The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything is 32
What to do when you cannot map metafile.
Hi, my name is Cassandra, and I am a Senior Support Analyst for ArcGIS Desktop. Almost everyone who has printed or exported from ArcMap has experienced the following error: "Cannot map metafile, not enough memory”. After working with ESRI and Microsoft developers, we have found that the first step one should take to combat this error is to resize the temporary metafile. While this ability has been around for awhile, we've recently found that 32 is the magic number, as it has proven to help many customers reduce the chance that they will get this error.
See the following ESRI knowledge base article for more information: KB article 33659 - "HowTo: Modify the temp metafile size setting to optimize draw time memory use".
-Cassandra L., Desktop Support Analyst, ESRI Support Services