Bloated PDFs generated from interior elevation sheet.

[Sahay_R]

What could be the cause of bloated PDFs? An interior elevation sheet with all the non rectangular crop regions reset still prints out to a larger pdf than it should! What else should be checked out?

[cbcarch · Accepted solution]

-How many views are on the sheet?

-Fine Detail Level?

-Lots of Fill patterns, filled regions and/or masking regions?

-View Templates applied to limit number of categories on in views?

-Lots of Linked Revit files? If so, how about VG settings for them?

-Linked Cad?

-Raster Images?

[ToanDN]

If it is forced to print as Raster then the PDF file size is much bigger than Vector.

[Sahay_R]

Thank you @cbcarch. So do you recommend that the view template keep all categories on, with display being controlled by filters? I would not be surprised if that were a part of the problem. 

@ToanDN - I will check with the person who generated the prints. When I created the PDFs they are smaller than what I see in the Project folder. 

[Sahay_R]

@cbcarch - Cliff, when you mention fill patterns, regions, etc does that include painted on materials?

To answer your questions - 

12 views

Fine detail
Some filled regions - maybe 2

View templates do control categories

Only 4 linked Revit files

Yes to linked CAD, also imported in families.

No Raster images

[cbcarch]

-Yes--materials painted onto elements can use a lot of resources when printing.

-As mentioned by others, Raster vs Vector can affect output file size, as well as printer driver use and other settings such as "Presentation Quality", Color vs Black & White, etc.

-Are you printing Hidden Line Views?

or Shaded, Consistent Colors or Realistic with shadows, etc.?

[Sahay_R]

@cbcarch - hidden line views - I'm not brave enough to try Shaded or above....

[cbcarch]

Just curious--

-Have you experienced this on other projects, or just this one?

-How much RAM does the machine you print from have?

-Do all users experience the file bloat?

- Are you using a PDF plug-in, like Acrobat or Bluebeam?

-Raster or Vector settings?

[Sahay_R]

@cbcarch - 

Just experienced on this one

32 GB of RAM

This is the first time I have heard of file bloat since I started here

PDF plugin that I am using is Foxit Phantom PDF

Printing to Vector

[Sahay_R]

I'm stumped - I've reset the crop regions, removed any fill patterns - painted and regions - and nothing has changed....and these are the print settings that I have been using - 

[ToanDN]

Post a bloated PDF file here and we shall see.

[Sahay_R]

@ToanDN - here you are.....in all 2238kb of its glory.....

[cbcarch]

Have you tried Color or Black Lines instead of grayscale?

[Sahay_R]

@cbcarch - No, not yet. However, bumping down the detail of the views from Fine to Medium halved the PDF size.

[cbcarch]

So my reply #2 above solved it?

[Sahay_R]

@cbcarch - partially - the sheet is still above 1MB. Similar sheets from comparable projects (similar size, content, families, number of views, identical view template and print settings) are still smaller than that - hence the concern.

[cbcarch]

Were the other jobs printed in grayscale as well?

Any reason for using grayscale?

[Sahay_R]

Yes, they were. Our office standards are to greyscale things that are NIC for the GC.....

[cbcarch]

Perhaps you could use a Filter for the grayscale, with parameters for the elements which are NIC?

This way you could use normal black lines print settings and it might reduce the PDF file size.

[Sahay_R]

Tried that, @cbcarch. Both B/W and greyscale give me the same PDF file size......

Now - would editing image resolution in the Printer Properties affect the quality of the output?