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Autocad PDF creation problem

Guest
May 19, 2009 May 19, 2009

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When creating PDF's from AutoCAD using Adobe Acrobat Pro 8 some content is missing on some drawings. On some drawings, lines and other content is missing from the PDF.  Using AutoCAD 2008 and Acrobat 8 Professional.

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Guru ,
May 19, 2009 May 19, 2009

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How are you creating the PDF?  If you're using the integrated way try printing to the Adobe PDF writer.

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Guest
Aug 28, 2009 Aug 28, 2009

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I am printing to the Adobe Acrobat installed as a printer and selecting that printer, usually with a script, from witihin AutoCad 2008.

As the thread now shows, I have a couple of other suggestions and I have implemented the first and have had no reoccurence of the problem since.

As the problem was somewhat sporadic I'm not totally convinced that it has been resolved.

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 25, 2009 Jun 25, 2009

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You need to run Distiller and edit the configuration.  Take the check mark out of the box that says something about Optimize PDF.

We had same problem and this was what worked.

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Guest
Aug 28, 2009 Aug 28, 2009

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Thanks, DRJacobsen.

I did run Distiller and made the suggested change and, to date I have only seen a problem once and it was, most likely, caused by an unrelated issue. (Instead of losing only random bits of graphics, I lost an entire block which was the border of the drawing.)

Like so may other companies our business has dropped off pretty dramatically and, therefore, I've had less occasion to experience the problem.

Typically the dropped graphics would manifest when I was running script driven batch plots.

This made checking the final product, shall we say, more "interesting". 

I will continue to monitor the situation but, frankly, it will take some time of acceptable performance before I will be trusting again.

Thanks again for the suggestion.

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New Here ,
Aug 27, 2009 Aug 27, 2009

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We have been having the same problem with missing lines and objects.  I lowered the Adobe PDF Converter resolution from 1200dpi to 300dpi and it worked.  I tried 600dpi but that didn't work.  Let me know if this fixes the problem for you.

For anyone who may not be familiar with how to change this setting here is what I did:

1. When plotting from AutoCAD choose the Adobe PDF printer and click Properties to open the Plotter Configuration Editor.
2. In the "Device and Document Settings" Tab click the "Custom Properties" button
3. Click the "Layout" tab and click the "Advanced" button
4. Lower the Print Quality to 300dpi. (You could try 600dpi but it didn't work for me.)

FYI, I am using:

* Autocad LT 2007
* Adobe PDF Converter (Printer)
   Driver name: PSCRIPT5.DLL
   Data file: ADPDF7.PPD
   Driver version: 6.00
* Adobe Acrobat Standard 7.0
* OS: Windows XP Professional Version 2002, SP2

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Guest
Aug 28, 2009 Aug 28, 2009

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Thanks, bgreilly3.

I have used the suggestion by the previous responder and have not seen a reoccurrence that I can say with confidence is the same situation.  I DID lose some grahics but it was an entire block rather than just some random graphics and, I think, that was likely a different problem.  Our workload has been significantly lighter for several months and I have less opportunity to test the solutions offered but, If the problem comes back, I will reduce the resolution as you suggested.

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Community Beginner ,
Aug 28, 2009 Aug 28, 2009

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Hi Bud,

We have seen complete blocks disappear from our drawings recently as well.

We have electrical drawings that have several switch and relay developments on them (all inserted as blocks).

Sometimes 2 or 3 of the blocks disappear but if we run it again, they all show up on the 2nd attempt.

I haven't checked the resolution, but I think I originally configured ours to use a lower resolution.

When we experiencing the random lines disappearing, it was fixed by removing the option to Optimize the PDF.

It seems this new problem with complete blocks disappearing started after we installed the patch for the latest version (9.1.3)

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New Here ,
Sep 16, 2009 Sep 16, 2009

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We are on AutoCAD MEP 2008 and we have been seeing this issue with Acrobat 9.1.2 and have observed this behavior from v9.0,

I spoke to Adobe support on several occastions. Their responses have been:

1) Reinstall

2) Manually select to embed all fonts

3) Turn off 2d graphics acceleration.

None of these solutions worked. We have been able to lessen the issue with the following settings:

Uncheck Optimize setting

PDF/X-3 Compliant
Set it to Preserve DSC information
Convert Smooth Lines to curves
Save Adobe PDF settings inside PDF file
Settings File: North America Prepress 2
Embed All Fonts (100%)
Compatibility: PDF 1.4

DPI: 150 dpi

The last setting (DPI) was changed from 300 to 150. This last setting has created a new behavior. Now, instead of a couple of blocks or texts being missing, nearly the whole drawing will be blank on a problem PDF. From a production standpoint, it seems to be a bit better in that it is immediately obvious if there is a problem with the PDF rather than my engineers having to stare at every PDF and potentially miss something subtle, but this is still a major issue.

Has anyone else come across a setting which resolves this?

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Community Beginner ,
Sep 16, 2009 Sep 16, 2009

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Thanks for posting the info Davecsa.

