Print to PDF in OS X

[Anonymous]

In the past I have used an application called PrintToPDF to send
drawings to my engineer. It creates excellent PDFs but it only works
with OS 9 applications. Now that I am using AC 8.1 in OS 10.3.4
I can't use PrintToPDF.
I tried using OS 10's print to pdf and it has poor color fidelity
and it can't print the 3D window.
Has anyone else run into these problems or has a solution for them?
I have searched the web for a print to pdf application
for mac OS X with no success
Thank you,
Peter Devlin

[Aussie John]

Im not sure what you are doing but save to PDF certaining "prints" the 3D window. Also I have found the colours to quite acceptable.

How are you creating your PDFs?

[Anonymous]

Hello John.
Thank you for the reply.

I go to the 3D window, then go to file->Print->save as PDF.
It takes about 2 1/2 minutes of spinning pinwheel and when I
try to open the PDF with Adobe Reader there is another spinning
pin wheel that never stops. I waited about 5 minutes then
force quit reader. I have tried several times. No luck.
I've tried Preview and it takes forever also and the commands hang
and the image has poor color like as I describe below.

I been able to save as PDF a section/elevation but the color quality is poor.
For instance all brown tones, orange tones, rust tones, etc all come out
bright red.

Thanks,
Peter Devlin

[Eduardo Rolon]

If you are using the print command for OS X and then select "save to PDF" then there should be no problems. If you have you can check under the colorsync tab- quartz filters, there are options there to modify filters. Also you can check the settings in Applications- Utilities- Colorsync Utility.
Also try using the Preview App that comes with Panther it works better than Adobe's Reader.

[Anonymous]

Eduardo,
Thank you for your reply.
These Colorsync Utility settings would affect any printer output wouldn't they? Or only PDFs?
I tried printing with my hpdeskjet 940c and it worked just fine.
As I said in my last post, I tried the Preview App.

BTW when I tried to save as PDF from the 3D window the window
that should come up asking where to save and with what file name
never came up and the unopenable PDF was saved to the desktop
with the name "....3d all".

Also I read at the Graphisoft US tech support site that a specific printer
must be selected so that save as PDF can use it's settings even though
one intends not to print but save as PDF.
Thank you,
Peter Devlin

[Anonymous]

I don't know if this will help, since our primary need has been to save layouts from OSX PlotMaker (to PDF). I don't know the exact recipe, but we save out of PlotMaker as an EPS and bring it into Adobe Distiller and save out again as a PDF. It's a pain, but we've had the most reliable results there.

Believe it or not, we still use Print2Pict through OSX's Classic emulator. When we have an outline specific that goes directly into the set, we write it in Word X, we open it in Word 98 (Classic), we change the Chooser to Print2Pict and save out a pict and then import the pict into OSX PlotMaker. Yes, a royal pain! But until OSX PlotMaker will import PDFs, we've no choice.

Good luck!

[Eduardo Rolon]

Peter wrote:
Eduardo,
Thank you for your reply.
These Colorsync Utility settings would affect any printer output wouldn't they? Or only PDFs?

All

Peter wrote:
BTW when I tried to save as PDF from the 3D window the window
that should come up asking where to save and with what file name
never came up and the unopenable PDF was saved to the desktop
with the name "....3d all".

Just use print and then select save pdf.

[Anonymous]

Ted,
Thank you for your reply.
I don't own the applications you mention so I can't try the methods
you suggest but I am going to try your suggestion about using
Print2Pict but since I don't have Print2Pict I will use PrintToPDF instead
and see how that works.

Thanks,
Peter

[Anonymous]

Here's my .02 cents..

I purchased Adobe Acrobat Professional (I'm sure you can find a great price on eBay) and it installed a print driver that writes outstanding PDFs of any size! In PlotMaker I cannot "publish" the whole set for some wierd reason, but I can and have been printing 24x36 PDFs that I send to clients and print houses. I even incorporate 3D views into the sets and hot link them back to the main file, works like a charm!

+pablo
G5