Brian Lehmer Posted September 25, 2009 Share Posted September 25, 2009 I've ordered VW2010 and will need to send my files to my client for printing. Is the 2010 Viewer available yet? If so were can it be downloaded? If not, when is it expected to become available? Quote Link to comment
J Lucas Posted September 25, 2009 Share Posted September 25, 2009 If they are just printing files you can send pdf's. It seems like the 2009 viewer was not available until March of this year. Hopefully we will not wait so long for the the 2010 Viewer. Quote Link to comment
Brian Lehmer Posted September 25, 2009 Author Share Posted September 25, 2009 The PDF export option will probably be fine in the short term. My demo of VW 2009 included a couple of PDF exports. The samples I created printed fine. Aside from incorrect PDF viewer printing options have you ever had any issues with scale when printing an exported PDF file? I have had inconsistent scale issues when creating PDF files from other CAD software without an export option by using a PDF printer. Perhaps VW's PDF export writes a better PDF file? Thanks for the response. Quote Link to comment
J Lucas Posted September 25, 2009 Share Posted September 25, 2009 I print to the pdf995 printer driver which allows me to set up my sheet sizes to match my drawing sheet sizes and "print" pdf files. Doing this, I have not noticed any scaling issues. If you don't have it, pdf995 is a free download here. Quote Link to comment
Brian Lehmer Posted September 25, 2009 Author Share Posted September 25, 2009 Interesting. I have used both pdf995 and Adobe® PDF printer with scale issues. This may be due to the way the other CAD software handled printing, but I never had any scale issues when printing to a paper printer. I like pdf995, it's a nice tool. Ultimately I'd like to send my client the VW CAD files so that they can work with layer/class visibilities and interact with drawing items to create their own variations on the fly. Based on your experience it sounds like PDF will do fine in the meantime. Thanks, Quote Link to comment
Pat Stanford Posted September 25, 2009 Share Posted September 25, 2009 The PDF Export function in VW allows you to export classes and or layers to the PDF file as PDF layers, so your customer may be able to do what they want with the PDF file. As for scale problems, this is usually on the part of the person printing. Most PDF viewers have an automatic setting to Scale to Fit Printable Area or something like that. So if you export a full 11 x 17, it will often be scaled down (or up) to fit within the printers margins of 10.5 x 16.5 (approx.). This can be turned off. On the Mac it is right in the print dialog box from Acrobat Reader. Quote Link to comment
Brian Lehmer Posted September 25, 2009 Author Share Posted September 25, 2009 Yes I had noticed the ability to export classes and layers as PDF layers, which is very nice to say the least. That could be a viable option with some adjustment. The issue I had with it during testing was that I wanted to have all of my landscaping objects in one class, yet distinguish between existing and new landscaping using layers so that I could for example, turn all landscaping off, yet also retain the option to gray out the existing landscaping or show only new landscaping as the case required. The scale problems that I have had occured with the scaling options disabled in the PDF viewer which is why I specifically mentioned those settings as being an aside issue -- however you bring up an important point, which is that the person printing may not be aware of those settings or forget to disable them. If in fact no one is having scale issues producing PDF files from VectorWorks than using PDF seems like it could be a very effective interim solution. I'm Looking forward to making the switch. Should be next week. Thanks for the reply. Quote Link to comment
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