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Creating PDF files from AutoCAD R14 with Adobe Acrobat 6.0


ReynaldoThomas

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We have a large number of old AutoCAD R14 drawings. We need to create PDF files of many of these.

 

If I open one of these drawings in AutoCAD, tell it to print, and select as a printer "Adobe PDF", I get a single page PDF file (either with just one page of the drawing or with all the pages of the drawing shrunk to fit on a single page of the PDF file).

 

If I attempt to open one of these drawings in Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional, I get an error message. I called Adobe and was told that although Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional says it can open AutoCAD drawings, it can only do so on computers with one of certain more recent versions of AutoCAD installed; it cannot do so on computers with AutoCAD R14 and no other version.

 

Our current method is to first use AutoCAD R14 to create separate PDF files of each page, one at a time, and then use Adobe Acrobat 6.0 Professional to combine the separate PDFs of the different pages into a single, multipage PDF.

 

This process takes more time than creating multipage PDF files of other types of documents (for example, Microsoft Word) because:

1. I need to do each page one at a time, instead of all at once

2. I need to use two programs (AutoCAD and Adobe Acrobat)

 

Without buying a newer version of AutoCAD, is there

 

a) a faster way to create multipage PDFs of AutoCAD files

 

or

 

b) a way to accomplish the entire process in a single program

 

or

 

c) a way to do all the pages at once, instead of one at a time

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don't know how it works with your version of autocad, but you should try "FreePDF XP". you'll need a version of Ghostscript also. both are free. you just have to select FreePDF as your printer.

http://freepdfxp.de/xpDownload.html

the website is german; maybe you can find it also in english.

 

this program makes much better PDF's than autocad LT 2007, no contest. it will also make multi-page PDF's.

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Yes, there are bunch of 3rd party programs that helps you to create PDF files, batch converts AutoCAD drawings into PDF file(s), very easy to use no need to learn,I am using Autodwg dwg to pdf converter, this is one of most helpful application that I've downloaded. Run the program and from the wizard first step it allows you select multiple AutoCAD dwg or dxf files, the second step it asks you if you need to convert them into multiple page pdfs or single pdfs files per page/layout, and also it even allows you embed entire drawings in a single PDF, this is much helpful for my project documentation.

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I think I understand this guy's problem. If I read this right, he is looking for a way to print all the pages of an ACAD drawing into one document on the first pass.

 

What I have found is that when you print all the layout tabs at once using a PDF print driver, you will get a separate file for each one. I don't know for sure but I seem to remember this is what happens whether you print all layouts or publish them.

 

I too found that the only way around this was to print all the separate files and then use Acrobat Standard or some other method to combine all the files. Trouble is that Acrobat Standard costs $$$ and I just don't have that at my disposal all the time. So I sometimes print all the layouts to a postscript file and then take them over to my friendly Unix (BSD) computer, "cat" them all into one big file and run the free ps2pdf program which accomplishes the same thing and it don't cost nothing...like beer from a keg at a Delta house frat party.

 

If someone knows how to get ACAD to dump all the layout prints into a single file in one step, then sharing it would be appreciated.

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when I publish using dwg to pdf.pc3, i dont know where it came from or how i got it it was here when i started working here, in the publish options you can select single or multi page pdf or dwf.

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