indesign constant crashing

[wonderings]

Using Indesign CS6. I always seem to have this trouble when trying to print a data merged file. I have about 900 names and address, imposed it 2 up on a 12 x 18 sheet in indesign. Now when I go to print, it constantly crashes. I tried exporting the whole thing as a PDF, same thing. Same thing for making a PS file as well. Unless I go and send only 30 pages at a time, there seems to be nothing I can do to do this easily and efficiently. This is on a Retina MacBook Pro with 16 gigs of ram. I have had a few times this message pop up "out of memory" or something to that effect. I am assuming Indesign cannot use all 16 gigs. Any work arounds or am I stuck going 30 pages or so at a time?

 

[CathieHarris]

This may sound stupid, as you seem to know what you're doing, but have you made sure that the "Record Limit per Document" button is not checked under Content Placement Options?

 

[rich apollo]

A 450 page PDF at 12 x 18? That's potentially huge.

I can't find anything stating it outright, but I've seen some postings that lead me to believe that InDesign will only export 2 GBs, or less, at a time. I can't figure out if it's an InDesign limitation, or something in the OS.

 

[CathieHarris]

I just did a mail merge in ID CS3 that was 11x17, two records a page and 222 pages. The size was 14.6 mg. So I don't think that a 450 page 12x18 could be too much, but what we did was print the full color shells and just did the mail merge to overprint, so there were no other graphics.

If size is the problem, it may be worth doing the project that way if it's possible.

 

[F.I.ImGoingFishing]

We have found many (but not all) Crash issues in all CS versions on our mac's were caused by locations of files being merged or altered and saved as PDF. ie data or file is saved on one server, art file saved on another. It is not realy limited to programs so much as computer or file server. Typicaly it happens in cross format applications

 

[wonderings]

I think it is an Indesign CS6 problem. I reluctantly tried it on a trial version of Adobe CC, and it worked.

 

[zevrix]

If it's of any help, our Output Factory will let you print your InDesign file as single pages.

That is you can send the entire file to print but only one page at a time will be actually sent under the hood - which may fix your memory issue:

Automate InDesign printing and exporting | Output Factory

You can download a 30-day trial as well.


If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks,

Leo Revzin
--
Zevrix Solutions
Solutions for Graphics, Print & File Delivery
Solutions for Adobe InDesign, Graphics, Print & File Delivery | Zevrix Solutions

 

[rich apollo]

If it's of any help, our Output Factory will let you print your InDesign file as single pages.

Output Factory is awesome. I used it in an environment with a lot of versioning - 30, 40, 100+ versions of documents.

 

[WisGraphics]

I've never had to data merge that many names, but whenever I do this in InDesign, I put the static information on the Master pages and the Merge info only on the document pages. Otherwise, every page you're trying to print has to send 900x or however many pages you're sending instead of sending it just once as a master. I don't know if I'm using the correct terminology here, but I know that after I discovered this method, I've never had a problem.

 

[zevrix]

Output Factory is awesome. I used it in an environment with a lot of versioning - 30, 40, 100+ versions of documents.

Thanks Rich - glad Output Factory makes your life easier!