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Large Cumbersome PDF files


JCCARROLL

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

This can help, a huge amount in some scenarios, but barely at all in others, it depends on what your model is made up of:

http://kbase.vectorworks.net/questions/1277/Reducing+PDF+File+Size+in+Vectorworks+2015

Rasterize Text in the PDF export options can help as well if there are a large number of text/callout/dimension objects.

There are also a few pending issues for the PDF filesize being artificially inflated regardless of what is in your model, something is definitely in need of tweaking on our end but the above steps can help mitigate the problem.

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I discovered this trick lately that really helps get large PDFs down to manageable sizes:

This works on a Mac. There must be a windows equivalent.

Open the pdf with Color Sync Utility. (It's in Applications/Utilities)

File>Export…

Format: PDF

Quartz Filter: Reduce File Size

I use it all the time to make really large PDFs emailable.

It doesn't loose the vector data. You can still reimport it into VW and the lines are snappable.

hth

mk

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Rasterizing the text did reduce the file size slightly, but the quality of the PDF was reduced significantly.

The link you included in your response stated that there are a number of changes that allow you to create faster and smaller PDF's, but it does not elaborate on what those changes are, or how to create faster and smaller PDF's. It only talks about how to address PDF's within a VW drawing. The large files that I am having issues with do not contain PDF's within the VW drawing.

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The VW file size is 143.1 MB, The file exports as a 8.2MB PDF file. I have been able to reduce the PDF file size to 3.7 in the Acrobat Pro Application. Items within the PDF still generate individually even after reducing the file size in Acrobat Pro.

I have attached the screen shot of the PDF export settings

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  • Vectorworks, Inc Employee

Oh, thats not really that large for a 300DPI PDF. I thought you meant you were getting PDFS even larger than the VWX file, my apologies for the confusion.

Once you're under 10MB the size might fluctuate a bit with some settings changes, but that size is pretty average for vector-including PDFs and is small enough for most email providers limits.

If sharing them is the issue, you may just want to set up a Google Drive or Dropbox account so that you can send links instead and trim the fat from your email.

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Does your file have images such as a large aerial that you're putting into the pdf? I've found in the past that VW ignores the viewport line and puts ALL the image area into the pdf.

I proved this on a large job where I had a 200Mb aerial image - I tiled it into about 15 tiles, putting each tile in it's own class. Then I was able to get small pdfs - I know it's a kludge, but it works.

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We're experiencing a problem where the exported .pdf file [GA plans 1:50 @ A1] is only between 2 and 4mb in size but we're finding they take a long time to print. Some of the consultants we work with are reporting that they take between 10 and 20 minutes to print on a standard office printer and a windows computer.

I've included a screenshot of the .pdf settings we're using along with a copy of the file below. I'd appreciate any feedback anyone might have! The DPI of the sheet layer is set to 150.

I'm wondering whether it is the fact we have used the batt insulation tile in our wall build ups? I have tried some test pdf exports [one with insulation and one without]. The insulation seems to add 1MB to the file size. I'm waiting to hear back from my other consultants as to whether this makes printing easier. I've attached these test files for reference too.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

Plans which other consultants are struggling to print: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17200339/firstfloorplanpdfissue.pdf

pdf export settings: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17200339/printsettings.png

Test pdf without insulation: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17200339/1-Test%20File%20without%20Insulation.pdf

Test pdf with insulation: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17200339/2-Test%20File%20with%20Insulation.pdf

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I have run them through photoshop and save them as pdf again at lowest quality and don't save with photshop layers they file come down from 5,000kb to 300kb,

But i am exporting the same file from home computer and i get a PDF of only 350kb when export PDF at 150 dpi but at work i get 5,000kb.

Will look when i get to work to see settings.

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The pdf file size is a major problem. When creating a file set for Planning Consent or Building Warrants, the Local Authority has a 5MB maximum file size limit. This is across the board. It is not uncommon for me to have to drop pdf resolution down to the 36dpi mark to get files below 5MB, which as you can imagine completely reduces the quality of the output file. I should be able to produce an A1 pdf file at 300dpi that does not exceed 5MB.

I have found out that tiles seem to be particularly poor when exporting to pdf.

The fact that email providers now easily accept 10MB files is not the problem, I am dealing with government agencies who will not permit files larger than 5MB.

Kevin.

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Another option to try to reduce PDF file size: smallpdf.com

And since you're on Apple OSX, you can install the Quartz filters as described in the following Apple Support post to use Preview to reduce the PDF size:

Apple Support Communities: A simple and free way of reducing PDF file size using Preview

(eg. I was able to take a 17mb PDF (4 page PDF from VW with images) down to 2.25mb via smallpdf.com.)

Your mileage may vary...

HTH.

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Dear Vectorworks Users,

 

I had this problem and I solved the issue.  For me it was a Hatch problem. I had two hatches one on top of each other with different hatch settings. One was at a different resolution to the other . One was on my design layer and the other on top of it in the annotations of my viewport.

 

I played around with my hatches and reduced a 2.5Mb slow loading file to 45k fast loading no problem file ! I had two hatches on top of each other one on the design layer and one in annotations in a viewport space. I changed all hatches to viewport annotations space and even with altered scale settings it all exported with no more file size problems. Look into your Hatches and Tiles and patterns it may be the problem there.

 

All the best

 

TIm

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One thing to check is the pdf export type setting, whether it is set to pdf or pdf/a. I've noticed that pdf/a drawings inflate to 45MB, while an ordinary pdf will be about 4MB. All this without any rasterizing, just vectors.

 

Notable is, that if I convert the "normal" 4MB pdf to pdf/a using Nitro Pro, the same ballooning of size occurs. So it might not be particular to VW.

 

Unfortunately the council demands pdf/a format, then the only option is to rasterize, which can get us to 15MB at 300dpi.

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