The final X6 for the MAC was just released. I tried to print a PDF of my plans. The PDF file size was 96.9 MB. Impossible to email.
For you guys on a MAC, what is your solution for printing your plans to PDF?
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The final X6 for the MAC was just released. I tried to print a PDF of my plans. The PDF file size was 96.9 MB. Impossible to email.
For you guys on a MAC, what is your solution for printing your plans to PDF?
I can confirm this tonight if you want me to look into the PDF option on a MAC, I have x6 installed at home.
Are you saying that the MAC PDF is larger than the same PDF printed from a Windows machine? If so, how much bigger and what PDF printer did you use? Adobe or some other?
Can't you just print using a 3rd party program like PDFWriter for Mac? Probably freeware out there, too.
Ok, I will report back my findings.
I would if I could find one. A program that did not print a huge file. I have tried different 3rd party programs but have not found one that will print to PDF under 20 MB, (the max size to email with my email system).
Did CA mention a 3rd party program yet that would meet our needs?
You're probably right about the printer but it might be worth a try to print it with the Adobe printer. Also, if you have the full adobe you can try saving as either "reduced size" or "optimized". Under Optimized you have setting for backward compatibility the - "Make Compatible with" drop down. The higher the version the smaller the size of the file. You also have many options for how to handle the images etc. See the attached screen shot.
Attachment 62273
The large PDF on MAC is a known issue with the toolkit we are using. We have been working with the supplier to provide a better solution for the MAC but as yet have not solved the issue. We will continue to pursue this issue and provide a solution as soon as one becomes available.
In the meantime it would be interesting to know what the results are on some of the available third party PDF printers on the MAC.
Here is something interesting. Printing on PC,
used PDF995, file size 16MB
used built in pdf printer, file size 4MB
One of the things that can make a huge difference is the quality setting of the PDF printer (if your PDF printer has a quality setting). Lowering the quality often has little to no noticeable effect on the file but can decrease the file size dramatically. Also, printing in grayscale (or black and white) instead of color can also make a major difference.
File size is dependent on a lot of variables, mostly due to the content of what you are printing.
We know on the MAC that the large size problem is related to font embedding. Files that don't have much text would be much smaller. Files that use primarily pixel data would likely be similar in size on both platforms.
PDF printer drivers have lot's of configuration options, many of which we don't provide in our Save As PDF... option.
If you intend to provide a useful guide to which driver to use it would be good to establish a benchmark using a set of files that have a variety of data.
Establish a set of test parameters that are adhered to on each test. For example:
Test 1: -> Paper Size: 8.5 x11, DPI: 600 -> Ouptut file size: xxxMb.
Make sure you are comparing the size of the files using the same settings. In my internal tests a single file could produce a PDF that varies from 4mb to 80mb using our internal PDF simply by changing print settings.
ACAD has allowed importing PDF for years. Anytime I import a data sheet in PDF format into a drawing, the system goes dead slow on the layout that it is attached to. File sizes are big as well. I contacted support to see if there is something I might be doing that would cause the problem and it isn't anything that I'm doing. I did look for some information about PDF's and there are two formats. Raster and vector. Raster images are the bigger problem.
PDF's cause me more problems than any other thing in Chief. Slow Slow Slow as soon as I load them. Zooming is slow, panning is slow, and forget about the print preview. I have to abandon ship because it simply takes too long to preview. - 2 -3 minutes for some pages.
...and I can't print them either. I will get a huge file size and I will get only half a page of output to my HP 110. Not every one gives me trouble, only the important ones.
I end up printing to PDF using Bull Zip then I can print that to my HP 110 but can't print directly from the HP 110 through the Chief dbx.
Called tech support and it's just the way it is. My PDF's have too many embedded fonts etc. and they just take forever to render and print. No solution in sight.
Anything without a PDF file in it prints to PDF without any hiccups. Anything with PDF file in it slows and many other problems. This is on a Win machine so sorry for the thread highjack.
I opened the Sample layout "Riverstone" supplied by CA, which is 19 pages with plenty of 3D graphics.
