How to make Adobe Acrobat PDF files from AutoCAD drawings



How to make Adobe Acrobat PDF files from AutoCAD drawings and MW Word files, and Excel files.

Updated 05/15/2002

1. Purchase and Install Adobe Acrobat 5.0 (Acrobat Reader is a different program) on your PC. A Government site license is available for about $50 per seat and a $25 charge for a CD-ROM at each site to load the program. This site license is for copies of 20 or more. It is available from on line. The Government sales area lists the product, but the prices are not shown you have to call for pricing. The web address for Microwarehouse for the Acrobat 5.0 Government site license is :

2. Adobe Acrobat 5.0 is the full program, which will make PDF files and works as a printer driver. Any program that can print to a printer can make a PDF (Portable Document Format) file. This file can easily be printed by anyone using the free Adobe 5.0 reader program available from Acrobat reader V5 is a different program than Acrobat 5.0 as it will only read and print PDF files, NOT CREATE THEM and is available for free from Acrobat 5.0 has a printer driver called distiller which will allow PDF files to be made from any program that print to a printer. Each AutoCAD drawing is individually converted to a PDF file in step 1. Step 2 is to assemble all drawings into one PDF file. An option would be to provide both a combined drawing set and the individual drawings to allow users to download only those drawings needed. A table of contents with drawing names should be added with drawing titles.

3. A properly made PDF file is readable when plotted on an 8-1/2” x 11” or 11” x 17”laser printer which most people have access to or an inkjet printer. Lettering size and proper line widths are critical to be able to read a reduced print.

4. Requirements for AutoCAD drawings to allow proper conversion to PDF or to plot to paper.

a. You must have all nonstandard AutoCAD third party fonts and linetypes and shapes used by original drafter to allow all symbols to be properly printed. Best solution: Do not allow any fonts, shapes, linetypes to be used that are not shipped with the base AutoCAD package. Use ROMANS font for all text if possible. This ships with AutoCAD. It is easy to read in ½ size drawings. Use only fonts that come with autocad to prevent plotting problems. Fonts are software, you cant give them away, which is another reason not to use “store bought fonts”.

b. Lettering should be minimum 1/8” (.125”) height on a full size sheet (24”x36”). This makes drawings plotted at at 11”x17” or even 8-1/2” x 11” easy to read. Line width for 11”x17” size drawing text should be about 0.15mm to be able to read text. Smaller lettering such as 0.10 in. is very difficult to read.

c. Put no text or objects outside of border.

d. Must have all XFEFS bound into drawings. Some drawings may come in from consultants with out all XREFS. This causes missing details. Best solution: Require all drawings to have XREFS bound into final drawings or use no XREFS.

e. A physical scale bar should be placed on all drawings to show 1” in full size plot as most users will plot to fit page which will make a non scaled plot. The PDF files will probably not be plotted to any scale. Having ¼”=1’ on the non scaled drawing is not adequate.

f. You must have the plot style table (the .CTB file) from the drafter who made the drawing, for all drawings. This is usually a color pen table which will be converted to a monochrome pen table to convert all colors to black, (pen 7). Most drawings have color, for best legibility plots need to be black. If you have more than one contractor on a project then each pen table for each subset of drawings is needed to properly plot the drawings.

i. This pen table is critical to plotting a drawing correctly: Get the pen table for full size, usually 24”x36” and one for half size 11”x17”. The pen widths for half size are about ½ that of full size. Setting the pen widths too wide can make text not readable. Use the half-size pen table line widths to make the PDF files. If you only have a pen table that is setup for full size drawing, check “scale line weights” when plotting. This will reduce line widths for 11”x17” reduced drawings.

ii. The plot style table includes the shading for colors in a percentage. The use of shading to indicate existing objects should be minimized. Use notes, arrows, or revision clouds if possible instead of shading. Shading in the pen table is usually is a neutral color such as gray and has a 0-100% range. If you do not have the pen table that built the drawing, you cannot determine which colors are shaded or the correct line widths. This can lead to errors if all lines are one density.

iii. Listed below is an example of a plot style table with full size and half size pen widths vs color numbers. There are 256 colors in AutoCAD, only some are defined in this example table. You must use the table your drawings was created with. Note that colors 8,9 have shading at 50% and 70%. If objects that use these colors are not assigned these screens of 50% and 70% the default value is 100% which will produce solid lines, not shaded making it difficult to determine what is “faded out” and what is solid.

