Looses line weights and distorts lines/splines when printing to pdf

[elisiakathleen]

Hello,

I am new to this forum, and pretty new to autocad. I am having toruble printing from autocad 2013 to pdf or .ps files. I have tried many different scale settings and plot styles; but whenever I print many lines get really distortet; zigzaggy, and changes lineweights. My file is a 2d drawing that I originally made in Rhino, and the splines are filleted edges. The lines that get distorted are splines and lines that were originally and are converted to arcs in autocad. If anybody knows what causes the problem and could give me any tips on how to make better prints I would be very thankful! I have a macbook pro 10.8.3 and am using adobe acrobat x pro as the default but actually in autocad the pdf printer listed is adobe pdf 9.0 and this seems to be the only pdf printer it can detect.

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> I am having toruble printing from autocad 2013 to pdf

can you upload the dwg and the pdf, so we can see what happens to you and what's in the DWG?

>> are converted to arcs in autocad

Who does convert anything to arcs? If you save the DWG from Rhino, it's Rhino saving arcs in that drawing, AutoCAD reads the DWG as it is and does not convert anything. Or are you importing the data from Rhino not via DWG?

>> but actually in autocad the pdf printer listed is adobe pdf 9.0

Maybe that is something Mac-specific, but at least for the Windows-version of AutoCAD: AutoCAD lists the printers that you have on your system installed plus that where you have a config file for (.PC3). At least to plot to PDF AutoCAD has it's own config/driver and so Adobe does not need to be used, try to select "DWG to PDF.pc3" in the list of printers to create a PDF.

At least there is a separate forum especially for AutoCAD on Mac >>>here<<<, maybe it's the better forum for your questions?

Good luck, - alfred -

[elisiakathleen · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the reply. I actually figured it out now, seems my problem actually just came from unfamiliarity with the program because I managed now to set the settings so that the problem disappears. 

[bcolaprete]

elisiakathleen, I am having the same issue with disorted, zigzaggy splines when printed to pdf, could you please desribe the settings you adjusted to solve this problem?

Thank you.

[maxim_k]

Welcome to Autodesk Forums!

Hi,
There could be a lot of reasons.
Could you answer some questions:
- AutoCAD version you are using
- your current System Printer (if any)
- do you use Plot Styles when you print?
- how big is your model and which paper size you use for PDF output? In other words: what is the scale used when saving to PDF?

Could you post here DWG file and PDF output you get from it?

Maxim

[bcolaprete]

Maxim,

Thank you for the quick reply.

- I am using AutoCAD 2013 for Mac (G.55.M.208), on OSX 10.9.2.

- There are multiple system printers, the main ones are a Toshiba eStudio 2830c and an HP DesignJet T520 36in. I use Acrobat X Pro to make PDFs, but the same problem occurs with the built-in PDF maker in OSX.

- I use color-based plot styles (.ctb) with my paperspace layouts.

- I notice the problem primarily with the logo on my titleblock. The logo with exported from Illustrator as a dwg then edited in AutoCAD. The problem occurs at any scale, but becomes more pronounceds as scale decreases, as you will see on the attachments. Typical sheet sizes range from Letter to Arch D. Basically it is not behaving the way vector graphics are suppossed to.

Thanks for your help.

[maxim_k]

OK, I see the problem and I can explain the "roots" of it.
But at first I want to mention than in PC version of AutoCAD you wil get approximately the same results with your test file: with decreasing the size of Logo you will get increasingly worse results.
Now about the "roots". When you export geometry from Illustrator, the curves became Spline objects in AutoCAD. As I have noticed the PDF conversion engine (in both AC for Mac and in AC for PC) can not handle Spline objects correctly when the size of this objects are extremely small- the result of conversion is "trembling" curve,
The second issue applies only to AutoCAD for Mac- the issue with solid hatches: when you save (print) to PDF from AC for Mac solid hatches gets outlined by additional lines, and these lines also have width (lineweight), so thee lines adds additional "trembling". In PC version there are no such outlines in PDF output, so the results are slightly better.
The bottom line is: you need to avoid using splines when the objects are extremely small in PDF output. It is better to use polylines, which will give you better results.

Maxim

[bcolaprete]

Thanks Maxim,

I used Rhino to convert the splines to arcs. While the results are slightly better, I am still getting the same problem with no splines present (see attached). I also tried using hatch ANSI37, solid, and gradient. The results are all terrible. Is there any way to get AutoCAD 2013 for Mac to make vector graphics the way they are supposed to be: consistently smooth at any scale?

[maxim_k]

At first, you have to agree, that in AutoCAD itself all vector objects are smooth enough in any scale. The problem come when you try to convert DWG file to another vector format - PDF in case you are plotting to PDF from AutoCAD.
After you converted Splines to arcs with Rhino, you got a lot of short arc segments instead of one spline, these segments are too short to be processed correctly during printing to PDF, so you need to redraw your logo using longer curve segments, especially for small sized logos.

BTW: in order to convert splines to polylines you can use PEDIT (or an option inside SPLINESIT command) command in AutoCAD, it allows you to convert splines to polylines with either straight or curved segments. But in your case the result will be the same, unfortunately. So you have to try to redraw the logo with polylines with longer segments.

Maxim

[mso011]

Hi,

I'm trying to export an Urban design plan from Autocad to rhino but when I open the file in rhino, almost every lines are distorted.

[maxim_k]

Hi @mso011 ,

What do you mean by "distorted"?

Polylines are converted to open curves when you open AutoCAD drawing in Rhino, polyline width information is lost on import. Lineweight information is kept.

And  - it seems to me your question should be asked here:

https://discourse.mcneel.com