Topic: Another PDF Question

[Rob...]

I've encountered a problem with the PDFs that are generated from 2012 using Acroplot Pro. The only thing that has changed, AFAIK, is the version of AutoCAD and the page set-up to go with the newer CAD as the old ones don't work well. The problem is not in making the PDFs but the plotting of the PDFs. Using Adobe Reader, each individual sheet needs to be "flattened" but there isn't any 3D aspects to these files. Some of them take several minutes for this process. Many of them take up to a minute. A set of 50 drawings takes forever to plot. The file sizes are about the same as the ones generated from the older CAD.

Does anyone know why these need to be "flattened" and what I can do to eliminate this?

[Drafter X]

I think flattening refers to layers and not '3D' objects. Check how many layers you have?  maybe in viewports you have a lot of unused layers turned on that it still tries to 'flatten'

[Rob...]

I've been doing some research and it does have to do with layers and possibly lines merge. Do you know how to produce a "flattened" PDF?

[M-dub]

Give this a try...
http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/2011/11/how-to-turn-off-layers-in-your-autocad-pdf-plots.html

[Matt__W]

LINE MERGE is the culprit.  I'm not sure how you'd get around it though.  We use Bluebeam and have run into the same thing.

[danallen]

What does Acroplot say? In the past I've found them to be responsive, especially to a common platform issue.

[Rob...]

Matt, Line Merge is off in that PC3 by default.

Dan, I will give that a shot.

[Rob...]

M-dub, I was hoping that was the issue as others have said the same thing. It was not. The issue may be that our old printer server cannot handle "non-flattened" PDFs.

Does anyone know how to flatten a PDF from Reader or full Acrobat?

[M-dub]

Does anyone know how to flatten a PDF from Reader or full Acrobat?

Which version?

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/acrobat/pro/using/WS58a04a822e3e50102bd615109794195ff-7c58.w.html

[Rob...]

8 Standard and I don't think it has a flatten option.

[M-dub]

Are there any options in the "printer" preferences?
Devices and Printers > Adobe PDF, etc.?

[Rob...]

I'll have to look into that tomorrow. I've only got Reader on this machine and need to get some production done before I leave. I did look at the AcroPlot options and there is nothing for layers.

[Rob...]

Doh!
This may be a case of not seeing the forest for the trees. Just before I left for the day, I figured out that I could generate a "flattened" PDF from Reader by printing using the AcroPlot driver. Right now, I think my AcroPlot from AutoCAD is set-up to use AutoCAD Dwg to PDF driver. I'm thinking I can generate "flat" PDFs with publish or AcroPlot using the AcroPlot driver. Gotta wait until tomorrow to find out. Update to follow.

[Krushert]

Could it be a printer issue?

We are having a wicked problem with AutoCAD Dwg to PDF driver when printing the PDFs directly to our Kip StarPrint 6000 sinc ewe updated the firmware in the KIP.  The KIP ends up taking a long time to print between sheets and sometimes loses the file all together and errors out.   But if we convert the  AutoCAD Dwg to PDF's to KIP PDFs (yes it has that option). then the KIPs has no problem printing them.  It spits them out lickity split. 

[Rob...]

I thought I had this all figured out but it the output isn't as expected. I still need to fool around with it but haven't had the time to nail it down. At least I have a work around to flatten them after making them.

[Rob...]

Could it be a printer issue?

We are having a wicked problem with AutoCAD Dwg to PDF driver when printing the PDFs directly to our Kip StarPrint 6000 sinc ewe updated the firmware in the KIP.  The KIP ends up taking a long time to print between sheets and sometimes loses the file all together and errors out.   But if we convert the  AutoCAD Dwg to PDF's to KIP PDFs (yes it has that option). then the KIPs has no problem printing them.  It spits them out lickity split. 

Our plotters are old but the issue is not being able to generate flat PDFs from AutoCAD. Two other people here are looking into it but no solution, yet.

[Matt__W]

*cough* line merge *cough*

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/AutoCAD-2011/Massive-Problems-creating-PDF-Files-merged-lines/td-p/3271817

Although I did find this for Acroplot Pro which claims to be able to use line merge but not have the problem with flattening.

[Rob...]

Yeah Matt, it is lines merge that is the final stumbling block to creating a flat PDF but turning it off is not acceptable. I will look into AcroPlot RePro.

[Rob...]

Thanks for that link, Matt. That pretty much summed it up that Adobe does not support lines merge. We've come up with a couple of solutions. One is to flatten the PDF using Reader and print again with AcroPlot or create a DWF and PDF that. The DWF route is definitely the better of the two options. I have yet to test it out but it is supposed to be flawless. New software just for this is probably out of the question unless it is free.

[Matt__W]

Yeah Matt, it is lines merge that is the final stumbling block to creating a flat PDF but turning it off is not acceptable. I will look into AcroPlot RePro.

I agree it's not acceptable.  We use Blueballs, ummm... Bluebeam for PDF'ing.  Still needs to be flattened but I think PDF Revu does a better job of handling it than Adobe does.

[Rob...]

Finally succeeded in generating "flat" PDFs using the DWG to PDF plotter. The default DPI is higher than our plotters can handle. Once it was brought into range Reader did not have to flatten (or it is so fast that the progress bar does not show up) the PDFs as long as layer information is not included. The odd thing is that a page set up needs to reside in the drawings for the wanted settings to be used. I cannot just have it in the top one in publisher and apply it to all the sheets. For some reason even though the layer information is turned off in both publisher and the page set up, they still get inserted into the PDFs.