Hi Benson,
Appreciate the attempt to help, but it seems like a rather tedious workaround. I know that you can print\save as pdf but that does not preserve any classes to be saved as layers as compared to exporting as pdf instead. The file also gets uncontrollably big especially when using a lot of images. For now, I gather that the only workaround if I still intend to publish my drawings via sheet layers, is to export individual sheets as PDF and then manually compile it in Acrobat/Preview, as you have described.
Rather disappointing that VW Fundamentals lacks such a rudimentary function to publish in PDF. In any case, thank you for the advice.