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PDF’s from Proe

step2671

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Printing PDF's from proe is taking ages and stopping anyone esle printing whilst these pdf's print PDF's from proe are also very large in size any ideas in making them smaller and printing them quicker
 
hmm

i use pdf995 its free. but results in a pop-up when i need to make pdf files.

then when i print i simply select the "pdf995" printer. it then leaves a pdf.

each of these steps onyl takes 2 seconds.



greetings from a now seemingly growing aussie presence in this forum :)
 
Thanks and Hello!


I've tried the PDF955 which is very usefully anyway being free! but it only reduces the files size slightly and still takes a long time to print1


I think it may have something to do with the fonts we're using in our drawing formats! but I don't understand why the same problem doesn't happen with our solidworks drawings


Thanks!


S
 
G'day mate
If you are using true type fonts on the drawing it will result in huge plotfiles.


I've tried different ways of printing to pdf but the only reolution was to go back to the standard pro/E font.


The pro/e font is vector based and true type is raster, obviously other software like SW handles that better than pro/e...


regards
Anders
 
Pro/E PDF's are strictly vector, they don't embed the font and text. As a result, if you use fancy curvey fonts they translate into big vector files because of lots of tiny short lines to make those nice fonts. Just use the drfault stick figure font (called "font") and you won't have any problem. This problem will go away in WF3 because Pro/E will start embedding the font & text. A nice side effect will be that you can search & select text in the PDF.
 
We print to generic postscript (filename.ps) and use Ghostview to convert the files manually. It is our best option because we are UNIX based. The file sizes are generally under 150k at 600dpi and output is good quality.
 
Guys,


If any of you using WF2.0,print to pdf is embedded there.If you have distiller installed on your server or machine,you have to set up config.pro option for adobe distiller and customize your pro/e screen and add two Acrobat icons.And the beuaty of this,when you print from pro/e directly,it will create pdf with the same name as your drawing.


Regards
 
Kimale, how does the PDF creation in wf2 work?
Do you have to install distiller or is the embedded featuresomething else?


Reason for asking is that distiller equals dollars but Ghostscript is free so I simply want to know if we need to migrate our Ghostscript sollution to wf2 or not.

Our sollution is probably similar to what Donha describes but in windows environment and a single button click.


(BTW, PDF995 uses Ghostscript in the background)
 
WF2 requires distiller, I'm not sure if you can use one of the free PDF creation utilities or not. All the free utilities that I've seen use Ghostscript in the background. It is not going to make any difference in the file size because you are going from postscript to PDF in every case.

Back to the original question, check the resolution of distiller. I set mine to 600 DPI but you can change it from 72 to 4000. Higher resolution will make bigger files.
 
Thanks everyone for your response I'm going to try some of your suggestions I'll post the feedback next week


S
 
Let me throw in a few cents.....

First of all, how large are these pdf files you are creating?

I want to believe that it is not anything you are doing with proe or
even the pdf creator. I have used pdf995 with proe, word, excel,
etc and have had no problems. ( I purchased the key to stop the
pop-ups, just too annoying and not bad for a 10 spot)



You may want to have your administrator look at the printer
setup. I'm not talking about the client machine either. I
mean the print que on the server. Make sure the server is
handeling the print jobs as RAW and forwards them to the printer that
way. If this setting is not like this the server will try to
inturpret this file and expand it. Making the file much larger
than it has to be when it sends it to the printer. This is added
network traffic and makes more work for the printer to reassemble
it. Each one of you windows clinet machines has the proper
printer driver, correct? So when you print a pdf file from your
windows machine the file (print job) is ready to be sent directly to
the printer.



Next, check to be sure you have lots of RAM in the printer. If
you are still using the 8/16 Megs it came with, forget about it.
Add 72 Megs more minimum. You'll be very pleased.



Something else you can do is test another pdf file created by a
different application. See what happens when you print a 100 page
manual created from word. Does the printer hesitate or stall??



Back to the printer setup on the server. I must stress on
this. If you don't have a print server and are trying to print
large files directly from your desktop to the printer, forget it.
This will never be smooth...



