NEW AutoCAD user - how do I convert a drawing to a PDF?

[garyjling]

I just started to use AutoCAD.  Never used it before!  I have 3 wks experience!  Can someone please walk me through converting a drawing into a PDF.

 Here's the situation:

Someone sends me a floorplan (it's all in light grey as the background) with axis lines. My job is to draw circles on the floorplan to show where pipes will go through the floor and dimensions from the axis lines.  I learned how to do that.  I also draw arrows and enter text to to describe the holes on the floor.  I use different colors for the hole, arrow, and text so it's easier to see when I'm working in the "model" tab.

Now I need to convert it to a PDF.  I go to

"Work" tab

FILE PLOT

PRINTER/PLOTTER: Adobe PDF

PLOT STYLE: None

WHAT TO PLOT: Window, then I click window and it goes back to the "work" tab and let me select my plot area.  So I select the whole area (including title bar) that I want to convert.

Then I click OKAY

Then I get a nice pdf, BUT everything thing that I drew is in color!  The background remains light grey which is what it's suppose to be.  I want everything that i drew to be in BLACK.  How convert to pdf and make everything that I drew in BLACK?

[entropist]

The answer lies in Plot Styles. You need a plot style to tell the program what shade (and possibly lineweight) of 'black' each othe colors you used is supposed to print as.

[ennujozlagam · Accepted solution]

hi Just for info. attached some screen shot for better understanding. thanks and regards.

[kadmonkee8]

if you have a template to go by this will be easier later on

the template will have layout tabs for each sheet size you are using.

inside the template you also have all your standards- text styles, dimensionstyles mleaderstyles, layers, page setups for each sheet size you are using.

each layout tab should have a page setup associated to it by the sheet size, each layout tab should be named by the sheet size for ease of sorting and selecting.

we use the Publish command to convert dwg files to Pdf we also use the DWG to PDF pc3 file.

the pc3 file stores all the information to read your plotter configuration settings ,ie: sheet size device drivers

the other piece is the ctb file- this gives you a breakdown of all the settings for each assigned color

both of these items are managed in a template for consistency and can be set as defaults.

i have attached a pdf explaining the process we use

good luck

[garyjling]

Thanks.  Your pictures helped me locate where to change plot colors.