Utitled viewports in pdfs

[WLAjem57]

AutoCAD is creating untitled viewports in pdfs when plotting or publishing to pdf. pdf editor, Bluebeam in our case is prompting us to delete them, since they interfere with snapping dimensions in the editor.

We cannot find any setting that would disable this, either in the pdf editor or AutoCAD.

we are running ACA 2017, in Windows 10 operating systems.

See screenshots of pdf editor.

Anyone else having this issue?

[WLAjem57]

Yes, I am able to delete the viewports in Bluebeam, the issue is that AutoCAD keeps creating the viewports when creating pdfs.

[Jim_Melin]

I just want to add my experience with this to the thread.

Bluebeam Revu has the option to remove the viewports on Open or later by the Viewport-section of the Measurement panel.

Our clients have been requesting ways to remove these in bulk, but at this time we can't find a method to do this. Bluebeam Support so far has only referred to the opening offer and Measurement panel.

https://support.bluebeam.com/online-help/revu2017/Content/RevuHelp/03--View/01--Tabs/Measurements/De...

A possibility that remain is with the Bluebeam Revu Extreme that has scripting.

https://support.bluebeam.com/online-help/revu2017/Content/RevuHelp/04--Document/11--Script/Scripting...

It might be possible to write a script that opens a list of drawings and automatically choses to remove all viewports on open and resave them. Unifortunately I don't have Revu Extreme at this time and can't test it.
I will put the question to Bluebeam Support and try to find my way back here to report if I get an answer.

/Jim

[WLAjem57]

Additional insight on the viewports in the pdf's.

Viewports are created only if there are viewports in the AutoCAD layouts. In Bluebeam you can delete them or assign scales to them.

In layouts where there are only items in paper space, a viewport is not created in the pdf.

[ndawsonmccann]

I have found that Plotting to Bluebeam PDF (without a .PC3 File) does indeed wrok and the untitled viewports do not apepar. However, when I use Publish using the same page setup I sitll get Untitled viewports. These untitlved viewports remain an issue for me. 

[WLAjem57]

Yes, I have used the Bluebeam print driver without the pc3 file, but found the print quality was not very good.

Since this post, I discovered the viewports show up whenever there are viewports in the paper space layouts. I there are no viewports in the layout, the viewport does not show up.

I am thinking it may be advantageous to leave the viewports in the documents, as one can assign scales to the viewports in the future.

[Jim_Melin]

I can confirm several quality differences in all available PDF:drivers (I run atleast half a dozen at this time). None is perfect, even DWG2PDF (which is my personal favourite) has drawbacks. Regarding Bluebeam PDF specifically the limits have been reported to the developers by me. But that is beside this thread.

But concerning the Viewports, it is only Bluebam Revu that demands them to be removed. It is up to them to resolve the problem in their tools. Other PDF-driver vendors don't have any obligation to accomodate Bluebeams features.

Remember also that Bluebam Revu is a competeing product some services and tools that Autodesk are offering. They might not be properly motiviated to accomodate each other either way.

Also, I have now examined the possibility to script away viewports in Bluebeam Revu Extremes script features, but as of version 2020 it doesn't seem to work and Bluebeam have not responded to my requests for confirmation.

[Lott99]

See below a message from Autodesk Expert Elite after submitting a ticket.

"

This is normal behavior when a layout is plotted that has viewports with scales assigned. When plotting a layout, there is always one more viewport that is plotted in addition to those that have been physically placed in the drawing. That viewport is the overall sheet. Bluebeam is designed for reviewing PDF files that were generated by AutoCAD, and is setup to detect that these overall viewports exist. Adobe isnt geared towards a CAD environment and therefore isnt setup to detect the paperspace viewport. These paperspace viewports only interfere if you attempt to use auto calibration. If you manually calibrate, the extra viewport does not have any affect on what you are doing.
Here is some additional information from Bluebeam's website on how they handle viewports in pdf files:
https://support.bluebeam.com/online-help/revu20...

"

[Anonymous]

Reply sent from wrong account.
I beg your pardon and will repost it correctly within short.

/Jim

[Jim_Melin]

Yes that describes the purpose of removing them, but Viewports must still be deleted individually for each drawing in Bluebeam so the problem persists.

There is still no solution from Bluebeam to massremove them from lists of drawings (by script or other means), nor removing them automatically.

We have clients with literally thousands of drawings thet need to have viewports removed when working with blubeam .

