stevesakiwi Posted May 11, 2019 Share Posted May 11, 2019 I have an issue that the more pdf's I have in layout, the speed of changes that I do on the layout pages can get painfully slow....typically 5~10sec of the never ending circle. I can have >40 pdf details/tables in a single layout. I have tried putting the pdf's on a different layer & turned that off...but, the changes speed remains the same: slow....grrr. I don't want to convert the pdf's to jpegs as that takes time & would mean my Product/Technical/Standards library would contain many 1000's of files & would be time consuming to search ( & manage) for the details I need. I know others are having similar issues. I run X10 on a near new Asus gaming computer so it's no slug. I have also tried 'Backup entire project' from layout....but this doesn't make a difference. Cheers, Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chopsaw Posted May 11, 2019 Share Posted May 11, 2019 It seems that you are stuck in your ways so likely the best thing you could do is let Chief Architect know that this is the way you work and it would be great if the software could preform they way you need it to. I have had troubles with single PDF imports so I can imagine the frustration you are experiencing. Even Adobe and Blue Beam seem to have issues with PDF management so it might take some time for Chief to get it worked out. While you are waiting conversion to .png has been quite successful for many and ultimately anything you can draw in chief or display as live details will likely serve you and your clients with the best solution in the future. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevesakiwi Posted May 11, 2019 Author Share Posted May 11, 2019 Thanks Chopsaw….looks like there is no work around or easy answer. The authorities here in NZ require almost all building elements to be manufacturer specified & therefore generic details are not generally accepted. Some manufactures have over 100+ details. Some of the Standards I refer to have >400 pages! The easiest way is to search the pdf (often indexed) & take note of the pdf page # required & then import that page # into Layout & crop to get specific details. Sure, the manufactures have dwg's, but I'd have to import them individually into my library & then I'd have to rename & file each to make it easier to find from my Products Library....the same issue is converting the pdf to jpegs.....I'd end up with many 1000's of dwgs or jpeg/png files....hence the ease of pdf's make it easier to source details/tables etc......but the price is too much wasted time in Layout. Cheers, Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chopsaw Posted May 11, 2019 Share Posted May 11, 2019 Wow. I try to avoid details as much as I can but it sounds like you have no choice. You might import as many as possible directly to layout and then once you have a layout template set up then try to do as much of your work as possible in the plan file. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevesakiwi Posted May 11, 2019 Author Share Posted May 11, 2019 Thanks Chopsaw….on looking at this from a different angle, a typical layout will contain 40~50 sheets. The first 50% contains the info that I frequently have to make changes in layout...inserting/deleting stuff & text changes. The later 50% I do not make many changes. I'm thinking that I might have 2 Layouts for a project, configured with majority of pdf's on the 2nd layout. I'd then have to use an online app to merge the 2 pdf's......is it possible to merge 2 Layout's in Chief?..... Cheers, Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chopsaw Posted May 12, 2019 Share Posted May 12, 2019 55 minutes ago, stevesakiwi said: I'm thinking that I might have 2 Layouts for a project, configured with majority of pdf's on the 2nd layout. I'd then have to use an online app to merge the 2 pdf's......is it possible to merge 2 Layout's in Chief?... Sounds like that could work but unfortunately no way that I am aware of to merge without a 3rd party PDF editor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chopsaw Posted May 12, 2019 Share Posted May 12, 2019 Unless of course you left that to the very end and then import it all from a warehouse layout so it is all preformatted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevesakiwi Posted May 12, 2019 Author Share Posted May 12, 2019 I do that with most of the common manufacturers pdf's (already scaled for Layout). There are always changes as Council's challenge the information & clients keep making changes that require amendments that go back to Council etc.. I have had a play with the 2 layout idea & think I can live with it. Will change my current jobs to this idea & see how it goes.....BUT always keen to listen to any other ideas. Cheers, Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommy1 Posted May 12, 2019 Share Posted May 12, 2019 Steve, I don't ever use pdfs in my plan, if I do it's for tracing only and once done I delete the pdf. I especially don't use pdfs in my layout. If I have a pdf of a structural detail that I know I will probably be using in the future (or some version of it), I duplicate the detail in Chief using cad and save it to my library. This way I can edit it in the future when needed. Yes, it takes some initial time to do it, but is most helpful in the future and won't slow anything down. Just my two cents. If I need a specific detail from the engineer, my engineer will generally be happy to send me a .dwg. This makes life a lot easier for me. I do however will open a pdf of a survey in Acrobat Reader and take a "snapshot" of what I want. Open a photo editor (i use Paint Shop Pro) and save it as a .tiff file and import that into Chief. for tracing driveways, sidewalks, etc.. Never have a problem with the program slowing down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevesakiwi Posted May 12, 2019 Author Share Posted May 12, 2019 Hi tommy1 Thanks for your comments. I thought that it would be good to actually provide a real example of the realm us NZ designers must adhere to. The referenced product is a James Hardie cladding (siding)….we call Linea (Aus/NZ) or know as Artisan in US/Canad. Find attached 2 pdf's & a screenshot: 1 pdf) The NZ Linea weatherboard has 65 details (65 CAD files available) 2 pdf) The Australian Linea has 21 details (21 CAD files available) 3 png) The USA Artisan has 12 details (+ 12 details with furring) ….https://www.jameshardiepros.com/install-and-tech-docs/browsetechdocs You will note the NZ detail includes 'direct fix' & 'on cavity' (furring or rain screen). The aussies have no idea what a rain screen is & all siding is installed on a flexible wrap. For NZ projects, I may specify approx. 