Topic: DWG to PDF.pc3 is slow to plot and files are slow to open

[alanjt]

We recently upgraded from Civil 3D 2017 to 2019, and all of my users have been complaining about PDFs created in 2019 take forever to open and print.
I opened a file in 2017 and plotted to PDF, then opened the same drawing in 2019, plotted to PDF, and the opening time of the PDF  increased drastically. In the 2019 created PDFs, upon opening, each individual object (lines, hatch, text, etc.) will display one-by-one, rather than just opening, like it did in 2017.

I know of the lag issues with transparency, but this problem hits all drawings. I received a 10 page plan set PDF a couple days ago that took 20 minutes to flatten before finally plotting.

I've tried using the DWG to PDF.pc3 file from the 2017 release and from 2019 and I get the same results.

Any thoughts?

[MP]

No solution at present but thanks a ton for flagging the issue. I produce tons of (searchable) PDFs for clients (one current batch is for 12000 dwgs). Fortunately I’m using 2016 so there is no issue but if we "upgrade" to 2019 I know I’ll need to proceed carefully. Thanks Alan!

[dgorsman]

Stupid question time: did you log the changes you made to plotting (settings on the PC3, procedures, etc.) while using the previous version?

[ronjonp]

What are you using to view your PDF's? If it's Bluebeam, there is a setting under Print >> Advanced and change printing engine to 'Image'. I've noticed slow printing too but is was in AutoCAD 2018 as well.

[alanjt]

No solution at present but thanks a ton for flagging the issue. I produce tons of (searchable) PDFs for clients (one current batch is for 12000 dwgs). Fortunately I’m using 2016 so there is no issue but if we "upgrade" to 2019 I know I’ll need to proceed carefully. Thanks Alan!

Happy to be your beta tester.
If I had realized we'd have these plotting problems, I wouldn't have upgraded us. I never considered testing plotting before an upgrade.

Stupid question time: did you log the changes you made to plotting (settings on the PC3, procedures, etc.) while using the previous version?

No, I never logged anything. I went through the settings trying to see if anything was different, but couldn't find anything, or are you talking about doing something that is clearly over my head?

What are you using to view your PDF's? If it's Bluebeam, there is a setting under Print >> Advanced and change printing engine to 'Image'. I've noticed slow printing too but is was in AutoCAD 2018 as well.

Viewing with Acrobat. Odd thing is, I've noticed it takes longer to actually plot to PDF also.

[Crank]

Update 2017.1.1 caused slow plotting of PDF-files. I don't know if this was ever solved, but as you can read here you should check if your plot settings include hyperlinks.

[BIGAL]

I use dwg to pdf, Adobe Acrobat reader company software etc, print multiple pdfs using lisp so one after another they just appear maybe 2-3 seconds per sheet. They are individuals then use ghostscript to join. Plotting in past 2016, 2018 now 2019,  Acrobat opens pdf till viewable limit, around 20 pdfs,I close all and it continues opening, still runs fast and completes, about to do a 60 layout tomorrow will time. Sorry no real help, maybe make adobe Acrobat reader your default pdf viewer ? Everything set up out of the box.

[Rod]

I am using Autocad Civil 2017 with update 1.2.

I have noticed terribly slow print to PDF when my drawings have a large XREF (from an outside source). luckily if my XREF is large I'm often able to insert it into my drawing.

It seemed as if whenever any part of an xref was within the viewport the whole xref was processed for printing. But when the XREF was changed to model space objects Autocad could quickly detect which objects were in the viewpoint and only processed these objects.

Maybe do some testing with your XREFs?

[alanjt]

It appears to do it regardless of having an xref or not.

[Rod]

OK.

we have licenses for 2019 and were about to upgrade. I will do more testing of PDF printing and watch this space before upgrading from 2017.