And we are unimpressed with some faults in PDF-plots with Bluebeam PDF because of failure to fill solids properly, shading transparency  correctly (it becomes much darker with Bluebeam PDF) and representing lineweights correctly.

[Lott99]

@Jim_Melin I might not understand properly, but Bluebeam automatically removed all viewports from every page for me. Are you saying that you have thousands of individual PDFs that you'd like to remove the viewports from?

[WLAjem57]

No. Bluebeam alert comes up after plotting from AutoCAD that the viewports are in the file and gives the option to remove them. I discovered that if viewports are in the layout they will come through to to the pdf. If there are no viewports in paper space it won’t show up in the pdf. It’s an AutoCAD thing.

[Jim_Melin]

It's not me personally.

I am a servicedesk tech and our clients report this and we can reproduce the error. And among the hundreds of clients we have many use Bluebeam and encounter this on a daily basis.

We have also been in direct dialogue with Bluebeam about this since version Bluebeam Revu 2018.

Each viewport must be confirmed manually in a popup dialogue to be removed. That is not automatic in my book as it stops a process of opening large amounts of drawings and must be done individually for each document.

Bluebeam has a script-function in Revu Extreme for mass editing PDFs, but it can't particulary remove these viewports so we are left with manually clicking Yes to remove viewports for each document.

I have been in contact with Bluebeam about this and they have not presented an automatic solution.

[Jim_Melin]

Not an Autocad thing. It's a PDF-plot driver thing.

All PDF-plotters except Blubeam PDF does this.

But as I said above, Bluebeam PDF-plots graphically incorrect lineweights, greyscales and solids.

[Jim_Melin]

No, please excuse me. I need to revert on my last statement.

I was missing one particular detail.

I had not chosen to remove the viewports each time and supress the warning.

I had left the message up as I and clients I have spoken to are reluctant to make a permanent changes to documents as a default. That because filedates are affected if you are not careful when closing them. It can affect synching in cloud storage, unncessarily checking in/out and locking documents and resulting in unwanted notifications of inconsequential updates.

But of course, if you do check the "don't remind me again" and chose Yes it will always automatically remove them in the opening process.

You will also have to resave the PDF (automatically done if you close all and chose to save all. Not entireley automatic.

A remaining problem is if you have huge amounts of published drawings you are not going to be able to mass change a specific set of drawings en masse. Only the drawing you chose to open and save again.

For us used to scripting document management with Autocad-drawings this is a serioues setback in comparison, only becasue Bluebeam can'nt handle untitled viewports that no other applications have a problem with.

And the only way to close and save all open tabs is to close Bluebeam entirely, or right click one tab an "Close all other tabs". Both ways require atleast two or three manual clicks to perform. Not entirely automatic.

And since one specific request from a client was that the batch of documents he was to publish to an archive was required to have all untitled viewports removed before upload, there is no fully automatic way to perform this for many hundreds of documents.

And if you at some time no longer want to change documents you are just reading, you need to restore the hidden message in preferences/General/Options: Reset Hiden Messages.

[Jim_Melin]

Excuse me again.
Just as I posted the previous detailed procedure, I figured a way to script that might work...
I will test it later, but for now I just throw it out there.

There are Open, Save and Close instructions in the scripting docs.
https://support.bluebeam.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Bluebeam-Script-Reference-2019.pdf

It ought to work to mass handle scripts (in Bluebeam Revu Extreme) if you could run it on a document list and just open and save/close them with the automatic removal of untitled viewports activated.

I'm not sure though if you can feed Bluebeam with a file-list created outside Bluebeam, or if you can only perform it folder by folder, or in already opened documents or the recent file list.

That might limit it's effectivenes.

But atleast it ought to be scriptable, even though the removal of the viewports is not a specific instruction in the script.

If anyone used to scripting i Blubeam knows, please confirm.

Thanks.

[WLAjem57]

Ah....okay. Yes, I found the Bluebeam PDF has graphic issues as well.

[Lott99]

@Jim_Melin Okay, I understand properly now. Thank you for the additional details. I will be keeping an open mind to try to figure out a solution as well.

[garret.leslie]

@Lott99 Any word on the script? Still experiencing this little annoyance 3 years later.

Thanks,

Garret

[Jim_Melin]

Oh. That whas a while ago! 😄
No. But when you open PDFs in Bluebeam and get the warning, just chose to remove them and check never to ask again and they will always be removed without bothering you.
It is only permanent if you resave the document though.