Printing to PDF

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wloghry
Posts: 4
Joined: 15 Nov 2009, 00:13

Printing to PDF

Post by wloghry »

Using VideoCAD 8 and have tried to print to pdf using multiple virtual pdf printers including bluebeam and cute pdf writer. In all cases the pdf ends up blank, has anyone experienced this.

Support
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Re: Printing to PDF

Post by Support »

We received such messages before and I have made tests with PDF995 and Universal Document Convertor.

When the drawing in VideoCAD had a big raster background or big background in PDF format and the checkbox Option box>Miscellaneous>Print>Use buffer is checked, the PDF995 produced empty PDF file, but the Universal Document Convertor worked properly.

When the drawing has not big raster background or with decreased printing resolution, it printed to PDF correctly by PDF995 too.

If the checkbox Option box>Miscellaneous>Print>Use buffer is not checked - the drawing is printed by all PDF printers fully but with issues with transparent objects. These issues arise because of the most of PDF printers (and many real printers) don't support GDI+ drawing commands. To bypass this problem VideoCAD has the "Use buffer" tool.

When using the buffer, printing on a big raster buffer is performed firstly, and then the raster buffer is passed to the printer.
Without using the buffer the drawing is passed to the printer in vector form, as a set of printing commands. If the printer does not support all commands, issues on the printed image are possible.

The reason of problem with big background is still not clear, but now after some changes in VideoCAD the PDF 995 produces good image with big background too. This change will be applied in the next free upgrade. If you need correction patch urgently please contact us by email.

Right now I tried the Cute PDF. It works, but..
When the Option box>Miscellaneous>Print>Use buffer is checked, file processing takes several minutes and the file has some issues with thin lines.
When the Option box>Miscellaneous>Print>Use buffer is not checked, printing is much faster, thin lines seems right, but there are issues with transparency.

It seems we can't provide full compatibility with all free virtual PDF printers. I suppose these printers are intended for printing text and simple images, no more.

The paid Universal Document Convertor is better, it has its own buffer, clear the Option box>Miscellaneous>Print>Use buffer checkbox when using this printer.

Pay attention, when you print to PDF using the raster buffer or using the Universal Document Convertor (with own raster buffer), you get a "raster PDF". But when you don't use the buffer, you get a "vector PDF".

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