General Questions
This is a great place to ask those general questions that don’t fit in other specific groups.
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Top Ten Best Practices for Creating Usable PDFs
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Top Ten Best Practices for Creating Usable PDFs
As a follow up to my LinkedIn post about my appearance on ATG’s Morning Coffee Revu earlier today I thought I’d post my “Top Ten List” over hear to foster some discussion.
So, without further ado here is todays Top Ten List (read in you best David Letterman voice)
10. Use consistent file names when providing updates
9. Flatten all of those “comments” that show as markups
8. Include layers and use clear layer names
7. Take the time to ensure that you line work “closes”
6. Establish bookmarks and page labels before distributing
5. Set the scale prior to distributing and include a “visual scale” on all pages
4. Don’t “shift” your linework or move details to other pages when making revisions
3. Provide both a single file with all sheets and individual files for all pages
2. Don’t lock the PDF!
1. Never print, stamp and scan your design documents. Friends don’t give friends (or enemies) raster PDFs!So, what did I miss?
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9 Replies
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Points: 8,113Rank: UC2 Brainery Purple Belt III
I also wish they could keep their layers intact, we go through and visually separate air systems on mechanicals. Would be super handy to turn supply a different color than the exhaust without marking up the whole duct! But I think this is more of a wish list than a practice anyone thinks about.
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Points: 15,212Rank: UC2 Brainery Advanced Blue Belt
Not sure if these count, they might be more organizationally specific.
Add your Custom Statuses
Make sure that any custom columns that you want are applied to the PDF.-
Points: 26,754Rank: UC2 Brainery Advanced Brown Belt
Maybe that will be a subject for a new “Top Ten” list – “Top Ten Best Practices For Using PDFs In Your Workflows”… I wonder how many “Top Ten” lists we could come up with… 🙂
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Points: 23,744Rank: UC2 Brainery Brown Belt III
Great list! I used to do a Letterman Top 10 blog post with each new release. I have a blog post in the works from our friend @RebeccaYu and her checklist for drawing preparation for Studio Sessions. Some of the comments here are addressed there as well. It’s in a stack of “coming soon” items that are, well, coming soon. 😜
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Points: 26,754Rank: UC2 Brainery Advanced Brown Belt
A number of the items on the list have applications across multiple workflows. I’ve decided going forward that I’m going to set the scale and establish bookmarks before I distribute the files to our trade partners. I don’t know how many of them, if any, will even notice, but if I’m going to invest the time in polishing the file others might as well have the “improved” file available so that they don’t have to repeat the steps.
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Points: 23,744Rank: UC2 Brainery Brown Belt III
Whether they are internal or external customers, thinking of those downstream is always the right mindset. It reduces redundant work to your internal team and might be the edge that makes external customers pick you over the next guy.
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Points: 15,212Rank: UC2 Brainery Advanced Blue Belt
Just a thought Dave
You talked about working in individual pages on the MCR a little. If that’s the way you want to work, setting your Bookmarks is redundant.
I personally prefer to work with individual sheets. If you’re working in the cloud, you’re only ever working with that one page, not an entire drawing package. Its much easier to collaborate with single sheets as well, again, you only have the one sheet open, and not the whole package.
Just something to consider
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Points: 26,754Rank: UC2 Brainery Advanced Brown Belt
Good point @Doug McLean on redundancy if working with individual sheets!
My preference is to work in a single file with multiple pages. This is probably out of habit more than anything as when I started in the industry I had all of the paper pages in a 3 ring binder or full size sheets on a plan rack 🤣
One advantage I find with having a multi-page PDF with bookmarks is that I don’t have to open another file if I need information from another sheet – I simply click on the bookmark. If there is a detail that I expect to go back to multiple times I will add a detailed “child” bookmark to get me right where I need to go with a single click. Often I will have 2 to 3 windows with the same PDF file open to different pages. One of the advantages of a multi-screen monitor setup. 🙂
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Points: 8,113Rank: UC2 Brainery Purple Belt III
Man I thought of this one today and it is the bane of my existence when processing print revisions. STOP MOVING YOUR NOTES lol
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