By Cora Maureen, an architecture designer and CAD software user
I am excited that PDF plotting has finally come true in ZWCAD, convert AutoCAD to PDF is an important function that I have expecting for many years since I switch from AutoCAD to ZWCAD. It helps me a lot when I need to share designs with customers and bosses.
During the design, I usually need to send several drafts of my drawings to project leaders and customers, so that they can check and confirm whether the design meets their needs. It is not possible to install CAD software on each of their computers just to check my work.
Older versions of ZWCAD provide some file formats that I could use for drawing reviews, such as JPEG. But now I can PDF Plotting with Layers. It has these advantages over the other formats:
a) PDF (portable document format) is a commonly used file format, and there are many free readers for viewing it.
b) With PDF plotting, I can choose the plot area I want, which is not supported by “Export” command. Easily convert AutoCAD DWG to PDF.
c) With PDF plotting, I can set many properties, such as DPI (dot per inch), which makes the PDF image clearer with higher resolution. In addition, PDF plotting includes layer support, which is also not supported by “Export” command.
The PDF printer is automated installed after the installation of ZWCAD 2011, it can be found in the drop-down list in plot dialog box like below:
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When convert dwg to pdf, to enhance the quality and readability of PDF file, make the settings as shown in the following figure. To get to the Custom Options dialog box, follow these steps:
1) Select PDF plotter.
2) Click Properties.
3) Click the Custom Properties button in the dialog box.
In the settings, you can find that the maximum resolution can reach up to 4800. This is enough for ordinary images and displaying hatches. I often use the default settings, which have met my needs so far.
One more thing I want to share is that all user-defined layers in drawing files can be transferred to PDF files. Plot dwg to pdf with layers is the most important feature that caught my eye.
Here is an example of the result by PDF plotting. Notice that it supports all entities in drawings.
You might be also interested in these topics:
convert PDF to DWG
transform pdf to dwg