I used the built pdf printer @ 600DPI, the file size was 60MB.
I opened it in Adobe Acrobat 9.0 and hit > Document > Reduce File Size and specified it to open in Acrobat 7.0 and newer, the file size is now 5.2MB
I opened both the 60MB and 5.2MB in Acrobat. I don't see a difference in the line drawings. There is a difference in the 3D views if you zoom in, but it's not a huge difference.
So that's one option.
Another option for sending a customer drawings would be to use FTP. If you have a web site, you will have FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
With FTP you can transfer a few GB without a problem. You would need a FTP Client like Fetch and your customer can download the file.
You would also need your FTP username and password, this should have been provided to you by your web host company.
I created a download on my photography website too show you what I mean. On the right side of the page, click the PDF to download.
Give it a minute and you'll see all 19 pages of the Riverstone layout. the file size is 60MB.
This download can be password protected if you like. You can also control how it is saved or opened by the customer.
CLICK HERE to see the download page
If you mean physically printing on paper then use Adobe Reader. It's free and can be downloaded HERE
You can create the PDF using CA and physically print it using Adobe Reader.
It that what you mean?
By the way, all Adobe programs are available for Mac. You could buy Adobe Acrobat XI but if all you want to do is read and print I don't see a reason to purchase it.
..but without the full Acrobat program what are the options? And of course we can keep buying programs but it would be nice to have some usable options within Chief and by usable i mean flexible enough to handle larger files sizes without the need of another program.
I'm getting confused on the terms being used here, print to file vs physically printing on paper.
To physically print look at post #20 above.
To create a PDF, print to file, you can use the one built into CA.
OR
Unlike Windows, you don't need to install something like CutePdf to print to a pdf file, it's a native function of a Mac. When I used this the file came out about 75% of the CA version but still too large to email.
Choose any installed printer and select Print. In the print dialog box, look in the lower left corner and select PDF, see the attached screen shot.
To get to the dialog box select " Open System Print Dialog"
Attachment 62282
Screen shot 2011-07-08 at 1.57.58 PM.png
Greg, I am trying to print to PDF. that is what this entire thread is about.
Try this, Go to the App Store, download PDF Compress Expert, it's free.
It reduced the 60MB Riverstone PDF to as low as 1.3MB
After you drag in the document, Click the settings gear to the right to customize compression.
Greg, appreciate the suggestion. It converted my 90MB file to 30 MB, that is a start, (needs to be less than 20 MB to email).
It converted the file to something I would use with Keynote, a powerpoint presentation format. Could I send that to my print shop?
Do you think I would need to upgrade so the PDF was not converted to a Keynote file?
Final problem is it did not support one of my fonts, but the big problem was my WHITE FILLED FONTS now have a black fill, cannot read the font.
I have the full Adobe X1 on my PC. I can test if you are interested. OK I know it's not a MAC but offering anyway.
If you have a site with FTP I can get the file. Otherwise you can compress the plan using a tool like IZArc into 10 -15 meg sections and send them to me. PM if you want my help and email.
Scott have you tried this?
http://www.wikihow.com/Compress-a-PDF-File
Method 3 of 4: Compressing a PDF File Using Mac OS
1
Open your PDF in Preview by double-clicking on it in the Finder menu.
By default, PDF files open in Preview unless you have Adobe Reader or a third party PDF viewer. If that is the case, simply locate the PDF, right click it, click “Open With” and choose Preview.
2
Click File → Export. A dialog box will appear.
3
Click the Quartz Filter option and select “Reduce File Size”.
4
Click “Save”. If you do not rename this file, a dialog box will appear asking if you wish to replace the original document. This will overwrite the current document.[2]
Or This?
Compress a PDF file on MAC
If you are a MAC user then compressing the size of the PDF file is really easy and it does not require any software download as MAC has an inbuilt application (Preview.app) which can be used to compress the PDF file in seconds.
