topic Re: Elevations and Sections produce HUGE file-size PDFs in Documentation

Elevations and Sections produce HUGE file-size PDFs

alexliz — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 15:06:53 GMT

It's all in the Subject line above guys. I get elevation PDFs to the tune of 10MB, even 60+MB. Very difficult to open and share. Impossible to send to printer. Am I missing something, or were these never meant to be printed and shared?

I have got them with the "Uncut Fill" option set to "Surface - Texture Fill, Shaded" and all external walls have the "Stonework - 02" surface.

Many thanks.

Re: Elevations and Sections produce HUGE file-size PDFs

runxel — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 16:13:23 GMT

Long standing issue that Archicad produces overly large PDFs. Even more so when textures and heavy fills are involved.

It boils down to the inability to reduce the size of the texture adequately. You can try to shrink it down with Acrobat or one of the many online services. In some cases it might help. Other than that? Refrain from using texture based S/E's, I guess. 😕

But I agree that there must be a built-in solution. Seems like nobody thinks through the whole process – it's nice that we have those cool textures in S&Es, but we need to publish them, too ?!?.....

Re: Elevations and Sections produce HUGE file-size PDFs

alexliz — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 21:26:16 GMT

Thanks Lucas. What a pity, it's a good effect and it's (essentially) wasted.

I am now looking at reducing the PDF file size with Adobe and macOS Terminal commands. The result, of course, is nowhere near the original - there's considerable trade-off.

Re: Elevations and Sections produce HUGE file-size PDFs

Skyhook — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 09:14:35 GMT

Agree that Graphisoft really need to focus on solving this for all of its users. Surface textures in elevations and sections (but still not plans or 3d docs 😥) look amazing on screen in Archicad, however, as identified by the original poster above the resultant PDF’s are practically unusable due to being too big to print and being incredibly slow to navigate as pdf’s. We have a mixed Mac & PC environment (latest macOS and Window 11 Pro) and it is problematic on both platforms. This has to be solveable, as Mac’s and PC’s can print extremely complex images of much higher resolution without breaking a sweat using other software. Surface textures were heralded as a major new feature of AC25 with at least one article on Graphisoft’s website being published showcasing the interior design advantages afforded. Hopefully this is being worked on currently and will be delivered as a much needed hotfix as it is too good of a feature to leave in an unusable/unfinished state. Please GS 🤞.

Re: Elevations and Sections produce HUGE file-size PDFs

Aaron Bourgoin — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 13:32:53 GMT

Unfortunately most of the PDF reading/editing tools (except for Acrobat) lack the ability to streamline vector graphics. We looked at this while trying to find a replacement for Acrobat. In the end, we have an Acrobat station dedicated fro the task of cleaning and optimizing files for issuance.

Re: Elevations and Sections produce HUGE file-size PDFs

alexliz — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 14:49:51 GMT

Thanks for the comments, Skyhook & Aaron.

In the end I got greatly reduced files by converting the PDFs to PNGs.

The textures in my Elevations and Sections are of lesser quality with the conversion, but not terrible.

Re: Elevations and Sections produce HUGE file-size PDFs

Jaime-airc_digital — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 19:27:34 GMT

Supposedly this long standing issue was resolved in Archicad update 27.2.1, but it seems that the problem persists. Please can someone at the technical team from Graphisoft clarify why this keeps being an issue? It is a huge problem that after publishing the users need to compress the PDF's just to be able to issue the drawings with the requirements of public authorities, which generally have a size file limit for uploaded documentation. It is a real problem that should be easily solvable out of the box without external manipulation and that is affecting all Archicad users.

Re: Elevations and Sections produce HUGE file-size PDFs

alexliz — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 22:02:19 GMT

How interesting, @Jaime-airc_digital. I am guessing your screenshot is from this URL: https://graphisoft.com/downloads/archicad/updates/archicad-27-2-1

In this case, I would appreciate someone from Graphisoft clarifying what 'manageable file sizes' means in this sentence; or to confirm that the statement is false and that the PDF output is, in fact, completely unmanageable for all intents and purposes.

Re: Elevations and Sections produce HUGE file-size PDFs

Barry Kelly — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 00:31:30 GMT

Maybe that defect fix is in reference to a different problem?

Maybe it is about placing an image file as a drawing in Archicad and then saving as a PDF.

The problem here seems to be when "Surface - Texture Fill, Shaded" is used in the elevation settings.

Also other texture fills and symbolic fills use in plan, elevation and section can affect PDF sizes.

The defect fix does not specify that it is this "Surface - Texture Fill, Shaded" problem that is fixed.

