DWG Plots As "Scanned Image"

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I'm trying to make PDFs searchable by using a TT Font instead of shx font. However, when I plot to PDF and attempt to search, I get a message saying the "This page contains only an image of a scanned page. There are no text characters. Would you like to rune character analysis to try to make the text on this page accessible?"  

I'm using Civil3D 2015 (on a PC) Version J.104.0.1, SP1

Old font is RomanS, .8 width, 15 slant.

New font is Calibri, 1.0 width, 0 slant. (Some old font is still in use for things I don't want searchable)

Plot is (either through the sheet tab plot or through publish dialog box) "DWG to PDF.pc3"

Plot with transparency (cycled, no change)

"PlotTransparencyOverride" = 1 (cycled 0,1,2 with no change)

"PDFTextRender" = 1

Fonts are at Z=0

Plotter properties:

Include layer information is turned off

Font Handling = capture some, calibri is selected (tried capture all)

What am I missing?

Thanks

[pendean]

Can you show us the PDF or a portion of it, and a portion of the DWG that the portion-PDF comes from?

[Anonymous]

This is the file I was using to test various texts. Let me know if there is a better way to show the dwg file.

[pendean]

Thanks for the files: AutoCAD reported 39 errors in the DWG file but after setting DWG TO PDF to "capture all fonts" all your Calibri text is indeed searchable here. In your PDF there are no fonts so my guess is "capture all" was not selected.

FWIW I'm not using C3D at all, don't have access to it.

[Anonymous]

I ran an audit and found 0 errors. You say you found 39?

I checked the capture all and replotted, no change.

I opened the file in ACAD 2015 (vs C3D), ran the audit, checked settings and it was searchable. Apparently its a setting difference between ACAD and C3D somewhere...

I'll keep hunting. Thanks for the help.

[pendean]

The C3D forum is over here, your peers may have an answer since you and I can get it to work fine in plain AutoCAD https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-civil-3d-general/bd-p/66

[john.vellek]

HI @Anonymous,

Welcome to the Autodesk Community!

I too ran Audit but it did not find errors. I did run Purge and it removed a bunch.

At any rate, I used the AutoCAD PDF (General Documentation Driver) with Capture all fonts selected in the PDF Options.

I am attaching my version of your DWG and the created PDF which is searchable on my side.

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post fully solves your issue or answers your question.

[pendean]

OP is using 2015: using 2016/2017's PDF driver options is probably not the answer John, and neither is using plain AutoCAD (since it works for them too).

[john.vellek]

Yes Dean - sometimes I am challenged 🙂

I did find that an -ExportToAutocad made the process smoother in plain AutoCAD as I could not get the search to work consistently with the DWG to PDF driver. So once the Civil 3D objects were removed things improved.

Thanks for keeping me honest

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Follow up:

I ended up deleting my user settings (IT did something with deleting my computer user profile and restoring it...don't know the details but I think IT made it more difficult than it should have been) and built my ACAD user settings back up. PDFs are now searchable for me. I have not found the setting that caused my issue.

One note: if a different user signed onto my computer, ACAD PDFs were searchable. A clean install wasn't necessary, just resetting user settings. IT here disables the "Reset Settings to Default" option ACAD has built in, but that may work for someone else.

Thanks for the ideas.