Wipeout's in PDF Print All Black

[irneb]

For those who can't use the 255 fix (i.e. you're using STB's instead of CTB's) create a style with colour set to RGB 255,255,255 and/or screening=0%.

[dallas.leinweber]

When you are ready to print in Adobe Reader, open the "Print Dialog Box", click the "Advanced" button, then check the box labeled "Print as Image".

We have Adobe Reader 9, however, that option has been available for several versions back. In earlier versions it may be under a different tab and called something like "Print Image as Graghics"...

[levans.124749]

I am having problems with Printing pdf that i have made form a AutoCAD.
I use the "wipeout" command. when I make the pdf it looks fine.
But when it prints out the area with wipeout around them area black!

What do I do?

After stressing out all day on this issue, here is MY SOLUTION:

First, my problem: I recently incorporated wipeouts into many of our blocks and started using background masks on our text. We xref architect's drawings into our files and screen them back, then we put our symbols on top of their xrefs. Wipeouts and background masks have made our drawings look neat and pretty, so I have been very happy with these new tools until today. One of the architects we sent a pdf to called to say that, even though the wipeouts look correct in the pdf (our text masking was a different story), the drawings were plotting with all of the wipeouts completely black. They printed perfectly fine in my office. (For the record, I created my pdfs using AcroPlot Pro). This is how a long day of research on this topic began.

What didn't work at all? I tried lots of things that people have posted on multiple forums. Somebody suggested making sure that when printing from adobe choose "print document" instead of "print document and mark ups". This made no difference for me. I also debated on whether or not having the wipeout frames turned off or on in your drawings would make a difference, and that didn't matter. Making a "no plot" wipeout layer didn't work, because this makes the wipeouts useless - you end up seeing lines behind your wipeout.

What kind of worked? I really didn't want to try the suggested solution of making a new wipeout layer with the color of 255, because this seemed so time consuming! I even used the script that had been posted in one of these forums to make this process simpler, but I found that the script didn't modify wipeouts inside of blocks, and that I had to modify dozens of blocks individually (In each drawing file) to use this solution. It seemed like the best idea, so I tried it, and it worked --- but don't stop reading here -- I still found a better solution.... bear with me. So I spent a while modifying blocks one by one, and putting all of my wipeouts on a 255 colored wipeout layer. Then I used AcroPlot to create a pdf. It worked for my wipeouts! However, my MText still was misbehaving (my pdf shows different hatches showing up behind/around the text masking areas). This made me unhappy after spending all of that time modifying blocks... so then I tried something else.

I wondered if my problem could be AcroPlot (which everyone on these forums seems to love as a solution to this problem). Even though I've been really happy with AcroPlot, I decided to create my pdfs from AutoCAD using "DWG to PDF.pc3" as my Printer/Plotter. This worked beautifully.

My simple solution: I found that plotting or publishing from AutoCAD using "DWG to PDF.pc3" solved my problem entirely WITHOUT modifying blocks or adding new wipeout layers at color 255. After a long day of trying many things (believe me, I didn't list them all), the simple fix (for me) is that AutoCAD seems to have the best tool to create pdfs built right in! My Mtext issue is gone. My wipeout issue is gone. I don't have to modify hundreds of blocks in hundreds of files. I don't have to incorporate scripts into our drawings. I don't even have to save the plotter type to my layout in my page setup manager if I don't want to! It seems too good to be true. I half expect that tomorrow I'll be posting that I was mistaken, but for now, "DWG to PDF.pc3" is the fix for me. Does it work for you?

Lisa

[jonathan.dakin]

I found out that the DPI used when creating the PDF has an impact. Using PDF995 the DPI was 300 and the wipeout would not be completely filled black. I changed it to 1200 DPI it became completely black. I set it to 144 DPI and bingo it worked making it have no fill at all.

I am now trying to see if an adjustment can be made allowing for 300 DPI to be used.

[gfreddog]

snip...

My simple solution: I found that plotting or publishing from AutoCAD using "DWG to PDF.pc3" solved my problem entirely WITHOUT modifying blocks or adding new wipeout layers at color 255. After a long day of trying many things (believe me, I didn't list them all), the simple fix (for me) is that AutoCAD seems to have the best tool to create pdfs built right in! My Mtext issue is gone. My wipeout issue is gone. I don't have to modify hundreds of blocks in hundreds of files. I don't have to incorporate scripts into our drawings. I don't even have to save the plotter type to my layout in my page setup manager if I don't want to! It seems too good to be true. I half expect that tomorrow I'll be posting that I was mistaken, but for now, "DWG to PDF.pc3" is the fix for me. Does it work for you?

Lisa

We use CUTE PDF inhouse as well and while I may jinx myself with this next statement... here I go... we have had no issues with Wipeouts or Text Masking in our PDF's.

Fingers were crossed while typing so it took a little time to type this post and a ton of typos LOL

[MikeRobinson]

Try downloading and using the software from this website....

http://www.pdf995.com/download.html

It worked for me.

[bwilson352462]

The problem seems to be the pc3 setting of lines merge vs. lines overwrite. If I use the DWG to PDF pc3 with lines overwrite I have no problems. If I turn on lines merge...lots of filled black squares. It would be great if anyone knew a fix for this but it seems to me a software thing. The lines merge makes the drawings look great without having to worry about draw order.

[irneb]

The problem seems to be the pc3 setting of lines merge vs. lines overwrite. If I use the DWG to PDF pc3 with lines overwrite I have no problems. If I turn on lines merge...lots of filled black squares. It would be great if anyone knew a fix for this but it seems to me a software thing. The lines merge makes the drawings look great without having to worry about draw order.

Unfortunately PDF never worked well with lines merge. The only way I ever got lines-merge to work properly through to a PDF is to first plot to a Raster (BMP/JPG/TIF/PNG/etc.) file and then convert that into a PDF.

[wayne_wsu508956]

Solution 1: In PDF printing dialogue, there is an "Advance" button, click it and select "print as image".Solution 2: Use any PDF printer to print the PDF file as a new PDF file with above mentioned option ticked.

[jwatkins.137246]

We were having this same issue in my firm. Took me a bit but I resolved it with a simple fix. Inside of the block i have the wipeout/mask on its own layer not layer 0. I pushed it to the back and pulled the attributes forward. In the layer manger for the mask I changed the color to 252,252,252. Once this was completed our plotted PDF's no longer had all the masks filled solid black.