Save as PDF - File Name Appears Incorrectly

[Slawek_Bielawa]

Hi folks,

I experience this issue with certain AutoCAD drawings.  When I'm ready to create a PDF from my drawing, I click Plot, choose Adobe PDF and select my correct settings.  I click OK and the file name which appears will sometimes be correct by pre-populating the name from the beginning of the file name, for example, "MAG-762-891-A Recommendation for...."

Other times it will for some reason start half way through the file name, for example "Recommendation for..." and totally cut off the first part.  So I have to manually type it in.

For some reason certain drawings work properly, other drawings do not.  It really seems to depend on the project I'm working on and has me thinking it has something to do with settings saved in that particular drawing.... maybe?  

Does anyone know what settings I should check so that when I go to create my PDF it starts at the beginning of the file name?

AutoCAD version 2016

File name used in example: MAG-762-891-A Recommendation for Maintenance.dwg"

[Anonymous]

I'd recommend using export to pdf not plot. the plot will always be the same as the file name with a new extension. Plot adds the layout tab name to the file name, understandably so. make sure you're in paperspace so you export the layout and not the model space.

[john.vellek]

Hi @Slawek_Bielawa,

I see that you are visiting as a new member to the AutoCAD forum. Welcome to the Autodesk Community!

Do you see this same behavior if you use the AutoCAD DWG to PDF drivers?  Does the behavior change if you change the location of the resulting PDF to a local folder?

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

[Slawek_Bielawa]

This method works fine 90% of the time.  It's the odd time that it doesn't.  We have all our drawings stored across multiple project folders and when I'm working on particular jobs I get the PDF creation file name behaving different.  It must be some setting.  I'm in layout,  it's not taking any information from the tab names.  My tabs are Layout and Model.

[Slawek_Bielawa]

I literally have two drawings open right now side by side.  On one I choose Plot, pick Adobe PDF, click OK, the entire file name shows up as it should.

I go to the other drawing and do the same thing and I only get partial file name showing up and the beginning is cut off.  Same driver, same settings, etc.

Something within the drawing is different even though it's the same title block.  There must be a setting that is enabled on one and not the other.

[john.vellek]

Hi @Slawek_Bielawa,

Did you try my suggestions too? I would like to know if they affect the behavior at all.

[Anonymous]

Even still I would recommend export instead. This doesn't require any 3rd party software so its more likely to process the data better.

AutoCAD comes with its own pdf export capabilities.

[Slawek_Bielawa]

The problem with using the AutoCAD PDF plotter is the user has to manually browse to the folder location when saving the PDF.  Choosing Adobe PDF brings up the current location of the DWG file.  When you have a large server and hundreds of jobs it becomes an even larger pain.

To answer your question, using AutoCAD PDF option retains the file name correctly but I have to browse to my destination folder (bigger pain than renaming the file IMO).

However, I copied it to my desktop and tried my normal method and the file name is properly retained.

Now I'm confused why that worked.... 

[john.vellek]

Hi @Slawek_Bielawa,

Since this is only happening with the Adobe driver I suggest you query for a solution in their forums.  It appears that this has been an issue off and on for some folks.  Usually there seem to be characters in the filename that seem to cause this to happen.

It is also interesting that saving local behaves properly.  Do you have full permissions to the network shares where you have been placing the PDFs? Is there anything unique in your local firewall that might be preventing the Adobe PDF driver from accessing the network properly?

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

[Slawek_Bielawa]

Yes I have full permission.

[Slawek_Bielawa]

I just did another test...

For one client we save our DWG's on Box.  For another client we save our DWG's on Google Drive.

The issue is happening with the DWG in Google Drive.  When I copy that save DWG to any location on the Box server it prompts the file name correctly when creating the PDF.

Does this help point you to a solution?

[john.vellek]

Hi @Slawek_Bielawa,

OK, so this is not a Windows server-based network. I suggest, if the Box service is working and the Google Drive is not, I would start doing some network monitoring to see if there is any packet loss or latency involved when creating the PDF.  Try running a TRACERT to both services to see if there are any major differences in time and hops. Please also review your Google Drive settings to see if anything can be changed to improve the performance.

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

[Slawek_Bielawa]

That's correct, our clients use Cloud based servers.  We are consultants with access to their files so I can't exactly do any sort of network troubleshooting.  I was hoping it was an AutoCAD setting that I could change somewhere but I guess not.

Thanks for your help.

[john.vellek]

HI @Slawek_Bielawa,

I guess my only other suggestion would be to create the files on a local folder and write a little script to move them to the cloud service when appropriate.