1. Note that the text line width on pen 7 is 0.13mm. This will make a readable text of 1/8” height on a full size sheet when plotted on an 8-1/2x11” sheet.

iv. There is no universal standard in layering and pen widths and you can not guess what the drafter had in mind when the drawing was made so obtaining this table with each set of drawings is very important.

SAMPLE PLOT STYLE TABLE TO SHOW EXAMPLE OF LINE WIDTHS AND SHADING DO NOT USE THIS FOR YOUR DRAWING, EXAMPLE ONLY.

Note screening of 2 layers Most layers are at 100%

Pen color |Pen # |Usage |Pen Width in. Full size |Pen Width in. Half Size |Pen width mm Full size |Pen width mm Half size |Screen | |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | |BLUE |5 |XBOLD |0.0276 |0.0138 |0.700 |0.350 |100% | |GREEN |3 |BOLD |0.0236 |0.0118 |0.600 |0.300 |100% | |  |92 |BOLD |0.0236 |0.0118 |0.600 |0.300 |100% | |  |101 |BOLD |0.0236 |0.0118 |0.600 |0.300 |100% | |CYAN |4 |HEAVY |0.0197 |0.0098 |0.500 |0.250 |100% | |  |140 |HEAVY |0.0197 |0.0098 |0.500 |0.250 |100% | |  |161 |HEAVY |0.0197 |0.0098 |0.500 |0.250 |100% | |  |6 |MEDIUM |0.0157 |0.0079 |0.400 |0.200 |100% | |  |191 |MEDIUM |0.0157 |0.0079 |0.400 |0.200 |100% | |  |241 |MEDIUM |0.0157 |0.0079 |0.400 |0.200 |100% | |RED |1 |THIN |0.0118 |0.0059 |0.300 |0.150 |100% | |  |21 |THIN |0.0118 |0.0059 |0.300 |0.150 |100% | |  |30 |THIN |0.0118 |0.0059 |0.300 |0.150 |100% | |YELLOW |2 |XTHIN |0.0079 |0.0039 |0.200 |0.100 |100% | |  |31 |XTHIN |0.0079 |0.0039 |0.200 |0.100 |100% | |  |43 |XTHIN |0.0079 |0.0039 |0.200 |0.100 |100% | |  |11 |HATCH |0.0047 |0.0024 |0.120 |0.060 |100% | |LIGHT GREY |8 |SCREEN |0.0138 |0.0069 |0.350 |0.175 |70% | |DARK GREY |9 |SCREEN |0.0197 |0.0098 |0.500 |0.250 |50% | |RED |1 |TEXT_BOLD |0.0118 |0.0059 |0.300 |0.150 |100% | |WHITE |7 |TEXT_NORMAL |0.0102 |0.0051 |0.260 |0.130 |100% | |  |31 |TEXT_FINE |0.0079 |0.0039 |0.200 |0.100 |100% | |

5. Making a PDF file: step 1, creating the PDF file

a. Edit the drawings (.ctb) pen table discussed above or make a new one for PDF. Open up a drawing, click on the plot icon, and go to plot style editor table and have all colors 1-256 mapped to pen 7 and all virtual pens set to 7 or black. Set color to black.

b. Leave line widths and shadings alone, only map pens to 7 (black). This assumes that user will print drawing out 11”x17” and large pen widths will obscure detail. Best solution: use pen table line widths from original drafter. If you don’t have this you will have to make sure all objects print correctly including any shaded objects. After conversion print drawing to 11”x17” to see if it is legible.

