Autocad 2016 SHX Text as Comment in Exported PDF

[Anonymous]

Is there a way to turn off the new feature that is adding a comment to my PDF for every SHX font text object? I am happy with searchable TTF but this PDF comment change is not beneficial to me and floods the comment list with useless information.

[pendean]

Adobe Acrobat/Reader 10 or higher? It's going to sound wierd, but go into PREFERENCES in the reader, select the Commenting Section, and check the box AUTOMATICALLY PEN POP-UPS ON MOUSE ROLLOVER. Yes, check it. That kills the pop-ups.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the response Dean. I'm more concerned about the comment list and project coordination. Every single .shx text object shows up as an individual comment and although our office has begun to use primarily TTF fonts we have some old remnants of SHX text. Some old titleblocks may have as many as 70-100 SHX text objects on it due to exploded text and when exported to PDF as a multi-sheet document can add, depending on the project size, hundreds to thousands of un-deletable comments which obfuscates any coordination comments that may be added. I've switched to using the adobe acrobat plotter for now, but would like to eventually reuse the DWG to PDF plotter again as it IMO produces better quality PDFs.

[pendean]

You might want to send this as a bug or comment to Autodesk http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?id=1073063&siteID=123112

[RGWLLC]

I too would like to be able to turn this off. Bob

[tgilbert]

Commenting because I'd also like to know the solution to this problem.  According to the help files SHX fonts are always converted to geometry and the text is copied into the file as a comment. No mention on how to disable this feature.

[pendean]

There is no 'disabing it' at the moment: just like the help segment you are quoteing clearly states. Do this instead http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-2013-2014-2015-2016/autocad-2016-shx-text-as-comment-in-export...

[Anonymous]

I totally agree with nbaer. The boxes around text is useless clutter. Autocad 2015 did not behave this way so I am staying with it. 2016 is not an upgrade as far as I am concerned. This new function seems to show that the developers of Autocad are not users themselves. I can see no reason for this change. But, if there was a reason to add this functionality then there should be a setting so that it can be turned off. I am sure that 99% of users do not want these text boxes.

[jggerth]

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@Anonymous wrote:
... if there was a reason to add this functionality then there should be a setting so that it can be turned off....

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that ought to be  rule for any and every new feature that gets added.  Whether it's Infocenter, the Start tab, or the SHX Comment feature.

but don't blame the devs so much as mgmt & marketing, who seem to think showing off the latest bling is _the_ important thing

[pendean]

R2015 did not do it because the fearture was not in 2015: it's new to 2016.
The 'boxes around text" is a feature of your PDF viewer: just turn it off.

Know all of your software tools: it's the best way to move forward and not get crippled by one vendor changing something. instead of running away from it 🙂

[pendean]

If you add a feature, you must provide a way to turn it off: good rule I wish all software vendors would adopt.

[Anonymous]

You imply that I do not know my software tools. I do. I know that I can turn off the display of comments in PDF viewers. That, unfortunately, does exactly that - it turns off comments. Not a good idea when you are sending PDFs out for COMMENTS! Of course, there are work arounds but those add steps. I can understand that Autodesk may think these boxes are a great feature for some users but that does not mean all users want them. For my use they are simply needless clutter obscuring my drawings and making it more difficult and time consuming for me to get PDFs in a form that can be sent to clients for their review and comment. That is the reason that I am back to using 2015. FOr me, I see no reason to embrace something that wastes my time.

[dgorsman]

From the outside in, keeping existing features alongside new features *sounds* like a good idea.  But digging a little deeper some problems start jumping out.

Continuously retaining the old legacy code leads to bulky, overweight programs which are both larger, taking more disc space, and requiring more work to diagnose and update.  Where problems exist, for every old/new option that doubles the potential paths to tracking down problems.

New features would be expected to work with old data, so not only do they have code for dealing with new data they must somehow work around the old data as well.  Or at least gracefully inform the user "I can't do that, Dave".  Although even that may be seen as ungraceful by some users.

The oldest features are based on tools and frameworks which are being deprecated in the newest operating systems.  This means that those old features may simply not be feasible with new releases.

Not to say that all of these apply everywhere, all the time.  But there are reasons for RISC (reduced instruction set computing) style of development.

[cherylrenninger]

So what's the solution??  I can turn them off in my own Adobe software, but I cannot dictate what the client does with their software.  Is there way to turn off the comments for everyone without altering Adobe viewer software...

[jggerth]

at this point, it seems that the only way to avoid the problem is to cease & desist using shx fonts for text.  

That's not a good answer....  but the approach taken to make SHX text searchable in a PDF doesn't work.  More and more it's becoming obvious IMO that Autodesk's decision to deprecate DWF is a poor decision for customers, collaboration, and communication.

[pendean]

As an end user just like you, I either help my clients by advising them on what to do if they do not want this feature on in their PDFs, or use a different 3rd party PDF driver that does not offer this feature.

You can do the same.

You can also log into your autodesk subscription management page, click on the support link at the top, start a support ticket and ask Autodesk what else they can offer to fix this for you or help you file it as a complaint. Yes, you are going to have to do that extra step like the rest of us end users have done.

[Anonymous]

@JGerth
In my opinion it isn't strange that Autodesk shifted to pdf. The world is bigger then Autodesk and in my experience outside the hardcore Autocad user nobody even knew what a DWF was.

But if you shift to pdf you have to do it right. It took years until our company didn't need another application to make pdf's in a way we could present our pdf's to clients. And even with Autocad 2014/2015 we sometimes still use external software to make sure clients see and print the pdf correctly.

But Autocad 2016 is a step back for that matter. We depend highly on shx bigfonts and we don't want unexpected boxes around text when a client opens a pdf. When clients see those boxes they start asking questions and that is not something you want as a company. It is bad publicity.

Autodesk used to be one of the more reliable software company's. New features did work and and didn't have unexpected side-effects for users who didn't want them. But in recent years this has changed and Autocad 2016 doesn't make me very optimistic.

[pendean]

Tell Autodesk what you think about the feautre: posting around here goes no where. http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=1109794 and through your subscription management page through he support link at the top of the page.

If enough of us do so it will get noticed: it's a numbers game after all, they already got their tier-one customers to bless this new feature before it got added in 2016 so now it's time for us tier 2 customers to speak out even louder.

[RGWLLC]

I did my part and told Autodesk. Let's all be sure to tell them.

[pendean]

I did way back when it all started, and I've slipped-in a few others for good measure 🙂