AutoCAD 2020 general plotting to Adobe PDF & using solid hatch transparency

[Over-Dose]

Hi,

For the first time I'm working on existing dwg files that I only have in PDF format, so I use PDF Attach and then I overlay solid hatch on top of them, with various transparency settings.

I don't often use the transparency setting, so whenever I do any updates, it will be the last thing I notice is not working as it used before (e.g. when I had AutoCAD 2019 installed and used an older version of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC).

The result of all my plots (plotting to A1 sheets) using the Adobe Acrobat Pro DC PDF printer, is a sheet that plots the attached PDF file only, and totally ignores the solid hatching that has transparency that I added on top of the PDF.

I can't figure out whether the issue is with AutoCAD 2020 or with the version of Adobe Acrobat Pro DC (v2019.012.20040) or not, however, using this printer even yield discoloured PDF files from within AutoCAD 2020 (and not with any other software I print on using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC).  Printing using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is also VERY SLOW for some reason of late, and I cannot pinpoint where the issue is, because this never used to be like this.

When I change the printer to AutoCAD's built-in PDF printer, the drawings print just fine, with the solid hatch displaying and with transparency. The built-in PDF printer also prints much faster than Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, which is all a new situation from what I used to have in previous versions of AutoCAD while using Adobe Acrobat PDF printer.

I'm about to download and apply the latest AutoCAD 2020 update and see if this has no effect on the issues I'm having on Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.

And the reason I often use Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is that, on some drawings, there is a noticeable difference in PDF quality between AutoCAD's built PDF printer vs. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC's printer. And I prefer Adobe's printer. However, it is not working as it used.

[natasha.l · Accepted solution]

Hello @Over-Dose, 

I see that you have done some troubleshooting already, kudos. 👍

"When I change the printer to AutoCAD's built-in PDF printer, the drawings print just fine, with the solid hatch displaying and with transparency. The built-in PDF printer also prints much faster than Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, which is all a new situation from what I used to have in previous versions of AutoCAD while using Adobe Acrobat PDF printer."

This is what I would have recommended you do. So this test pin points the casue of the problem, the Adobe Acrobat Pro. You can  also visit the Adobe Acrobat Support site, try to apply updates or update the PC3 file. 

Please "Accept Solution" if a reply or replies have helped resolve the issue or answered your question, to help others in the community.

[Over-Dose]

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@natasha.l wrote:

Hello @Over-Dose, 

I see that you have done some troubleshooting already, kudos. 👍

"When I change the printer to AutoCAD's built-in PDF printer, the drawings print just fine, with the solid hatch displaying and with transparency. The built-in PDF printer also prints much faster than Adobe Acrobat Pro DC, which is all a new situation from what I used to have in previous versions of AutoCAD while using Adobe Acrobat PDF printer."

This is what I would have recommended you do. So this test pin points the casue of the problem, the Adobe Acrobat Pro. You can  also visit the Adobe Acrobat Support site, try to apply updates or update the PC3 file. 

Please "Accept Solution" if a reply or replies have helped resolve the issue or answered your question, to help others in the community.

---

Thanks for the response @natasha.l.

I've followed through on my follow-up troubleshooting ideas (which included your suggestion) to do whatever updates are available for the two main software I'm experiencing issues with (i.e. AutoCAD 2020 which I updated to v2020.1, and Adobe Acrobat DC Pro which I updated to v2019.021.20047).

Just to highlight that I am using Adobe Acrobat DC Pro and not Adobe Reader as per the links you shared. I also wanted to make very sure there is no corrupt install on my side, so I did a clean install of Adobe Acrobat DC Pro (v2019.021.20047), which then auto-updated to v2019.021.20048 when I launched it for the first time.

I then proceeded to attach a different PDF file into a completely empty drawing, added various solid hatching and then applied 50% transparency to all the solid hatch. I'm still getting the very same slow PDF creation process when using Adobe Acrobat DC Pro, and also the solid hatch with transparency does not print at all. The overall quality of the print to PDF using Adobe Acrobat DC Pro is also appearing to degrade the quality of the resulting print (unfortunately I cannot share that drawing).

When I print I use the settings shown on the attached screenshot. I ensure that the "Plot Transparency" is selected, and I use the "As Displayed" shade plot setting. I even tried using the Legacy Wireframe shade plot setting, and the results are exactly the same, with no plot of the solid hatch with transparency applied.

I also checked that the "PLOTTRANSPARENCYOVERRIDE" system variable is set to 1, as recommended.

I also did a similar test on a drawing with no PDF attachment or PDF imports, in a file that has simple line drawings. I then added solid transparent hatching to this file, and this drawing sat spooling to the Adobe PDF printer for over 10 minutes on the first attempt. And when I tried to cancel the plot from the print queue, it takes forever to cancel, to a point where I have to shut down AutoCAD 2020 completely for the file that's spooling to be released from printing.

On the second attempt the file plot did end up a print a PDF file, however, the resulting PDF file had jagged lines in some parts, where it should be straight lines.

All the .dwg files I'm having these issues with are not even 250KB in AutoCAD file size.

