What's the best PDF printer to use with Revit?

[Anonymous]

There's some existing threads on this topic but they are from 2011. Any new developments? I prefer something free, duh. I tried to use Microsoft PDF but it does not offer architectural sized sheets.

[ToanDN]

Microsoft Print to PDF is likely the worst choice.  You are actually lucky it even let you choose paper size when print from Revit.

If money is no concern then Bluebeam or Adobe are fairly good.  Otherwise, PDF Creator, PDF Architect, CutePDF are among the free options with some may-or-may-not-annoying ads (or someone calls them spyware).  And then there are a bunch in between.

It is hard to say what is best statically unless someone run a benchmarking test of printing all kinds of different drawings to all the printers and compare the results, the time, the file sizes, etc...

Pick one and if it works, stick with it until it breaks.

[bimscape]

I use DoPDF and have done so for 4 years. It was free.

With all the free ones (just like any free software) just be VERY careful that you review all the checkboxes in the Installer. Or you may be getting more on your PC than you're bargaining for!

I have had no problems at all with Do PDF and as @ToanDN says "I just picked one, it worked- so I've stuck with it"

[Anonymous]

We use the Docuflow plugin that is in the Autodesk app store for creating exact PDFs of our sheets. It is much faster making PDFs of a set of sheets than any other tool we tested and always get the right size and orientation without need to manually create paper sizes in the driver. It is a scandinavian product so it is pretty simple but very robust.

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

[-FDC-]

I am using PDF-XChange Pro from Tracker software. https://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-pro

[Anonymous]

i am using PDFill PDF & Image Writer Hope it can help you

[jaboone]

I did extensive tests on a lot of fronts for anyone interested.  here is my recommendation:

PDF Brand time and size testing within Revit 2019 - 40 single sheets with 100% zoom factor at 600DPI
PDF Brand	Start time	Finish time	Write PDF time	File Size	Scroll time *	Comment
Adobe	7:20					stopped after 30 to 40 minutes (twice and once after startup)
Cute PDF	1:17	1:23	1:25	43.8 megs	1min 6secs	5-minute plot, 2-minute write
PDF Creator	1:03	1:13	1:15	50.1 megs	1min 13secs	10-minute plot, 2-minute write
ABBYY	8:15					Stopped at 9:25 after 27 pages and more visible to progress than others
Microsoft	-	-	-	-	-	Will not use same settings from paper size and specs
PDF Xchange Pro	11:03	11:09	11:20	36.3 megs	55secs	Good indicator on progress and decent speed
Soda Pro	11:29	11:33	11:34	33.9 megs	1min 12 secs
* - Time it took to fully scroll to the bottom of file from Adobe Reader DC 2019.012.20040

[Anonymous]

Recently upgraded several computers to Win 10 and BDSP 2020 or AECC 2020. Having issues printing to PDF with REVIT Adobe DC does not work anymore and the WIN 10 PDF creator puts a margin on the plans and they are not to scale = worthless! BlueBeam is the recommended printer from our VAR. $350 / station to print PDF's seems like a lot of $ for a REVIT short coming. Any reasonable recommendations?

[ennujozlagam]

I used BULLZIP PDF printer and works fine.

[syman2000]

I use PDF architect. It has it's own adobe acrobat clone which allows you to batch compile PDF. https://www.pdfforge.org/pdfarchitect