New bug saving spool of charts to pdf

[JeffvdN]

I have been running programs for years that ran this command, but now that I upgraded from v12 to v14, I am getting 2 errors. It often crashes eviews completely.
SpoolEQ.save(t=pdf, landscape, mode=i) chartsxl\EQ '<<< bug crashes here

I get 2 error messages, first this one

1051.png (10.3 KiB) Viewed 41000 times

then this one

1025.png (10.11 KiB) Viewed 41000 times

Let me know if you want the program and workfile so you can try it.

I tried playing with all of the options but none avoided the bug. I also tried creating the spool 2 different ways (print to output, and spool.append). Manually printing the spool using the Microsoft print to pdf driver works, but I think it looks a little different and I am not sure how to do that using code.

[EViews Gareth]

Could you provide the workfile and the save command you’re using?

[JeffvdN]

Attached is a little program and workfile that should duplicate the problem.

I isolated the problem to one particular chart. The chart is supposed to have lines that are solid and dashed even if it is printed in color so it has a line that sets the option to linepat
graEQPE{%pfx}.options linepat

When that line is removed, the resultant charts do not crash the save to pdf command. When I add it back, the save command crashes.

Let me know if you want me to send you the code that creates the chart that is causing the problems. Here is a snip of some of the code that creates the problematic chart.

graEQPE{%pfx}.options linepat '<<< this line causes the save to pdf command to crash - removing it lets it run without errors.
graEQPE{%pfx}.setelem(1) lcolor(blue)  
graEQPE{%pfx}.setelem(1) linewidth(.5)
graEQPE{%pfx}.setelem(1) linepattern(1)
graEQPE{%pfx}.setelem(2) lcolor(blue)
graEQPE{%pfx}.setelem(2) linewidth(.5)
graEQPE{%pfx}.setelem(2) linepattern(2)
graEQPE{%pfx}.setelem(3) lcolor(red)  
graEQPE{%pfx}.setelem(3) linewidth(.5)
graEQPE{%pfx}.setelem(3) linepattern(1)
graEQPE{%pfx}.setelem(4) lcolor(red)
graEQPE{%pfx}.setelem(4) linewidth(.5)
graEQPE{%pfx}.setelem(4) linepattern(7)

[EViews Steve]

Released a new patch with a possible fix.

[JeffvdN]

Yes, the patch fixed the bug.

I am noticing that the v14 version of eviews is creating a much larger file size. Did it increase the resolution? They look the same to me.

For example, my old version 12 had a program that created a pdf files that was 3.5 Meg. It is a 172 page file with 6 line charts per page. Now version 14 is creating the same pdf file that is 26.692 Meg (almost 5 times the size). When I zip the 2 files, they are both around 3.4 Meg. I think pdf files are supposed to be compressed so it looks to me like the new pdfs are not compressing as they should. Is there a way to get the file sizes back down?