topic Re: Publishing PDF or Printing as a Single File in Documentation

Publishing PDF or Printing as a Single File

Anonymous — Fri, 19 May 2023 20:24:20 GMT

Does any one know any way to do this? (I'm pretty sure that it's not possible but I just have to check.)

I am referring to creating a publisher set that can either save or print as a single file rather than a series of individual sheets. The problem I am having at one client's office s that their printer tracks output by job number and we have to enter it for each sheet.

This really knocks the teeth out of the idea of automatic document production. Especially since we are trying to set up the simplest possible way for PAs and principles to sets for review.

Re: Publishing PDF or Printing as a Single File

__archiben — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 22:14:48 GMT

Matthew wrote:
Does any one know any way to do this? (I'm pretty sure that it's not possible but I just have to check.)

unless i've really missed something in your post matthew, i am assuming that your 'erring on the side of conservative' ( ) when it comes to plotmaker/layouts has meant that you haven't discovered the ability to merge all PDFs into one file?

~/archiben

Re: Publishing PDF or Printing as a Single File

Link — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 22:16:43 GMT

Does saving as one multi-page PDF and renaming & printing that not suit your purpose?

Cheers,
Link.

Re: Publishing PDF or Printing as a Single File

Anonymous — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 22:43:47 GMT

Thanks Ben & Link. I missed that little checkbox. I didn't have any folders/subsets as I was trying to make it as simple as possible for the principle architects.

Unfortunately it only gets me part of the way there. What we really need is the ability to print directly as a single job, but I can probably get something to work with this. It may not matter in the end since the printer is not producing acceptable results and we may end up with something else.

Re: Publishing PDF or Printing as a Single File

__archiben — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 22:59:12 GMT

Matthew wrote:
Unfortunately it only gets me part of the way there. What we really need is the ability to print directly as a single job, but I can probably get something to work with this. It may not matter in the end since the printer is not producing acceptable results and we may end up with something else.

i haven't tried this matthew, but it may be worth a crack....

put all of your layouts to publish in one folder, select the folder and choose 'Publish Selected' at the bottom. will that only bring up the print tracking software just the once?

let us know how it goes . . .

~/archiben

Re: Publishing PDF or Printing as a Single File

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 01:08:19 GMT

"~/archiben wrote:
...put all of your layouts to publish in one folder, select the folder and choose 'Publish Selected' at the bottom. will that only bring up the print tracking software just the once?

I'll give it a shot. Thanks.

Re: Publishing PDF or Printing as a Single File

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 00:10:32 GMT

Hello Matthew,
Did you ever get what you wanted to do work ?
I am having a similar problem or maybe the identical problem.
In AC 8.1 and AC 9 one could "print" a layout book
as a multi-page PDF, each page showing one layout.
In AC 10 I can print as a PDF each layout as a separate PDF
but not the whole layout book as a single PDF.
Thank you,
Peter Devlin

Re: Publishing PDF or Printing as a Single File

Link — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 00:23:22 GMT

Peter,

Are you not using Publisher? You need to either add a folder to the publisher set (maybe the whole book or a subset) or create one and put all your layouts in it. Then you can select it and use the 'Merge to one PDF file' button under the format tab, as per Ben's attached image.

Cheers,
Link.

Re: Publishing PDF or Printing as a Single File

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 01:29:23 GMT

Hello Link,
I will try that.
Thanks,
Peter Devlin

Re: Publishing PDF or Printing as a Single File

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 01:47:56 GMT

Hello Link,
I don't seem to have that check box.
My Publishing pane has three icons that I don't recognise.
Please see attached image.
Sorry I could not make a .jpg of the navagator pane
so I had to command-shift-4 and make a PDF.
Thank you,
Peter Devlin

Re: Publishing PDF or Printing as a Single File

Link — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 01:54:38 GMT

It's the same problem that Rita is experiencing only in reverse.

You need to change your Publishing Properties!

Cheers,
Link.

Re: Publishing PDF or Printing as a Single File

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 02:14:37 GMT

Hello Link,
I got the navigator-publisher to look like the one
that shows PDFs with the merge to one PDF button.
I did this by changing publishing properties to "save".
This made PDFs in the publishing set.
When I change this again to print as PDFs so I can print
the icons switch back to those other icons that I don't recognize
and the merge to one button PDF disappears.
Thanks,
Peter Devlin

Re: Publishing PDF or Printing as a Single File

Link — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 02:19:15 GMT

I don't have Mac handy to check how to print multiple layouts to one PDF via the Print function, but is there any reason why you can't/don't want to save to PDF instead of print to PDF?

