pdf flattening


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Could someone help me with this?  Beginning this month our planning department is requiring all plans to be submitted online.  I gave a builder the layout  as a pdf printed in CA.  The customer got a call from the building department saying that the designer (me) needs to turn off the layers and flatten the pdf (referring to pdf layers not plan layers).  I have googled it but have not figured out how to do this.  It is probably simple but apparently not for me.  Could anyone help me with this?

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I am using X10 and I am printing the layout with "Chief Architect Print as PDF".  Does that mean it is using one of the pdf print drivers from my laptop?  I have attached a pdf that is a screen shot of the print dialogue box from CA and I have over layed the Devices and Printers screen from my laptop.  I appreciate your help.

print dialogue boxes.pdf

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It would be more helpful if you were to attach a copy of the PDF that the planning department is asking to be corrected.  Their request that the PDF be flattened suggests that either you or your client have added notes, signatures, layers, or other information after the initial "Chief Architect Print as PDF".  The easiest way to fix that after the fact is simply open the PDF and print again using a PDF print driver.  Microsoft Print To PDF would be as good as any.

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I did as you suggested and it changed the file size from 16,333 kb to 3600 kb.  I think you fixed it.  When they asked that the layers be turned off and the pdf flattened is this because the file is too large or are there additional issues as well? 

 

I have attached the new smaller version of the document.  

 

Thank you for helping me.  I find this forum to be a very valuable learning tool and resource.

a PERMIT SET OLD MILITARY RD BERGSTROM.pdf

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I have had some issues with the "Chief Architect Print as PDF" as it does not flatten and can create issues with images and transparency when printing which I am not sure have been resolved.

 

If you have issues submitting your drawings again please let us know if they provide any more information as to why they need to be flattened and how they suggest it needs to be done.

 

Please look your drawings over carefully as the Microsoft Print to PDF usually does not do as good a job as Chief...

 

There will be more and more departments requesting digital submissions in the future so it would be good for CA to get this issue sorted out if it is going to be an issue for all of us eventually.

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Yesterday I sent a large pdf file (via drop box link) to the engineer for review and he said  the he tried to open it,  his computer kept crashing.  To sort this out he too had to "flatten" the PDF.  I do not think anything had been added after initially printing   (per Michael's thoughts).  

 

First time this has been an issue.  It does need to be worked out.

 

 

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WOW,  WOW,  WOW,  I think I am late to the party AGAIN.  I just sent a PDF to my engineer and he was able to edit my text.  I think he opened it with ADOBE PREMIUM?  which gave him the power to do this but then I guess it made the file very l large that his computer had difficulty with it.

 

I tried the same thing with my other engineer (he was using BLUEBEAM),  and he was not able to manipulate the text.  I bet if he knew what he was doing in BLUEBEAM he probably could manipulate the text and lines.

 

Bottom line is,  I do not want  my clients to be able to manipule my plans.  So how do i resolve this?

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30 minutes ago, dshall said:

 

Bottom line is,  I do not want  my clients to be able to manipule my plans.  So how do i resolve this?

Flatten the PDF.

It doesn't save that much in terms of file size - but it does eliminate or at least minimize the ability to edit.

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3 minutes ago, DRAWZILLA said:

One thing is that Chief;s "print to pdf" has created super large files since it's inception. I use Acrobat dc pro for files that are much smaller.

 

Yes,  I think I have shared how much larger my MAC PDF's are compared to PC's PDF's.

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I occasionally have a pdf file get unusually big.  I learned a trick for this.  Close Chief and re=open it and open your layout again.  Print to pdf again.  The process of re-launching it sometimes makes the file size about 30 percent smaller.

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 I believe there are two types of pdf files, one contains data and you can copy and past from them, the other

is an image file with no data.

 

If you zoom way in on the data type, edges remain straight.  If you zoom way in on the image type, the edges become jagged.

 

I think one is called vector and the other raster, but I may not remember correctly.

 

 

 

 

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JJ is correct I believe but the one thing I would add is that the "Chief Architect Save as PDF" printer is unique in that it produces a vector PDF that any component that can be recorded as a straight line is done that way producing a PDF that is a combination of vector and raster.   I am not sure others are capable of functioning that way but have not done exhaustive testing on this.

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16 minutes ago, DRAWZILLA said:

Acrobat does vector and images ,but when doing vectors ,the file is much smaller than the vectors Chief's produce.

 

Thanks Perry,  I did not know that.   Where is the setting for Adobe vector PDF's ?  I just printed a layout and the Default Adobe setup gave me a 5.2 MB file where Chief's is 11 MB but there is a definite difference.  Can you guess which is which ?

 

Adobe PDF.JPG

Chief PDF.JPG

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Well I was comparing vector to vector, What you show is vector to image. It's all in the setup ,Adobe will call it an image when you want one. print to pdf will give you a pdf vector. The other way is pdf image. it's all in the open system print dialog after you choose adobe as the printer. 

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Ok I choose Adobe PDF and then go to Advanced Options > "Open System Print Dialog..." > Adobe PDF > Preferences but then I cant seem to find where you choose image or PDF.  Is this the same as you see?  Where do I go from here ?

 

Adobe PDF Settings.JPG

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I pretty sure that when you print to adobe it's a pdf vector and when you want an image you go to file/ export to an image (many kinds). maybe you options further then your DBX where your resolution is, and check it, I use 600. I never had any pixilation problems, like you show I mostly print to 24x36

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Yes both of the Screen Captures above were from 600 dpi. PDF's zoomed in to 1200% but you can still see a distinct difference at normal magnification.   I gave tech support a call but they did not have and immediate answer but promised to look into the situation for me so we will all know the answer.

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Sorry Perry,  I was hoping for more but unfortunately this is all I got back from them.  

 

 

"Greetings from Adobe!
 
Apologies for the delayed response. 
 
I checked with my level 2 team to see what they had to say about Vector Pdfs. 
 
The Pdf printer doesnt produce vector Pdfs. 
 
Also we do not have any specific settings that would allow us to generate one." 
 
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The one positive thing that I have noticed while working with my PDF's recently in Adobe Acrobat is that you can add to or edit  a PDF that was created by "Chief Architect Save as PDF" and then save with Adobe and Chief's vector qualities appear to be retained in the final PDF.

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15 hours ago, Chopsaw said:

Sorry Perry,  I was hoping for more but unfortunately this is all I got back from them.  

 

 

"Greetings from Adobe!
 
Apologies for the delayed response. 
 
I checked with my level 2 team to see what they had to say about Vector Pdfs. 
 
The Pdf printer doesnt produce vector Pdfs. 
 
Also we do not have any specific settings that would allow us to generate one." 
 

wow , that's news to me because I can zoom in pretty close and not have any problems, maybe it's because I always print using a 600 dpi. Thanks for looking into that.

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