5% of projects with a Rigid Air Barrier (RAB) & if it involves the JH Linea siding, I would need to use the Linea on RAB + cavity (furring) pdf details...hence another 30+ details to source from JH. Now....often the Linea is combined with other siding types, so, for compliance, I need to supply those specified sidings details (eg: vertical corrugated steel) The steel siding company also has pdf details similar to the amount that the JH Linea has....so another 30 odd pdf details to choose from..For the cladding junctions, I will download & combine/adjust the JH/steel siding companies DWG drawings to demonstrate the junction. Here in NZ, we have approx. 3x the amount of JH siding options, all with the approx. 65 details for cladding siding....in addition, all the other products available in NZ have similar pdf detail quantities….& I haven't mentioned the subfloor/floor/roofing options etc...….my mention of 1000's of pdf details to choose from is not an exaggeration. The architectural resource of these pdf details helps me to produce drawings efficiently. Then there is the legal issue. Here in NZ, residential buildings must be built per plan, there's no option for as-built like in aussie. JH & all other suppliers will not honour liability if a product is not installed as per their detailed instructions....hence why I'd rather use the manufacturers pdf resources, speeding up my productivity & reducing my risk. In addition....there is a lot of other stuff that come to me as pdf's....bracing (e/quake) & thermal energy calcs etc. These could be included in the Project Specification, but this doco is often 130~150 A4 pages long & I like to include some info in the Layout for the builders ease of reference. I really look forward to comments, but it's looking as if keeping the pdf's in a separate Layout & then combing them with an online pdf merge app is the solution....but it invites another area of something being missed. Cheers, Steve Linea weather board. direct fix. cavity fix. horizontal.pdf JH australia-Linea Weatherboard_Installation Guide_May 2019 .pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkMc Posted May 12, 2019 Share Posted May 12, 2019 There are freeware programs such as PDF split and merge, PDFtools-etc. You have to search for them. I used to have a half dozen different free programs to allow me to do most of what I needed to get done with PDFs. Eventually got Adobe included when I was taking some classes and got a copy of Framemaker. At some point I needed an update, tried a few, bought Foxit Phantom. Eventually I found Bluebeam. Back then it was $150, think my second license was $250 and I upgraded the first license a few years later (not since). It's now $350. My take is that I work with a lot of PDF files for a lot of things so the ROI is darn good, a lot better than mucking around with free programs. I made these quickly this morning in Bluebeam (PDF-XChange does most of the same and is cheaper but the license is not perpetual). Page began as a PDF print of a blank Chief layout page set as a template in BB. Opened that with two of your PDFs, tiled, took "snapshots" in the program (G key, drag), pasted, scaled a few by percentage, then I also made a quick sequencing stamp for page numbers (likely need a few but just save them). I do something like this often; for what it sounds like you need I'd do this extensively. Note that the snapshots are all highlighted. That means the document is not flattened so allowing any or all to be moved, copied or deleted. I think the process would be-flatten, keep a copy of all pages made, likely in a single file with bookmarks (really easy). Then if changes to placement need to be made on a page OR items deleted OR you just want to place snapshots on pages of a Chief PDF then-open go to page, un-flatten make changes. Re: bookmarks. Individual bookmarks are a pretty common feature in real PDF editors. I make bookmarks for every Chief PDF layout now first selecting the area of the page number, then selecting the page title. Bluebeam will then make bookmarks for every page showing the number and title. If setting up a system as described I'd allow page numbers to show and add a text box (select "apply to every page") to name the sheets. Using that to create the bookmarks takes a minute or two. IF document is changed delete them all and redo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevesakiwi Posted May 12, 2019 Author Share Posted May 12, 2019 Many thanks Mark for taking the time to respond. Due to your post, I have had a quick look at Bluebeam. I also see that there are quite a number of tutorials on YouTube so I will download a trial & see if it suits my purpose. I contract to other designers....I'm about to get fibre into my house/office so intend doing a lot of CA files in the cloud as this is what one of the main designers wants. Cheers, Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkMc Posted May 12, 2019 Share Posted May 12, 2019 2 hours ago, stevesakiwi said: I contract to other designers....I'm about to get fibre into my house/office so intend doing a lot of CA files in the cloud as this is what one of the main designers wants. Might look into Studio which is included with BB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevesakiwi Posted May 12, 2019 Author Share Posted May 12, 2019 Thanx….will do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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