PDFs with form fields in AC 10

[SeaGeoff]

The Seattle Department of Planning and Development plan coversheet is available as an Arch D (24"x36") PDF with interactive form fields. This is a great convenience. Trouble is I cannot figure out how to get the form data to show in ArchiCAD. I have the form all filled out and looking good in Acrobat, but when the PDF is placed on an ArchiCAD layout all the fields appear empty. I have tried saves and save-as's to no avail and cannot find any kind of "flatten" or "bind" type of command. Anyone had any luck with this? Thanks.

[Djordje]

Geoff wrote:
The Seattle Department of Planning and Development plan coversheet is available as an Arch D (24"x36") PDF with interactive form fields. This is a great convenience. Trouble is I cannot figure out how to get the form data to show in ArchiCAD. I have the form all filled out and looking good in Acrobat, but when the PDF is placed on an ArchiCAD layout all the fields appear empty. I have tried saves and save-as's to no avail and cannot find any kind of "flatten" or "bind" type of command. Anyone had any luck with this? Thanks.

Did you try printing it to PDF again?

Does it have to stay "alive"?

[SeaGeoff]

I thought of that. But Acrobat does not allow printing to PDF (or previewing), at least on Mac. You get the dialog below, which puts me back at square one.

[Thomas Holm]

Geoff wrote:
I thought of that. But Acrobat does not allow printing to PDF (or previewing), at least on Mac. You get the dialog below, which puts me back at square one.

Geoff, since you're on the Mac, I don't know if this works with your document, but in similar situations I've saved the PDF from Acrobat and then opened it in OSX's Preview and THEN Print>Preview>Save as pdf. This is also sometimes works as a workaround when the Crop command in Acrobat won't let you really crop to reduce content of a pdf.

[SeaGeoff]

Tried that too. Both Preview and Save as PDF are not available when I try. Are you saying that this works for you?

[Thomas Holm]

Well, no, sometimes, it was just a thought. I haven't tested it with forms. And not in 10.4.8.

Actually, I think the limits depend on the document. To my dismay (but other's joy) Apple's Preview more and more respects copy protection settings in PDFs. I remember with OSX 10.1 (or10.2??) it was possible to remove all limits of protected PDF documents, using Preview. (I wasn't illegal, I just used it as a fast way to extract client logos from annual reports and such).

But from your screen dump, it seems it's still possible to save the file as postscript. Have you tried doing that and THEN re-pdf it with Preview? or Distiller? or editing in Illustrator? (I'm just buck-shooting all around 😉

[Erika Epstein]

When I tried to save I got a warning that the security on the document will not allow it to be saved with the fields filled out. Sounds like the city of Seattle is doing this on purpose. Have you asked them why?

[jbArch]

Not sure if this helps...

I noticed that if I open your form-filled PDF in the Panther version of Preview (os 10.3), all of your "filled in" portions are blank. Of course this version of Preview does not have the ability to fill in forms either.

On the Tiger (os 10.4) version of Preview I can see all the data that you entered.

So it would seem that AC10 is like the Panther version of Preview -- it cannot properly handle PDF files that are form-fillable, even if the new data is already there. Have you tested any other form-fillable PDFs to see if AC10 can handle them?

Cheers,
JB

[Link]

Don't know if you've got this working yet Geoff, but I was able to fill out your form and save it using Adobe Acrobat Professional. I placed it on a layout and it came in filled out.

I haven't upgraded to 1010 yet either, but I am on PC.

Cheers,
Link.

[Erika Epstein]

Link,
Your brilliant!
How did you get it to save with the blanks filled in?
I have adobe professional too and how did you manage it?
I kept getting that warning about it not being allowed.