Printing to PDFs and maintaining layers

  • Printing to PDFs and maintaining layers

    Posted by David Cutler on October 17, 2022 at 10:07 am

    I’ve heard it suggested in a few training sessions that a good way to improve performance of Revu is to ensure that your PDF was created (or printed) using Revu. Since the files I work with come from multiple clients with multiple designers I’m not working with the “original” software files. The solution offered is to open the PDF that you have in Revu and then print it to a “new” PDF file. I’ve had mixed results with this technique – sometimes it has created an even larger, more cumbersome file.

    Every once in a while I receive a file that appears to be what I would call a “first generation” PDF – one that was created directly from the design software. One of the features I appreciate about these files is that many have the layers from the original design documents available. Being able to turn of the “clutter” of background existing features can be great! Unfortunately, in my experience, if you “re-print” these files you loose the layers.

    Is anyone aware of a setting that allows you to maintain these layers when “reprinting”?

    Vince replied 2 years ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
  • 3 Replies
  • Don Walke

    Member
    October 17, 2022 at 10:50 am
    Points: 5,384
    Rank: UC2 Brainery Purple Belt UC2 Brainery Purple Belt Rank

    I run into the same issue where there are a couple of hundred layers on the original PDF. I assume it is from the architect or engineer starting a project with a template which contains all of the layers, but they usually use only a fraction of the layers to draw (unused layers are greyed out in the list of layers). Maybe turn off the unwanted layers prior to printing to PDF.

    • David Cutler

      Member
      October 17, 2022 at 11:54 am
      Points: 26,283
      Rank: UC2 Brainery Advanced Brown Belt UC2 Brainery Advanced Advanced Brown Belt Rank

      I’ve always found the 100’s of “standard” layers frustrating @dhwalkellc ! You probably already know these tricks for working with layers but I’ll mention them for others:

      – If you click on the “Layers” menu you can select an option for “Show Layers on Page Only”. This is a great way to manage the “greyed out” clutter.

      – You can right click on a layer in the layer tree and select “Isolate”. This will turn off all of the layers with the one that you were on when you right clicked.

      – After you have “Isolated” a layer an easy way to see what is on each layer is to turn them “on” one by one.

      – Dynamic Fill appears to work better if you turn off unnecessary layers. If I’m measuring paving areas for example I will turn off the utility layers so that my “fill” doesn’t stop at every utility line.

      – You can rename existing layers by double clicking on them. That way when you figure out what “11699|PF-EXG-TXT” means you can rename it to something that you understand.

      Anyone have other tricks for layers?

      • Vince

        Member
        October 18, 2022 at 11:38 am
        Points: 13,416
        Rank: UC2 Brainery Blue Belt III UC2 Brainery Blue Belt III

        @David Cutler don’t forget – save your new layer configuration in order so you don’t have to repeat everything the next time you open the drawing.

Log in to reply.