topic Re: Plotting Autocad to PDF giving terrible results in AutoCAD Forum

Plotting Autocad to PDF giving terrible results

ColinWolstencroft — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 21:29:29 GMT

Hi all,

Seems to be a tricky time for me and my Autocad .....

Have had this issue for a while and seems to be getting worse.

I draw a lot in 3D and then have to convert / plot to PDF for other people to view. Even some of the simplest 3D drawings which look fine in Autocad look like a very bad effort when plotted in PDF. Today I was working on a VERY simple worktop. Plotted to PDF and firstly it seems to take an age to load the 2 pages. Once done they look very rough. Have tried various settings of lineweight, different plot to PDF settings and anything else I can think of. No difference. It feels to me like this issue has been getting worse with the newer versions of CAD. I remember my PDF 's looking really sharp in the past.

I draw in 3D, usually viewing in Hidden visual style.

Have attached the DWG and the PDF files. You can see how weirdly the PDF file opens.

I have no idea what is going on. I have full version of Acrobat etc and not sure if there is an issue there. I suspect it's more likely to be some setting in my Autocad that I have set up incorrectly.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thank you in advance

Re: Plotting Autocad to PDF giving terrible results

pendean — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 21:37:20 GMT

You used PLOT or PUBLISH here with your PDF?
Is background plotting or publishing on by chance? OPTIONS command's plotting tab will confirm.

Re: Plotting Autocad to PDF giving terrible results

ColinWolstencroft — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 21:43:46 GMT

Hi there,
Thanks for your reply. Checked and no background plotting or publishing is on.
Thanks

Re: Plotting Autocad to PDF giving terrible results

LyleHardin — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 21:54:54 GMT

Sometimes (well, usually) printing with Hidden Lines makes things a bit fuzzy and you lose control over pen settings that control pen colors.

Plotting in 2D Wireframe will look much nicer, but I realize on some views that may not be an option. Your top and front views should work well in 2D Wireframe but the 3D view won't. You could try Shaded and see how that works.

If Transparency is checked on the plot dialog box, it can have an effect too even if you don't have any objects or layers with transparency applied.

I suggest looking into making Views (Base view, Projection, etc.) with the tools in the Layout tab. You can easily do any view, section cuts, details, and more. Takes some getting used to, but it really beats dealing with modelspace/paperspace viewports when it comes to 3D drawings.

Re: Plotting Autocad to PDF giving terrible results

LyleHardin — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 21:58:13 GMT

Here's a decent (if old) primer on using the tools I mentioned. It's come a long way since this, I think.

Re: Plotting Autocad to PDF giving terrible results

pendean — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 22:00:51 GMT

What custom settings did you add to your DWG TO PDF driver that sit eh default in your DWG file?

Your posted PDF is 2MB is size, in R2021.1 here if I publish the same two sheets to the default non-migrated-from-older-version DWG TO PDF PC3 driver the PDF file is only 0.5MB is size and has fewer "jaggies" than yours, and took almost no time at all to create here on my Win10Pro PC. See attached.

Re: Plotting Autocad to PDF giving terrible results

TIM8URH5 — Mon, 25 Apr 2022 23:58:20 GMT

Same problem with Acad plot to pdf for years, blotchy pdf when viewed at full size but ok when zoomed in. Looks unprofessional and complaints from clients.

Solution is to use an alternative (non Autodesk) plot to pdf programs, many of these free programs work fine and cause non of the Autodesk problems....just need to find one that doesn't make the file to big (cute pdf?).

Re: Plotting Autocad to PDF giving terrible results

pendean — Tue, 26 Apr 2022 14:59:33 GMT

@TIM8URH5 wrote:

Same problem with Acad plot to pdf for years, blotchy pdf when viewed at full size but ok when zoomed in. Looks unprofessional and complaints from clients.

That's a common problem with Adobe PDF viewers of you do not change the default settings too.

Re: Plotting Autocad to PDF giving terrible results

dany_rochefort — Tue, 26 Apr 2022 15:50:56 GMT

I am pretty sure you problem lies withing the Visual Styles Manager settings. Turn off all these Edge Modifier settings and other wonky presets enabled with the 3d Hidden Visual Style. Once you dial in the settings, you can Export your modified Visual styles for future use and prefered client settings.

I used DwgtoPdf.pc3 for the plot on Presentation mode, not even maximum. PDF result looks pretty crisp for a 200kb pdf.

Re: Plotting Autocad to PDF giving terrible results

TIM8URH5 — Wed, 27 Apr 2022 00:28:04 GMT

Thanks for the response, the situation I get this in is 2D

Re: Plotting Autocad to PDF giving terrible results

pendean — Wed, 27 Apr 2022 13:12:03 GMT

@TIM8URH5 Show us: post a sample DWG file and a fuzzy PDF you got from it.