Why does the PRINT dialog take so long to open?

Symptoms

The print dialog takes a long time to open. Printing itself does not have to be slow once the dialog is open.

Cause

There can be multiple causes including network issues, but a known issue is that a weak lookup mechanism is used for finding the plot config (*.pc3) and plotstyle config (*.ctb) files. If the user has modified the PlotStylePath and/or PlotCfgPath user preferences, so they are set to a large folder with many files and subfolders, then the entire folder and subfolders are searched for appropriate files. This happens in an inefficient manner and it can take a long time, especially if this folder is on the network.

Solution

Place CTB and PC3 files in their own subfolder rather than in the root of a larger folder. Then set the PlotCfgPath and PlotStylePath user preferences accordingly.

Note: The problem will not occur when PlotCfgPath and PlotStylePath point to the dedicated default subfolders.