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VW11-How to import multi-page PDF files


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Breaking up the PDF is what came to mind. However, it appears impossible with the documents in question. I am trying to place ICBO evaluation reports within my drawings, (not my idea, the Building Department wants this).

The ICBO reports are protected to be read-only.

Any ideas?

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Hi Kevin, Grant uses Macs and so do I. You must be using Windows as OSX allows any file to be printed as a PDF and the Preview program allows individual pages to be re-saved and/or printed. I downloaded a multi page ICBO report and found that that it was not protected, so try these suggestions:

1. Do a get properties on the document and look under permissions. See if you are listed as the administrator of the document, if not, change it so your status to read and write.

2. Open each page and try to "save as" and select pdf. If you are using Adobe, you must have the Standard or Distiller applications, as the free "Reader" version does not allow this.

3. Do you have a photo editing software such as Adobe Photo Elements? Open each page in this program, then do the "save as" a pict or tiff and import those files into VW.

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Hi James. I am honored that you joined this board to help with this question. Thank you.

Actually I am using VW11 on Mac OS10.3.7. You have some great ideas, so I have tried each one.

1. Get info shows that I have read and write priveleges.

2. If I open the document in Adobe Acrobat Professional 6.0 and do a save as PDF, I end up with the same document, only a copy.

The options that would allow me to delete pages are grayed out. The document must be protected as all modification options are not available.

3. I have Adobe Photoshop 7.0. When I attempt to open the document in Photoshop, I am greeted with a prompt to enter the master password. I have never seen this before. I assume that it is indicative of the document being protected.

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Thanks Don. I have tried this and here are the results.

1. If I use the Save as PDF button, I get an error message saying that printing a PDF to PDF is not supported and that I should do a Save As.

2. If I go to Output options and choose save file, I have a choice of saving to PDF or Postscript.

2.1 Saving to PDF does produce a document. However the image quality is poor. Upon importing to VW, the image is unacceptable.

2.2 I have not been able to convert the Postscript file to a PDF. I will look into this further as it appears to be the only option left.

I did note that not all ICBO reports are locked. I downloaded another PDF that is 7 pages and I can delete the pages from within Adobe Acrobat Professional.

Thanks for your ideas. Anyone else want to give this a try?

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I use Adobe Acrobat Professional to do this.

First create all the pages as outlined by Don and the others above.

Then open the first page, page 1.

Then using Arcobat Acrobat Professional, from the Menu bar choose Document > Pages > Insert

then add all the pages one after the other.

Professional gives you the ability to add links (linking a detail reference to the page with the detail), edit typos, and secure the document...

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you might try using graphic converter, an excellent program that can open and convert many types of graphic files (site- http://www.lemkesoft.com/en/graphcon.htm). with it you might be able to get around your printing problems.

another suggestion i have is to talk to the plan examiner in the building department. if i understand correctly, they want you to put this document on your drawings for submission(?). if this is so, you are about to seal drawings with information on them that 1) you do not 'own' and 2) that you are going to be responsible for. there might be some liability and legal issues there. my suggestion is to submit the pdf document as a stand alone submission without any connection to the drawings. we are able to do that all the time where we are (pa and nj). hope this helps...

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Don: Thank you for your help. When attempting to save as in Preview, I am given a "Permissions Error", and not allowed to save as. I assume that this relates to the document being read only.

Jonathan: Thank you for your advice. Unfortunately the document is read only and thus all of those Acrobat Pro features are disabled. It is not possible to delete, extract, or insert. As you point out, Acrobat Pro allows you to secure the document and apparently this is what the creator of the document did.

The second PDF that I needed to import is not protected and is seven pages long. The only method that I can think of is to import the first page, then go to Acrobat and delete the first page making the second page the first page and repeating the import and deletion process untill all pages are imported.

Jim: That is valuable advice, thank you. This "simple request" sent me down a road of first, compliance with the requirement, and second, a steadfast determination to conquer this PDF to Vectorworks challenge.

I agree with you, and will be calling the Building Official to see if stapling the letter size pages will be sufficient.

I also found that the image quality of the imported PDF is not all that great. At this point it seems to make more sense to print the PDF to letter paper and tape it up to D size and then make a copy of that at the blueprinter.

Thank you all for your help and advice. I wish NNA would have joined in here.

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Kevin there is one other sneaky solution that you might on a protected PDF file. Preview has a tool mode to copy text or images. It is the square box on the right side of the oval tab. (If you don?t have the tool mode active, while in Preview go under the View Menu, select Customize Toolbar and drag the 3 button tool mode tab to the bottom part of the screen, it will now be on your toolbar ) Open the PDF in Preview, select the image box and drag it over the page. Cut and paste each page to a word processor, or better yet to Photoshop so you can use the sharpen command on the file, and then import each page to VW.

What you said about PDF?s is true, many do not look that good when on paper because they are set at 72 or 96 DPI for quicker loading in your browser. You might try contacting the company who?s ICBO report it is and have them send you an unprotected, higher quality copy.

And your welcome for the 1st response, but don?t flatter yourself, I didn?t join to just answer your question :-)) Although I am very adapt at graphics and images on the Mac, I am a novice to VW and will need lots of help, so maybe you can return the favor in the future.

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