I will try those settings on ours and see what happens.  I am reluctant to bump the DPI down to 150 but I will give it a try for testing purposes.

I am also reviewing Autodesk's Design Review 2010 and Dwg trueview.

It will search for text in DWF and DWG files even if the drawing uses SHX fonts.

If things work out better with Design Review and DWG Trueview and saving files to DWF, then we will most likely make the transition away from PDF.

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New Here ,
Sep 16, 2009 Sep 16, 2009

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There is a thread on the Autodesk discussion forums where I have been posting also -

(The title is "PDF Missing Objects" in case the link does not work)

http://discussion.autodesk.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=508093&tstart=0

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New Here ,
Oct 14, 2009 Oct 14, 2009

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We seem to have finally resolved this issue through AutoDesk support. We have been testing this resolution for a week or so and have not observed a re-occurrence.

In AutoCAD, check the values on  the following 2 variables:

1) RASTERPERCENT - Controls how much virtual memory is available for use for plotting a raster image. We set this to 90 (this was previously set very low).

2) RASTERTHRESHOLD - This controls the raster memory cache size (in MB) utilized for plotting. We set ours to 50 though it can go as high as 500. A plot will abort if the raster requirements are larger than the available cache. (This was previously set to 20).

Additional Setting: Raster performance - We did not have to alter this setting but you can control the raster quality/performance output in the "Raster and Shaded/Rendered Viewports" setting of the pc3.

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 14, 2009 Oct 14, 2009

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Wow - Thanks for posting this.

We will give this a try and see what happens.

Thank you very much!

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New Here ,
Oct 14, 2009 Oct 14, 2009

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I should have mentioned also - we tested this configuration at 150dpi and 300dpi and it works equally well with both with the settings I posted.

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 14, 2009 Oct 14, 2009

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Turns out we weren't as lucky.

I had a drafter call up one of the "problem" drawings and made the changes to the settings as listed earlier.

We still have major portions missing.

If they run the PDFmaker a second time right after the first failed attempt, then the missing data shows up.  But we noticed that a while back (prior to making the settings change).

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New Here ,
Oct 14, 2009 Oct 14, 2009

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I am sorry that the fix did not help you.

Depending on the drawing complexity, you may need to go  higher on the RASTERTHRESHOLD- try 100 or higher. It might be worth playing around with that setting a bit. Also, you could like at the resolution settings for the image conversion in the distiller joboptions file - mine are set to default (rescale color and greyscale images to 150ppi and 300ppi for monochrome).

Is he on AutoCAD 2009 or above? There is another option called "PUBLISHCOLLATE" available in AutoCAD 2009. Try setting that to 0.

Also - are the missing objects Express blocks? We have had _serious_ problems with Express objects when converting to PDF since AutoCAD 2004.

Another item that was suggested to me was to try the Autodesk DWG to PDF pc3 printer and see if that gets the same results. If you get the same results, you may want to open a support case with Autodesk as it points to something not right with AutoCAD or the drawing file(s).

You could also try sliding down the "Raster and Shaded/Rendered Viewports" down (to the left) and see if that helps.

Out of curiosity, are you plotting to the Adobe PDF system printer (or pc3 file) or are you using the conversion macro button? The macro conversion button has never worked the way it should for us (most things do not convert properly - lineweights, scaling, etc...)

I hope this helps.

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Guest
Oct 20, 2009 Oct 20, 2009

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The changes, so far, have not solved our problems, either.

I ran a 10 sheet set of plots today and sheet 10 has major deleted graphics in the title block area. This drawing uses a border that is a block.

I'll tinker some more.

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New Here ,
Oct 21, 2009 Oct 21, 2009

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A couple of other items occurred to me... you may have already checked these.

- No background plotting (turn off background plotting). Especially if you are doing a batch plot. Background plotting to the Adobe PDF printer will cause incomplete pdfs.

- Our workstations are 32bit w/ 4GB RAM so we use the /3GB /USERVA=3030 startup switch for Windows. It does not seem like it should matter for 2D AutoCAD but I have seen some odd behaviors with larger drawings in AutoCAD MEP 2008 otherwise.

- Font Issues: Someone could write a seperate manual just for dealing with fonts in AutoCAD. Essentially, we ended up installing all truetype fonts with a custom installer and having everyone's AutoCAD profile point to a network location with all the SHX fonts.

- Wipeouts: These do not work properly when creating a PDF. No idea why.

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Guest
Oct 14, 2009 Oct 14, 2009

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Thanks.

I've not noticed the problem since I changed the resolution but work has slowed and I've not been as busy so fewer chances to catch an error.

I'm sharing this fix with the others involved here and asking for feedback.

If there are any negative replies I'll let you know but, for now, thanks a bunch.

Bud

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New Here ,
Jun 22, 2021 Jun 22, 2021

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Hi All, thanks for raising such a nice query.

I have tried all the solutions mentioned by various experts in different platforms. But the easiest way I found is to choose "AutoCAD PDF (General Documentation).pc3" while printing your drawing regardless of what PDF you have installed. 

See the attached screenshot, please

Hope it works !

Cheers!

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