Documentation
About Archicad's documenting tools, views, model filtering, layouts, publishing, etc.

PDFs - Flattening Layers

ArchiCAD is producing "layered" PDFs that take a long time to print. Each time a PDF document is viewed it rebuilds the image as if it remembers the layering. Is there an easy way to create PDFs that do not have this problem? Some files take literally 10s of minutes to print due to this problem. (ie. we may need to change from vector to raster PDFs)

System: Mac OS 10.4.10

Thanks
Thomas Allan Palmer
Architect AIBC MRAIC
ArchiCAD 24 MacBook Pro
Mac OS Catalina 10.15.6
3 REPLIES 3
Andy Thomson
Advisor
This is a huge problem IMO. DWF generates vector quality work in a fraction of the time and the final filesize is typically 10% of AC's PDF's. Once AC's PDF's are optimized with the quartz filter (preview) or with Acrobat's Optimize function, they are reduced to half their size - this should be done inside ArchiCad!

The resolution setting only applies to Arcs - what is going on here? Did we not used to (AC9) have control over the entire PDF resolution? Where did it go?
Andy Thomson, M.Arch, OAA, MRAIC
Director
Thomson Architecture, Inc.
Instructor/Lecturer, Toronto Metropolitan University Faculty of Engineering & Architectural Science
AC26/iMacPro/MPB Silicon M2Pro
Brad Elliott
Booster
This is not typical. How are you producing the pdf's?
Mac OS12.6 AC26 USA Silicon
M1 Macbook Pro
Andy Thomson
Advisor
I do not have an issue with speed, the previous poster does. My issue is with filesize, which is atypical for a vector quality architectural ArchD sheet. Typically we print publish 20 sheets in well under 5 minutes.

When firms are printing hundreds of sheets, the problem with filesize becomes a serious problem, as you can well imagine. Longer generation time may be because in the latests builds, AC updates placed drawings that are set to 'automatic' (well, at least for publishing DWGs it does)
Andy Thomson, M.Arch, OAA, MRAIC
Director
Thomson Architecture, Inc.
Instructor/Lecturer, Toronto Metropolitan University Faculty of Engineering & Architectural Science
AC26/iMacPro/MPB Silicon M2Pro