PDF Plot Drivers that Actually Work

[Arizona]

Our PDF Plot Driver, DeskPDF (I believe we paid money for it), plots wipeouts as solid black areas.

It is very anoying.

 

Does anyone know of a PDF Plot Driver for AutoCAD (2009) that functions properly, and is FREE?

 

If I can find one, I'll install it on my machine, and prove to Management that there actually is one out there that works!

They are under some sort of assumption that DeskPDF is the best there is.

Edited July 17, 2014 by Arizona

[Bogbadbob658]

I thought ACAD2009 had the ability to create pdf's without an add on driver? but I might be wrong. I always use the 'DWG to PDF.pc3' and it seems to cope with wipeouts.

 

Check out this link http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/2011/02/how-to-create-a-pdf-from-autocad-with-a-single-click.html

[Dana W]

2009 has a particularly BAD internal pdf driver (Dwg to Pdf.pc3). I use AutoDesk TrueView 2014/2015 to plot to pdf from my 2009 version dwg files. Works very well, and it is free. Just open trueview, open the dwg file and plot the same as in AutoCad.

[RobDraw]

I've never had any problems with CutePDF and it's free.

[designerstuart]

i have pdfs that look fine in the viewer, but wipeouts go black when the pdf is printed to paper. i have been told by my printers that if the printer uses a postscript driver you get blobs for wipeouts, if pcl driver you do not. this may be the same for pdf printers?

[SLW210]

DWG TrueView latest version can plot PDF pretty good.

[rkmcswain]

2009 has a particularly BAD internal pdf driver (Dwg to Pdf.pc3).

 

I agree ^^^^

 

IIRC, 2010 was the first release where Autodesk "fixed" their internal PDF driver, and now it works well.

Prior to that we used AcroPlot from http://www.cadzation.com

[nukecad]

I've never had any problems with CutePDF and it's free.

 

Me too, always used CutePDF, never had any problems.

With older Autocads the plot to pdf was pretty useless.

 

The point about postscript drivers is also a good one, Ive found in the past that PS drivers do not like printing any kind of image from Autocad, use a pcl3 instead.

Dosent have to be your own printers driver, I have even used a HP driver with a Toshiba printer for great results.

[Ender181]

I haven't seen it mentioned on this site yet but I did see it mentioned elsewhere. I can't personally recommend it since I haven't used it, but it did seem extremely popular. Now that I've gotten the disclaimer out of the way, maybe you should consider checking out Ghostscript

[tzframpton]

There's also the option to change your workflow to nix the use of WIPEOUT objects and instead use Solid Hatch as Masks with screening applied or True Color set to White.

[Dana W]

There really isn't any point in all that adobe look-alike add in stuff. AutoDesk TrueView is free, has tech support, does a tremendous job of creating pdf docs in plot, publish, batch plot/publish, sheet sets whatever, has layer and block information controls, and it looks like AutoCad while using it. I think it even smells like AutoCad. There is the added benefit of being able to convert dwg files down to prior versions so earlier AutoCad versions can open and edit the files. The 2014 and 2015 versions also purge DGN linetypes (Microstation trash). Of course, you can't stuff other program output files through it, but that's what the Admin Assistant is for.