Excel -> ACAD -> PDF

[Hoover]

I am using ACAD Lt 07 and have a question. Any help is greatly appreciated...

1. I often will paste schedules from a spreadsheet into paper space. When I plot the layout on my plotter the spreadsheets show up. About 25% of the time when I convert them into PDF files, the schedules do not show up. I have the correct layer set to plot but for some reason it does not appear. Is there a setting in either Excel or ACAD that prevents it from showing up on the PDF???

[ReMark]

What program are you using to print your PDF file?

You might want to give CutePDF Writer a try. It's free. The link:

http://www.cutepdf.com/

[Hoover]

ReMark,

i am using AutoCAD Lt 2007 to convert to PDF. I want to continue using ACAD instead of another program. Any other ideas on how to fix this?

[Hoozin]

So... You're converting to PDF using an ACAD utility? I don't actually know how to do that...

More importantly, CutePDF Writer isn't technically another program, it installs PDF print drivers the same way that a program like Acrobat does. You just select plot in the drawing, and use the CutePDF plotter to create the file. It prompts you for a new file name, and there you go, a PDF plotted from your drawing.

[Hoover]

Yes, I have Adobe Acrobat 7.0 which allows you to plot to PDF using AutoCAD. I have no problems converting any other drawings to PDF but for whatever reason, some spreadsheets do not work.

[Galingula]

This happened to us so we switched to DWFs.

It works great for a variety of reasons

[SLW210]

It must be something different in your plotter settings. Can you post some screen shots of your settings and plot preview?

[Hoover]

SLW,

Here are the screen shots as requested. In plot preview it shows the panel schedules but when I plot to PDF, only the titleblock appears. Any ideas?

Screen Shot 1
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o246/sfawakeboard/ss2-1.jpg

Screen Shot 2
http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o246/sfawakeboard/ss-1.jpg

[deo06]

I think I had the same problem a while back. We use CAD to print PDFS also. Here's what I did:

Select the spreadsheet in CAD. In your properties tab, under "Misc", that's an option for Plot Quality. I set it to "Monochrome (e.g. spreadsheet)". That solved the problem for me.

Another person in the office had the same problem, only hers was already set to Monochrome, so she switched it to "High graphics" and it worked for her. You never know with CAD.

As an aside, I always use "Paste Special" to paste Excel spreadsheets. I don't know if that has anything to do with it.

Try it out and let me know if it works.

[Hoover]

DEO,

Thank you for your suggestion but I tried your method and had no luck...

This is annoying

[slimjramirez]

Interesante...
I've used various CAD programs and never had this occur, even taking into account that some spreadsheets are put in by paste-special, copy/paste, insert->object, etc...depending on the particular drafter's style.

The only issue I've ever had with CAD->PDF are botched print-margins; the preview will show everything correctly, but once PDFd, half a drawing will be missing/off-center/randomly scaled, etc.

I don't have a clear answer, Hoov; alls I could say is just experiment with properties/layers. I know if you have a spreadsheet on Defpoints, or any other layer designed not to plot, it won't show the spreadsheet plotted or PDFd (solved this issue for an engineer just the other day).