c. This pen table will be used to plot all drawings to black lines. This only needs to be done once, reuse in future plots. Note different drawings may have different plot style tables. It is best to have a standard layer and color convention and pen with table.

d. Set Plot Style Table as follows:

e. Set plot parameters:

i. Current tab

ii. Plotter configuration: pick Acrobat Distiller

iii. Pick Plot style table monochrome.ctb or other plot style table you have that was made with each drawing to have all lines go to black, pen 7.

iv. Keep all line widths and screening that were in the original color plot style table. Only map the colors to black.

v. Next pick Plot Settings tab:

1. The default size for the PDF file is 1200 DPI. If the PDF file sizes are too large, you can to into Acrobat distiller properties and change the resolution of the Acrobat Distiller print driver to a lower resolution say 600DPI.

f. Set Plot parameters as follows:

i. Paper size 11”x17”, Landscape, Extents, Scaled to fit, center plot, check scale line weights if pen table is for full size (24”x36”) drawings to proportionality reduce line widths.

g. PLOT drawing using Full Preview: First drawing below is color AutoCAD drawing:

h. Drawing below is Full preview of plot, all color set to black. If this is OK, right mouse, PLOT and continue to plot. This completes making the PDF file. PDF file will be in same directory as DWG file. Acrobat adds layout1 (1).pdf to name of all drawings in contract in same fashion, so e1.dwg becomes e1 layout (1).pdf You can rename file if you want same name.

6. STEP 2: Making one PDF file for whole project

Note: To make the project drawings easier for the user to plot you can assemble all drawings individual PDF files into 1 PDF file, which contains any number of drawings. If the contract is large, say 50 sheets, you may want to make several files, one for each discipline, Arch, Elec, Mech, Civil, Structural, so users can download a smaller group of files. You can also provide each PDF file of each drawing. The PDF files are about the same size as the DWG file so a 300K DWG file will be about a 300K PDF file. Avoid large hatch patterns if you can, it makes files much bigger.

a. Open up Adobe Acrobat 5.0 program

b. Open up the first drawing in the set you want to have in the combined PDF file as follows, in this case pick e01 Layout1 (1).pdf as the first drawing to be put into the combined file detroiteepdf.pdf, which will put the following e01 to e18 drawings in this one file.

c. Rotate drawing counterclockwise so title block is in landscape mode with the rotate pulldown box

d. Go to Document, insert pages and select all the pages you want in this combined file. Select page e02 to e18 using shift or control keys the files (you are already in page one). In this case all e sheets e02 to e18 Layout1 (1).pdf files. Hit select. The result will be one file with 18 drawings, one page per drawings.

e. Next screen will ask where you want to insert pages, normally after page 1. Hit OK

f. Repeat this procedure for each drawing, but select after last sheet on next sheets.

The current drawing name see top of page e01 layout1 (1).pdf now has all 18 sheets in this one file.

g. Do a file save as detroitepdf.pdf so you have a separate file with all 18 drawings. Do not save as the first drawing name, e01 Layout1 (1).pdf or you will put the rest of the files e02-e18 inside the first pdf file. DONE!!!

7. Summary: this whole process takes about 15 minutes to do for these 18 files from plotting to a pdf to making one total file with 18 drawings combined in one file in this example detroiteepdf.pdf.

8. Options: you may want to provide one large file as well as the individual files and an index of files to allow contractors to plot only those individual files or have several subgroups by discipline.

Making PDF files from MS Word or Excel spreadsheets

The process of making PDF files from MS Word or Excel files or any other program is as easy as selecting a print driver. The process of combining separate documents is identical to that for AutoCAD drawings in step 2 above. In this example 6 specs will be converted into 1 PDF file. The following assume you have installed Acrobat 5.0 and the printer driver is installed. Verify this by looking at your installed printers. Do start, Settings, Printers, you should see Acrobat Distiller. This is the printer driver which actually prints to a PDF file.

