PDFs

[Stephen M]

Is it possible to export drawings (G5, Mac OSX, VW11.0) as PDFs, please? If so, how?

TIA

[Jason Turley]

From the print dialog save as PDF. As easy as that!!!

[alanmac]

As the man said as easy as that. Because you are on Mac OSX it should be even easier with the built in pdf creator than Windows.

[CEA]

I think you can have more control over the creation of PDF files using Adobe Acrobat. Of course you will also need to purchase the program.

When I tried using the MAc OSX built in PDF creation option a year or two ago, the line weights of my drawings did not print properly. Has anyone else had this problem? Maybe this line weight problem been fixed in the later versions of the operating system.

[alanmac]

Of course Adobe Acrobat is good but it is also expensive and this must be borne in mind. It depends at what level and frequency you want to create pdf's at.

I've no experience of the OSX built in version, because of the print work created at my last studio we had Acrobat Distiller and were Mac based.

Since going freelance I'm back on my Windows PC and am getting excellent results with pdf995 which is freeware but Windows only based.

I'm sure there are Mac equivalents out there you could give a try to see if they fit your needs. Nothing ventured etc. and if they don't work you can always bite the bullet and buy Distiller.

Most free or low priced programs would suit people wishing to send files as pdfs for client to check and approve etc.

I'm not saying Acrobat Distiller is bad, it's just that for many peoples needs its overkill.

[eric.rktek]

There is one minor problem with the built in Mac "Save as PDF' in the print window. Angled lines print thincker than their straight counterparts. I believe this is because the 'pen' tip that the converter program uses is square and not round. Therefore a line drawn at a 45 deg angle is 1.414+/- times thicker than a straight line with the same width. If you purchase Acrobat and use this to generate your pdf's you shouldn't have this problem. Acrobat uses a round pen 'tip' when converting the linework. It comes down to how much does the lineweight issue bug you.

[Guest]

A note to Eric's post - if you check mark the Print as Raster option in the print dialog box, you will not get the heavier angled lines.

There are a number of differences between the OS built in PDF and the true PDF software made by Adobe. The version that coems with the OS is an image based PDF creation software... which means lack of quality as it's enlarged and so forth. You usually don't notice this, but there are times when you want something that looks better than image level quality.

[Travis]

We just completed two projects that were shuttled around (engineer, consulting arch, lndscp arch, owner's rep) A LOT via email. I just reviewed them carefully, especially for line weights/hatches/color and find them to be acceptable.

We generally use the OSX Save as PDF option, then compile multiple sheets into a binder in Adobe Acrobat. Finally, we always run the reduce file size option and set the version back to 5 (in case someone else isn't running the latest version).

Must be working well. . .no one's complaining!