DWG to PDF thumbnail pane in Adobe when plotting

[Kandi B]

This is an issue we have had for a while and managed to fix but I cannot for the life of me figure out what the fix is again. We had this working quite well the way we wanted to up until we upgraded our AutoCAD and Windows. Only two of the four of us have had this fix with our AutoCAD.

The issue is when we print from AutoCAD to PDF using DWG to PDF plotter and open the file in Adobe Acrobat, Acrobat will automatically open the thumbnail pane. This happens when we use Plot (see attached PDF "Test Plot".) If I use Publish, this doesn't happen (see attached PDF "Test Publish".) In the PDF Options we already have the Include layer information, Include hyperlinks and Create Bookmarks check boxes check (see image "AutoCAD PDF Options".)

This issue does not happen when we use the Adobe PDF plotter in AutoCAD. We have done some extensive testing between the Adobe PDF plotter and the DWG to PDF plotter and we prefer to use the DWG to PDF plotter because of some issues we found using Adobe PDF plotter. The issues with the Adobe PDF plotter we found were that hatches don't show up correctly (the hatches tend to get broken up and skewed), lines don't line up correctly when zoomed in, lines don't meet at corners well, text become shapes, drawing is rotated incorrectly, etc. These issues were not fixed even after we changed the AutoCAD PDF settings for the Adobe PDF plotter.

From what I am seeing with all the testing I have been doing, it appears that if you plot from the Plot option in AutoCAD, it defaults to showing the thumbnail pane in Adobe every time except when using the Adobe PDF plotter (this has its own issues), but if you plot using the Publish option in AutoCAD, the thumbnail pane is not defaulted to show up in Adobe.

We prefer to use the DWG to PDF settings.

The following are the system / software information:

Windows OS: Windows 11 Pro (our company just upgraded everyone's computer to Windows 11 Pro from Windows 10 Pro this week.)
AutoCAD: We have 2 people using AutoCAD 2025 and 2 person using AutoCAD 2024. (We just upgraded to AutoCAD 2025 from AutoCAD 2024 a few weeks ago.)
Adobe: Adobe Acrobat Pro Version 2024.002.20759 64-bit

The attached files are:

"Test Plots.zip" File includes these images:
"Test Plot DWG to PDF.jpg" - This plot shows the thumbnail pane in Adobe Acrobat that we do not want to have shown every time we plot.
"Test Publish DWG to PDF.jpg" - This plot does not show the thumbnail pane. This is the way we want all our plots and publishes to act.
"Test Plot Adobe PDF.jpg" - This is what the plot looks like in Adobe after using the Adobe PDF plotter in AutoCAD.
"Test Plot AutoCAD PDF.jpg" - This is what the plot looks like in Adobe after plotting with the AutoCAD PDF.
"Test Publish AutoCAD PDF.jpg" - This is what the plot looks like in Adobe when using AutoCAD PDF (General Documentation) to publish drawings.

"AutoCAD Settings.zip" File includes these images:
"AutoCAD Plot.png" - This is what my AutoCAD PDF Plot settings look like.
"AutoCAD Publish.png" - This is what my AutoCAD Publish Plot Settings look like.
"AutoCAD PDF Options.png" - This is what my AutoCAD PDF Options Dialog box looks like.
"Adobe Preferences AutoCAD Settings.png" - This is the the settings for the convert to PDF from AutoCAD settings are in Adobe Acrobat.
"AutoCAD Plot Adobe Document Properties.jpg" - This is what the Adobe Document Properties looks like after plotting in AutoCAD using the AutoCAD DWG to PDF plotter.
"AutoCAD Publish Adobe Document Properties.jpg" - This is what the Adobe Document Properties looks like after publishing in AutoCAD using the AutoCAD DWG to PDF plotter.
"AutoCAD Plot Adobe PDF Adobe Document Properties.jpg" - This is what the Adobe Document Properties looks like after plotting in AutoCAD using the Adobe PDF plotter.

I hope someone here will be able to help me figure out what this fix is. I have tried researching this issue and have had no luck in the matter. The so-called "fixes" that I found in the Autodesk Forums have not been helpful.

These are the articles I found in the forum when I tried searching for the fix. These are kind of old (related to AutoCAD 2016 and 201 and not very useful.

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autoc...3/td-p/9112642
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autoc...266555#M137367
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autoc...m/td-p/6964981
https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autoc...r/td-p/5560791

[Ed Jobe]

I use Bluebeam and I don't have this problem. I switched my default pdf viewer to Adobe Reader and didn't have this problem. Does Acrobat Pro have the ability to save profiles? Bluebeam allows you to save a layout/toolbars/etc to a profile. It will open with that profile the next time you open it. The problem you're having is caused by the fact that using the 'dwg to pdf' driver opens the pdf automatically and you can't turn off this feature. The PUBLISH command does not use this driver by default and so the pdf doesn't open automatically. If you're doing batch plotting, you wouldn't want them to open automatically. The Bluebeam pdf driver allows you to chose whether or not to open the pdf automatically. One reason we don't use AutoCAD's driver. If you switch the PUBLISH commands driver to use 'dwg to pdf' you will probably have the same problem with the PUBLISH command. 1 shows the default driver. 2 shows the chosen driver.

acad publish.png

[Will_Munson]

It can be tricky how a PDF viewer opens a PDF if it also remembers the setting(s) from the previous session.


Next, when you render out to PDF from any application, not all settings variables for how the file will "Default Open"/"Initial View" in a "PDF Standard" viewer are made available to the end user.


To check what the initial display settings are, open the PDF and select CTRL+D to get to the PDF document properties.


Here you can see the "Initial View" tab with all the settings available and where you can determine what your output PDFs are set to. Yet, you will not find these settings in AutoCAD before creating a PDF.


For example, when doing a DWG to PDF conversion using AcroPlot Pro from CADzation, if you tick the box to include layer information, then the PDF created will set the initial view to have whichever PDF viewer (AcroPlot Matrix, Acrobat, Bluebeam) open the "Layers Panel and Page" navigation automatically. If layers are not included in the PDF output, then AcroPlot sets the "Initial View" to "Page Only".


You can edit the PDF by opening it, CTRL+D, Initial View, select the display setting you want, and save it. Reopen it to see your changes.


If you have +100 files you want to batch adjust the "Initial View" settings, CADzation can help with that.


Corel.png

[BlackBox]

Acrobat will automatically open the thumbnail pane.

This just recently started happening here as well and my situation had nothing to do with AutoCAD.

New versions of Adobe Acrobat (Pro here) repeatedly enabled thumbnails (pages) when opening a PDF - Adobe is doing this - the only workaround I've found is to modify the registry, but regardless of changing my preferences in Acrobat, or modifying registry, Acrobat repeatedly changes back:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Acrobat.Document.DC\shell\Open\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Adobe\\Acrobat DC\\Acrobat\\Acrobat.exe\" /A \"navpanes=0\" \"%1\""

So, to repeatedly disable navpanes, this registry modification will have to be run as part of your shell:startup, netlogon, GPO, etc.

HTH