Recommendations for plotting to PDF

[mickeforsberg]

Hello,

 

I was wondering if there are any general recommendations on how to plot to PDF?

I'll add some more questions to this.

In the Page Setup, what plotter is recommended here? Currently I'm using AutoCAD to PDF (High Quality Print) with paper size ISO A3. But since we are also printing these drawings, and our printer's margins doesn't match the PDF size I have to downscale. And then of course the scale on the printed drawing is incorrect.

 

Should I instead create a new plotter with the correct size specific for our printer? 

 

How do you guys do it?

 

 

[eldon]

I suppose you have already tried choosing a "full bleed" paper size and making sure you are centering the plot, before you change your scaling?

[tombu]

I've never had a drawing layout that wouldn't plot 1:1. Our Civil drawings are used in the field by folk who need them scaled correctly.

Maybe use a graphic scale instead of printing the numeric scale on the drawing and plot 2:1 half sized to A4 since you cannot plot to A3.

[CyberAngel]

This is an apples and oranges situation. The scale on the PDF is irrelevant until someone prints it.

 

You can print to a PDF at 1=1 or 1"=50' or whatever and make it accurate, but it someone prints it at "scale to fit" on their printer, there's nothing you can do about it. That's why graphic scales are a good idea, as tombu suggests.

 

"Dwg to PDF" is a good general-purpose plotter. Never had any trouble with it.

[BIGAL]

We plotted for years a A3 pdf at correct scale got ruler out and measured out side limits, it sounds to me like your trying to plot a rectangle  420x297 you cant do that. We have 6mm corner buffers these are used in conjunction with plot window centered, works every single time. So our A3 title block would be like 420-12x 297-12 and we set lower left to 0,0 left corner is -6,-6

 

 

This is a lisp, actually a A1 sheet plotted at 1/2 scale=A3 but shows the settings. This is default ctb we use a different one. pdfnae is passed from program.

(COMMAND "-PLOT"  "Y"  "" "dwg to Pdf"
	       "Iso full bleed A3 (420.00 x 297.00 MM)" "m" "LANDSCAPE"  "N"   "W"  "-6,-6" "807,560" "1=2"  "C"
	       "y" "Acad.ctb" "Y"	"n" "n" "n" pdfName "N" "y"
    )

 

[mickeforsberg]

On 1/5/2022 at 2:00 PM, tombu said:

I've never had a drawing layout that wouldn't plot 1:1. Our Civil drawings are used in the field by folk who need them scaled correctly.

Maybe use a graphic scale instead of printing the numeric scale on the drawing and plot 2:1 half sized to A4 since you cannot plot to A3.

We create specific floor plans for the fire department basically, which requires the scale to be 1:100-1:400 and the print to be in A3 format.

 

On 1/5/2022 at 2:27 PM, CyberAngel said:

This is an apples and oranges situation. The scale on the PDF is irrelevant until someone prints it.

 

You can print to a PDF at 1=1 or 1"=50' or whatever and make it accurate, but it someone prints it at "scale to fit" on their printer, there's nothing you can do about it. That's why graphic scales are a good idea, as tombu suggests.

 

"Dwg to PDF" is a good general-purpose plotter. Never had any trouble with it.

I am using a graphic scale on the drawings. Come to think of it I guess it doesn't matter that much if the scale changes some percentage on the print. At least I can't find any information about it. I just found it easier if for example a nice even 1 cm = 100 cm (or similar) and thought perhaps there was a simple way to take the printer margins into account.

 

On 1/6/2022 at 12:57 AM, BIGAL said:

We plotted for years a A3 pdf at correct scale got ruler out and measured out side limits, it sounds to me like your trying to plot a rectangle  420x297 you cant do that. We have 6mm corner buffers these are used in conjunction with plot window centered, works every single time. So our A3 title block would be like 420-12x 297-12 and we set lower left to 0,0 left corner is -6,-6

 

 

This is a lisp, actually a A1 sheet plotted at 1/2 scale=A3 but shows the settings. This is default ctb we use a different one. pdfnae is passed from program.

(COMMAND "-PLOT"  "Y"  "" "dwg to Pdf"
	       "Iso full bleed A3 (420.00 x 297.00 MM)" "m" "LANDSCAPE"  "N"   "W"  "-6,-6" "807,560" "1=2"  "C"
	       "y" "Acad.ctb" "Y"	"n" "n" "n" pdfName "N" "y"
    )

 

 

This does seem like a solution closer to what I was looking for. Do you not use layout to plot?

[BIGAL]

That is the code for a layout, we have menu options for plot size and type user just selects and it all happens, have a plot range of layouts did 88 with one menu choice click, then range. plotA3Pdfrange.lsp

 

[mickeforsberg]

On 1/8/2022 at 2:08 AM, BIGAL said:

That is the code for a layout, we have menu options for plot size and type user just selects and it all happens, have a plot range of layouts did 88 with one menu choice click, then range. plotA3Pdfrange.lsp

 

Thanks, I'll take a look!

[ammobake]

Personally, I always use the DWG to PDF plotter that is built in to Autocad because it comes already optimized for Adobe output by Autodesk.

DWG to PDF also has tons of customization options via the pc3 file if you choose to go down that rabbit hole.

 

If there is some benefit to using the Adobe PDF plotter (i.e. the one that installs with adobe acrobat) I haven't noticed it.

 

Other plotters will work fine, usually, but DWG to PDF is really all you will ever need.

 

My own firm utilizes 22X34 ANSI-D sheet sizes to keep PDF output to scale and retain the ability to plot large format record drawings for the Army.

In adobe, users can then print 11x17 sheets @ 50% scale and the drawings can still be scaled in the field by multiple disciplines.

 

I basically provide 2 scales for all my drawings

1 - for 22x34

1 - for 11x17 (which is half the scale of the first)

That helps the guys in the field quite a bit.  No muddling with huge sheets.

Half the time they get lost or destroyed in the field anyway .

 

My mentality is that If you know people are using your design drawings in the field its important that those be scalable on smaller sheet sizes.

 

If you go through all the trouble to scale 24x36 sheets, one of your coworkers can then print to 11x17 using "fit to sheet" option and the scaling serves no purpose at that point.

 

And more often than not people are going to be lazy and print to 11x17 anyway for the sake of getting drawings to guys in the field.

 

So having the scaling mechaniics built in makes everyone's life easier I've found.

 

-ChriS

 

 

[BIGAL]

Using say a lisp plot to pdf prints single pdf's so you can via a bit more lisp use Ghostscript to join them back into 1 pdf we did that as part of plot range no user interaction.