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Thread: Batch plotting with Adobe Acrobat.....

  1. #1
    Revit Mararishi aaronrumple's Avatar
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    Default Batch plotting with Adobe Acrobat.....

    Since development was halted on the Revit PDF driver, print quality using it has degraded with each release as others have noted. We've had lots of trouble getting the high quality linework we want.

    Unfortunately Revit doesn't play nice with Acrobat and won't batch plot individual files with automatic naming.

    However I've finally worked up a solution which is giving me excellent control of file size and plot quality.

    I've set up Revit to print to a postscript printer - (I'm using a HP755 CM/PS driver because I'm familiar with it and it has the sheet sizes I want built in. However the generic Adobe driver and a PPD file free from Adobe's web site will do just fine too.)

    I now just plot to file using this setup and postscript files are created in a plot directory. They do end up with the *.prn extension rather than a *.ps or *.eps extension, but Acrobat doesn't care.

    I've got Adobe Distiller set up to watch that directory and automatically generate the PDF's. Works great and I've got the PDF settings refined for a sharper print than can be had from the Revit print driver.

    The nice thing about this is that printing postscript is fast. And I can set up distiller on a separate system watching a network drive. So one system can generate PDF's for everyone. Glad to post my setup if interested.

    (For presentation work you can't beat Revit->PostScript->PDF->CorelDraw....)

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    All AUGI, all the time mlgatzke's Avatar
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    Default Re: Batch plotting with Adobe Acrobat.....

    Quote Originally Posted by aaronrumple
    The nice thing about this is that printing postscript is fast. And I can set up distiller on a separate system watching a network drive. So one system can generate PDF's for everyone. Glad to post my setup if interested.

    (For presentation work you can't beat Revit->PostScript->PDF->CorelDraw....)
    I agree. This is an excellent solution. It gives high quality PDFs and enables an entire office to create PDFs with a single seat of Acrobat without jeopardizing the EULA. Awesome solution.

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    Active Member wildcat_714's Avatar
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    Default Re: Batch plotting with Adobe Acrobat.....

    Aaron, could you post that setup? Thanks for the info!
    peter-

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    AUGI Addict cnevians@yahoo.fr's Avatar
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    Default Re: Batch plotting with Adobe Acrobat.....

    thanks a lot for info ...

    very interresting solution !!!

    where do you post setup ?

  5. #5
    I could stop if I wanted to
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    Default Re: Batch plotting with Adobe Acrobat.....

    I'm not to familiar with printing pdf's...so this is probably one of those "dumb" questions, but, is it possible to have the print a number of pdf's so that they will collate?

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    AUGI Addict iru69's Avatar
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    Default Re: Batch plotting with Adobe Acrobat.....

    This is an interesting solution, Aaron... I'd also like to hear more detail about your setup.

    I first tried the Adobe Postscript Driver using the Adobe PPD file (downloaded off the Adobe website - easy to setup by following the instructions that come with the PPD file) - that worked okay for 2D drawings, but the line weights on the 3D shaded views were all out of whack. Also, since it doesn't support large sheets by default, it's a drag to set it up.
    We have a DJ1055CM+, so that was next - but no luck (I ended up with a blank sheet).
    We had a DJ800/PS, so that's what I tried next - but no luck (I ended up with a blank sheet).
    I messed with every paper setting that I could find under the printer properties, but no luck. The preview was fine but I'd only get a blank sheet when I actually printed.
    Maybe someone knows what's up with that.

    So then I tried the DJ755CM/PS that Aaron suggested - that worked very well - except that it cuts off about 1/2" of our titleblock - I still have to figure out what to do about that. Otherwise, it is really simple to get working.

    This is what I did (Windows XP Pro):
    Add a Printer.
    Next.
    Select "Local printer attached to this computer".
    Do not select "Automatically detect and install my PnP printer".
    Next.
    Select "Use the following port: FILE: (Print to File)"
    Next.
    Select "HP DesignJet 755CM/PS" (or whatever printer you want to try).
    Next.
    Select a printer name.
    Next.
    Don't bother printing a test page.
    Next.
    Finish.


    Then, I loaded up Acrobat Distiller (part of the Acrobat Pro CD). Setting up a folder to be monitored is very intuitive. You can play with all the quality settings, etc. One caveat is that I ran into font errors during conversion - so I turned on the "ignore errors" option and that problem went away.

    You can set it up locally, or to monitor a network folder (which is what I did).

