Plot PDF in CAD to PDF's, File size is very large

[mike_g]

When a PDF is put into CAD and then plotted to PDF the plotted sheet size is extremely large. Typically a sheet is 100-700 kb without any pdf's inserted into the dwg. When the PDF is inserted into the DWG the plotted sheet is anywhere for 4,000-6,000kb per sheet.

Our current work around is to plot the sheets hard copy, and then scan them in. With the stay at home order this can't be done, so has anyone had similar issues? Resolution?

We have played with all the PDF settings, turned everything off and on and everything in between, DPI settings, monochrome, transparency, background color adjustment, etc...non of which seems to do much of anything.

[pendean]

PDFs become uncompressed raster images in AutoCAD and plotting creates huge files: you can lower the raster output settings in your PDF driver or try using a "pdf compressor" tool or website to shrink your files down like this website https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/online/compress-pdf.html

[Anonymous]

Depending on what the pdf is you can use the (relatively) new >pdfimport< tools to convert the pdf into native dwg objects. Makes the bump in file size much smaller, the file will behave better, and no broken reference paths to worry about.

Hope this helps

[dgorsman]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Depending on what the pdf is you can use the (relatively) new >pdfimport< tools to convert the pdf into native dwg objects. Makes the bump in file size much smaller, the file will behave better, and no broken reference paths to worry about.

Hope this helps

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In order to preserve the "reference" nature of the PDF, I'd also recommend keeping the import-created DWG file as its own file with no modifications other than cleanup, and XREF it into the actual working file.  As a bonus, if layering is preserved in the new PDF it becomes very easy to distinguish between the reference/original and new layers.

If preserving original content isn't such a big deal then yeah - doing additional work directly in the import-created file is easier.