The Real Process:
1. The very first process is open the PDF file with Preview application.
2. After opening the file choose “File” at the top of the screen and then click on “Print” or You can also the use the shortcut key (“Command key” + Letter “P”) to print the file, this will pop up a dropdown menu.
3. On the dropdown menu, you can see a button in the bottom left-hand corner labeled as “PDF”. Click the button and another dropdown menu will appear, immediately below the “PDF” button.
4. Click on the “Compress PDF” from this dropdown menu and now you can see a window indicating the compression is taking place.
5. After the compression a Save window will appear, here you need to type the name of the file and location of the file and click on the Save button.
That’s all, now your PDF file is compressed and ready to send over email.
Sorry Scott, I don't write lol unless I'm actually laughing out loud and I know it's frustrating but lol - guess that didn't work so well huh?
No it did not work. I posted this thread hoping somebody would and could come up with a solution. Nobody has (but I do appreciate the efforts). If anybody had a solution I would of expected it to come from CA. They do recognize the issue, they say they are looking for a solution, and I assume they are. I think it was Dan who wondered if a third party app would help out, I wish somebody would find that app.
I just amazes me that this is even a problem and has not been solved a long time ago, I just don't get it. What do all the other apple die hards do?
I just tried the same thing on my machine and I get a file size of 39.2MB @ 600dpi. How do we get such a difference in file size using the same method and same file on two different machines? Also odd, I tried @ 300dpi and the file size actually gets slightly larger (39.4MB)...:confused:
I also tried reducing the 600dpi file size via Preview and it went down to 31.3MB... as you said Scott, it helps but not much. I did a quick search in the App Store and found another app you could maybe try: PDF Squeezer - $3.99. It got decent reviews, but I can't say I've tried it.
It would be nice if we had more options to control file size from CA's print dbx, rather than just dpi and color on/off. Hopefully Dan and those guys can figure something out.
In the mean time, one thing I do when I have files that are too large to email is dump them in a new folder in Dropbox and share that folder with my client. I started doing 3D fly-around videos and stuff recently. Those files are always too large to email if I use a decent resolution and the Dropbox option works well for that.
Yep, drop box for my print company would work or I could use their FTP site as Greg suggested. As far as clients go, I do use the drop box, but if they then want to email it, they too have to set up a drop box account.
For now I think I will stick with printing off the PC until CA figures out how to handle this. I would consider switching back to the PC full time, but truthfully, I hate going back and doing work on the PC in lieu of MAC. Not saying the MAC is better, it is just that I have now become quite accustom to it..... and who knows, maybe my PC is screwed up....... thanks guys for the interest..... as CA says..... the squeaky wheel gets the oil..... so I am squeaking.
This thread is confusing we are talking about multiple issues:
1) Scott's issue with large PDF size on MAC. This is a result of font's not getting embbeded. I have talked to the engineers at QT and it's apparently a hard problem for them to solve. We will continue to pursue the issue.
2) Importing PDF files that consist of a large number of pixel based images.
3) Performance of the program in plan views and layout views when you have imported PDF files.
4) Performance of print preview when you have lot's of embedded PDF files.
Primarily this thread is dicussing item 1). It will be less confusing for everyone if we discuss the discrete issues in separate threads.
I would be curious to know if the fact that I use limited text on my layouts has anything to do with my smaller print file sizes verses Scott's. I block my header on page 0 and label imports from plan files, that's about all the text I have on my layout files. Out of the few print files I've completed with X6 (all have been limited to 6 pages or less), my largest file was around 3mb or 4mb at 600dpi.
Scott, try blocking all your layout text on each page. If it's a text/font issue and CA can't resolve it, it's at least worth a shot in the dark. How much text do you use in your layouts? Do you use the auto-generated labels (I do not)?
Instead of Riverstone, I used my own layout with a total of 12 pages, six line drawings, four 3D views and two high quality Ray Traces. When I print to PDF using CA the file size is 6MB. I used all default fonts.
There is something in Riverstone causing this. Is it the Fonts?
You can download the PDF HERE, it's on the right side. Maybe it will help figure this out.