PDF Printing issues in PCadd 9

[Rob]

Hey Folks,

Typically I produce PDFs from Pcad in Arch D size, either sent to my clients or to print later, typically from a windows PC hooked up to a HP Designjet T120 large format printer. I typically use the native apple print to PDF function on my drawing machine, and use adobe acrobat to open/print from the printing machine.

For years I would occasionally run into PDFs produced this way which would not print, both for clients that were printing themselves, or for me. I found using my windows PDFCreator "convert" option, to convert to PDF/X, cleared up the problem and the new PDF would print fine. I couldn't find any rhyme or reason as to why the files wouldn't print, so I just made that conversion process, which is quick and easy, part of my print process: convert then print, no harm no foul.

However since my recent transition to Pcad 9, the problems have gotten much worse. Some PDF outputs are 6 or 7 times larger than they used to be. Even so, the biggest would be around 35 Megs, so it should be reasonable to expect them to print, I think. When I try to print from acrobat, I run into errors and/or 'run out of memory' problems, and the print jobs take forever to spool up and then error out. So printing, say, 3 files with 2 to 4 arch D pages each is now a two hour desperate fight.

I've tried a couple other PDF programs, but their rendering isn't very good, so the output looks like junk. MUCH faster than adobe, and ok for field prints but not great for anything I care about the appearance of.

I was considering using apple's print to postscript function to strip out whatever might be confusing the PDFs, and then converting to PDF to print... but wooo boy, that's a rabbit hole that doesn't seem very helpful at the moment. Using that function gets me fractional pages instead of the whole D sized outputs and I can't find any settings or parameters to set to affect that, and the converters I've seen so far seem... very lightweight.

Anyone else had to problem solve/troubleshoot an output process like this? If so, any magic bullets you could share?

I'm deeply suspicious it's either a font problem (my drawing conversions do not seem to be handling missing font replacements smoothly) or something to do with embedded pictures in my pcad files but either way, I can make and open a PDF to view/manipulate just fine and everything looks great. I just can't print it. It's just a bit maddening!

Thanks in advance if anyone has any ideas/advice! And best wishes either way.

[fred johnson]

This may sound unthoughtful but why not just buy an HP Designjet T210 for output; Mac compatible, about $695 on sale at B & H Photo or through Amazon, takes a 24 x 36, roll-feed and no need to convert to PDF except for email to clients.

[Rob]

I need other people to be able to print the drawings too, from PDF outputs, occasionally. BUT... that's a lot less of a common issue, very few of my clients print their own hard copies. And it looks like the T120 my company owners has mac compatible drivers/utilities as well. So the short term answer might end up being moving the printer from its current main office location, to my home office where I work... I'm the only one who uses it anyway... and printing direct from PCad as you note. Thanks for that thought!

I'd still be in the market for a good "PDF cleaner" process, but it wouldn't be nearly so urgent to solve that particular issue.

[johncruet48]

For what it's worth, here's what I do...
1. While in PowerCADD, hit "print sheets".
2. Then, "select all"
3. When the dialog comes up- in my case for my DesignJet 110, I select "Save as PDF"
4. I then entitle the file of drawings.
It is crucial that you set up the drawing size using "Page Setup", in my case, it's set up to "Super D/A1 Arch D on a roll"and make sure that you select the proper page orientation.
Now before I send the file to a client, I open it in Preview and select Print, and I notice that the print size defaults to "US Letter." You need to set this up in "Super D/A1 Arch D on a roll", then "save as PDF". The PDFs will be in 24 x 36 and thus can be delivered to your clients as a PDF package.
It always works best to direct print from your mac rather than going through a Windows PC.

Just my 2 cents.

[Rob]

Thanks John. So you're just "filtering" it with a second PDF print through preview? That's interesting. I'll try it out and see if that clarifies the troublesome pdfs.

Out of curiosity, what led you to that particular process?

Also I did move the printer so I could print direct and that, at least, works great for my day to day field prints. Thanks for that nudge Fred!

[fred johnson]

Similar to John I also use Preview to combine the separate pdf files into one pdf file for emailing to clients.

[patrickm]

Similar to John I also use Preview to combine the separate pdf files into one pdf file for emailing to clients.

Me, too.

Also, when setting up my documents in PowerCADD, I have custom sheet sizes with no border (set up through the Manage Custom Sizes in Page Setup), such as 24"w x 36"h with user defined "non-printable areas" set to 0", so the resulting PDF is in fact 24 x 36.

[PeterKona]

I have not had printing problems while printing to pdf, whether recompiled in Preview or not. I set up custom sheet sizes for some drawings and I DO use margins so i don't know why I shouldn't. The sheet should be the right size--it just changes the page break size. I send to commercial printers and tbere's no problem.

I do wish there were an option to automaticallly print and combine the pdf of different page setups from the same file (it seems this used to work this way). And I wish Preview would either retain the setup names or allow renaming pages while compiling.

One trick of compiling I use in Preview: I first open the first pdf of the set and open "thumbnails". Then I go to "open" dialog. I organize the list by date so I get the pdfs I just made from PCADD all together. Select the rest of the pdfs for the set, then change the order "by name" (because my PCADD setups are by sheet number). I drag the files into the thumbnail list. It usually loads all the pdf pages in order. You can then cancel the "open" dialog.

Before doing anything else I review the file. If I want to reprint any sheet from PowerCADD it will be updated in the Preview file. Alternately any subsequent sheet change can be dragged into thumbnails and the old version of the sheet deleted.

[RTCool]

I use print to PDF as well. Like Patrick, I've made custom sheet sizes. You can have D size sheets that way even if you don't own a printer capable of them. I compile and process them if needed in Acrobat Pro which has a function to compress the file size. Strictly vectored drawings from PowerCADD don't compress all that much, but ones from SketchUp and PC drawings with a lot of SU content sometimes compress a LOT, like as much as 1/10th the original size.

[johncruet48]

For what it's worth, here's what I do.........


Just my 2 cents.

What I failed to mention was a very important step in the process. I would open the first of the sheets, then open the "thumbnails," then, from the directory listing the files, I would drag and drop the rest of the files into the thumbnail columns, thereby creating a PDF submission. This can then be sent to a client or even a printer for printing. But first I would open the Print command while in Preview and then set up the "Super D/A1 Arch D on a Roll" thereby restoring the 24 x 36 format. Make also certain that you set the Print Area to 100%. Then save the entire file as a PDF.