PDF printing

[cyriousn]

Is there a PDF printing option out there that will automaticlly name your PDF file-name the name of your sheet instead of the name of your Revit file?

[dennis howell]

I believe you will find that capability is more on the driver side rather than something with Revit. I use CutePDF which does put the view name on the PDF file name.

[cyriousn]

Hmmm we are using CutePDF as well and it defaults to the Revit File name...

[dennis howell]

Yeah, I agree, that is a "hmmm"....wondering what is different about my setup...

Upon review, I found that when I select multiple views to print, then I have the option to append the view name to the file name, where the file name will always be the name of the project file. But if I set it to put all the views into a single PDF, then I get the project file name, but sadly, the views within the file are just numbered.

So, appears CutePDF does kinda do what you need, but not fully.

[cyriousn]

Another problem that I am having with CutePDF is that when I go to print multiple sheets at once with seperate files it will only save the first PDF and then any PDFs after that will not save anywhere. The windows will pop up for each individual PDF with the view/sheet name already there but when I click save they do not generate. Multiple views/sheets into one PDF file is no problem but seperate files just doesnt work at all.

[dennis howell]

Well, your question inspired me (or troubled me, depending on how you look at it), so I went to digging. You are right about batching PDFs with CutePDF. I found that to be true too (odd though, I could have sworn it was working fine last Spring, sigh).
So I started downloading PDF drivers and experimenting. I will give the highlights:
PDF Drivers Tested:
1) CutePDF, 2) GIRDAC PDFCreator, 3) PrimoPDF, 4) BullzipPDF, 5) PDF995, 6) NitroPDF
I am sure there are others, but that is where I started.
Best results for appending the Filename_ViewName:
PrimoPDF and PDF995. You will need to deal with the SAVE dialog for each name (or, I just couldn't find the option to turn it off). PDF995, when you pick SAVE, you will also get a "Sponsor's Commercial".

The other drivers had an assortment of griefs: Wants to install other apps, appending the Path_ProjectName_ViewName, ugly long name; GIREDAC you had to manually name each yourself, CutePDF fails at batch.

ADDITIONALLY: A cohort here asked me to test NitroPDF. Glad I did. It will do the batch with only the VIEWNAME. It seems a little slower compared to the other drivers. This one may end up being your best bet.

Main thing, download and test. Look over the PDFs closely to insure nothing was dropped.

[ALM BIM]

Try pdf creator. I thnk it is from sourceforge? Either way it is free, and has options for naming and auto save. The naming isn't perfect but it will get you close to where you want to be. The option I use puts the file path then the sheet number and name. I have an app (poweren) that will batch rename the files without the path. If you can pay a little try bluebeam. This is a great pdf tool (similar to adobe but more powerful) that has a add in for Revit and Autocad. It allows you to set up plot sets and create pdfs with the click of a button. As far as I know bluebeam is the only one with the line merge option that will allow MEP work to print on top of the text from a linked revit file. (There are other issues created by line merge though. Not a fix all) Bluebeam is also good for many other everyday task.

[cyriousn]

I will have to give them all a try, Looking forward to giving NitroPDF a try, sounds extreme haha.

I tried PDF Creator and its pretty good considering it's free but for some reason it turns all of my periods into "-" so my drawing EP1.00 becomes EP1-00. Grrrrr

[Wanderer]

I will have to give them all a try, Looking forward to giving NitroPDF a try, sounds extreme haha.

I tried PDF Creator and its pretty good considering it's free but for some reason it turns all of my periods into "-" so my drawing EP1.00 becomes EP1-00. Grrrrr

Not that you want to add steps or anything, but, one of my favorite handy apps is ReNamer. It's easy to do batch find/replace on filenames.

[neightyeight]

We use Bluebeam here and it works great within Revit. Of course, it's not free...