GeoPDF use in Civil Design

[Anonymous]

Our users are taking advantage of GEOPDF's that they download USGS for Aerials in our design files.   When they are XREF'd into a drawing, then a Clipping Boundary is added to show just what the user want to see, they look awesome, level of detail etc... but the performance of our Civil goes in the tank.  I can unload them when designing and performance returns, but kinda of defeats the purpose of using them as reference.  I have tried the ImageQuality variable changing to Draft, but doesn't improve performance.  I have also tried using PDFIMPORT  Underlay on the XREF'd PDF to get just the information I want, but it seems to lump everything onto specific layers and I really have issues navigating and getting the look I want.   Is there a better workflow for using these types of files in Civil 3D? I watched a video on how to use PDFIMPORT and looked awesome but the PDF was originally created using AutoCAD and so things went much smoother then when I tried with the Aerial PDF, plus the tiling together of multiple (4).   

[Mike_Hurtado]

Hi @Anonymous,

How big are the files that you're trying to use? The behavior you're describing normally occurs if you're attaching a big file to your DWG.

[Anonymous]

They can vary, but for this drawing we have 4 PDF aerials stitched together ranging from 12,988KB to 15,455KB.  Sometimes they can be up to 48MB in size for just one. 

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@Mike_Hurtado wrote:

Hi @Anonymous,

How big are the files that you're trying to use? The behavior you're describing normally occurs if you're attaching a big file to your DWG.

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[Mike_Hurtado]

The size might be an issue, especially when you start to have multiple in the same drawing. Can you try a different file format such as a TIF perhaps?

[Anonymous]

Yes we could and do have tiff and SID that we use, but I am trying to accommodate our PE's as they use the PDF's from the USGS site. 

Thanks

[Mike_Hurtado]

You can try to make an FDO connection to the PDFs in the Planning and Analysis toolspace. If the performance is bad there as well I would start looking into using those TIFF or SID formats. PDFs do tend to slow things down in Civil.

[Mike_Hurtado]

Hi @Anonymous,

Wanted to check in to see how things were going. Did you figure out a way to improve performance with the files in Civil 3D?

[Anonymous]

No still an issue when we have several in a drawing at one time.  I tried to use as an Overlay then run PDFIMPORT to just bring in and crop what we want, but results weren't what I expected.  Still searching for best practices on using PDF files as Aerials and the GEOPDF files.