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Participant
August 2, 2022
Question

DWG to PDF not supported anymore ?

  • August 2, 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 4672 views

Hello,

 

One of our customers was using Acrobat to convert a lot of DWG files to PDF without having to run Autocad. Then one day, it stopped working.

 

So I'm the one who has to solve this problem.
I installed the latest version of Acrobat Pro DC on both my machine and on a virtual machine to make sure it was not related to a bad installation/conflicts. For both I get the same error message when I want to convert : "Conversion of this file format to pdf is not supported on the 64-bit version"


Here's the step : Tools -> Create PDF -> Create (after loading a DWG files)
And i get the same error if i try to open a DWG to PDF through windows explorer or when i try to combine several DWG.

Also, when I'm in Create PDF and I go to Advanced Settings and then click on Configuration Preferences I get the following error:

 

This functionality is currently unavailable as Autodesk filters component of Adobe Acrobat is not installed. Please Install this component using Adobe Acrobat installer to access this feature.

 

But it seems to me that this is an old message since there is no more Adobe Acrobat Installer (am I wrong?)

The problem is that an official Adobe page states that it's installed by default here:
https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/creating-pdfs-pdfmaker-windows.html

 

Convert Autocad files when Autocad is not installed

The default Acrobat installation installs Autodesk filters. These filters allow you to convert files in DWG, DWF, DST, DWT, and DXF format into PDF, without the native application installed.


So I searched on the web to see solutions, some say that you need Autocad now, others that it just does not work anymore, others that it should work.
So I downloaded the latest version of Autocad, it didn't work.
Then I saw that PDFMaker was only compatible until Autocad 2019 (according to an official Adobe page https://helpx.adobe.com/fr/acrobat/kb/compatible-web-browsers-pdfmaker-applications.html)

So I downloaded the Autocad 2019 version.
It works, but the problem is that it goes through Autocad (Acrobat DC Pro opens Autocad and each DWG file one by one and converts them one by one)
It takes much more time than before.
And I still get the same error when I go to Configuration Preferences in Advenced Settings.


So I have several questions:

How do I download old versions of Acrobat Reader? I've looked and I can't find anything official for that.
Should the DWG to PDF conversion be possible without opening Autocad in the latest versions?
And more generally I'm obviously interested in any solutions to this problem.

 

Thank you

This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

yash singh
Participating Frequently
July 26, 2024

You can downgrade the Acrobat application by following the steps in the below link :

Downgrade Acrobat reader 

yashas@adobe.foundation
Participant
March 15, 2023

Hi, did You resolv this? I'm also struggling with this problem.

yash singh
Participating Frequently
July 26, 2024

You can downgrade the Acrobat application by following the steps in the below link :

Downgrade Acrobat reader 

yashas@adobe.foundation
Participant
July 26, 2024

It doesn't really work.
Adobe and Autodesk have likely ended a partnership, resulting in new versions of Acrobat no longer supporting any DWG to PDF conversion, regardless of the DWG version. With older versions of Acrobat (2017 i believe), this conversion is only possible for DWG being saved with Autocad 2017 or below, If i remember correctly.

Community Expert
August 3, 2022

Moving this to the more appropriate Acrobat forum for better help.

-Manan

-Manan
Participant
July 25, 2024

Next time... mayb e a link to the new post location? A little conscientiousness goes a long way.

Community Expert
July 26, 2024

You are replying to the post at the new location. I moved the post to the appropriate forum, this mean that there is no new post, the original one is moved and now it is at the new location where you are reading it and responding to.

-Manan

-Manan