Isometric Dimensions - Odd Display in PDF

[jtylerbc]

For a project I am currently working on, I have a couple of bent plates for which I need to show some isometric dimensions for our fab shop.

I can create the dimensions that I need, and they display properly on the screen and on a hard copy printed from Inventor.

However, when I create a PDF (using Export, which is the only method I have available on this machine for now), they do not display correctly.  Instead of appearing to be on a plane in 3D space, they appear "flattened" and rotated instead.

Could someone point me toward a fix for this?  It's still readable, but looks terrible. Using Inventor 2010.

[Ray_Feiler]

Because the hard copy looks correct I would try http://cutepdf.com/

[Ray_Feiler]

This worked for me.

[jtylerbc]

Ray,

Thanks for the suggestion, but that doesn't quite work for me.  I'm locked down from installing ANYTHING by our IT department, so cutepdf isn't an option for me.  I'll try to test on another machine to see if printing as Adobe PDF works on the computers with Acrobat, which mine doesn't currently have.  If no one else chimes in with a solution for the Export method, maybe this can justify getting Acrobat installed on my machine.

[Ray_Feiler]

You know I forgot I had Adobe Acrobat Standard installed on my computer at work. I thought that because Inventor can export PDF it could also print PDF but I guess not.

[PaulMunford]

Have you tired 'Save Copy as' rather than Export? (probably won't help, but just thought I'd ask).

How about opening it up in AutoCAD and using Plot to PDF from there?

[jtylerbc]

Paul,

From Inventor, Save Copy As PDF and Export gives identical results.

The AutoCAD solution was something I had thought of yesterday, but hadn't tried yet (believing it to be incredibly stupid to have to save a file in another format to open in a second program just to create a PDF, when the original program is supposed to have that ability as well).  Being out of reasonable-sounding ideas, I went ahead and tried it after reading your suggestion.  The results were strange.

The Isometric dimensions in question converted perfectly to PDF from AutoCAD.  However, the AutoCAD-generated PDF messes up my Bend Notes, replacing the text with a bunch of dots.  Adobe Reader gives me a warning message when I open the files, which says that it "Can not find or create the font "Tahoma" ".  This is odd for multiple reasons:

1)  The Inventor-exported PDF had no such problem, and the font is the same in both the IDW and DWG.

2)  The bend notes in question display just fine on screen in AutoCAD.

3)  EVERY piece of text, on the ENTIRE drawing, is in the Tahoma font.  This includes text in the title block, rev block, and view labels, as well as some text notes and text in symbols.  Only the two bend notes get messed up.

AutoCAD also messes up the display (both on the screen and PDF) of shaded Inventor views.  I could probably live with that on this one drawing, but the bend notes in Morse code, not so much.

[PaulMunford]

I agree! This is a terrible siruation. I can only say that I haven't had this trouble exporting pDF's from Inventor. Usually It is very well behaved.

I have had problems printing Inventor DWG's with colour backgrounds from AutoCAD. You could try turning that off to see what you get.

Read up on this, it might help with the AutoCAD font issue:

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Autodesk-Buzzsaw/font-issue/m-p/2584991/highlight/true#M1365

I hope that you get to the bottom of it!

[jtylerbc]

I have worked around the problem for the time being.  I do not consider this a real solution - it avoids the problem, rather than actually correcting it.  I simply went to another machine that has Acrobat installed and printed the PDF instead of exporting, as RayFeiler suggested previously.  While there, I also tried the Export on that machine, which is entirely a different setup from mine (I have XP 32 bit, it is Win 7 64 bit, I have an HP, it is a Dell, I have 3 GB RAM, it has 12, and so on).

Both run Inventor 2010, but otherwise the systems may as well have been built on different planets.  Both have the isometric dimension issue from Inventor PDF Export.

I rarely have had problems with PDF export from Inventor as well.  I also rarely use isometric dimensions, so I don't know that it has ever really come up before in my experience.