Creating pdf files is hogging memory

[Marietta]

I am using a G4, 400MHz Mac with 704MB RAM and system 10.3.3. I send pdf files to the printers for plotting. Originally, when I made pdf files through the vectoroworks program in the print dialogue box, the print out usually had toned areas wherever I used a white fill. Now with the Vectorworks 10.5, I use the Rasterize button in the print dialogue box (under Vectorworks 10.5 button). This gives a very good print result, but I am finding that after creating one or two pdf files, my hard drive partition is almost full - from 1.2 GB to 100MB. The pdf files are usually between 1 and 4MB in size. I need to restart my machine to free up the space. There is plenty of space in the other partitions where I store my project files, but I don't know if there is a way for the program to use this space when it runs out. Has anyone else come across this problem? I would have thought that after creating the pdf, the hard drive space would be back to where it waswithout needing to do a restart or shutdown.

[Guest]

The raster print option creates larger print files, thus using more memory. Not to mention, PDF files can become large during the process of generating them.

Is there a specific reason you are using the raster print option to create the PDF files?

Are you using the OS 10 built in PDF generation software or Adobe Acrobat?

[Marietta]

Katie

I know this option doesn't have the problems with we encountered with the standard way of producing pdf's through OSX - the output from the company we use for large format printing showed a light pattern wherever we used a white fill.

I'm using this option through the OSX generation software. It is not the pdf files themselves that are the problem, but the process seems to take all the disk space away from the hard drive and doesn't give it back. For example, to create one pdf file that is about 2.5 MB in size, the process would use approximately 1/2 to 1 GB which can't be retrieved until I do a restart.

[Guest]

The memory required to produce raster printing, whether to a PDF, printer, or print file, will be much more than without the raster option checked. A raster object is similar to an image file, although the end object is small, convert a vector drawing to raster, then to a printer language or PDF will absorb large amounts of memory.

If whomever is needing the raster print option checked to generate PDF files, or to print the PDF files you are sending them, you may want to setup a Generic PS printer in the Printer Utility and select that as the printer when generating the PDF files.

[Marietta]

Would using the 'Enable special processing for transparent colors...." use a lot of memory also? I have not tried this option. I believe I tried using an HP 800ps postscript driver with no luck at the printers - they are using a printer similar to that one. Would a generic postscript printer be any different? If so, how would I set one up? I just find it strange that the computer does not give me back the memory when I have quit the applications.