Batch export PDF

[mdsf]

we are running VW 12.5.1, mac OSX 10.4.9, on intel macs and older macs and cannot get the export batch pdf to work. we can get the single export pdf fine.

any suggestions? thanks

[Jonathan Pickup]

do your users have administrator priviages

[mdsf]

yes, everyone has adminstrator privileges -

[Guest]

Remove the command from the workspace using the workspace editor and add it back.

[mdsf]

Thanks, just tried your suggestion and still no luck.

[Petri]

we are running VW 12.5.1, mac OSX 10.4.9, on intel macs and older macs and cannot get the export batch pdf to work. we can get the single export pdf fine.

any suggestions? thanks

What's your problem, mate? I've never been able to do a single PDF-export! Just count yourself lucky. For the time being, that is.

Perhaps, just perhaps, as long as you are "polite" etc. you are able to do single-file exports.

[Petri]

Well, well. Did some more testing.

Very, very, very small PDF-exports do indeed work. Sorry - I had not realised that this feature is not applicable to large & complex set-ups, like display panels.

As with everything in VW, one is obviously only expected to be doing McMansions. I just keep forgetting and confuse VW with professional CAD-software.

My apologies.

[Ericoxer]

Harsh . . .

[gdickson]

We are having the same problem and get exactly the same result by the sound of things. As a teacher, I would like to use Bluebeam to mark student work in PDF form and am keen to get an answer to this problem. VW12.5.1 Win Xp pro 32bit and 64bit

[bonus]

I'm also running the same app's and OSX as mdsf.

I hav no problems with making pdf through batch print.

Well, just one: I get them numbered 1,2, 3, etc, instead of the actual sheet layer name.

I just visited techboard to check if this had been solved yet. Does anybody know? Katie maybe?

Anyway- to batch print pdf:

Make sure you have sheet layers or views to print - design layers cannot be batch printed.

File menu>batch print>add all (or other choice)>choose color or b/w>print>(new window) pdf(on left lower side)>save as pdf>name the pdf (will be follwed by serial number for each sheet)>choose location for pdf copies>press save.

I just tested it with a 14 sheets document. I took less than 10 seconds. An the result is perfect.

I used to have som batch print problems with my old mac G4. I ran out of memory (RAM) and closing other applications helped sometimes. There never was a warning about it, but I found out someway. Now I use a G5 wit 2Gb RAM. Maybe that is helping?

[Christiaan]

do your users have administrator priviages

Has this particular factor being submitted as a bug?

[Guest]

To the person having problems creating PDFs -

Are you using an educational license?

Is it a B or C series ?

[Justin Chapman]

We are having this problem on Intel Mac-minis running vectorworks 12.5. I have attached a screengrab of the splash screen which hopefully includes the information you need about the Vectorworks version.

The mac-minis are running home directories served by an OSX server to locally installed copies of Vectorworks.

Thanks for any advice you can give.

Edited June 1, 2007 by Justin Chapman

[Guest]

Justin,

First remove the menu from the workspace and add it back, then try to create a PDF.

When was the last time you ran disk utility?

Have you verified the users have permission to create PDFs?

Does the single PDF export option work?

Also note if you are using a professional or educational license.

[Justin Chapman]

Katie,

I tried removing the menu item and replacing it; batch export script crashes at same point.

Disk utility done in last week.

I'm not sure what permissions you mean.

Single PDF export crashes Vectorworks also. Mac OSX print as PDF option works as normal.

We are running Porfessional licenses for Fundamentals and Architetc with dongles.

Any other suggestions?

Justin

[Guest]

Are you using 12.5.0 or 12.5.1 ?

If you have not updated to 12.5.1 - do that first.

[Justin Chapman]

We are using 12.5.1

[AndrewTh]

I'm having a similar issue on vw 12.5.1, windows vista, educational B series license, Designer package.

I can set up the batch export, but when I click "export" nothing happens. Single page pdf export works fine.

I tried running VW as administrator, no change. Tried removing/adding option from menu with workspace editor, no change.

Last time I did this I couldn't wait for an answer, so I used third party software to mux the separate pages into one, but that was a major headache. Still, that's a workaround if anyone else needs it.

[Guest]

This is a known issue with the educational license and is expected to be addressed in the next maintenance update.

[John Sherwood]

I, too, am running 12.5.1 (educational) on an Intel Mac OSX 10.4.9 and am unable to use the PDF batch export function. I've trashed the command and replaced it to no aveil. I sure wisj it worked because having to make up a bunch of multipage sheet layers is a pain.

[AndrewTh]

Is there a workaround for this problem in the interim?

[Guest]

Update to 12.5.2 - it was just released today.

[bonus]

Using mac, I find two ways to create a pdf from a drawing.

1. export pdf

2. print / ...as pdf

Is there a difference? If not, why two ways?

I just updated to VW12.5.2, but still I cannot find a way to batch-print pdf files with the respective sheet names shown in the pdf file name. I have to go back on all files and rename them before issuing. Serial numbers is not good enough.

Imagine a VW file with 26 different sheets, everyone representing a specific drawing. These sheets are named with the respecive drawing number.

Now, batch printing is extremely useful. But 26 pdf files with a common prefix and a serial number added is just of no help. - especially if not all sheets have been selected for printing. A sheet might get a different number at different printing occasions. Serial numbers might be useful too, but as an option.

Now - am I missing something, or asking for too much?

[Guest]

The export function is Adobe based and creates a true PDF. The PDF option through the print dialog box is a bitmap (image) based PDF.

The print dialog PDF is lacking in quality and you can see this as you zoom in on a PDF and compare it to the one created through the Export dialog box.

The print dialog is also flat - you can't separate out layer, adjust layer gray visibilities or any of the other more advanced features of having a true PDF document.

[BAZ]

plus i've found when i "print to PDF" with large files (10Mb+) there is a strong possibility of crashing and it takes an age while exporting is almost instant.

[boxjoint]

I have recently upgraded my computer system from a 1 GHz titanium PowerBook G4 with 1gb ram, OS 10.4.9 and VW Designer 12.5.0 to the iMac listed below. In the course of switching over, I updated the OS to 10.4.10 and VW to 12.5.2.

I am now unable to reliably batch export a PDF.

On my old machine, I have batch exported up to 18 pages at a time without a problem. Now, using the same file, I can export 2, or 5, or 10 pages, or any number in between at the whim of VW but never the same result twice. In other words, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Mostly it doesn't. It seems that the greater the number of sheets I try to export, the greater the liklihood that it fails.

The little vectorscript window comes up for about 5 or 10 seconds saying that it is exporting, then the program quits.

I have trashed the prefs file, restarted the computer, ran disk utilities and repaired permissions, tried exporting different groups of sheets within the document, tried exporting different numbers of sheets, all to no avail.

How can I get this feature to work properly again?