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Creating PDF’s of drawings question

ScottAW

New member
Using WF 2.0, the new feature of saving the DWG as a PDF document is a nice addition. It's nice that it is automated to save the PDF as the correct sheet size, B, C, D, or whatever.


However, I have one thing I'd like to change or add to this automated process. We store our drawings as PDF files currently, actually since using ver. 2001, and we put a letter after the filename to indicate the revision level. This same revision letter is found in the drawing, as expected, and is done so with use of the parameters.


Is there a way to save the PDF filename with this parameter's value on the end of it? I'd envision the code would be something to the effect of:


Save as <filename><rev>


Where <filename> and <rev> are the parameters for each respective value.


Any ideas on how to do this? Would like to eliminate the manual (and boring) process of renaming all of our drawings.
 
So tell me, how do you save drw to a PDF. Through save-as or through print, etc.


Have looked for this function and have had no luck finding it. Also, what release code are you running.


Thx Dan
 
We make PDF's from Proe by printing to "Acrobat distiller". It is simple to do if you have Distiller installed. If you have a multiple page drawing, make sure to "print all".
 
We've also been using Acrobat since V20. The filename+rev situation is the tricky part.A PTC resellerwas going to charge us $5k to code this but it didn't seem worth the money (obviously). Are you saying that PDF Factory names the file correctly w/the rev? Or are you halting the process prior to the PDF file creation and manually entering the correct filename? If its the latter, there's a switch in Acrobat to make this happen.
 
Greetings from down under,


Re PDF writer,
I have read that Pro/E wildfire 2.0 writes PDF files (not quite true). Pro/E writes a postscript plot file to a plot directory which is watched by Acrobat distiller (if you have it installed). Acrobat distiller is a very good program but it costs money.


Pro/E has allways had the ability to write postscript files, nothing has changed.


There are two very good programs available off the net free that do an excellent job of writing PDF files.


1. Ghostscript: http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/doc/AFPL/get850.htm


2. Ghostview: http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/gsview/get46.htm


You neet Ghostscript to use Ghostview.


3. PDF995: This program comes in 3 components, PDFedit, PDF995 Printer driver, Free Converter. http://www.pdf995.com/download.html


This program uses the ghostscript engine and is definately worth a look, although each time you use it you get an annoying popup that leeds you to their webpage but that is easily fixed by using a popup killer of some kind or by purchasing a toolset key (which is what I did).


PDF995 is installed as a printer driver and works by simply pressing the print button and selecting PDF995 as the printer.


I hope all of theusers out there that take the time to download these programs get the same benifit from themthat I have for many years.


If anyone needs some help getting these programs configured just drop me a line.
[email protected]


Regards,
max Weston.
 
Have used PDF995 and I'm very happy with the results. Although the popup is annoying.


That's why I ask earlier is PDFs were somehow created through print function. It seem that PTC could add this function without much effort.


Dan
 
I use Win2PDF in ProE 2001. It works as a printer selection within any software running in Windows. $40 to register online.
 
We use Win2PDF also and it is great. We buy in quantity and pay only about $20 a seat.


But if you already have Adobe Distiller, the hands down best way to create PDF files in WF2 is to set the new config.pro option adobe_distiller with a value of the full path to the distiller executable.


When WF2 launches with that option set and Adobe present on the computer, it adds new icons to the tool bar to automatically create PDF files. No IN or OUT directories to create, it just dumps the new PDF file to your start up directory.


Bill</O:p>
Edited by: wskunz
 
Not sure what program you're using to convert to .PDF files. I have my macro stopped at the filename and add the rev at that time. It is a little bit manual. We are considering renaming the .DRW file to rev level on as an ongoing process.


Also, if you want a free .PDF conversion, follow these instructions written by Anthony Troglio. http://www.profilesmagazine.com/p25/tools.html
 
One of the key things in the original posting is that the individual wants to have a custom namesimilar to"filename"_"proeparameter".pdf. This meansthe programwould needto pullthe designatedparameter from the pro/e file itself during the postscript creation and then modify the naming convention. I'm not sure this is being answered by any of the postings here.


My company has a simple solution if you are looking to do this straight out of Pro/E. However, if you are looking to do this upon events within Pro/INTRALINKlike PROMOTING than things get a little more complex (We also have products that address this situation as well). Pleasefeel free tocheck out www.protoolkit.com.


It is my belief thatdesign engineers should not spend one minute changing PDF file names and movingthem to designated directories. These are menial manual tasks that should be automated so that workers can redirect their attention to more valuable tasks.


Just think, if you have10 people manually creating, renaming and moving just30 PDFs eachper month, thanyourengineering department isprobably wasting over $6000expediting this task every year. Now what if someone creates a PDF and then decides to make a changebut forgets to recreate a new PDF. Or what if the file is named wrong or moved to the wrong folder? One of these accidents could cost thousands more easily.


Maybe I'm wrong, but ifcompanies want to stay competitive with Asia then I think they should be innovating instead of creating PDFs.


Sorry if I'm over the top on this topic, but it is how I feel.


Best Regards,


Rick
Edited by: rpassolt
 

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