PDFs for CAD drafting – So easy a caveman could do it

madmarv — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 00:04:20 +0000

Starting in AutoCAD 2007, PDF’s can be plotted directly from AutoCAD. As of AutoCAD 2009, PDFs created by AutoCAD’s PDF plotter have layers that can be turned on and off just like they can in DWGs. The only caveat is that these PDFs must be opened by Adobe Reader 8 or higher or else the reader will think that the PDF file is corrupt. This function alone makes the Autodesk DWG to PDF plotter driver the best tool for creating PDFs in CAD.

Free PDF printers:
The only sad thing is that I can’t use Autodesk’s PDF plotter outside of CAD. I have to use Microstation every now and then and I need a good PDF printer. Each of these programs are free for commercial use and can plot PDFs up to ARCH E / ISO A0 paper sizes.

CutePDF – This is my goto PDF printer outside of CAD. Easiest and fastest to use that I’ve found so far.

doPDF – I use this when WIPEOUT and TEXTMASK’ed objects are blacked-out or obscured when plotting w/ CutePDF. It’s not really CutePDF’s fault, it is a bug in the Ghostscript engine that CutePDF uses. Nonetheless, I would normally use doPDF as my default PDF printer, except that it is much slower than CutePDF.

PDFCreator – I liked to use this before I got CutePDF. PDFCreator has a screen that pops up and asks you to fill in the metadata for the PDF you’re creating. I found that to be annoying after a dozen or so plots. However, this program stays on my computer because it can do more with PDFs than CutePDF or doPDF. For example, if you want to print to a BMP, JPG, GIF, SVG or PSD; encrypt or digitally sign the PDF, PDFCreator can do that from the Options button on that pop-up screen.

Free PDF reader and editing tools:
Foxit Reader – A free alternative to Adobe Reader. Not only is this PDF reader much faster than Adobe’s, Foxit allows you to markup PDFs. You can write / draw on top of a PDF with text, lines, and shapes (hint: revision clouds). You can also “whiteout” the underlying PDF by drawing a rectangle and setting the line color and fill color to white. Then you can write on top of the whiteout, exactly as you would use an old fashioned typewriter to fill out a form. Foxit Reader is free for commercial use, but it will watermark any PDF you save. Get around this by paying $40 for the Pro version or print your marked up PDF to another PDF, see the above tools.

PDFill Free PDF Tools for simple editing of PDFs. It will merge, split, rotate and crop existing PDFs with no watermark and no strings attached. The GUI is as wonky as they come but it gets the job done.

I have no affiliation with any of the above companies and this post is not sponsored.

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PDFs for CAD drafting – So easy a caveman could do it