Steve CAG

Ok - one last post on this topic before leaving it to NNA.... The following workaround seems to give the results that NNA intended, though not at all close to what I expect for a real solution. (Requires Adobe Acrobat/Distiller) Step 1 - Select the VW batch print option and related options for starting the print job - In the print menu select "Output Options", check the "Save as File" box and select "Postscript" as the format. - Pick the "Save" button on the lower left and navigate to where the PS files are to be saved. (You get to name the first file only and the following files are appended with sequenced numbers as per Kevins experience). - Repeat steps above for each VW file. These PS files will be big, but the job isn't done yet.. Step 2 - Start up distiller and config to suit output requirements (FWIW we find 300dpi the best balance between file size and print quality for 24x36 b/w architectural drawings) - Drag all of the PS files created by VW into the Distiller window, select where the pdf files are to be deposited. - Go back to doing something productive while Distiller crunches out the pdf files. This can take quite a while for complex and large PS files, but the resulting files sizes are very reasonable. Now wasn't that easy!? footnote: In theory this should work as a one step process with the printer set to "Acrobat (7.0)pdf" as NNA suggests, but we've found that Acrobat 7 "breaks" shortly after install and won't automatically run through distiller. The "print" looks like it processes but there is no trace of a resulting pdf to be found. Adobe's misbehaviour compounds the difficulties and is considered a co-factor in the further thinning of my hair.

The patches offered my Resolve were only a partial fix as pointed out. The "Save as File>PDF" option will work with any printer selected. It uses the OSX pdf maker and not the currently selected printer. I did this and thought I had the solution until I compared the file sized for the OSX pdf with the Acrobat pdf... about 10Mb vs 1.2Mb on my large site plan files and about 2-3 times the size on basic floor plans and elevations. Acrobat seems be much more effective at sifting out non-visible items (outside of the viewport crop) and allows for reducing the resolution. The renaming issue is fine when there are a dozen sheets, but I'm still working on that large project (now starting construction and we have more campus type developments starting the prelim design stage) and tracking which pdf belongs to which drawing sheet and manually renaming the files is a major pain. Combining pdfs work for some printing services but we've had others that can't handle large format multipage pdfs, so we have to go with separate files for each sheet. The other systems that I've worked with had the option of naming the output file based on the sheet layer name. If you name the sheet layers accordingly it is self managing. Still hoping that NNA will address this (maybe with an 11.6 update?) .... take note NNA - same functionality is needed of batch DWG or DXF output (we generate consultant base drawings several times in the course of the project too which eats the hours). For maximum benefit, these functions need to be accessible across multiple VW drawing files and run in the background (ie not tie up VW so that drawing production stops). This should be as simple as creating a drawing issue checklist and then having it accessible the next time the job needs to be printed. I've done it with ArrisCad and AutoCad - please make it happen with VW.

How do I spell relief? RESOLVE As in Resolve Software Solutions (the folks that do the training CDs). We recently had in house training sessions put on by Resolve and when I brought this problem to their attention they put together a plug-in that provides a decent work around for the broken VW batch print. Download from their site at http://www.resolve.ca/addons.html

Adobe Acrobat installed and still not working. (Adobe PDF 7.0 printer) First file creates successfully. All subsequent sheets throw up the same vectorworks error as before "Error occurred during printing. Printing manager error - 108" So now my wallet is $400 lighter and one of the key selling features for our upgrading to 11 is still not functional.... I'm looking at a 200 drawing sheet print job in one week and would really appreciate any hints on resolving this. Thanks

How will the pdf files be named using acrobat? I actually had the method noted above working from one file, but the file names were filename.pdf, filename.1.pdf, filename.2.pdf.. etc. For batch plotting to files to be useful there needs to be some way to control the output file name- possibly based on the name of the sheet layer.

I'm not able to get batch printing of sheet layers to work when selecting the "Save as PDF" option on the Mac OS Print window. I get one print of the first file in selected list and none of the others. Sometimes there is a VectorScript error message and sometimes it just runs through the entire sequence without errors. Is is possible create PDFs in this way?