IV2017 R2 How to get nice 2d pdf output from 3d pdf?

[RobSinglehurst]

I'm exporting some assemblies to 3d pdf so that the person who puts the manuals together can choose their views etc and then with the "Illustration" Model Render Mode get a nice drawing of the part.

However... when I then Print to a PDF Printer (CutePDF in this case) the output is pretty poor, jagged outlines and missing lines in some areas.

Has anyone done anything like this and been able to get a nice output?

I've attached the screen capture from the 3d pdf and the resulting 2d pdf.

[mcgyvr]

Have you tried adjusting the output DPI in the cute pdf printer advanced settings?

What about using the snippit tool to capture images directly from the screen?

Have you tried using these 2d pdfs in your documentation and see if it actually causes a problem when printed? (sometimes it looks bad on the screen but isn't noticeable when printed)

[RobSinglehurst]

I played with the dpi setting and it made no difference (that I could see anyway). I will try out a screen capture though. The main problem is that the output line width is effectively "hairline" so there's not much hope in trying to get a larger (in size) original and shrink it down to try and improve the quality as lines will disappear completely.

Thank-you for your thoughts 🙂

[mcgyvr]

Obviously you could control the line widths via layer settings in Inventor..

BUT.. I'm not sure you can do anything with the 3d PDFs (not sure if their visual styles will honor line widths.. I don't think so and haven't tried yet)..

If you were creating the 2d PDFs from Inventor this obviously isn't a problem as the 2d PDFs straight from Inventor will honor line widths.... But going from Inventor to 3d pdf to 2d pdf is the issue here.. Might need to change the process.. (But I suspect your technical department doesn't have Inventor though)

Just searching around.. Can you find this setting or any setting that controls line widths in the 3d pdf in Acrobat?

Choose View > Show/Hide > Rulers & Grids > Line Weights.  (<<-- From some Adobe help page.. not sure if its still applicable)

[RobSinglehurst]

The Line Weights toggle (Ctrl 5) doesn't bring up a dialog but after playing a bit I've come up with a reasonable compromise 🙂

Instead of using the Illustration setting I might try the Shaded Illustration with the Bright Lights lighting setting. This doesn't make the final pdf too dark but does help out with the very thin lines.

Thanks,