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mac and pdf


Frank1se

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Hi there listers,

I have just moved over (up) from pc to mac mini and I would like to have info on how to create pdf files. Many of my vw (10.5) are on my pc and i want to transfer and send from my mac as a test. Previously I had cute pdf writer as a free download for pc and it suited my purposes very well and I would like the same facility for mac and my yet to arrive update to vw 11 for mac. I have only as small hp printer at home - again perfectly adequate for most of the drawings I need to print, but sometimes i need to save an A0 sheet as one page and send to my printer.

Any help would be VERY much appreciated by this mac newbie.

TIA,

Frank.

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Hi Nicholas,

thanks for your reply.

I tried what you said and had a warning that some post script settings would ignored since I was not printing to postscript printer. I have no idea what any of that means. I spent the morning looking for Adobe ps drivers and something called DDAP PPD and got lost in the world of os 9. I think I may have them somewhere on my computer but I cannot turn on something called appletalk. Everyone tells me mac is a simple system and has a seamless interface with vw but I feel I am going nowhere fast.

Once again thanks,

Frank.

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fmh: I have never heard of an error message coming up during a Save to PDF operation. This should be a seamless task.

Apple has always received very good reviews for their tech support. Since you are under warranty, I would suggest a call to Apple.

Please let us all know what they have to say.

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If you have a mac mini you won't have OS 9 as they never put it on it this fairly new machine, only OSX, so a little mystified by your comment about OS9.

I, like many others, can vouch for the very good interaction between Apple OS and Windows OS versions of Vectorworks files.

You may notice some changes in VW Windows 10.5 to VW11.5 Apple but there are changes from version 10 to version 11 whatever platform you have anyway.

The only small hiccup you may get is not being able to open files from one to the other by double clicking on the file icon once brought over. Easily cured by opening file from within Vectorworks,- no sweat.

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Hi People,

I tried some of the suggestions above but cannot set up the adobe printer driver. The site I found says it should open in os 9 (which is on my mac mini) apparently some programmes need it to function. What do I know I am trying to understand this from a pc background and it takes time I guess. All I wanted was the ability to save as a pdf that I can send to my printer in town and have it on A0 paper. I was able to this from a pc with a free cute pdf writer. I do not want to fork out c.400 usd. for the adobe suit. There must be a more economical solution out there somewhere. My next step is to contact mac re this error message when saving to pdf.

Watch this space.

Thanks,

Frank.

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Ok Frank,

Firstly I recommend staying away from OS9. That's not somewhere you really want to go just to print.

Secondly, check out Jaws PDF writer. Much cheaper than Acrobat, but apart from that...

When you got the warning message, did you get an option to go ahead anyway? Did you have a go anyway?

I vaguely recall having seen messages like that and usually plough on regardless ;-)

anyway,..

Here's what I just tried which worked fine;

Made a big rectangle (just to check the page came out the right size)

Go to Vectorworks>File>Page Setup.

In the top drop menu ; Settings> Custom page size.

set up the paper size and give it a name.

In the Paper Size drop menu choose your size.

Exit page setup and you should have a print margin on screen the correct size.

Now if you ( well,..I ) go to Print and choose either of the PDF options it works OK. and gives me a 4Kb file the correct size.

HTH

[ 06-03-2005, 07:28 AM: Message edited by: propstuff ]

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Frank;

I agree with Nicholas. There should be no need for you to use OS9. In fact, I thought that Apple stopped loading OS9 on their machines a while ago.

I have an older machine that still runs OS9 for a few programs that will only run on that OS.

But for a new user, I see no reason to ever go backward to the older operating system. Stick with OSX and move forward.

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you don't need to install anything.

just use the Printer Setup Utility to choose a printer that prints what ever is appropriate for the document you want, any HP plotter will do.

open your document, and open the print dialog. if your Mini is very new you probably have OSX 10.4 installed, it really helps if you tell us this at the beginning. at the bottom left corner of the dialog it there is a drop menu "PDF" look there you will see many options.

choose Save as PDF. it will make a pdf that is the same as printing to the selected printer. don't use adobe drivers. use a driver/printer of an actual printer model that makes the size you want.

if you want to make multiple page (or sheets) pdfs you can use Combine.pdf, get it from versiontracker.com

Preview app will open the pdf on your mac. You can also use Adobe reader to view and print, it actually looks better on screen, bu they both print the same.

any program that can read pdfs can read the mac produced PDFs. when you email useing MAIL click the "send windows friendly files check box in the attachments dialog.

You don't need to buy any other software, certainly not the Adobe pdf maker.

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