Convert dwg to searchable pdf

[Arlene_Brown]

Hi there,

Our client has asked us to convert our dwg files to searchable pdf's. I have tried printing to pdf and applying OCR with adobe. However only parts of the dwg files are searchable. It doesn't convert everything on the drawing. I have also tried using Adobe pdfmarker to convert the dwg file to pdf. I got an error doing that. I tried printing and scanning the drawings using OCR on the printing and still the only parts of the drawing are searchable. Can someone please advise how I can do this.

Thanks in advance.

[rhesusminus]

You should be able to do this, using the standard AcadE Publish Project function, via the project manager.
Just make sure "Substitute Truetype font for SHX font" is checked.
This will make sure all text styles use a truetype font in the PDF, which is required for the text to be searchable.

[Arlene_Brown]

Thanks for the reply.

That worked. However when I open the pdf with Nitro the text is not readable where as when I open it with Adobe it is readable. I also notice that it throws the text out in some of drawings, ie. some text is now overlapping wires. Do you have any suggestions to resolve these issues.

I'm not sure at what stage you can apply the page set-up when publishing to pdf through the project manager.

I also struggle a little with the print batch plot at times. I first of all select one of the drawings and apply a page set-up to it. I then do the print batch plot and insert all other drawings. I do struggle at times to change the page set-up of all the other drawings to match the first one. Sometimes it works for me and other times it doesn't. Not sure what I am doing different and not sure if the batch plot converts SHX to true fonts compared to publish to pdf through the project manager.

Thanks again.

[rhesusminus]

For the font overlapping, you should have a look at the file acade.fmp which is the file where you decide what truetype font that the shx fonts should be substituted with.
If you have an example drawing I can have a quick look at it.

When you publish, do you mark all drawings, and select a page setup from the first drawing?
I tend to set up a default PDF page setup (A3 in my case) in my templates, so that I don't have to do anything when I need to publish/plot.

[rhesusminus]

Batch plot don't substitute fonts. Only publish will do that.

[rhesusminus]

You really should consider changing all your templates text styles to use a truetype font.
SHX fonts are just sooo 1985....