So at this point, I am unsure what else could be the problem.

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> And the reason I often use Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is that, on

>> some drawings, there is a noticeable difference in PDF quality

>> between AutoCAD's built PDF printer vs. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC's printer

Please upload one DWG + the PDF's you get (1 from AdobePrinter , 1 from AutoCAD built-in driver) where the AdobePrinter creates the better results.

But please make sure that for the AutoCAD build in driver the vector resolution is something like 1200dpi and the fonts embedding is activated.

- alfred -

[Over-Dose]

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@Alfred.NESWADBA wrote:

Hi,

>> And the reason I often use Adobe Acrobat Pro DC is that, on

>> some drawings, there is a noticeable difference in PDF quality

>> between AutoCAD's built PDF printer vs. Adobe Acrobat Pro DC's printer

Please upload one DWG + the PDF's you get (1 from AdobePrinter , 1 from AutoCAD built-in driver) where the AdobePrinter creates the better results.

But please make sure that for the AutoCAD build in driver the vector resolution is something like 1200dpi and the fonts embedding is activated.

- alfred -

---

Hi @Alfred.NESWADBA,

This is a bit of a tough ask at the moment since I am battling to even create a PDF the way I used, that led me to my preference of using Adobe PDF as opposed to AutoCAD's built-in PDF printer.

This was in previous versions of both AutoCAD and Adobe Acrobat DC Pro.

So as much as I would love to comply with your request, I don't have the previous versions installed on my machine at present to provide this information.

When I upgrade, I usually do clean uninstalls/installs of the software I'm updating.

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> I don't have the previous versions installed on my

>> machine at present to provide this information

Well, I was not really interested in what happened years before. My questions was to see a current situation (using AutoCAD 2018 or newer) where PDF created by AdobePrinter is better than the AutoCAD internal one.

If you can't find a sample (and that was my thoughts behind the question of a sample) I would recommend to use the internal one 😉 (as in my opinion it creates the better quality, smaller sized PDF's ... with just very few exceptions).

- alfred -

[Over-Dose]

---

@Alfred.NESWADBA wrote:

Hi,

>> I don't have the previous versions installed on my

>> machine at present to provide this information

Well, I was not really interested in what happened years before. My questions was to see a current situation (using AutoCAD 2018 or newer) where PDF created by AdobePrinter is better than the AutoCAD internal one.

If you can't find a sample (and that was my thoughts behind the question of a sample) I would recommend to use the internal one 😉 (as in my opinion it creates the better quality, smaller sized PDF's ... with just very few exceptions).

- alfred -

---

Thanks for that input @Alfred.NESWADBA and I am currently resorting to using the built-in one for the work that I am having to print to PDF at the moment.

However, this does not resolve the primary issue, which is related to solid hatch which has transparency applied, not being able to print at all within AutoCAD, as it used to in the past, over various different versions of both software.

So I am still stuck on this one, as preferences and customisation are an integral component when using the software we use, and this applies to AutoCAD and Adobe alike.

So I was hoping for some assistance on that aspect for this post.

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> the primary issue, which is related to solid hatch which has

>> transparency applied, not being able to print at all within AutoCAD,

From how I understood, it only does not print when you use AdobePrinter.

If that happens (ignoring the hatch transparency) with the built-in driver too then please upload this dwg-file so we can test with that on our systems.

- alfred -

[natasha.l]

Hello @Over-Dose, 

Thanks for following up with us.

As mentioned, if you are comfortable with it. Its best that you etransmit your files so we can test the Adobe Converter.PC3 file. 

I have tried to reproduce your issue AutoCAD 2020 in my environment using a default DWG to PDF.PC3 file, it operates without an issue. Based on the testing it seems to be a 3rd party issue its related to the non-Autodesk PC3 file. Please check all AutoCAD default PDF Plotters "Name" types like "DWG to PDF" or "AutoCAD PDF". 

Please "Accept Solution" if a reply or replies have helped resolve the issue or answered your question, to help others in the community.

[Over-Dose]

---

@natasha.l wrote:

Hello @Over-Dose, 

Thanks for following up with us.

As mentioned, if you are comfortable with it. Its best that you etransmit your files so we can test the Adobe Converter.PC3 file. 

I have tried to reproduce your issue AutoCAD 2020 in my environment using a default DWG to PDF.PC3 file, it operates without an issue. Based on the testing it seems to be a 3rd party issue its related to the non-Autodesk PC3 file. Please check all AutoCAD default PDF Plotters "Name" types like "DWG to PDF" or "AutoCAD PDF". 

Please "Accept Solution" if a reply or replies have helped resolve the issue or answered your question, to help others in the community.

---

Hi @natasha.l, sorry I was away for a few days and couldn't respond.

