Need PDFs w/ Merge Control, Lines Merge vs. Overwrite

[Wesley1969]

I hate to double post, but I need to get this in front of more members, as I am hopeful for a response quickly...it's not getting much attention in one of the other sub-forums which is more specific to plotting.

After being in another career for almost a year, I am back to using AutoCAD again...I think the last version I was using was Arch Desktop 2006. Now, where I am, I am using Vanilla AutoCAD 2008. Quite the adjustment to having less features, and being away from any AutoCAD programs for a year. That said, here is my predicament:

I need to produce final plot sheets in PDF. Some of my linework is half-toned, and is underlayed. On top, I have some tags with Alpha-Numeric characters. Of course, I want the tags to "POP" when they are over the half-toned linework. At my previous job, and with ADT 2006, I had this all set up and could breeze through the plots with no linework issues. I am not having as good a time with this now, and I'm not sure if is because of the move to a 2008 version of Autodesk product, or a conspiracy by Adesk to move users away from PDF to DWF. I know about the Merge Control feature when plotting, ie: Lines Merge vs. Lines Overwrite.

First, I'm surprised that the OOTB PDF driver (DWG To PDF.pc3) does not have the Merge Control feature under Device and Document Settings --> Graphics. How would one ever ensure that they get the lines to merge or overwrite when they plot?

Second, I have Adobe Acrobat Pro, so I saved a .pc3 file (Adobe PDF.pc3), and set Merge Control to "Lines Merge". Which means that the "100% screened" tags should "POP" when they have "50% screened" linework underlaid, right? But, this doesn't happen, as I get unreadable tags in my PDF file, because the 50% screened linework overwrites the 100% screened tags. Argh!

Third, I plotted to my OOTB DWF driver (DWF6 ePlot.pc3), and received a great DWG plot, without any "apparent" layers. I can read the tags, as the half-toned lines are below them, etc. I love DWF...the problem is, my end userS need PDF files. They can all read PDF, not DWF...and the IT department is government run, so getting them to all have a DWF viewer installed is more aggravation than my little Line Merge Control problem.

So, I use my Adobe Acrobat Pro driver to printer from my DWF Viewer to PDF. Thinking that I will get the "WYSIWYG" solution, I am almost happy. Except, that for some strange reason, when I print the DWF to PDF, the linework reverts to a "Lines Overwrite" setting, and my tags are unreadable again. WTH?

Anyone out there see what I am missing? A setting, a dialogue box that I need to change, something? TIA,

[ccowgill]

I dont know about 08 but have you tried checking on the custom properties button within the pc3 properties?

[irneb]

It just doesn't work with any PDF Printer Driver

I've tried it with AdobePDF, PDFCreator and ADesk's DWG to PDF. Even doing the DWF and then from there to Adobe or Creator gives the same results. Check the files contained in CAD-DWF.ZIP attached. The DWF comes out correct, but none of the PDFs does anything but overwrite lines.

Wanted to find out if there's a problem with PDFs on their own. So I did a similar thing using Open Office Draw. 2 lines with an opacity of 50% over a 3rd line with no opacity. Printing from this asks a question: "Some of the graphics have transparency, some printer drivers will take a long time to calculate this, do you want to remove transparency?" Well, I answered No ... and lo and behold, it did take a looooooonnnngggg time. Not to mention enormous PDF files. But one thing from OOo ... you can save direct to PDF ... tried this and it works perfectly, quickly & small file. See tests in OOoDraw-ODG.ZIP. The test.PDF is saved direct from OOoDraw, testAdobe.PDF and testPDFCreator are the files generated from a print out of the ODG file - seems like they convert to raster to get transparency correct ... thus the long time & large files.

So this seems to be a fault with the drivers, seeing as PDF does have a simple setting for "this line is 50% transparent". So I tried something else ... installed EMFPrinter ... and created the EMF (as Windows uses when spooling to a printer) same thing: large slow bitmap type file (testEMFprinter.EMF). OOoDraw can also export directly to EMF (test.EMF) ... here's the prob ... EMF does not seem to have a transparency setting. That's maybe why printing transparency does not work and needs to be circumvented by creating a bitmap instead.

So it's actually not an AutoDesk, Adobe, or PDForge problem ... it's a Micro$oft stuff up as usual, since the EMF (Enhanced Meta File) is a M$ file format used throughout Windows for printer spooling (since the NT days), prior to that they used WMF (Windows Meta File).

I suppose the only solution would be to have a direct HDI-PDF driver which works better and has the capability to save transparency info. I've heard the new 2009 & 10's got an improved driver for this ... maybe they work now? Just didn't have any to test at the moment ... removed 2009 after a week of testing (just way too slow on my PC), and 2010 was even worse.

[Wesley1969]

irneb - I sort of understand your post, thanks for the info...unfortunately I'm in a company where the IT dept will take another lifetime to add anything that isn't pre-tested. Looks like I will just need to print to DWF and send out hardcopies. I can post PDFs for electronic access, the users will just need to understand there will be a loss in readability!

[scott.wilcox]

PDF-Xchange for Acroplot Pro driver seems to do lines merge nicely.

[Wesley1969]

PDF-Xchange for Acroplot Pro driver seems to do lines merge nicely.

Scott - Thanks for the info...unfortunately I'm in a company where the IT dept will take another lifetime to add anything that isn't pre-tested.

[09silverado]

oh, it's plenty tested.

that will fix your problem and then create another.... the problem will be the pdf with transperancy and the huge print times because of it.

don't get me wront, acroplot by cadzation is awesome for viewing and making the correct pdf, however, i haven't found a printer that can handle them as fast as a plot file, for obvious reasons.

[irneb]

then create another.... the problem will be the pdf with transperancy and the huge print times because of it.

Have you tried printing to the printer from Acrobat using its "Print as image" option? In Acrobat Reader's print dialog, click the Advanced button (2nd from bottom left), then check the Print as image checkbox, and OK back to the print dialog - this should then become the default.

For some reason, whether the printer receives a PostScript file or a windows driver's EMF file transparency is a big bugarup! Only HPGL/2 and Raster files print correctly with transparency.

If you think about it, all printers (except for pen plotters) would literally have to convert whatever's sent to them into a raster image. All you're doing is basically moving this conversion from the printer to your PC. And face it, no printer has a CPU faster than your PC's. The only negative in this is that network traffic is increased as the raster file is usually a lot larger than the vector.

[mvsawyer]

Have you tried printing to the printer from Acrobat using its "Print as image" option? In Acrobat Reader's print dialog, click the Advanced button (2nd from bottom left), then check the Print as image checkbox, and OK back to the print dialog - this should then become the default.

I tried this setting (Autocad 2010, Adobe 8 Pro) and it's still plotting with lines overwrite. I've got my PC3 file set to Lines Merge and I just can't figure which setting to use. Either from the PC3 or the Adobe PDF system printer but as far as I can tell, Autodesk has not fixed the issue in 2010 and it makes for a very poor quality product. Not something as a company you want to say "sorry, that's just the best you're going to get from us." Frustrating.

[mvsawyer]

I messed with some more settings (and left settings alone entirely) and found a workaround. Move everything you want to "pop" to the front using the DRAWORDER (DR) command. Another helpful command is TEXTTOFRONT which is a quick way to move text and dimensions to the front without having to select them. Not sure if TEXTTOFRONT is new in 2010 or not but that is the version I have. Hope this is helpful.

edit: another option is to use DRAWORDER to move screened items Back.