STEP 1

1. Open up Word document, file open pick file, in this case 16010.doc is first file

2. Document will open and the PDF logo [pic]will be in menu bar automatically. The logo on the left will automatically print to the PDF driver, or you can select this printer and make it (Acrobat Distiller) the default printer. This logo was automatically installed when you installed Acrobat 5.0 If you use other programs to print files and logo is not there just select (Acrobat Distiller) as the default printer.

[pic]

3. Click on Left Acrobat Logo [pic] and file will be printed to PDF in same directory as the 16010.doc file is converted to 16010.pdf. Acrobat will automatically give the same file name as the .doc file document.pdf. Click on save.

4. Open up each document and click on this PDF [pic] icon, or print to Acrobat Distiller printer:

5. Page numbers within that section will be retained. If you want consecutive page numbers, then all sections will have to be placed on one document first. Recommendation: leave each section a separate PDF file to preserve section footers and numbering.

6. Step 2 Making one file for all documents in a project

a. Print all sections of MS Word documents individually if section numbering and pages in section numbers are to be retained.

b. IF you want all MS word documents in one file with consecutive page numbers, open first PDF file and insert the rest of the PDF files. WARNING: Headers and footers will be messed up if you do this, you will loose section formatting.

c. Assemble all individual PDF files in one subdirectory.

d. Open up first PDF file 16010.pdf in this example, then do a Document Insert pages, select rest of files to add click on select.

e. The result will be one document 16010.pdf with the other sections from 16050.pdf to 16721.pdf inside this first document

f. Next screen will ask where you want to insert pages, normally after page 1. Hit OK

7. Do a file Save As DIV16EEpdf.pdf to have a different file name with all of DIV 16 electrical specs in one document. Do not save to the first file or all sections will be in this 16010.pdf file. This resultant file has all 9 sections in this one file, DIV16EEpdf.pdf.

8. Summary: you may want to provide a table of contents with all spec section numbers and individual specs sections or groups of specs to allow users to print only sections needed, reducing file download time.

Making PDF files from Excel Spreadsheets

1. Process is identical to the samples for MS word described above. The Acrobat PDF icon [pic] will appear in the spreadsheet task bar to do a save.

2. Define and set print range, and plot to fit in page setup to one page wide.

3. Click on [pic] icon to save or print to Acrobat Distiller printer

[pic]

4. Open up each spreadsheet and save as pdf.

5. Combine multiple .pdf files same as described above in MS Word and AutoCAD example.

Acrobat Print Icon

How to have Acrobat automatically rotate drawing files to landscape when opened:

From Gil M. Levesque Architect Ogden UT.

Usually, when you save drawings in Adobe Acrobat, they always load in portrait view and you need to rotate the first drawing counterclockwise to view it properly. You can set a page action in an Acrobat PDF file, so that when the file opens, it will automatically rotate counterclockwise.

How to set a PDF file with drawings in landscape format to automatically rotate drawings:

1. Load desired PDF drawing file into Adobe Acrobat .

2. Once loaded, go into pull-down menu: Document

3. Select Item: Set Page Action (should be the last item in menu)

4. When “Page Actions” Window opens, Click “ADD”

5. When “Add an Action” Window opens, Click pull-down arrow and select the top item: “Execute Menu Item” and then click “Edit Menu Item” button.

6. A new window will pop open showing you a pull-down menu. Select the View pull-down, then “Rotate Counterclockwise”. The Pull-down menu window will close and return you to the “Add an Action” window.

7. Click the “Set Action” at the bottom of this window and it will close.

8. At the “ Page Actions” window Click OK button.

9. Save your File and close it.

10. Open it again to check that the action occurs after opening the file.

TEST ALL FILES! Open up all PDF files and make sure you can print them before submitting them for final assembly.

Steve Sichau

Electrical Engineer R6 RO Portland OR

2523. Email:ssichau@fs.fed.us

Please send any comment to me for updates, Thanks.

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