So I've created a completely new drawing, using similar drawing contents as per the file I started noticing the transparency hatch issue on. Basically I did the following:

1). PDF Attached a random PDF file (NB. This IS NOT my work - Used it for testing purposes)

2). Scaled the PDF to something which makes sense

3). Added several different hatches with colour, and applied 35% transparency to them all

4). Numbered all the hatches from 01 - 04

5). Setup the page to plot using the Adobe Acrobat Pro DC printer, on an A1 sheet

6). The plot took several minutes to create the PDF (this never used to be like this)

7). Output PDF plot file is still doing the same thing of not printing the transparent hatches (see attached PDF)

8). I then created the etransmit file, and made sure that everything is contained in the same folder (see attached ZIP file)

9) The plot dialogue box does not prompt to create an Adobe PDF.pc3 file (ever since the update I did), hence there is no .pc3 file inclued in the etransmit)

But again, as stated before, when using the default AutoCAD PDF printer, all transparency shows up just fine. 

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

opened your drawing, plot to PDF ...

• plotting needed about 5sec,
• opening the PDF (PDF XChange Viewer) used about 3sec
• filesize about 1/3 compared to yours

Do you miss any objects in the attached PDF?

- alfred -

[Over-Dose]

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@Alfred.NESWADBA wrote:

Hi,

opened your drawing, plot to PDF ...

• plotting needed about 5sec,
• opening the PDF (PDF XChange Viewer) used about 3sec
• filesize about 1/3 compared to yours

Do you miss any objects in the attached PDF?

- alfred -

---

Hi @Alfred.NESWADBA

You're surely using the default PDF printer (inside AutoCAD), which I am able to do also and get similar results as your plot.

My issue/curiosity is still related to using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC's printer, which completely yields a bigger file size, and does not include the hatches with transparency on them.

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> You're surely using the default Adobe PDF printer (inside AutoCAD)

The driver shipped with AutoCAD is NOT the ADOBE PDF printer, it's AutoCAD PDF ...

So yes, I use the AutoCAD driver ... why ... because it works well.

I don't understand your situation, you have one option (AutoCAD PDF) that works and you have seen a second option (Adobe Printer) that does not work, why are you trying to continue with the option that does not work?

And even if you want to have your work done with the Adobe printer why then asking in the Autodesk forum. You see that AutoCAD works well with different devices, so it's not an AutoCAD issue.

Just the Adobe device is the one that does not work ... isn't that question better placed at the Adobe forum/support?

- alfred -

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Just my 2 cents worth- I also had a lot of issues with generating pdf's from AutoCAD using Acrobat Pro, performance steadily declined since AutoCAD 2018, eventually becoming mostly unusable in 2020. In similar circumstance as yours, plotting transparent hatches- would take a long time (>10 minutes for a single layout) and would sometimes freeze AutoCAD, and once froze entire PC. I switched to the built-in AutoCAD pdf drivers, and haven't looked back- plot performance is far better/faster, and pdf quality is usually superior, always at least equal. File size on pdf outputs is also less than half, making everyone here who has to send them back & forth via e-mail much happier, since having to split up a large drawing set into 2 or 3 files is now also a thing of the past. If you need to edit pdf's after the fact (crop, insert, re-order pages, etc.) Adobe Acrobat still works fine for those things, but it just doesn't seem to "play nice" with AutoCAD.

[natasha.l · Accepted solution]

Hello @Over-Dose, 

Thank you for continuing to follow up. 

I recommended reaching out to Adobe for support because the issue is related to your Adobe Acrobat product not Autodesk. Otherwise, I recommend using the default AutoCAD PDF plotter files that are working. 

Please "Accept Solution" if a reply or replies have helped resolve the issue or answered your question, to help others in the community.

[Over-Dose]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Just my 2 cents worth- I also had a lot of issues with generating pdf's from AutoCAD using Acrobat Pro, performance steadily declined since AutoCAD 2018, eventually becoming mostly unusable in 2020. In similar circumstance as yours, plotting transparent hatches- would take a long time (>10 minutes for a single layout) and would sometimes freeze AutoCAD, and once froze entire PC. I switched to the built-in AutoCAD pdf drivers, and haven't looked back- plot performance is far better/faster, and pdf quality is usually superior, always at least equal. File size on pdf outputs is also less than half, making everyone here who has to send them back & forth via e-mail much happier, since having to split up a large drawing set into 2 or 3 files is now also a thing of the past. If you need to edit pdf's after the fact (crop, insert, re-order pages, etc.) Adobe Acrobat still works fine for those things, but it just doesn't seem to "play nice" with AutoCAD.

---

@Anonymous - Thanks for confirming that I'm not the only one experiencing this issue, and I clearly am left with little option but to ditch Adobe Acrobat Pro DC for printing from AutoCAD 2020.

[Over-Dose]

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@natasha.l wrote:

Hello @Over-Dose, 

Thank you for continuing to follow up. 

I recommended reaching out to Adobe for support because the issue is related to your Adobe Acrobat product not Autodesk. Otherwise, I recommend using the default AutoCAD PDF plotter files that are working. 

Please "Accept Solution" if a reply or replies have helped resolve the issue or answered your question, to help others in the community.

---

@natasha.l - Yeah, I would appear that it is an Adobe Acrobat issue, where it doesn't work well with AutoCAD 2020. I'll contact their support to see if they'll be of any assistance.

I'll switch to the default AutoCAD PDF as an alternate measure, and mark your last response as a solution.

Thanks for all the replies.