PowerCADD Forum

I just used Preview to make a multi-page pdf file consisting of four 24 x 36 drawings. When I go to print out the sets I can only get 8.5 x 11 reduced size drawings on 2 x 3 sheets. Can anyone tell me if I did something wrong in preview? When I print the four pdf files as separate (not combined into one file)files all is well.

Hi Fred,

They way I create multi-page PDFs in Preview is to open one of the PDFs and show thumbnails in the sidebar. Then drag and drop the other files onto the thumbnail. You can then reorder the pages by dragging thumbnails to the order you want. When you Save, you've added the pages to the original file you first opened.
Using this method has always worked for me in printing correctly.

David

David,
Thats exactly my method but all I could get was small copie3s on 2 x 3 sheets. funny thing though, when I closed the multi-page file and went to print the first sheet from an individual pdf file it proceeded to print the other 3 drawings even though I had closed the file and all were fine. go figure..
Thanks for the response

"I just used Preview to make a multi-page pdf file"

I don't understand how you use Preview to "Make" a pdf? Do you mean you printed a pdf from PowerCadd?
and if so that file is showing up as multiple 8.5"x11" sheets.

If your drawing is 24x36 and you have set you sheet size in page setup to 24x36 then when you print selecting save as pdf the resulting pdf should be 24x36 if it is anything different return to page setup.

In page setup, you should be able under page size to choose "Manage Custom SIzes..." and create a 24"36" page for "Any Printer." You can choose that just for printing to PDF even if you don't have a printer that has that size.

I think there was a bit of misunderstanding of the problem: the individual drawing pdf file were created at 24 x 36, no problem and they each print fine. When Preview was used to merge the 4 individual files into one 4 page pdf file the printed pages came out as a 8.5 x 11 drawing on a 24 x 36 sheet.

Could it be that when printing from Preview you have selected 4 Pages per Sheet in the Layout menu?

Update: Problem was with the plotter; printed again this morning with no problems, even duplicated the 4 page pdf file and printed that with no problem. So merging the separate pdf drawing files into one 4 page pdf file using Preview worked fine. Once the plotter and sheet size was selected
the plotter recognized the pdf sheet size of 24 x 36 and printed correctly. Thanks to all who commented. BTW the original file was created in Vectorworks with PC 2000 and Autocad details added via "import pdf" into the VW file and printed from a Dell PC to HP Designjet T795 plotter.

I didn't know you could even do that with Preview (put multiple pages together) I've relied on Acrobat Pro for that for ages. A friend uses PDFPen for that. I would have to try it in Preview and see what happens.

I use Preview exactly like David Scott does. The only issue I have with Preview is that I occasionally get PDFs from clients or consultants that have weird rectangles around the text (and those unwanted rectangles show up if it is ‘placed’ into PC). If I open those same PDFs in Acrobat or another PDF reader, I don’t see the rectangles. It might be that I am on Sierra and PDFs have evolved beyond my version’s capabilities. If I save one of those troublesome PDFs in Acrobat, the rectangles don’t show up when I ‘place’ it into PC.