Plotting in PDF

Like a new suit to the Men in Black, the only plotting configuration you'll ever need - PDF. Portable Document Format is not only the most dependable plotting format but will assist you in archiving and backing up your work, saving money for you and your clients. And it's just about free*..

I am devoted to PDF because it does two great things: it records a permanent copy of your drawing, and it's the same on the screen as on the page. Even though that's super simple it's an extremely valuable feature.

The first and most common use of pdf is plotting.

In Autocad plotting to pdf translates the drawing into instructions for a plotting device. That used to be a physical printer, but since Acad version 12, it can be instructions to a virtual printer. Just as if you were sending information to a real printer, but saved in a way that can be accessed on line or printed out. The advantage is that you can see what will be printed before it goes to the print shop. And if you flip back and forth between screen and print there will be few surprises. Printing costs are either born by you, the client, or a consultant. Even when printing is letter or tabloid size the paper and ink costs add up. Why not send work out as pdfs - no printing cost, no unauthorized revisions by client or consultant, and no delivery charges. Your email acts like a transmittal too, because you have a record of when each item was delivered. With current versions of Adobe Reader mark up tools are availble for you to communicate with others on your team to highlight errors or proposed changes.

*The free part of pdf is the reader, available pretty much everywhere. The writing part is available in some free applications, and typically bundled in some pay applications, like Acad.

Archiving and backing up work. One of the problems in working with digital media is that there is often no evidence of work that has been revised or redesigned. Many designers will keep many versions of one project, a floor plan for instance, in one drawing. That can be hard to organize and share, and hard later on to locate a specific iteration. Saving a version in pdf format insures that it won't be overwritten or altered later. As a design is completed, succesive new designs can be saved with a date or sequential number as pdfs. There may be some extra work in redrawing, but time to redraw is far less than time to redesign.

You may be set up to plot direct to your printer, which is fine, it's very handy to have quick prints. But that doesn't create a permanent electronic record. A tiny change, error, or unsaved revision can go unnoticed only to reappear at the worst time. A date-stamped pdf file locks that version down.

Configuring for pdf

Keep your plotting set up for your printer if you like, you're just going to add another choice. I'll walk through it in the current version of Acad 10 or 11. Go to pagesetup, choose new, name it something like 'standard' you'll be using it on all jobs. For plotter pick Adobe pdf, then choose plot style table – monochrome. At the far right pick your penweights in your usual widths. The size of paper should be your full size sheet, plot scale is 1:1 (remember – paperspace is for plotting), extents or window (whatever your preference) and save. Now 'standard' is a choice in your current drawing and can be imported to any other drawing you open. You want to set up your plot for your full size sheet and print to whatever size paper is convenient. That probably is full size for the printer service and print to fit in your office. If you are using an older version and this doesn't seem to apply, shoot me a note and I can probably walk you through it.

A good addition is a plot stamp, (command: plotstamp) that's a line of text that is added to your plot. You can specify where this text is located on the plot in the Plot Stamp dialog box. Turn this option on to add specified plot stamp information—including drawing name, layout name, date and time, and so on—to a drawing that is plotted to any device. © 2011

I know I probably sound like an advertisement for Adobe, but wait until next time when I introduce 3-D pdf. It's so cool!! You and your clients zooming around three dimensional models like crazy alien space guys... oops, got back in MIB mode there for a minute.