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Flatten View content before saving as PDF

Anonymous
Not applicable
There appears to be no way to truly flatten the content of a PDF when publishing from ArchiCAD. Meaning sometimes PDF's are very large or the redraw time is very long. It would be good if there were more options for flattening PDF files within ArchiCAD.

More discussion on this issue from a previous thread here;
http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=273167#273167
8 REPLIES 8
Darren_Kilker
Booster
I just did a test between using the printer (446 kb) vs using publisher (4094 kb). This test sheet is a code plan that has a lot of fills. Sorry, I need client permission to upload sample and I'm not going to pester them for this.

Obviously the printer option provides a smaller file size, but the time it takes to print a large project one sheet at a time and then assemble in to one PDF for distribution is unacceptable.

I'm using AC23 on a Windows 10 PC, do MAC users have the same problem?

Please GRAPHISOFT, we need a smaller PDF file size option.
James B
Graphisoft
Graphisoft
Darren.Kilker wrote:
...but the time it takes to print a large project one sheet at a time and then assemble in to one PDF for distribution is unacceptable...
You can set a Publisher Set to Print all pages. So you don't have to go to File/Print for every page.
When using built in PDF, you can try Document Options/PDF Options, and review those settings like uncheck Layers, and Compress all Images (if you're using).
James Badcock
Graphisoft Senior Product Manager
Darren_Kilker
Booster
James wrote:

You can set a Publisher Set to Print all pages. So you don't have to go to File/Print for every page.
When using built in PDF, you can try Document Options/PDF Options, and review those settings like uncheck Layers, and Compress all Images (if you're using).
I did those things as part of my testing. I unchecked all but allow print and set the arc dpi to 300 with the compressed images also set to 300 dpi and saved 1 KB.

Printing/publishing with an external PDF printer is extremely slow and creates individual files for each sheet, which then need to be assembled. The file size is significantly smaller, but wow, lots of time to do it.

DK
Lingwisyer
Guru
Darren.Kilker wrote:
Printing/publishing with an external PDF printer is extremely slow and creates individual files for each sheet, which then need to be assembled. The file size is significantly smaller, but wow, lots of time to do it.

In you Layout Book select multiple layouts then print?

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Barry Kelly
Moderator
Darren.Kilker wrote:
Printing/publishing with an external PDF printer is extremely slow and creates individual files for each sheet, which then need to be assembled. The file size is significantly smaller, but wow, lots of time to do it.

If you have the PDFs you want to publish located inside a folder, you can 'Merge' that folder so they all become one PDF file (saved with the name you have given the folder).


Barry.
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Darren_Kilker
Booster
I do use that option for the internal PDF publisher. However, if you use an external (not AC/GraphiSoft) printer to make a PDF, such as Adobe, you don't have that option.
davidstonearchicad21
Contributor
Hi all, I arrived here looking for a solution to sluggish PDFs that AC21 creates. It doesn't look as if there is much of a solution from within the publisher environment to cure the slow page thumbnails and file size, however i thought i'd share a method we use to reduce (re)publish times.

We publish with a real folder structure (individual files in folders) and then use Adobe's right-click context menu (in windows) to assemble the binder, and that takes only 30 seconds.

The benefit of this method is it allows you to re-publish a single sheet if you spot a mistake during publishing (there's always one!) and only incur a 30 second time penalty to re-assemble the entire binder. Also, our developer client likes the individual sheets as they can pass them on easily to other consultants.

This method requires you to name the sheets of your entire set in an alphanumeric way that will be instantly ordered by clicking the top of the name tab.

We still use Adobe Acrobat X.. assuming later versions also have this context menu.
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Lingwisyer
Guru
davidstonearchicad21 wrote:
We still use Adobe Acrobat X

Acrobat X is no longer supported and is buggy when used within Win10. From your screenshot, I assume you are still on Win7.

Workflow is still viable using a more recent version.



Ling.

AC22-23 AUS 7000Help Those Help You - Add a Signature
Self-taught, bend it till it breaksCreating a Thread
Win10 | R5 2600 | 16GB | GTX1660