Pdf export Layout 2014 Error

Hi guys, sorry if this is a repeat question. After multiple search attempts I can’t find much info that has been useful.

To be brief, I have a layout file that spits out this error on every attempt to export to pdf: “There was a problem exporting to this file. [File Location String]”

I can successfully export as both .jpg and .png as well as .dwg. I’ve altered the various options available on export to no avail. Has anyone encountered this problem and have any tips? I fear it may be one of the individual files associated with the Layout but am reluctant to track that down as I’m up to 8 pages at this point. The file itself is about 32 MB.

Thanks for any help! Cheers!

Hey Nighthawkbrewery,

As a test, I recommend disabling hardware acceleration in SketchUp, which will also disable hardware acceleration in LayOut:

  1. Open SketchUp and close LayOut.
  2. Click Window > Preferences > OpenGL.
  3. Uncheck Use hardware acceleration.
  4. Click OK.
  5. Close SketchUp and open LayOut.
  6. Try exporting to PDF again.

If that works, I recommend that you follow the steps in this Knowledge Center article to update the driver for your card.

Hi Tommy,

I disabled the hardware acceleration but it didn’t fix the export problem.
I also have the latest driver for my card. However, now that you mentioned
the card, the problem seems to coincide with when I switched computers. Old
one that had no issues exporting was using an ATI 7770 w/ current drivers,
new one is using NVidia GTX 860M. The error seems to occur when the dialog
box switches from to . Other export options
periodically crash on rendering, but a program restart tends to fix those
issues.

Hi Tommy,

I disabled the hardware acceleration but it didn’t fix the export problem.
I also have the latest driver for my card. However, now that you mentioned
the card, the problem seems to coincide with when I switched computers. Old
one that had no issues exporting was using an ATI 7770 w/ current drivers,
new one is using NVidia GTX 860M. The error seems to occur when the dialog
box switches from to . Other export options
periodically crash on rendering, but a program restart tends to fix those
issues.

I’m curious Nighthawkbrewery, have you noticed this card being problematic with other software? Games or anything? We have a few other nvidia cards on our list that crash layout when pushed to vector render.

I haven’t had any issues with other programs to date (multiple games included). It hasn’t been crashing during rendering in-program, it is only consistently associated with pdf export, inconsistently associated with image export.

I am having the same issue in SU2015 and layout. Cannot export to pdf. Get error every single time. I can’t “print” to pdf either. It just spits out a blank page. Help please!

Is there any official word from the SU folks on this issue?

Having same issue, Tommy at SU Pro Support says it’s related to “preserve scale upon resize” modification tool in LO. Supposed to turn off preserve scale for each viewport (checked is default) one by one. Impractical for our work…

I think it’s actually font issues. We use Technic font for our drawing sets, and it simply doesn’t render. I can play with the raster/vector/hybrid and preserve scale settings to make problem LO files export to PDF, but the font renders boxes instead of characters. Might be showing another font, maybe a spaceholder character or something…eventually, we tried switching over to Arial and it works!

Regardless, I haven’t heard back from ProSupport for a month…no resolution. Awesome paying for Pro version and support only to get “sorry, you’ll have to use a workaround”. We may revert back to 2014 if not resolved soon.

So I just tried unchecking the “preserve scale on resize” for a page and tried to just export this page. Does not work. SU folks, we need some help here! Have a layout file and cannot create a pdf from it! Seriously?

I was having the same problem, came to this forum for help. Could not export to pdf.
I changed the rendering on all my models to hybrid and was able to export to pdf.

If switching to hybrid rendering solves the problem, then the root issue is almost certainly hardware acceleration. First try updating your drivers, and if that doesn’t help, then try the fix suggested in this article: Knowledge Center

I know this is an old posting, but I was having this same problem for weeks and Sketchup support were no help.

When I tried to export to PDF from Layout I got the “There was a problem exporting to this file” message. I could also successfully export JPG, PNG and DWG, but not PDF. I tried everything such as different save locations, installing 32 bit version and 64 bit version etc. Sketchup support even did a remote session onto my PC and poked around through the program but couldn’t solve.

However I found something that worked, but I don’t know why. Here’s what I did:

  1. Uninstalled Sketchup completely

  2. Activated the Hidden Administrator account in windows 10, which supposedly has elevated privileges. (My own local account on my PC is set to administrator)

  3. Signed into windows 10 as ‘Administrator’

  4. Installed sketchup 64 bit

  5. I was able to export my file to PDF from Layout without a problem

  6. I signed back into my own account (which is set to account type “administrator”) and was able to open layout, but unable to export to PDF with the same old message

So there is something wrong with my windows account settings, which doesn’t allow me to export to PDF, even though I can export JPG and PNG and DWG. My account is a local account on this PC.

Perhaps somebody might now know the answer to this? Please share if you do.

Kieran.

I still have the same problem. Please Help!!!
CEM

no one resolve this?! :tired_face::tired_face: