Report printing out colors incorrectly intermittently.

[ctw00]

I have a customer who wants a final inspection report printed and included with every part for some key features. We have the report setup to print failed features in red and passed features in black (using TEXTONLY_Header_Every_Page.RTP). This makes the 'fail' reports easy to spot in a stack of 'pass' reports. A few months ago a batch of parts went through and the entire batch printed out in black with the failed features in black as well. We opened up the program again and the report showed up correctly as black and red. I have also noticed with some other programs that every once in a while a feature will fail and print as black and not red. That has happened a few times a year.

Is this something any of you have seen before? I have opened and closed the program in question a few times and the report shows up correctly in the report window and prints correctly. I haven't been able to replicate the error and the printer setting has been set to 'automatic color' since the driver was installed years ago.

Edit: I have since found out that others at my company have had this issue outside PC-DMIS, it appears to be a printer issue and not a PC-DMIS issue (we have a Konica Minolta BizHub C258).

[DAN_M]

Dumb question, not trying to make a joke, did your printer have ink this entire time?

I wouldn't put it past someone at my company to let the color ink run out, print off a bunch of reports, change the ink after realizing what was happening, and not own up to it (all the while sending the programmer...me/you... on a wild goose chase trying to figure out what went wrong).

[KIRBSTER269]

actually most, not saying all, but most IT guys that I have worked with would do this on purpose, Like trying to get every ounce of toothpaste out of that tube, "Keep squeezing, there's still a little left"

[DAN_M]

Have you tried turning your IT person off and then back on again?

[ctw00]

Dumb question, not trying to make a joke, did your printer have ink this entire time?

I wouldn't put it past someone at my company to let the color ink run out, print off a bunch of reports, change the ink after realizing what was happening, and not own up to it (all the while sending the programmer...me/you... on a wild goose chase trying to figure out what went wrong).

Its not a dumb question. It is a color laser printer that uses C,M,Y,K toner and I am one of a few users who has the ability to print in color. In order to print red you need both yellow and magenta, so it would have to run out of both of those, and the result would be a blank line. What we are seeing is pure black on the line that should be red. We do replace the black toner every few months and I can't remember running out of the color toner.

I'm trying to find the cause and I keep coming back to PC-DMIS or something with this PC. This isn't the first printer to do this (the printer is leased and was changed out for a different make and model a few years ago), it did happen rarely with the last printer, and has happened a few times, rarely, with this one..

[DAN_M]

ctw00 very odd! All I can say is that I also "Use Text Mode Dimension Reporting", have done so for years, have never had an issue. Sorry =/

[Matthew D. Hoedeman]

is it possible someone told it to use DRAFT mode?

[ctw00]

I didn't see a draft mode in the settings, there is a 'toner save' setting, but that's been unchecked. There really are only two of us using the machine and the times that I know it has happened have been when I was checking parts.

[ctw00]

Yeah its a really weird problem. Every once in a while a machinist will point out that the line that should be red is black (it might be 1 line on 6 pages that are all good) and when I re-print the report it comes out red as expected..

[DAN_M]

Yup! Been there and done this before with printer companies.

You have two choices really...

A) Know you have an issue, live with the 99.97%, and tell your people they'll have to...*dundundun*...READ WHAT THE REPORT SAYS!!! >:-O !!!!...

B) Give the printer to another department that does less critical work, cut your losses, buy a different printer for the CMM.

[ctw00]

I'm going to have to go with Option A. I found out today that it has happened to other people (who aren't using PC-DMIS).

I will likely add a line somewhere at the top of the report that says Pass or Fail based on the number of deviations and look for that as well as any red lines.

[DAN_M]

Good idea, that solve your issue