Topic: PDF drivers, your favorite?

[Krushert]

Using Autocad PDF driver.  2007 wass great IMO but 2008 vacuums.  I have Adobe 5.0 also and with my role now as a construction administration for this project, I have used it's simple text annotation for every document ( I.E. RFIs, Change docs Revisions etc.) because we are transferring the docs 90& by the way of PDFs. 

Hmm... I think there's a "Word of Mouth" theme going on in here.  Maybe it IS time to change to something else.  I'll watch this thread for a while.

  My thoughts too.

Ghostscript; I plot (batch or one at a time) to PS file(s) then convert to PDF via a batch script.

Okay how does this work and how simple is it to use from start to finish.

[JohnK]

<snip>

Ghostscript; I plot (batch or one at a time) to PS file(s) then convert to PDF via a batch script.

Okay how does this work and how simple is it to use from start to finish.

...depending on you or your company standards.
My steps:
1. From AutoCAD: Make plot files -- batch or one at a time, whatever suits you needs.
2. Make check prints (or hard copies) of plt files -- or whatever your company standards are.
3. Take plot files and drag them into a VB script (a fancy batch file) to convert the files to PDF.
4. Drain and then refill coffee cup while complaining about the project architect to the PM.

Steps 2 and 4 are optional, but i feel 4 is a bit more important in the grand scheme of things.

[Krushert]

<snip>

Ghostscript; I plot (batch or one at a time) to PS file(s) then convert to PDF via a batch script.

Okay how does this work and how simple is it to use from start to finish.

...depending on you or your company standards.
My steps:
1. From AutoCAD: Make plot files -- batch or one at a time, whatever suits you needs.
2. Make check prints (or hard copies) of plt files -- or whatever your company standards are.
3. Take plot files and drag them into a VB script (a fancy batch file) to convert the files to PDF.
4. Drain and then refill coffee cup while complaining about the project architect to the PM.

Steps 2 and 4 are optional, but i feel 4 is a bit more important in the grand scheme of things.

Okay Plot to PLT then batch over.

How is the quality going this route compared to plotting directly?
What is the speed like?

[JohnK]

Okay Plot to PLT then batch over.

How is the quality going this route compared to plotting directly?
What is the speed like?

I dont understand the ``plotting directly'' statement but:

Quality: Up to 2400 DPI (But that's insane! ...I use 600 as the default which is very good.)
Speed: Same as any other printer driver.

[Krushert]

Okay Plot to PLT then batch over.

How is the quality going this route compared to plotting directly?
What is the speed like?

I dont understand the ``plotting directly'' statement but:

Quality: Up to 2400 DPI (But that's insane! ...I use 600 as the default which is very good.)
Speed: Same as any other printer driver.

Sorry.  When I say Directly I am using Autocad's DWG to PDF driver.

The speed is that how long does it take drag the PLTs into the VBA and then to PDF, How long does it take?

What I doing here is trying to find another PDF printer.  I have a feeling that the PDF driver of Autocad is being discontinued.  Right now with lisp I "type" PDF and lisp takes it from there with no user intervention (in most case that is).  That is what I am also looking for how much intervention will there be.    It gets tiring really quick when you have to Name and locate a 100 pdfs.

[Mark]

The speed is that how long does it take drag the PLTs into the VBA and then to PDF, How long does it take?

Well I'm not using John's VBA script but I am using a batch script to process the .plt's to .pdf's. I just did 42 sheets ( 60MB worth ) in under 3 minutes with one right click, two left clicks and one drag.

It took longer for autocad to process the .plt files (using sheet set manager) then it did to convert them to .pdf's ( about 15 seconds ).

Here's my batch script.

Code: [Select]

%echo off
::
echo looking for .plt files ....
echo.
echo.
echo Converting to pdf ....
echo.
for %%f in (*.plt) do call ps2pdf.bat %%f ..\output\%%~nf.pdf
echo.
echo.
echo Deleting .plt files
echo.
echo.
del *.plt
echo.
echo.
echo All done!


[JohnK]

Its not a VBA script, its a VB scrip... (blah.vbs) Its just like a batch script. (blah.bat)

Watch this video. A dos prompt thing will pop up...thats how long it takes.

[CADaver]

We use CutePDF as well, ever since Will DeLoach (I think) suggested it three or four years ago.

[Krushert]

Its not a VBA script, its a VB scrip... (blah.vbs) Its just like a batch script. (blah.bat)

Watch this video. A dos prompt thing will pop up...thats how long it takes.

Okay so you got me thinking and my interst.
What is the GSview?  Just a viewer for PLTs?
The PS2PDF is the VBS I assume?

Sorry for the PITA questions

[Glenn R]

What is the GSview?  Just a viewer for PLTs?

Actually, it's an EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) viewer. The PLT is just an extension really.

At the end of the day, a vast majority of these 'other' PDF programs are just front ends to the GhostScript engine, rarther like WinZip is a frontend to the opensource compression libraries.
Sure, they might add a pretty front end and a virtual printer port, but they just redirect the output to the GhostScript backend.

Remember, the PDF format is not owned by Adobe...they just put on a frontend and market it very well, but it's still an open standard file format.

I've used GS for several years now and it will typically out-perform (speed, file size and fidelity) any others I've tried, especially the baked in one in Acad.
I wrote a VBA batch printing program that used GS for it's PDF capabilities and all you have to do is pass the right command line arguments to the GS exe in your code and you can control everything.

I've also used the same approach in my C# batcher and you just start a process with the right arguments for GS and voila! You control everything as far
as your business rules are concerned (ie. file name of PDF, where to place it depending on current project for example etc.)

Cheers,
Glenn.

[Glenn R]

I forgot to mention that you can pass multiple files to GS and it will create a single 'multi-sheet' PDF as well...damn good if you ask me.

[Mark]

I forgot to mention that you can pass multiple files to GS and it will create a single 'multi-sheet' PDF as well...damn good if you ask me.

Really! I'll have to look that one up, thanks Glenn.

[Mark]

Question for the Ghostscript folks. When I plot from sheet set manager all the files get created in "My Documents", where/what controls that? I've looked in quite a few places including the registry but came up empty.

thanks

[JohnK]

I couldnt agree with Glenn more.

There are TONS of stuff you can do with GS.  See the Devices.htm in the doc dir.
Something like: C:\\gs\\gs8.61\\doc\\Devices.htm

[JohnK]

Question for the Ghostscript folks. When I plot from sheet set manager all the files get created in "My Documents", where/what controls that? I've looked in quite a few places including the registry but came up empty.

thanks

Thats not a GS issue. Modify your Page setup

Right click -> Sheet Set Publish Options...you can figure it out from there.