I have just migrated to AutoCAD 2020 from 2018. My issue affects a workflow I've developed that enables us to provide customers with clean, crisp details of installed components we supply for the systems we provide.

The workflow is outlined below:

~ modelling of components and immediately surrounding building structures in Inventor (of which I have just migrated to 2020 from 2018 ).

~ generate Inventor dwg files, laying out previously modelled installation scenarios and arranging annotations for component identifications.

~ export the Inventor dwg to pdf.

~ run a specific Action Wizard within Acrobat DC to flatten layers and add Document Descriptions.

~ xref the Inventor generated pdf into AutoCAD and complete annotations that are too hard to achieve efficiently within Inventor (view label dynamic blocks created for my AutoCAD templates; title blocks; callout balloons etc.) The layer I xref the pdf in with is a non-plot layer.

~ batch plot the system installation plans for the project (which is all in one dwg file with several layouts - one of which has the pdf that was created in Inventor) using the "DWG To PDF.pc3" file from AutoCAD's non-system printer.

~ run a second Action Wizard within Acrobat DC to undo the stupid stuff that Autodesk decided would be a good idea to inflict upon everyone (were they brought in with the AutoCAD 2017? - things like square-bracketing the filename and layout name into the page number identification and defaulting to open the Page Thumbnails side panel) - this applies to just the plans that only contain AutoCAD data.

~ run a third Action Wizard within Acrobat DC to insert the pdf from Inventor into the detail page pdf completed in AutoCAD as a background.

~ Bind the plans and the detail pages into a binder from within Acrobat DC and submit for review.

This process has worked seamlessly and provides the client with rich detail drawings that aren't possible if I re-plot the Inventor pdf from AutoCAD (by making the pdf xref layer plot able).

The issue I have now with AutoCAD 2020 has to do with what pdf version AutoCAD 2020 now outputs.

AutoCAD 2018 used pdfplot14.hdi (Non-System printer) to generate PDF Version 1.6 (Acrobat 7.0) plots.
AutoCAD 2020 uses pdfplot15.hdi (Non-System printer) to generate PDF Version 1.7 (Acrobat 8.0) plots.
Both Inventor 2018 and 2020 generate PDF Version 1.6 (Acrobat 7.0) plots, using what I can only assume to be Adobe's system printer.

Because of the version difference between AutoCAD 2020 and Inventor 2020's plots, the third Action Wizard within Acrobat DC will not work. Even manually inserting the Inventor pdf into the AutoCAD pdf as a background fails.

I can re-print the AutoCAD pdfs as the previous pdf versions from within Acrobat DC and it will work, however this is a whole other step that doubles-up data.

Below are questions I posed to my Autodesk software distributor's help line; their answers in red italics:

1. Are the Heidi file's settings able to be edited? No, sorry
2. If not, could I somehow use the pdfplot14.hdi file from 2018 in 2020? How do I do this? No, sorry
3. Failing that, could I cheat by copying and renaming the pdfplot14.hdi to "pdfplot15.hdi" and replacing it that way? Trial and error I tried this - no such luck
4. If that's not possible, how do I set up a printer that uses the same System Printer as Inventor? install a 3rd party printer like Bluebeam
4.a. Would this give me that same output result? i.e. will it automatically append the file name with the layout name for the filename of the plot? trial and error, as suggested above.

What about exporting the Inventor drawings as dwg and link the Inventor dwg into AutoCAD for detailing? Doable, but I'd lose the option of having all the details textured, looking like a photo of the installation - which has gone a long way towards us being a standout company in our industry. These details really do pop, if I may say so myself


So. Where does this leave me? As I'm not yet willing to concede defeat and re-plot the PDF Version 1.7 (Acrobat 8.0) plots from AutoCAD 2020 back to PDF Version 1.6 (Acrobat 7.0), I'm left looking for a third party pdf printer that i don't have to sign up a subscription to. My boss will not be happy as we're already paying a motzer for the Autodesk and Adobe subs.

As an possible solution, I re-plotted the Inventor 2020 plot up from V1.6 to V1.7 to see if that would work, thinking that everything would be at V1.7, but no. It seems the V1.7 from the pdfplot15.hdi file just won't play ball. When replotting the Inventor plot to v1.7, it's format is created by the Adobe system printer, and the Add Background feature still fails (as the Heidi-file generated V1.7 from AutoCAD is the primary file). I even tried to go the other way -> adding the AutoCAD drawing as a Watermark to the Inventor detail pdf - only for Acrobat to give me an error indicating that the AutoCAD plot is corrupted - in it's unaltered state! Go Autodesk!

Using the Adobe system printer to output AutoCAD 2020 won't work, either, as I lose the ability to append the layout name to the filename in the plot name, the way the "DWG To PDF.pc3" from the Heifdi file does automatically. My Templates are all based around this functionality.

So, does anyone know of a free pdf system printer that does the filename-layoutname appending thing (at least as an option)?

Cheers!
Luke