Topic: When PDF 'ing a DWG the images are sometimes cropped

[hyposmurf]

Another user at work tries to on a number of occasions to PDF a drawing using the Adobe software.He will find that sometimes the PDF is fine and produces what he wants, but on a number of occasions it will cut and crop the drawing so part of it is missing.There seems to be no pattern to this problem.I can only imagine his frustration trying to PDF three drawings over 1 hour of playing until it works.Any ideas?

[Keith™]

What size of paper?
What PDF plotter?
What settings (Display, Extents, Window)
What Scale (Fit, 1/4 ...)

There are too many things it could be, so eliminate the simple ones first ...

[hyposmurf]

Had a feeling someone might ask,I'll have to ask him.

[Bob Wahr]

I've had troubles from time to time with freebees doing it like

[hyposmurf]

Maybe he's using a add on peice of software instead,didnt think he was but its possible.

[Keith™]

I have had a similar problem when plotting to ledger paper. I have had to select "Tabloid" to get the correct layout in Adobe.

[craigr]

You don't mention which Adobe software he is using.

I have been using Acrobat ver 5.0, it has with it, a program called 'PDF Writer'. Once installed, it appears as a system printer. I simply plot to 'PDF Writer', & plot to 'Extents'. I get perfect .pdfs every time. - I have tried the Acrobat Distiller, but I have never been able to get it to work for me.

Hope this helps,
craigr

[pmvliet]

One of the reasons is the way adobe and distiller works. There is a known problem between AutoCad and Adobe in this regards. When AutoCad creates the postscript file for adobe or distiller, the page size header is missing. That is one known issue.

The other thing is that the page size orientation for whichever adobe printer your use makes a difference. If your page size is 30x42, you will get a portrait sheet. If your page size is 42x30 you will get a landscape sheet. And this may not always be true.
The best way that I have deciphered to know if my PDF will come out correctly is to look at the little printer/paper icon on the plot dialog box. If it shows the paper as landscape with the letter "A" showing correct, it will plot correct.

I am also very picky on my PDF's as I always want my PDF's to be Landscape (the way we see them in hardcopy). Many firms don't care that their PDF is correct but rotated 90 degrees.

Pieter

[hyposmurf]

Great Pieter I'll go and see if that helps and thanks.

[craigr]

We do all of our dwgs on 11x17 sheet size. When I print them to .pdfs they always print rotated Clockwise 90°. Once I get all pages printed to .pdf, I put them all in one mulit-page .pdf, then rotate them Counter-clockwise 90°.

I know it's a long process, but it works for me and makes it easier for emailing to others.

I wish AutoCad had a multi-page function like .pdfs. I would be great to keep a dwgs for a particular job in one file. This way when we email dwgs to someone, all of the X-Refs, etc.. are part of that file and not an issue.

craigr

[pmvliet]

That is where Companies will "not play well with others". AutoDesk wants to push DWF's and I believe they have the ability to create multi-paged DWF's. Adobe can create multi-page PDF's but as you stated, that is a second step... more time.

it would be very nice to compile a multi-page PDF out of Autodesk products.. I think if we used PDF995, it would let us do this but am not 100% certain.

Pieter

[MarkO]

craigr,
I noticed that If I have autocad set to 11x17 landscape and the pdfwriter set to portrait (same size paper) then the resulting pdf is all there but rotated as you describe. If I, from the acad plot screen, check that the pdfwriter is set to landscape to match autocad the resulting pdf is oriented correctly.

[glee]

That is where Companies will "not play well with others". AutoDesk wants to push DWF's and I believe they have the ability to create multi-paged DWF's. Adobe can create multi-page PDF's but as you stated, that is a second step... more time.

it would be very nice to compile a multi-page PDF out of Autodesk products.. I think if we used PDF995, it would let us do this but am not 100% certain.

Pieter

Same here.  I wish publish could create a multipage PDF like DWFs.  I like that DWFs are small but my reprographer only plots from PDFs.  So long uploads and download times.  Not to mention the extra step.

I use acrobat 6.  Seems to work fine and all my page set ups took awhile to tweak but they seem to be ok for page sizes etc.  Acrobat shows the correct page size on the bottom left hand corner. 
While DWFs have added functionality, tell that to a client who's not about to download a DWF viewer.  Wish Autocad would work with adobe and get DWF functionality in PDF.  Plus the small file sizes. 
I use PDFs for everything now.  Hardly any paper output. 

[Bob Wahr]

PDF Creator makes multipage PDFs fairly easily.

[Dent Cermak]

DWGGATEWAY.com. The PDF maker in the new versiuon of dwggateway works quite nicely. AND it's free.