[Solved] Export to PDF crashes on large documents

[mik3ca]

Usually I can convert my documents to PDF files just fine but this time I came across a major issue.

I wanted to create myself a large sign 36 x 24 inches.

The writer itself would happily allow me to save it as a regular odt file and load it again, but when I try to export it as a PDF, no matter what settings I have the problem but only on large documents. The problem is the program appears to work at first then the screen simply goes black leaving me with no choice but to power down the computer and restart it.

The sign contains only coloured text, not drawings, no 3D objects, nothing else. The font is all the same but sizes are different.

The only thing I changed a while back is that I moved the open office cache folder to a ram drive so my disk wouldn't thrash so much but maybe now that is a mistake for large documents.

Also, is there maybe a command line utility I can use to convert odt files to PDFs without having to go through the writer to produce the PDF?

[FJCC]

I made a document with a 36" wide x 24" tall page filled with 96 point text. It converts to PDF on my system with no problem.Does the attached document work for you?

[Zizi64]

Also, is there maybe a command line utility I can use to convert odt files to PDFs without having to go through the writer to produce the PDF?

You can try some third party virtual PDF Printer softwares. Even the Win 10 has one of them.

[RoryOF]

I was also able to make a 36 x 24 inch document with 96 pt text.

[Hagar Delest]

Don't remember exactly if it is the same with AOO (screenshot below from LO) but if there is the option "Universal Accessibility (PDF/UA)", try to disable it.
I've had many issues also until I switched off this option.

PDF_export.png (18.18 KiB) Viewed 4872 times

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[RoryOF]

@Hagar Delest: not on Apache OpenOffice.

[mik3ca]

I haven't tried it with the oversized document and I don't know if its possible, but I did print to a virtual PDF printer (CUPS-PDF). then the PDF was made but in black and white.

Does anyone know the actual memory requirements to run the software (like stack size, ram, etc)? Maybe I'm being too strict with my unix ulimit settings im not sure.

[mik3ca]

I seemed to have found a solution and I tested it today by creating a 36"x24" document with 3 pictures of about 13"x9"

The problem was setting the maximum locked memory with "ulimit -l" to a very low value (64 KB). Documentation elsewhere states this setting is for memory shared across all programs.

Now I changed this setting to 200 MB with "ulimit -l 262144" and the program now works nicely.

[RoryOF]

Normally computers now have so much memory that one does not need to change default (often hidden) installation memory settings.