Print High Quality to PDF

[dan245CL]

I have been working on identifying how best to print high-quality PDFs in Revit.  I am wondering if anyone has any feedback to provide.

I am not a Revit user myself (I work in IT), but I have a user who consistently has issues with Revit and its performance.  I believe it has to do with 
1.  Not closing Revit regularly (i.e. several days)

2.  Not rebooting regularly

3.  Printing Very high quality PDFs (which seems to slow down the system a lot  / Bluebeam seems to crash a lot).

My print settings are usually:
24" x 36" Final Color
Arch_D 24x36
Raster processing
Raster Quality: Presentation

Colors: Color
DPI: 600


Seems like if I change the quality from Presentation to High, I do not run into issues.   If I set it to High, it will print out in 5-10 seconds and will use half the Memory.  If I print using Presentation, it will take over a minutes and it will use up nearly all of the 32GB RAM (plus Most of the 24GB VGA memory).

I tried PDF Creator and get the same results, I also tried the Revit 2022 Export to PDF feature and similar results.

Any tips and tricks to printing high-quality PDFs?

[ToanDN]

He prints to Raster by choice?

[dan245CL]

To be honest I don't think the end-user knows the difference.  I looked it up and if I am not mistaken, Raster is 'better' but I am here to learn more 🙂

[EATREVITPOOPCAD]

Raster = pixels = you will have pixelation = bluUUUrry

Vector = no pixels but maths to create curves = no pixelation = very sharp image

Generally you always want to go with vector, especially for floor plans, elevations, sections and details

Raster use for elevations that have shadows, or 3D views that have colors

Think about it like that, Vector is line based, and raster is image based. So images do raster, and with technical drawings do vector.

[dan245CL]

Thanks for the feedback, this is a great explanation for the two options

[ToanDN]

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@dan245CL wrote:

To be honest I don't think the end-user knows the difference.  I looked it up and if I am not mistaken, Raster is 'better' but I am here to learn more 🙂

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Not sure where did you look up that say Raster is "better".  As you said you are an IT person so I think I need not to explain the differences between the two.  As a Revit user, vector print is my go-to choice unless I am forced to print to Raster by the program.

[HVAC-Novice]

Vector is better and also is how Revit creates the model. Like if there is a wall, Revit doesn't have millions of little cubes (raster), it has a start point and vector data on how tall and wide the wall is from that point etc. Much less data for the vector method. 

As for quality, the user should trial& error what quality settings are sufficient. Create a PDF and zoom in and see if it still looks good etc. It may sound like a good idea to always use the best quality, that may be overkill depending on the purpose. 

32GB sounds like enough memory for normal sized models. But if the model is complex and/or large and the user runs into performance issues often, an upgrade may help. and there is the CPU/GPU. 

I don't remember the details, but a very long time ago I had it set to raster, and it forced me to use vector (or the other way around). There are times when Revit is picky what it lets you use. I think it is related to if the views you print include imported images (raster) and PDF (raster or vector). but if everything that you print to PDF is made in Revit, you should be able to chose freely. That was before Revit had a built-in PDF export function. If you print to PDF with a 3rd party PDF program, that may throw in some more wrenches. So if you run into issues, use the export function instead of Bluebeam and if possible remove imported raster images or PDF. 

[barthbradley]

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@dan245CL wrote:

 I have a user who consistently has issues with Revit and its performance.  I believe it has to do with 

1.  Not closing Revit regularly (i.e. several days)

2.  Not rebooting regularly

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Does not closing Revit regularly and not rebooting regularly really effect print quality?  I've never heard that before.  

[HVAC-Novice]

I don't think it impacts print quality and don't think OP meant it that way. I think OP was more concerned this is causing the crashes and using up of all memory. 

If a re-boot solves the problem, there indeed could be a memory leak problem with Revit or other software. I'm one who keeps Revit open over night. But after 2-3 days I always find IT (or the PC) decided to force a re-boot. In fact, our IT directed us to reboot the PC at the end of the day to complete any updates or other things that are still hanging in there. Between windows and all the other software, there is always some sort of update and many problems are resolved by re-booting. 

Not sure what OS, but I found W10 is really good in containing memory leaks unlike the old XP. 

[Archigrafix_Norge]

Have a try using this trial plugin from the Revit App Store to create pdfs:

https://apps.autodesk.com/RVT/en/Detail/Index?id=6842090281765127625&appLang=en&os=Win64

It is the faster printer I know. But as many wrote above, I always use vector. Vector prints faster and without loss of definition. One must however have in mind that Revit does not manage to print gradients (views with shadows for instance) to vector format yet, switching in that case automatically to raster mode.

[dan245CL]

Correct the reboot wasn't to improve quality or anything. it is just a good habit.   Revit support also identified that Revit keeps a journal/logfile.  If you keep Revit running for days on end this file can grow very big.

personally, I have connected to machines running Revit for days and seen out-of-memory errors.  I think it has to do with Bluebeam but proving it is difficult.


Again thanks for the feedback< Bluebeam has asked for a copy of the Revit file so I will upload it to them to see if they can identify what the issue is.