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.

[Anonymous]

I know it's a bit late, but if anyone's still struggling with this, there's an easy solution - Use a different PDF Plotter, such as CutePDF. It just does not plot the text as comments when plotting to a PDF. 

[jrobinson]

It would be very helpful to add an option to NOT comment SHX Text in PDFs.

A little off topic here, but I was converting some SHX font text to a TrueType font to get around this issue of the comment boxes appearing in PDFs. When I exported my drawings to PDF, I am used to checking the box to convert fonts to geometry, making text unselectable in the PDF. We do this for several reasons, but mostly to avoid embedding of fonts. This function is broken in 2016. TrueType fonts such as Arial are still selectable and are embedded in the PDF. SHX fonts have always been converted to geometry regardless, but in 2015 any TrueType text was rasterized to geometry when this option was set. TrueType text exported to PDF from 2016 seems to ignore this setting.

[pendean]

It's a wishlist for 2016 so far: add your voice, log into your subscription management page, click on the support link at the top, select the middle link, and tell them all about it.

[Anonymous]

Surely there is already enough voice for this SHX issue to warrant a Hotfix from Autodesk rather than users placing a request in a "suggestion box". Our office is presently using the workaround of a third party PDF editor that allows comments to be flattened. This is necessary as many PDFs are now included in a drawing review process, where adding comments to drawings is of much higher value.

[Anonymous]

I also tried check the option for "Convert all text to geomtry".  It still didnt work.

Just sent my dis-satisfaction of this feature to Autodesk.  I hope they do something about it!

[Anonymous]

I've been dealing with this for the past few months but, today, I finally had a client complain about it.  (As someone in here posted: I cannot control what settings certain people have turned on when they look at my PDF file)  When I send this file I can't waste my time and others saying "Oh yeah! Please be sure your PDF comment boxes don't show up as a blue color"  This has created additional work for me to have to go back to 2015 and reprint something that was otherwise fine except for these items.  

Not to mention the additional downside of seeming inept to our clients while wasting their time and possibly delaying the project design and approval process.

Autodesk needs to know when to recognize when something is a big deal.  And I think this is a bigger deal than any other issues in the past.

This needs to be removed or rethought and fixed in a hotfix ASAP.

I've submitted my "complaint" or put my "suggestion" in the suggestion box but.......... We need results and a fix now.

[pendean]

You are preaching to the choir my friend. Go tell Autodesk often about the issue, they are so far ignoring it.

And you know this.... since your clients rely on you, and not Autodesk, you have to own the fix yourself, one of these two:
- Stop using the built-in PDF driver. or
- Stop using SHX fonts.

[Anonymous]

Hi folks.

Open your pdf in a pdf editor, rather than a viewer. (I use foxit phantom)
Go to the comments list, select them all, delete them.

Will add 10 seconds to your pdf review process.

[Anonymous]

Just encountered this problem to, because we are not what you could call early adopters (to avoid these kind of issues)

Seriously, fix it!

This is not a new feature, it's a new bug.

[pendean]

A bug means something is broken: just because you don't like this new feature doesn't mean it's broken.

Rumor has it from a staff member around these forums that Autodesk is realizing many of us are not fans and a turn-off-this-feature is in the works. No word on if it will appear in R2016 as an update or if they will wait until R2017 to implement.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Solution to the problem is finally here

below is the email I recieved from Autodesk

Hello,

Comments can be turned off in PDFs by typing EPDFSHX and changing the value off. The setting is only available with the service pack installed. Thanks for the feedback to help us drive this change.

LT:

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad-lt/downloads/caas/downloads/content/autocad-lt-2016-se...

ACAD:

http://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/downloads/caas/downloads/content/autocad-2016-service-...

Daniel Kuhmann, P.E.

Software QA Manager

IPG   

Autodesk, Inc.

[Anonymous]

This feature seems to be fixed with the latest service pack for 2016!  So relieved!

[petrocat]

I have just moved up to Civil 3D 2016, and  have Civil 3D 2016 SP1.0 installed. I just noticed the comment tags in in a PDF exported recently. I tried to change the system variable EPDFSHX, but it does not exist in my installed verision.

What next?

[jggerth]

You also need to install SP1 for AutoCAD 2016

Yes, that's two different patches, both named SP1.  I suppose it could be more confusing.... but it's hard to see how.

[Anonymous]

Where am I typing in this  EPDFSHX? 

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> Where am I typing in this  EPDFSHX? 

Into the commandline of AutoCAD 2016 (followed by <ENTER>)

- alfred -

[Anonymous]

The solution of EPDSHX = 0 did not fix the issue for me.

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> The solution of EPDSHX = 0 did not fix the issue for me.

Can you describe your issue exactly? ... and if possible upload DWG and PDF so we can test with your data?

(just to make sure: it's EPDFSHX, not EPDSHX)

- alfred -

[sbillingsley]

I am using Civil 3D and can confirm that this absolutely worked. THANK YOU AUTODESK FOR HEARING THE CRY OF YOUR USERS!!!

[Anonymous]

What would the value added be for never embedding fonts? I can see it simply providing one solution to letter dropouts issue in combined PDFs, but having searchable text is definately value added.

With our group, font embedment has always been an issue, as without all fonts on every page being embedded, you would have random letters drop out when you combine multiple pdf pages into a new pdf binder. The only solution was to guarantee that ALL fonts are embedded by ALL users,... and yes, it has always posed a "challenge" to assure complete department-wide compliance. Almost always the issue was with Arial, which was foolishly defaulted to be de-selected for embedment by Autodesk in versions prior to 2016. As i try to explain it to the novice users, not embedding your fonts prior to distribution is just like not binding or including your xrefs in an etransmit.

I quite like and am happy that Autodesk brought "Embed all fonts" out and made it FINALLY a defaulted value. It is EXTREMELY unfortunate however that they made all SHX fonts in PDF files readable via "Comments" rather than just using "Optical character recognition (OCR)" technology. This proves to be yet another insurmountable hurdle for corporate-wide adoption of the DWG to PDF driver.

Another "one-step-forward-and-one-step-back" by Autodesk. Frustrating is the first word that comes to mind when trying to describe this persistent tendancy of annoyances.

I too have toyed with the idea of converting SHX fonts to a TrueType format and completely getting rid of all SHX fonts in our templates. ...at this juncture, i sadly must conceed that it may be the best and only path forward with the DWG to PDF driver unless the next service pack eliminates the default appended PDF Comments for all SHX text.