If you’re looking to go paperless, or just wondering what the differences are between the new PDF driver options in the out of box AutoCAD installations, I hope this helps.įor more tips and tricks, visit our blog. If you’re also wondering about non-Autodesk PDF plot drivers, my general recommendation has been to continue using the Autodesk options because they include Layer Information. You can still use any PDF viewer you choose once the file is created. For files that need to be emailed or posted to the web, the Smallest File or Web and Mobile options are a great choice. One thing to be aware of is that the Smallest File option does not include layer information, while all the others do. If file size is not a variable or extra detail is needed for your content, the High Quality option will provide the highest DPI output. In most cases, the General Documentation or original DWG to PDF option is suitable for PDF output from AutoCAD. The output files will vary depending on the content of your drawing files, however I have noticed a reduction in file size ranging from 25%-60% between the High Quality output and the Smallest File output. In the end, the file sizes all varied based on the presets as expected. The sample drawing file was a 3D fire hydrant displayed in 2D wireframe format. Having these presets saves time and makes it much more convenient when compared to creating these on your own or manually adjusting these settings each time you need to plot.Īs a test, I plotted an identical view of a drawing using each of the four. PC3 files has different pre-set PDF Options for the designated file size and quality. AutoCAD PDF (General Documentation).pc3Įach of these.Included with the DWG to PDF.pc3 file are: Starting in 2016, Autodesk released four additional PDF drivers into AutoCAD. 2016: Four Additional PDF Drivers Release into AutoCAD Creating PDFs also give you a digital backup for records and archiving purposes. When a hard copy is needed, the PDF file can be sent to the printer or plotter without having to re-open the AutoCAD drawing. Besides going paperless to help the environment, PDF files pre-process drawing information into a digital file prior to a hard copy plot. Over the years, plotting to PDF has become one of my recommendations, both in training and on support for multiple reasons. In a lot of those cases, generating a PDF plot file first turned out to be a solid workaround to bypass any issues with a file sent directly to a large format plotter.

In the beginning, there were a lot of plotting cases, primarily with large format or hard copy plotters and plot drivers, or drivers that needed to be updated. Over the past nine years as an application specialist and manager here at Ideate, I have worked on hundreds (sometimes it feels like thousands) of technical support cases. 2016: Four Additional PDF Drivers Release into AutoCAD.Posted on SeptemAuthor: Matt Miyamoto AutoCAD

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