PDF from Autodesk Revit

[GPyles]

When trying to create a PDF from Autodesk Revit (2017) using acrobat DC or Acrobat XI using the print to Adobe PDF function.   The file destination is on a second hard drive in my PC, not the root drive (C:) The first attempt usually does not generate a file, PDF, at all.  The screen does flash and shows a progress bar, nut nothing is created.  On the second attempt a PDF is usually generated and the progress window shows the sheet count as they are created.

I troubleshot this issue for 2 hours with Autodesk tech support.  We installed all updates for Revit and Acrobat.  Results are the same.

Please Help or help me escalate this issue,  I waste a lot of time not generating PDFs.

[KanikaS]

Moving to Creating PDFs​

[leticiap12793911]

Hi Support,

I have been troubleshooting many clients reporting this same issue.

Is there any solution yet for this problem?

Autodesk has an article knowledging this problem - PDF output takes a long time or fails; progress bar stops advancing (Adobe PDF printer) | Revit Prod...

I believe it is a critical issue for Adobe as many users facing the issue.

I would appreciate a response on this matter.

Regards,

[Dov Isaacs · Accepted solution]

I have looked at the Autodesk article cited as well as the postings on Autodesk's forums.

(1)     Clearly the problem started with recent versions of Autodesk Revit beginning in 2016 and continuing on through at least the current 2017 release. The variable here appears to be Autodesk Revit, not Adobe Acrobat.

(2)     Revit creates PDF with Acrobat via printing to the Adobe PDF PostScript printer driver instance in which content provided by Revit is converted to PostScript with the driver itself (a Microsoft component) which is then fed into Acrobat Distiller (a component of Adobe Acrobat) which converts the PostScript to PDF. It is in either the creation of the PostScript or in the Distiller.

(3)     CAD software typically produces very verbose output, exceptional numbers of line segments and itsy-bitsy filled polygons which in turn produces even more complex PostScript and PDF, even for simple models. For complex models, the output is just that much more in size and complexity. In the description of the problem Autodesk's article specifically points to model complexity as a major factor in the symptoms occurring or being alleviated.

(4)     Autocad itself acknowledges that the problem occurs with at least one other third party PDF driver / creator.

(5)     We have no idea where the issue is since as far as I know, Autodesk has not reached out to Adobe to assist in troubleshooting the issue. We would need Autodesk's active assistance in terms of providing software and sample problematic files for anyone at Adobe to be able to even begin helping Autodesk to resolve the issue. Again the problem could be in Revit in terms of how it interacts with the print driver, Microsoft in terms of how the PostScript driver is converting the print stream from Revit to PostScript, or less likely, some internal limitation or problem within Distiller.

This is not just “a critical issue for Adobe” but rather, a critical issue for Autodesk that we would like to assist our mutual customers overcome. Maybe you and other Revit customers can convince Autodesk to reach out to us?

          - Dov

PS:     One thing you can do to help troubleshoot the problem is to try changing the Adobe PDF PostScript printer driver to temporarily point to port FILE: instead of port Adobe PDF. This will cause the driver to simply produce PostScript and not go onto the Acrobat Distiller conversion of PostScript to PDF. If the creation still takes a very long time, or hangs, or otherwise fails, the problem has nothing whatsoever to do with Adobe Acrobat. If you can try this, let us know the results!!!

[hux01]

Hi Dov,

While the problem is Autodesk related, the outcome is for us to cancel our Acrobat subscription and use one of the many other PDF printers that DO work (my subscription to Adobe is primarily for PDF printing from my programmes).

May I suggest for the sake of company sales that ADOBE reaches out to Auto desk to try and find a solution?

[Dov Isaacs]

I wish it was that simple. Autodesk acknowledges the problem. The problem occurs with other products that similar to Acrobat, convert PostScript from Revit to PDF. The solution for Autodesk is to either directly generate PDF or to produce much more efficient PostScript and/or driver calls.

There is nothing that Adobe can really do here in terms of reaching out. It is strictly a matter of Autodesk making the fix a priority on their side.

          - Dov

[ricardoc86858781]

Hi Dov, Hux01, I was searching for a full solution for same problem. I found that by making a previous First, Adobe Acrobat produce the PDF one by one, a limitation but a secure way to generate PDF while a solution is found.

Regards

[martin_flyr27409207]

Hi GPyles, Dov, Hux01 & others

Thanks for addressing a problem that has been known to be common among architects and others creating PDF from Revit

Problems when creating PDF from the printmenu in Revit... again in the 2018 pack

When I try to print several sheets combined in one PDF file, just as I normally send a print job to a Xerox, it would often stop in the process without notice.

It is rather frustrating that nobody at Adobe or Autodesk seems to have taken proper action to fix this issue.... Worldwide leading companies, each in their field, too big to actually care??

I have found that the graphic display menu in Revit might cause part of this problem: When "ambient shadows" are added to a hidden line view, the print process bar will always stop just in the beginning, and no information is available to solve the problem, or even to follow the process, has it stopped or is it just slow? This is simply not good enough, not even form a freeware program standard, at least a time out warning or failure popup should show?

To avoid the 100% chance of problems, remove ambient shadows before printing. If you want to make sure the PDF is created, avoid several complex views in the same sheet, and print sheets to PDF separate, one at a time...

May this suggest that a memory limit in the printjob handeling is set too small?

I would appreciate any suggestions to solve this problem!

Best Regards

Martin

[Dov Isaacs]

Martin,

With all due respect, what exactly do you think Adobe can do to assist here? This is code within Revit and something that Adobe has absolutely no control over.

