DWG to PDF

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I'm having some problems when using the DWG to PDF.  When we open our PDF the parts of our drawings will be very light.  It appears that most of the time it is only circles or arcs that are coming up lighter than the specified lineweight.  When the PDF is printed everything comes out as desired, but we need good looking digital copies as well.

I've been searching around and even on these forums I found some stuff talking about using the correct CTB and some other things of that nature, but I am pretty new to autocad (and self-taught) so there are several basics things that I probably missed out on and could use some clarification on.

Thank you all in advance.

[Jay_B]

" It appears that most of the time it is only circles or arcs that are coming up lighter than the specified lineweight."

If you print the same dwg to a physical printer using the same ctb do you get the same output?

Meaning are these same objects plotting too light?

More information needed like do you use "plot object lineweights" or are the weights controlled by the ctb in your workflow?

If your plotting from layout tab, could there be viewport overrides using the VP color or VP lineweight settings instead of the bylayer assignments?

[Anonymous]

Yes, I'm sorry, I had said when it is printed it comes out fine, but I realize that is confusing.  When a physical printer is used, there are no problems.  The only problems we have is with the digital copy of the PDF.

"More information needed like do you use "plot object lineweights" or are the weights controlled by the ctb in your workflow?"

I use plot object lineweights.

I also do not plot from the layout tab.  I go into the print menu and select DWG to PDF from the drop down box.

I'm attaching a PDF for an example, as you can see the cicrles are lighter as well as the corner that is rounded off.

[nestly2]

Can you post the drawing file the PDF was created from?

[Anonymous]

yes.

also, I didn't click that my response was the solution?  I'm not sure how that happened.

[nestly2]

I believe the Lineweight for that layer (Object) is too fine for the quality of the PDF.  Straight lines are OK, but there isn't enough pixels on the curved surfaces to make them look as dark as the horizontal and vertical lines.   Try increasing the lineweight a bit, or increase the quality of the plot in the Plot Dialog window.

[Jay_B]

You can also adjust the dpi resolution within the "Plotter configurtation Editor" here.

[Anonymous]

Alright, on some of my other more complex drawings (more circles and arcs) neither of these solutions worked.  I tried changing the dpi and even maxed it out, but this didn't change anything.  I also raised the lineweight to .5mm and this didn't help either.

Sorry, any other ideas?

[Anonymous]

and even on the simple DWG I attached there is still a noticeable difference when changing the lineweight up (though it is better)

[nestly2]

Is the PDF zoomed to fill the screen?  If zooming the PDF doesn't help, then can you post one of the more intricate drawings, and a screenshot of the PDF showing the light lines.

**edit

I think you can skip posting the other drawing.  I'm pretty sure it's a limitaion of the PDF viewer as enough zoom in the viewer eventually makes the curves as dark as the straight segments.  Try running up the resolution as Jay suggested, and also turning up the resolution in your PDF viewer under properties. There may also be a viewer setting to thicken thin lines.

[Anonymous]

Here is an example.

[nestly2 · Accepted solution]

My opinion is that it's just a limitation of the PDF viewer not scaling the lineweight of the curves and straight lines equally.  With enough zoom in the PDF viewer, eventually the lineweights become equal, which probably wouldn't be the case if AutoCAD was actually exporting the curved segments thinner/lighter.

http://www.screencast.com/t/IoOv63Yi

My only real suggestion if you know you'll be outputting to PDF is to turn up the resolution and/or avoid thin lineweights.  Hopefully someone else has a better solution.

[Anonymous]

Alright, thank you both.