Save Cad to pdf for printing?

Since idont own a plotter yet, and i print all my drawings on print offices, is it considered a good idea t convert the drawing to pdf and print it from there?

I have no experience in doing that and i am wondering if there is going to be any distortion and printing errors.

The reason I want to avoid using dwg for printing i cause i have to transfer any custom fonts and linetypes used and install them on the foreign computer and also downconvert to the version they're using.

I have just been doing exactly what you are doing, creating a PDF then getting the local print shop to print it. When you create the PDF (I use CutePDF), you make it on a certain page size to scale. The important thing to get the print shop to do is to print it with "Page Scaling" set to "None". The page scaling is usually set to "Fit to Printable Area" so you must get them to change that. It took me several trips, armed with a scale ruler and checking the scale of the print, before they learnt how to do it. Good luck

I tried the one already installed with AutoCAD and i had tyroubles with the font when i opened the resulting PDF.

What the heck, isnt it supposed to be an image? Does PDF render fonts seperately?

I will try and see how CutePDF you metion behaves?

Any other reputable software for this purpose?

Save it DWF and then print and send to ure PDF printer

Plotting shouldn't be any problem, plot to pdf.

I haven't used Cute PDF in some time but, when I did, worked well enough.

The *.pdf files can be emailed anywhere for printing or viewing without any problem(s).

Hi

Is cute pdf freeware? I normally use pdf995 but I need to wait a while before the drawing is converted

Yes cute PDF is free.

You do need to be aware when making a PDF, that it will not look the same as it does in CAD, the lines and text sometimes look the wrong thickness, this is just a quirk of PDF's, The same will happen using CAD's built in PDF maker, but the drawings will print out just fine.

Yes cute PDF is free.

 

You do need to be aware when making a PDF, that it will not look the same as it does in CAD, the lines and text sometimes look the wrong thickness, this is just a quirk of PDF's, The same will happen using CAD's built in PDF maker, but the drawings will print out just fine.

That's why I use Autodesk TrueView. Have not had any graphics issues. Line weight differentials, font clarity, all seem to have been handled, and the output file size is MUCH smaller than Acad pdf's.

Personally I use bullzip pdf but upon printing i think there is a horizontal scale problem, maybe overlaying to pdf has a mismatch.

Doing that with Adobe Professional though i think should get you more accurate results, but i havent tested this theory in full.