          - Dov

[martin_flyr27409207]

Dear DovI am truly sorry if I have let my frustration carry me away from the subject. I have spent hours trying to make this work. Again. However, my question is:Can i, with my acces to controls in the adobe print menu, adjust the assigned memoryspace, or any other parameters that could adress this problem? Thank you for you quick response to my desperate e-mail. Best regards, Martin 

Sendt fra min Samsung Galaxy-smartphone.

[Test Screen Name]

There are no limits in the Adobe software to adjust, and no low limits at all. In pointing at Adobe and Autodesk we may be missing the real culprit: Microsoft. Their driver sits between Revit and Acrobat. You can test this by printing to file from Revit; if this too is unreliable then no Adobe code was in use.

[hanks63037199]

Hi Don,

You and your equivalents at Autodesk are masters of passing the buck. Shame on Adobe, shame on Autodesk and most of all, shame on software subscription.

I purchased your rather costly product for the sole purpose of printing complex Revit model at the highest print quality levels that supposedly only Adobe Acrobat Pro can produce. But it doesn't work as of August 2018, and apparently it hasn't worked since 2016.

I can't think of any other reason to own a pdf printer, so since your product doesn't work, I'm going have to make a trip to the Best Buy to return it.

Please inform me when Adobe and Autodesk, the high cost leaders of software as a service, have resolved this most stupid of issues, because until you have, there is no reason to purchase any of your respective products.

Hank Steinhardt

[Dov Isaacs]

Hank,

I don't know who “Don” is, but on behalf of Adobe, I certainly feel your frustration and yes, it certainly is a “most stupid of issues.”

But if you read through this thread, you will notice that this performance issue occurs even when simply printing to a real printer, not just to the Adobe PDF printer driver instance that happens to use the same, base Microsoft PostScript driver. All the evidence so far points to Revit generating very complex and copious calls to the PostScript driver. That is where the bottleneck is. No Adobe code is involved here at all nor can Adobe control how Autodesk's Revit product interacts with Microsoft's driver. And in fact, based on user reports, the problems appeared to occur with the 2016 version of Revit. The variable is changes in Revit.

Autodesk apparently knows about the problem based on what appears on Autodesk's Revit forums and when it occurred! And the problem affects all other products that produce PDF by converting PostScript to PDF. We'd love to assist but exactly what do you think Adobe can do to resolve this problem?

          - Dov

[hanks63037199]

Thanks Dov, and sorry for getting your spelling wrong. You have done a very thorough job of making my point about passing the buck.

I don't claim to understand the technical mechanics of why this problem is occurring and I certainly didn't intend to give Autodesk a free pass. Having used Revit n multiple versions for close to five years, I can confidently tell your that there are plenty of unfixed issues to complain about, but printing has never been one of them.

It's actually incredibly lame for Autodesk to sell their products without a built-in PDF printer. PDF is the dominant transmission form and it's hard to think of CAD without it. But believe me when I say that I can't wait for the day to come when there is a change that kills the PDF for the good of all.

I've printed thousands of Revit drawings with my printers, with free downloaded pdf creators and low-end products like Corel, but Adobe Acrobat Pro is the only one that's given me this kind of grief. I've had plenty of paper jambs but not a single PDF print failure until today. Regardless of the drawing size or complexity it will only print once, sometimes I can get a second shot out of it by changing Adobe PDF preferences in the print dialogue but, but about half the time I had to close and reopen Revit to make it work, it just isn't worth the hassle.

I purchased Acrobat Pro because I thought I could get better control over scaling and graphic quality but I was wrong, all I got was a headache. I did get to spend an afternoon trying to print a  drawing while troubleshoot something that apparently thousands of other paying customers have also tried and failed to fix for the last three years. Come to think about even the install process sucked, the website printed on the box for registration was wrong and I got to call India to register a product that I will return tomorrow..

So please just go ahead and blame it on Autodesk.

Hank

[Dov Isaacs]

Perhaps the real problem is that “printing to PDF” is not a particularly good or efficient method to produce PDF.

Quite frankly, the best solution for applications with complex content is to directly export PDF and absolutely not expect users to produce PDF by “printing” to some driver. “Print to PDF” solutions always requires multiple steps. In this case there are three or four steps, the first being conversion of the native file format to some metafile format (in the case of Windows, that is either GDI or XAML), the second step being conversion of XAML to GDI if the application didn't use GDI, the third step being conversion of that format by the printer driver to PostScript,  and finally the fourth step being conversion of PostScript to PDF. Some lower quality PDF creators cut out the step of generating PostScript, providing a driver that directly goes from GDI (or XAML) to PDF, although such PDF creators typically cannot by definition produce press quality PDF.

It is for this reason that PDF creation from Adobe applications (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and now FrameMaker) and many others including applications from Corel, Quark and even some other Autodesk applications is done in the application itself.

          - Dov

[hanks63037199]

Well said, printing to PDF is just lame and there is no good reason for it.

[stunston]

Try print preview first, then print as normal.

Been fumbling with this for a while and it would work sometimes, seemingly randomly. The last few times it DID work was after looking at a print preview. Don't know how that would make a difference but... any strange ritual to appease the tech gods.

[StanZman3]

Wow, it's been nearly 3years since this complete waste of time has been reported and neither Adobe or Autodesk done a thing about this simple problem.  Maybe somebody should notifiy their stockholders that both Adobe and Autodesk are not doing anything about a serious problem for their end users. 
I guess the solution is boycott Adobe and AutoDesk products until they pay attention to their customers?