Attached PDF files print dimmed when printed to PDF

[SteveMSILLC]

If I place a PDF file in a drawing by using the attach option, and then I print the entire drawing to a PDF, the original image of the PDF appears in the final printed file - but it is lightened to just a ghost image of the original PDF.  Everything else on the drawing prints to PDF fine - just not the attached PDF.  IS there a way to print a drawinging containing a PDF to a PDF withouth this happening?

Tanks!

Steve

[MarySeufert]

I have never experienced this myself, PDFs within drawings print correctly to PDF from AutoCAD. That being said, my large format plotter does not like PDFs within PDFs and plots them mostly as black blobs if we use the dwgtopdf.pc3 or adobe drivers. If we use Bluebeam PDF creator, it will print out as expected.

So we have a standard policy to never use PDFs within our drawings, we always save PDFs as an image to attach to our DWGs. Also PDFs tend to slow down drawings... At this point I only use PDFs for tracing purposes if it is a vector based PDF, otherwise it becomes an image for AutoCAD usage.

Bottom line, there are tons of factors at play here. Are there any transparencies? To pin point your problem quickly please post the drawing and PDF underlays to see if we can recreate it.

[SteveMSILLC]

Attached is a sample -- three files.  ACAD file is "just_a_box.dwg".  The PDF file attached to the .dwg is file "Page 8.pdf".  The final printed to PDF file  is "just_a_box Plan.pdf".  You can compare the two PDF images and see that the final is very washed out - hardly visible ,really.

This is just a sample file I made up - but it exhibits the same problem.  In fact, in this sample, purged out anything not in use and it still fades the final PDF.

[John.W.Mumaw]

I tried to recreate your problem here with no luck.  The attached (using your files) was created with pdf995.

John

[MarySeufert]

Two options that I have found to fix this assuming that you are using DWG To PDF.pc3

1. On your page setup, make sure you uncheck Plot transparency under Plot Options.
2. Or if you want to keep transparency checked, save your pdf as an image for this use.

I was able to reproduce this behavior using the above PC3. Using Bluebeam made the PDF correctly.

[SteveMSILLC]

I used the ACAD DWG To PDF.pc3 to generate the print.  Maybe that's the cuplrit.  Just tried it with the PDFCreator print driver and it works correctly.  But the problem is only DWG To PDF.pc3 works with sheet sets - which I need as these final sets are often over 100 pages long and I don't want to manual arrange PDF files after printing.

[John.W.Mumaw]

Well I've never tried the Autocad supplied pdf driver but for plotting sheet sets what I do is publish to dwf first and then print the dwf to pdf.  It works fine for pdf995 and produces multipage pdf files, but I can't speak for other drivers.

John