Print dialog gone

PowerCADD & WildTools
morrieg
Posts: 48
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2019 2:06 pm

Print dialog gone

Post by morrieg » Wed Feb 16, 2022 6:54 pm

Suddenly the PowerCADD print dialog doesn't show up. When I select Print, I see some dialog flash really quick on the side of my screen--too quick to make out--and then the default MacOS print dialog shows up. So I don't get any of the PowerCADD options like Print Window. Any idea how to reset this?

Other applications that have custom print dialogs work fine. If this is caused by a preference or settings corruption, I'm willing to go back in TimeMachine and restore them to a state they were when printing worked, but I need to know what to restore.

morrieg
Posts: 48
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2019 2:06 pm

Re: Print dialog gone

Post by morrieg » Sun Feb 27, 2022 4:40 pm

I'm still really frustrated that I cannot get the PowerCADD print dialog to appear anymore. I tried going back to an old version of ~/Library/Preferences/com.engsw.PowerCADD9.plist, as well as a couple of other files in Preferences that were modified recently, but that made no difference. I am desperate to get the "print window" function back again and I'm out of ideas.

Is there any other file on my system I can revert to that might restore the prior behavior of PowerCADD's print dialog? There are some WildTools plist files that have been modified around the time the problem appeared, but those don't seem to have anything to do with printing.

It's possible something changed in my printing system to cause this, but I'm not aware of having changed anything. Other applications that have custom pint dialogs seem to work fine.

Derek
Site Admin
Posts: 143
Joined: Wed May 29, 2019 8:58 pm
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: Print dialog gone

Post by Derek » Sun Feb 27, 2022 8:31 pm

Have you tried re-installing PowerCADD?

morrieg
Posts: 48
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2019 2:06 pm

Re: Print dialog gone

Post by morrieg » Sun Feb 27, 2022 9:18 pm

No I haven’t, because I can’t bear the thought of losing my customizations, pallets and preferences. Reverting to a previous working state should accomplish the same thing. If it doesn’t, reinstalling might not help either, and that would mean something else in my system outside of PCADD is the issue.

Derek
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Posts: 143
Joined: Wed May 29, 2019 8:58 pm
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: Print dialog gone

Post by Derek » Sun Feb 27, 2022 9:48 pm

All(*) your preferences are contained in the plist files and a folder named PowerCADD that is in the Preferences folder with the plists.

Re-installing the PowerCADD application will not (or perhaps I should say, should not) delete your preferences and cutomisations. But even if for some reason they were deleted you could always use Time Machine to bring them back.

* NOTE: one thing re-installing PowerCADD will delete are your Stationery drawings so make a copy of the Stationery folder first. But again, you could bring that folder back with TimeMachine if needed.

FYI, the routine used by PowerCADD to modify the print dialog is inside the application bundle and that's why I'm suggesting you try re-installing the PowerCADD application.

Alternatively you could try bringing back the PowerCADD application from TimeMachine, shown highlighted in the attached.
Attachments
Screen Shot 2022-02-28 at 8.43.02 am.png
Screen Shot 2022-02-28 at 8.43.02 am.png (64.28 KiB) Viewed 9353 times

Derek
Site Admin
Posts: 143
Joined: Wed May 29, 2019 8:58 pm
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: Print dialog gone

Post by Derek » Sun Feb 27, 2022 9:53 pm

Also, what version of PowerCADD are you running?

morrieg
Posts: 48
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2019 2:06 pm

Re: Print dialog gone

Post by morrieg » Sun Feb 27, 2022 10:07 pm

My version is 9.1.11. The date-modified of the file is Jan. 30, 2020, so if you can believe that, nothing has changed since this problem started happening a couple of weeks ago.

I'm actually unclear on how to reinstall PowerCADD. Delete the whole PowerCADD folder in my Applications directory and then re-download it? Where do I get an install image?

morrieg
Posts: 48
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2019 2:06 pm

Re: Print dialog gone

Post by morrieg » Sun Feb 27, 2022 10:11 pm

Well, I don't know what happened, but suddenly it started working again!

Derek
Site Admin
Posts: 143
Joined: Wed May 29, 2019 8:58 pm
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: Print dialog gone

Post by Derek » Sun Feb 27, 2022 10:19 pm

Threatening to re-install it must have scared it into submission! :)

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patrickm
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Location: Kailua, HI
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Re: Print dialog gone

Post by patrickm » Mon Feb 28, 2022 4:46 pm

Friendly reminder to keep back-ups of the preference files and the stationary folder. Due to anomalies, I occasionally replace my preference files with the backed up copies.

I also occasionally run into a situation where PC won't start up. It will bounce in the dock, then crash. I find that reinstalling the PC application fixes it. My quick work around is, when PC is running correctly, to zip a copy of its application folder (including my customized stationary files), which I also keep in the Applications folder. Then, if PC has this crashing behavior, I delete its application folder, double click on the zipped copy which unzips (but also keeps the zipped copy zipped), then I am off and running. It'd be great if I didn't have to do this routine, but I think it is the price I pay for running Sierra on a 2015 iMac.

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