Barry.

Re: Elevations and Sections produce HUGE file-size PDFs

alexliz — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 08:23:06 GMT

All the more need for clarification, then, on what "DEF-16875" was and where we stand on the issue of exporting elevations/sections with texture fills.

FWIW - I just loaded a 4.1MB photo onto an A1 layout in Archicad 27.0.0 (build 3001) and published to PDF retaining lossless where possible and un-checking the Limit Resolution To option. The resulting PDF was 998KB and opened in a millisecond in Preview. Based on this test I doubt there was an issue of this kind prior to 27.2.1.

Betreff: Elevations and Sections produce HUGE file-size PDFs

torben_wadlinger — Sun, 01 Sep 2024 09:20:00 GMT

Especially in views and sections, you have the problem that archicad builds these things in layers, i.e. there are lines on top of lines and surfaces on top of surfaces. This of course increases the file size. If there are also small hatchings involved, which are all broken down into individual elements (e.g. soil, gravel layers), then the file size explodes. Not to mention images. It doesn't help to reduce the size, because you can't change the total number of polygons.

I have found a link (in German) that sheds some light on PDF creation from cad systems - and offers a solution:
https://www.sachaheck.net/blog/acrobat_pdf/pdfs-kleiner-machen-acrobat-postscript

Re: Elevations and Sections produce HUGE file-size PDFs

Erik Bjornhage — Sun, 01 Sep 2024 10:50:34 GMT

There are of course many reasons my PDF:s can get crazy big. In this case, as you have described, it seems linked to texture fills.

What are the section/elevation settings in regards to view distance and such. Does it help if you reduce this? Are there other settings that you can change on the S/E-settings side that can help?

There is an organisation here in Sweden that have produced a nice set of instructions for PDFs (unfortunately it's in Swedish, but various GPT:s should be able to handle that for you). https://beast.se/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/BEAst-PDF-Guidelines-2.0.pdf

These have nothing to do with texture fills - but they have other points that can be useful for managing PDF:s in general.

Re: Elevations and Sections produce HUGE file-size PDFs

torben_wadlinger — Sun, 01 Sep 2024 19:29:32 GMT

Oh man, you made my day! Thank you for this lovely pdf. I tried to read it and hoped to understand something (there are some familiar characters, like ö and ä, and the funny ones with the little circle on top - but no ü?). I was able to understand some single words, but only by trying to listen to them, because the sound is more familiar than the writing.

e.g. ‘Korrekt linjebredd’ translates to "korrekte Linienbreite" in German. "Trapphus" is "Treppenhaus" (both have double "p"), "översiktsplan" is "Übersichtsplan". But I have no idea what "Skrivskyddade filer" means.

Re: Elevations and Sections produce HUGE file-size PDFs

Erik Bjornhage — Sun, 01 Sep 2024 20:11:46 GMT

Skrivskyddad fil = Write protected file - i.e. PDF/A which is an archive format.

As I said - there are some good tiips in ther and even Google Translate should be pretty helpful.

We have all our PDF-PublisherSets setup according to this.

Re: Elevations and Sections produce HUGE file-size PDFs

cocoloco — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 17:51:20 GMT

I have the same issue! Files always 60-80 MB just elevations with cabs. I removed most of fills but no help.

I have to share through Google Dr but everything takes time to open on jobsite, can’t print, can’t attach in email… I converted the size in pdf expert, but it removed just 4Mb out of 60 to maintain quality.

ai seen multiple complaints here about this before

did you find any solution?

Re: Elevations and Sections produce HUGE file-size PDFs

Mauricio_br — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 19:04:03 GMT

Hello everyone,

Well, this issue of PDF file sizes for cuts and sections is a huge pain. We create beautiful and captivating presentations that cannot be printed.

IA Visualizer is a beautiful utopia, barely functional. The tough licensing battle.

But truly optimized PDF output seems impossible.

P.S. AI would be much more useful in Param-o, infinitely more useful.

Re: Elevations and Sections produce HUGE file-size PDFs

Erik Bjornhage — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 14:18:38 GMT

Just out of curiosity - what is the resolution of the texture you are using for your fill.
I think the recommendation for any texture in AC is maximum 1024x1024px - and if it is any larger than this (unless absolutely needed) this could potentially cause issues.

Re: Elevations and Sections produce HUGE file-size PDFs

Mauricio_br — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 14:46:00 GMT

I generally use the native textures from the library or those from the additional texture catalog. I'll keep an eye out for any additional textures I might use. Thanks for the tip.