2: With File center’s driver was installed it was not listed in the printers menu when I selected Print with the third party app loaded ( PDF-Exchange)
Same problem here.
I noticed that if I click cancel as it’s trying to generate the pdf I get a partially complete pdf open up in my pdf viewer.
If I then delete the viewport in LO that was missing in the partial pdf, it works fine.
a raster based output on the display or the printer or for the export formats is affected by the OpenGL stack of the used graphics card driver. Older Quadro models and their drivers did already have shown issues in this area in the past.
Try if fiddling around with the SketchUp OpenGL settings under “Window > Preferences > OpenGL” helps, i.e. for evaluation purposes switch of the AA as well as the fast feedback and big texture size options.
Hi @daveyspeed - I think this is a different issue. The “there was an error exporting to this file” dialogue pops up when using file>export>pdf from Layout. When this error message is displayed no file is generated, partial or otherwise. I don’t think this is the same issue, unless there is something Im missing?
@SketchUp3D_de - the open GL settings are in Sketchup - this thread relates to issues in Layout. As I said, I think that Daveyspeed’s issue is a different one to the topic of this thread. The “error exporting” message pops up even if users attempt to export blank document to PDF - no SU file is referenced / imported into the blank LO doc so Open GL settings aren’t relevant in this instance from what I understand.