Acrobat XI Standard and AutoCAD

[Rhinny2012]

I downloaded the trial of XI Pro and it works fine for printing (creating a pdf) out of AutoCAD 2013 in both D and E size sheets. However, I do not need the extra features which Pro has, but cannot try a trial of Standard to see if it will work the same. To any AutoCAD users out there, I had to create a custom .pc3 file to get Pro to plot to a pdf in the correct orientation. Once I did that, all is fine. Is there anyone who is specifically using XI Standard and AutoCAD 2013 that has made a custom .pc3 file and can verify that Standard works correctly with AutoCAD? No need to respond if you are using X or older because that will not answer my specific question. The Adobe site gives me no reason to think it will not work, but I would prefer to have some first hand knowledge before buying Standard. I'd rather spend $450.00 and get features I will never use than spend $300.00 only to find it doesn't work. But if Standard will work, that would be preferable. I did ask this question in the Autodesk forums also but have yet to get a response from anyone using the exact same two products.

[Steve Cordero]

There is no Acrobat Standard XI Trial.  The AutoDesk Filters are not included in Acrobat Standard.  That is an Acrobat Pro ONLY feature.

[Rhinny2012]

I understand there is no Standard trial as that would have solved my problem. Not sure what you are referring to when you say AutoCAD Filters. Can you clarify that?

[Steve Cordero]

Adobe Acrobat Pro XI has a set of AutoCAD filters that can convert the DWG files from AutoCAD 2012 to PDF.  If you have the trial for Adobe Acrobat Pro XI then you can test this for yoursellf.  If you are simply printing to PDF from the Adobe PDF Printer with AutoCAD, then you should know that custom page sizes are possible using the Adobe PDF Printer.  Again you can test this with the Adobe Acrobat Pro XI Trial's Adobe PDF Printer.

To know what is and isn't supported by the PDFMaker feature you can reference this document:  http://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/compatible-web-browsers-pdfmaker-applications.html

[Rhinny2012]

When I look up AutoCAD filters for Pro, all I can dind are discussions regarding settings within PDFMaker. I can't seem to find this feature anywhere in XI Pro. Either way, as I outlined, I am able to print pdfs correctly from inside AutoCAD using the Adobe PDF printer once I made a .pc3 file. As I said, it works. I'm simply trying to find out if it will work the same in Standard. This is why I was hoping for someone actually using AutoCAD who can confirm it.

[Steve Cordero]

The reason you can't find the PDFMaker AutCAD filters in AutoCAD 2013 is because Acrobat XI Pro does not support AutoCAD 2013.   The print to PDF feature from the Adobe PDF Printer should work the same in both products.  The available sheets sizes may be different though.  I'll double check it for you.  You are looking to see if D and E size sheets are available in the Adobe PDF Printer right?

[Rhinny2012]

Actually, I'm looking to confirm that I can create custom sizes like I did through printer preferences on this attached image. I would find it hard to believe that I can't, but I need to make sure. The custom ones I made are the ones that say Landscape after them because Acrobat will not orient the image correctly from AutoCAD unless you define a horizontal paper layout. Using the standard D and E in Adobe does not work correctly. If I can make them using the Add buttom just like I did in Pro, it should work for me

[Steve Cordero]

No D or E size pages defined by default. 

Yes, you can add custom page sizes in Acrobat XI Standard just like you can in Acrobat XI Pro.

[Rhinny2012]

Thanks. Just so I know, is that ALL the stock sizes that Standard has? And is that XI that you provided the image from or an older version?

[Steve Cordero]

That is all Acrobat XI Standard has as far as stock sizes goes.  No,  it's from Acrobat XI Standard on a Windows 8 machine.

[Rhinny2012]

Thanks for the help. Someone on the AutoCAD forums also just confirmed that they have been doing this since Acrobat Standard 8.1, so I should be OK.