    You can set up different folders for different conversion settings as needed.


    Then in Revit, I selected the new DJ755 "printer" and selected the "Print to file" checkbox.
    I selected the name and where I wanted to print the sheet. At first I was having problems because Acrobat choked on the prn extension - but then it started working with Distiller.

    Under "Setup...", I set up the sheet just as I normally would.

    I printed a page directly to the Distiller Inbox folder I had set up, and voila, it converts it to PDF and moves it to the Outbox. Also, as Aaron alluded to, you can print multiple sheets in one go - it won't ask you for a name/file location with each sheet. The whole thing works very fast.


    What I still need to get worked out is losing part of my titleblock - either by getting the DJ1055 to work or tweaking some settings for the 755CM/PS (and no, I can't change the titleblock itself ).

    EDIT : prn extension mysteriously started working with Distiller while Acrobat had been choking on it before.
    Last edited by iru69; 2005-08-11 at 12:41 AM.

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    Revit Mararishi aaronrumple's Avatar
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    Default Re: Batch plotting with Adobe Acrobat.....

    You might want to try the HP driver instead of the windows driver for the 755. This model has an "expanded margins" option as do many other HP plotters. You may find that the windows driver is cropping your titleblock.

    My settings for Distiller are as shown. Icreated a custom CADD profile for ease of setup. I've also been playing with the interaction of Revit and the Acrobat settings.

    I'm setting my PDF's to 600 DPI and that seems to give a nice size to quality.

    The other issue is when Revit does vector/raster. I can print a sheet with two elevations and Revit may spit one out as raster, the other as vector. (I'll dig an example out later). This is very noticable as the raster image is dithered with greys and prints lighter. So I've set the PDF image downsampling to exactly 600 DPI. This seems to keep everything nice and crisp.

    I've not noticed any difference - except in file size - between vector/raster with Revit. So I keep it set to vector. I haven't yet done much printing of 3D images - so I may need to refine the settings for that.

    Other Distiler settings are the defaults.
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Attached Files Attached Files
    Last edited by aaronrumple; 2005-08-11 at 01:10 AM.

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    AUGI Addict iru69's Avatar
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    Default Re: Batch plotting with Adobe Acrobat.....

    It's helpful to read more about your settings...

    Quote Originally Posted by aaronrumple
    You might want to try the HP driver instead of the windows driver for the 755. This model has an "expanded margins" option as do many other HP plotters. You may find that the windows driver is cropping your titleblock.
    Funny you mention that - I went to the HP site first (that's where I got the 1055 and 800 drivers) - but they only had the HP/GL2 driver for the 755 - I didn't see any PS drivers (at least for Windows XP). I'll scrounge around a little more. It must be around there somewhere.

  9. #9
    Revit Mararishi aaronrumple's Avatar
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    Default Re: Batch plotting with Adobe Acrobat.....

    Here's a sample of the PDF quality when Revit needs to rasterize a view. The Revit writer is dithered while the Acrobat pdf is crisp and clean. Plus the file size is dramatically lower....
    Attached Files Attached Files

  10. #10
    AUGI Addict iru69's Avatar
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    Default Re: Batch plotting with Adobe Acrobat.....

    Well, according to HP’s website, there is no official HP 755 postscript driver for Windows 2000 or XP...

    This is the workaround that HP suggests:

    Download the 755 PPD files from HP’s website (they’re found under the NT 4.0 drivers for the 755).

    Use the general Adobe PS Driver provided by Adobe - Adobe Universal PostScript Windows Driver Installer 1.0.5 (for Windows 95,98, Me, NT 4.0, and 2000) - English

    When installing the Adobe PS Driver, it will ask for the PPDs of the printer; use the 755 PPD file that you downloaded.

    But my title block still gets cut off.

    I've tried the 800, 1055, 4000, 5500 - always a blank 8 1/2x11 page - only the 755 seems to work.

    So, for now, back to using Adobe driver.

    I realized why the line weights were off (looked so dark) compared to the 755 – the default for the Adobe driver is 1200dpi – which makes the line weights much heavier for some reason. Bringing it down to 300dpi is comparable to the 755.

    So, here’s a few samples – all using 300dpi – Pinebrush, the 755 through Distiller, and the Adobe Universal PS driver through Distiller.
    Attached Files Attached Files
    Last edited by iru69; 2005-08-11 at 04:09 AM.

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