topic Re: Exporting Long (over 200 inch) IDW to PDF in Inventor Forum

Exporting Long (over 200 inch) IDW to PDF

rttechno — Sun, 15 Mar 2020 15:51:08 GMT

Has anyone found a solution to exporting a very large IDW to PDF? PDF has an internal limitation of 200 inches. Beyond that I'm getting errors from Adobe and the plotter we use won't take the job even though the roll would work fine. I have Adobe DC Pro so the Adobe PDF printer is available but when I set it to oversize compatibility and hit print (to file) it doesn't throw an error but doesn't create output. The internal PDF export in Inventor exports a file that errors in Adobe but opens fine in Chrome. The plotter has suddenly decided to not accept those exports anymore... Anyone have experience with this issue?

Re: Exporting Long (over 200 inch) IDW to PDF

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 12:38:48 GMT

the long thing, does it have components in the middle or is it just a blank shaft. if its a blank shaft you can just cut it and point out the lenght.

Re: Exporting Long (over 200 inch) IDW to PDF

rttechno — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 13:39:16 GMT

Hi,

Nope it's a wiring harness fixture layout that needs to be printed out at 1:1 scale.

Re: Exporting Long (over 200 inch) IDW to PDF

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 14:27:19 GMT

1:1 scale means that you need a realy big paper. 200 ft to be exact. why not scale it down?

Re: Exporting Long (over 200 inch) IDW to PDF

rttechno — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 14:31:28 GMT

200 INCHES. We use it to physically size the harness so it has to be 1:1 scale.

Re: Exporting Long (over 200 inch) IDW to PDF

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 14:55:50 GMT

well go to a print studio who can print that big.

Re: Exporting Long (over 200 inch) IDW to PDF

rttechno — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 15:09:33 GMT

Ok, just in case someone is reading this thread and getting confused please ignore these replies and go back to the original post. I know how drawing scaling works, I know that I can put a 200 inch long model on an 8.5 x 11" piece of paper, I know that if I want to print something 200 inches long I need to go to a printer that can do that. The problem I have is that I have to EXPORT to PDF to take it to the shop that prints it for me. That process isn't working due to an internal limitation on PDFs. Adobe has a workaround for it (Pictured below from the Print dialog in Inventor) but that isn't working either. If anyone has experience with this process that can help I'd appreciate it.

Re: Exporting Long (over 200 inch) IDW to PDF

NigelHay — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 15:11:35 GMT

Used to do that by hand in the pre-CAD days on a double A0 drawing board with a paper roller at each side.

Re: Exporting Long (over 200 inch) IDW to PDF

johnsonshiue — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 21:41:10 GMT

Hi! Would DWF work? I could be wrong but I don't recall there is such limit in DWF.

Many thanks!

Re: Exporting Long (over 200 inch) IDW to PDF

rhasell — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 23:33:23 GMT

I ran few tests with my PDF printer. (Adobe fails with the large prints, I know this because I have this issue on occasion myself)

I used PDF24, it allowed me to create and view the file, I could also view the Inventor exported file, the only thing I can't test is the printing, as I don't have a plotter. Give it a crack and see how it goes.

Re: Exporting Long (over 200 inch) IDW to PDF

rttechno — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 17:36:13 GMT

Hi Johnson,

Thanks for the response. That had occurred to me as well, we tried DWF but the plotter wouldn't accept the file for some reason. We're dealing with an older plotter that only has drivers for windows 7..... Always love it when software kills perfectly functional mechanical equipment....

Re: Exporting Long (over 200 inch) IDW to PDF

rttechno — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 17:37:56 GMT

Hi Reg,

Thanks for the idea. I tried it on my machine and I can confirm that it successfully opens the large PDF export. I've asked the guy that prints for me to give it a shot on with his plotter. I'll try to report back if it's successful or not.

Thanks,

Randy

Re: Exporting Long (over 200 inch) IDW to PDF

lena.talkhina — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 07:28:08 GMT

Hello @rttechno !

Great to see you here on Inventor Forum.

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