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Participant
March 25, 2020
Question

How to add multiple annotation layers to a PDF of a Construction Drawing

  • March 25, 2020
  • 3 replies
  • 1768 views

Hello - Hope I can explain this well enough.  Not an Adobe expert, but for years I add shaded areas with the polygon feature to black and white PDF architectural drawings I receive from the architect for large construction project in hospitals or schools.  These shaded areas are of different colors to illustrate a certain phase of construction or perhaps an area of ceiling tile is a blue shaded room and a green shading represents the floor tile in that area that needs to be replaced, etc... I also like to add the little text boxes with arrows showing where a picture was taken or where a sample was collected.  How can I create a PDF for my client that has each of these individually created annotations available as "layers" so he/she can click on and off which layer they want to see or all at once.  I know they send me PDFs that have little layer "eyeballs" that I can click off and all the toilets disappear from the wing of a hospital or click another layer and all the sprinkler heads disappear.  Thanks for any help!!  

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3 replies

Thom Parker
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 25, 2020

It is entirely possible to attach form fields and annotations to an OCG (Layer). It's part of the official PDF specification.  Unfortunately the Acrobat UI does not provide any features for doing this.

You'll need to either get this 3rd party plug-in:

https://www.pdfscripting.com/public/programs/downloadsearch.cfm?searchtype=simple&searchmode=cat&keywords=recent&sortby=name&cat=Acrobat%20Plug-Ins

 

Or write custom Acrobat plug-in for you specific purpose.  Contact me through www.windjack.com if you are interested.  

Thom Parker - Software Developer at PDFScriptingUse the Acrobat JavaScript Reference early and often
try67
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 25, 2020

You can also filter by Author, so you can use that to "tag" the annotations with authors such "Layer1" or "Wing X", etc., and then show/hide them as needed.

Document Geek
Community Expert
Community Expert
March 25, 2020

Annotations are sort of on their own layer. But what you can do is filter by color. Click on the fullenl icon, and then choose which color/s you want displayed.