Good day and good luck
 
Hi guys

I print hall of my dawings in a PDF Gostscript, I use the next configuration in a WS with Win2000, and ProE 2001 - ProE Wildfire - ProE Wildfire 2.0 .
1) You must download gsv27550.exe from this link http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/doc/AFPL/get550.htm
2) You must instal the freewhare program in your pc, I have installed in C:\Programs\gstools\ ,during the installation it creates 2 new folders, C:\Programs\gstools\gs5.50 & C:\Programs\gstools\gsview.
3) You must create the file "pdf-make.bat", if you want you can copy & paste te following file.
--------------------------------------------------------
@echo off

:: Get the plot file name and location from the command line.
set infile=%1

:: Change the .plt (Change to .ps if you are using that extension) to .pdf for the output.
set outfile=%infile:.plt=.pdf%

:: Delete any pdf files that exist with the same name
if exist %outfile% del %outfile%

:: Change to the directory where Ghostscript is installed
c:
cd c:\Programs\gstools\gs5.50

call ps2pdf %infile% %outfile%

:: The following line should point to the destination of your pdf file
c:
cd c:\PDF

:: Delete the original plot file.
del %infile%
--------------------------------------------------------
NB c:\PDF is the destination folder, where you will find the pdf files, is possible to change this folder whith an othr one. You must create this folder before configure ProE printer.
4) Now you must configure your ProE PDF printer. I have two solutions, the first is: you go in the folder C:\....\ProE???\text\plot_config and here you create the "pdf_a0.pcf" file for A0 size, if you want you can copy & paste te following file.
--------------------------------------------------------
plotter POSTSCRIPT
button_name PDF A0
button_help Export A0 in PDF
plot_drawing_format YES default
plot_segmented NO default
plot_roll_media NO default
plot_label NO default
plot_handshake software default
create_separate_files NO default
plot_with_panzoom NO default
rotate_plotting NO default
allow_file_naming YES
plot_name NO
interface_quality 3 default
plot_destination file_and_printer default
plotter_command C:\..\ProE?\text\plot_config\pdf-make.bat
plot_file_dir c:\PDF
pen_table_file C:\..\???.pnt
plot_sheets all
paper_size A0
paper_outline NO default
plot_clip NO default
plot_area NO default
---------------------------------------------------------
now you can repet this operation whit the files "pdf_a1.pcf" , "pdf_a2.pcf" , "pdf_a3.pcf" , "pdf_a4.pcf" , you remember to change the following setups:

button_name PDF A0 = A1/A2/A3/A4
button_help Export A0 = A1/A2/A3/A4 in PDF
paper_size A0 = A1/A2/A3/A4.

6) Now you restart your PC, start ProE, open a drawing file and in the menu File\Print\more printers\ you wil find five new printers PDF A0, PDF A1, PDF A2, PDF A3 & PDF A4.

The second solution is the following:
1) You start ProE and open e drawing file.
2) Now you must create a new printer, you clic the menu File\Print and appear the Print window.
3) In the first row (Destination) you must select the "Generic Postcript" printer.
4) Push the "Configure" button, and appear the Printer Configuration window.
5) In the first row (Printer) you must set the name of the printer PDF A0 or an other one you like.
6) In the second row (Help Text)you can insert a litle description about printer for example "Export PDF A0".
7) In the third row (Size)you must set the size of the paper A0.
8) In the fourth row (Offset)you must set X=0.000 & Y=0.000, don't select "Include" in the next row (Label).
9) Push the "Printer" button.
10) In the first row (Pen) you must insert the correct destination of ???.pnt file.
11) In the following rows you must select only Xon/Xoff and Spin 0.
12) Push the "Model" button.
13) In the first row (Plot) you must set "Full Plot".
14) In the second row (Scale) you must set "1.000".
15) In the following rows you must select "With Format", "All Visible" and "3 (Complex overlap check)
16) Push the "Ok" button and you return to the "Print" windows.
17) In this window you must select "To file", "To printer", "All".
18) In the "# of Copies" row you set "1".
19) In the last row "Printer Command" you must insert "C:\..\ProE?\text\plot_config\pdf-make.bat"
20) Push the "Configure" button, and appear the Printer Configuration window.
21) Push the "Save" button, set the destination folder"C:\..\ProE?\text\plot_config" and a name for the new file.

Regards
 

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