I don't think there's much difference?

Cheers,
Link.

Re: Publishing PDF or Printing as a Single File

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 02:29:06 GMT

Hello Link,
I can "save as PDF" on the mac which is what I am trying to do.
I sometimes use the term "print to PDF" because back in OS 9
I had a nice little program called "print to PDF" which made PDFs
of any window. Sorry for the misuse of the term.
Thanks,
Peter Devlin

Re: Publishing PDF or Printing as a Single File

Link — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 03:18:18 GMT

I only mentioned that because you can Save to PDF and Print to PDF using the Publisher in ArchiCAD, but AFAIK the Save method is the only way to get a single PDF from multiple layouts.

It may be possible to Print multple pages to PDF using the Mac Print function, but I do not have a Mac handy to refresh my memory.

Hope this is actually helping, not confusing you further.

Cheers,
Link.

Re: Publishing PDF or Printing as a Single File

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 03:45:16 GMT

Hello Link,
The term "save as PDF" is the Mac print function where you
can choose to print to a printer or "save as PDF" in the print dialog.

The publisher options of "save file", "print", do not say what format
it is saving or printing in. It just says "save file" and "print".

I will hold on until you can get on to a Mac.
I much appreciate your help.
Thank you,
Peter Devlin

Re: Publishing PDF or Printing as a Single File

Link — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 04:07:21 GMT

I will hold on until you can get on to a Mac.

Well unless one falls from the heavens, that won't be anytime soon, so I will give it one more shot and try go by memory:

In the Publisher you can hit the Publisher Properties... button and select Print or Save files.

Let's say you select Print. All your icons will change to print icons and you can select any kind of printer available to you. If you select a printer MacOSX will offer to Save it as PDF instead. Even though it says 'Save as PDF" in the Print dialog, it is still a Print as far as Publisher is concerned, because that is the Publishing method you chose. I do not know of a way of printing/saving a multipage PDF using this method. In fact I thought it was automatically a multipage PDF, but I must be wrong.

Now let's say you choose Save files in the Publisher Properties dialog instead of Print. If you have the PDF Converter installed, you should be able to select PDF from the drop down list under Publisher's Format tab at the bottom. All your icons will turn to PDF icons. So as far as Publisher is concerned you are now Saving as PDF, not printing. If your publisher set is contained within a folder, you will be able to select that folder and use the 'Merge to one PDF file' button under the format tab, as per Ben's attached image. When you do this, you folder icon will appear with a red bar across the top left of it to indicate that everything in it will be included in the PDF.

That's about it - I hope my memory serves me correctly!

Cheers,
Link.

Re: Publishing PDF or Printing as a Single File

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 05:00:35 GMT

Hello Link,
Thank you for bearing with me.
When you say "Let's say you select Print. All your icons will change to print icons"
these icons are probably the ones I said I did not recognize.

All you have said is correct in my experience except when you say
"If you have the PDF Converter installed, you should be able to select PDF"
I don't have to have a PDF converter because OS X comes with one
as part of the system and as you can see PDF is an option in the drop-down.

The image attached shows that I have PDFs as the file type in the
publisher pane and the publisher set properties is set to "save file".

If I change this to "print" the icons in the publisher pane change
to what you call "print icons" and if I try to save as PDF I get two
separate PDFs

If I leave the setup as shown in the attached image
and go to file/print and select "save as PDF" I get
a PDF of what ever window I am in at the time in AC.

As you can see my folder icon does not have a red bar across the top
It does have a rust colored rectangle at the upper left.

Well, I have taken much to much of your time and I am grateful
for your patience. I am obviously missing something and I am
going to endeavor to persevere until I find it.

Thank you Link,
Peter Devlin

Re: Publishing PDF or Printing as a Single File

Link — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 09:36:28 GMT

Hey Peter

This is no problem for me - it's what I do for a living. So let's put it down to good practice. My only concern is that since I don't have a Mac here I can't confirm everything 100%. Maybe a Mac user can jump in?

Anyway, from the looks of your attachment, all you need to do is is hit the Publish button! Surely that will give you one PDF with all (both) those layouts.

You don't need to print at all. Just let is save PDF's. Did you try it, as per your attachment?

Cheers,
Link.

Re: Publishing PDF or Printing as a Single File

Aussie John — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 09:43:47 GMT

Peter printing and the print option of publishing are two different things.
I am not sure why you want to group together PDF output if it is printing. After all you are only printing to one piece of paper. To me it stands to reason the option is not visible if print publishing.

If you select print in publisher the icon do change (they are not PDFs any more)