Help.. Lines showing in different colours.

[des91arch]

Hi,

 

I have been working on relatively simple autocad drawing which has all lines in black. When i then export this file as a pdf (its the easiest way to print in the university library) only the vertical and horizontal lines show in black, diagonal lines and arcs all show in grey. Help?

Would this still print all lines in black?

Is it a problem with the drawing in autocad or is it just something that adobe acrobat does when viewing pdfs?

 

Thanks

Adam

[CyberAngel]

Sounds like it could be aliasing. Check the PDF export settings or use a plotter for PDF.

[Tony Howes]

Hi,

 

Just joined the forum because i have exactly the same problem. Did you get an answer from anyone? Can you help me if you did?

[eoghanoduinn]

How are you exporting to pdf?

[Tony Howes]

Im drawing in AutoCAD 2010 and plotting to pdf. Then opening drawing in Adobe reader 9.

[irneb]

How does the plot preview compare with the final PDF? Same colour differences or is the preview as you want it?

[Tony Howes]

The plot preview in the Cad dialog box is fine, its just in reader where the rounded lines are feint.

[irneb]

Which PDF driver are you using? I find this type of problem STILL occurs with the supposedly "fixed" DWG 2 PDF driver, my major gripe is more the text though. I'd advise you to rather use a virtual printer driver such as Adobe's or if you don't want to pay for it CutePDF / PDFCreator / etc. They all produce miles better quality and usually smaller files. Unfortunately you loose some of the "automaticness" when publishing through ADesk's built-in driver, but the one I use (PDFCreator) has its own "automatic" methods as well.

[Tony Howes]

I am using the DWG to PDF built into Cad 2010. And yes, I find that text is poor as well. Ill download CutePDF and try, Thanks mate...

[ReMark]

The PDF file format was originally created to share content between different word processing programs. Why would you expect it to work well within the confines of a CAD program?

 

irneb's advice to look at something other than what Adobe or AutoCAD would like you to use should be taken to heart. Another option is BlueBeam PDF Revu a version written specifically with AutoCAD and other similar programs in mind. A link....

 

http://www.bluebeam.com/web07/us/products/revu/cad/index.asp?src=97

[Tony Howes]

My thanks to you too... this information is all very helpfull.

[naveed]

pl use deskdock dwg to pdf converter it is the best to convert in pdf

 

and have a good setting it is easily available

 

thank

[Tony Howes]

My thanks to you as well naveed, ill try all these and post the results...

[bjenk8100]

i go to menu > export > pdf and never have a problem

 

also, talk to your lab attendant he might be able to help you get an autocad driver for the printer/plotter that you guys are using. It shouldnt be that hard to do just google printer/plotter name and autocad driver

[Tony Howes]

Iv tried all the answers iv been given. But the problem is still there. Does anyone know about the "aliasing" thing that was mentioned earlier? Where do i find "allow aliasing" in cad 2010 settings?

[irneb]

i go to menu > export > pdf and never have a problem

 

also, talk to your lab attendant he might be able to help you get an autocad driver for the printer/plotter that you guys are using. It shouldnt be that hard to do just google printer/plotter name and autocad driver

That uses the normal DWG2PDF driver, it's not like MSO / OOo's PDF export at all - it just prints the DWG through that driver. So you'll have the same issues as you do when plotting.

 

Iv tried all the answers iv been given. But the problem is still there. Does anyone know about the "aliasing" thing that was mentioned earlier? Where do i find "allow aliasing" in cad 2010 settings?

The only "aliasing" I know of would be a setting in the particular driver - not all of them have such. What happens to these lines when you zoom into the PDF in Acrobat? Maybe it's the "aliasing" of the viewer itself. Also if you print from the PDF, do the lines still appear too thin on the print?

[Tony Howes]

Printing from the pdf is perfect. Its just views wrongly. When I zoom into the pdf in Acrobat I can see the radius's look "displaced" and grey. It happens to circles, text and angled lines. Iv re-drawn some blocks to see if the lineweights and colours were different but they are all black and 0.00. Iv now made the pdf conversions with DWGtoPDF / Acrobat pro / CutePDF and Bluebeam. Its all the same.

[naveed]

 

use this software and set

 

out put color 256 or true color

pdf quality extra high

standard a3 size or above

 

hope u will solve your problem

[irneb]

Printing from the pdf is perfect. Its just views wrongly. When I zoom into the pdf in Acrobat I can see the radius's look "displaced" and grey. It happens to circles, text and angled lines. Iv re-drawn some blocks to see if the lineweights and colours were different but they are all black and 0.00. Iv now made the pdf conversions with DWGtoPDF / Acrobat pro / CutePDF and Bluebeam. Its all the same.

From that description it sounds like it's the viewer / monitor / graphics card combination and nothing to do with how you produce the PDF. Try opening the PDF in another version / brand viewer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PDF_software#Microsoft_Windows; Foxit is rather good, especially since it does what Acrobat Professional does for a lot less price; or the least resource hungry one I've found - Cool PDF Reader).

 

It's probably something to do with the "extremely" thin lines you use: I mean 0.00mm is ... uhm ... nearly ... no, almost ... no, absolutely nothing! So the viewer is probably trying to display them with the thinnest possible setting, and when the lines go skew / round you end up with a very thin line of pixels which are aliased to make it look less jagged on the rectangular array of pixels - thus it starts appearing grey. See this to figure out what's happening: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-aliasing#Signal_processing_approach_to_anti-aliasing

[drwhite]

There you are. ReMark, I found this today, http://cadtips.cadalyst.com/plotprint/plot-pdf-natively in the Cadalyst site. I tried it. I liked it. You can control what layers are on and off in the PDF file itself. You create a PDF with any pen tables you have created. I have most of mine in black and white. I have one called color where everything plots in color per the layer settings. Blue is blue, red is red, etc. Very pretty. This .pc3 works well, DWG to PDF.pc3 It is SPECIFICALLY written to work in AutoCAD.

Version 2010, at least by my knowledge. I tried the Bluebeam route one time back in 2004, and even though I paid good money for it, it didn't work always. I'd bet it does now. But, this .pc3 is FREE!! And it works.

1045-00-09a.pdf

1045-00-09.pdf