The PDF file is actually different from what you see on the screen as described below: some dimensions lose one of their arrows and sometimes the dimension is difficult to read or become completely misleading depending on the drawing.
Apparently not all dimensions with a customized arrow are influenced. For this reason I have to assume that our TASK convertion is completely unreliable at this point and find a valid alternative.
As a temporary workaround I am asking all engineers to switch from "TASK PDF batch convert" to "TASK batch print" using the free CUBE PDF printer they already use for manual PDF output.
SPR 1167419
Status: Open
Customer Impact: Medium
Summary: When only one of the dimension arrows is the default setting, the arrow disappears when saving as PDF file.
♫ sad violin BGM ♩
Unfortunatelly the file output is not fully automatic and our engineers are required to push a button to confirm the file convertion in PDF. With hundred of file in the print queue it means that your desktop will be filled with the same amount of confirmation windows waiting to save every PDF file.
I am looking for a PDF printer that does not require user input with a only pre defined local output path.
Microsoft PDF and Cube PDF does not offer this kind of feature and user input is mandatory.
I looked for some alternatives and I found.
- PDF distiller (Acrobat PDF Printer) : probably requires one Acrobat (not reader) license per user? (not sure)
- Cube PDF virtual printer (200,000 JPY per year subscription up to 100 users + customization for our needs)
I remember in my UG/NX early days (like 20yrs ago), we did not have the luxury of PDF output so I had to export in HPGL the print files and batch convert them to PDF using Ghostscript via an intermediate format (Postscript IIRC) .
Probably nowadays the process could be more straightforward with a simpler way to emulate a PDF printer for Solidworks batch printing.
I am open to suggestion. Please consider that we have almost 100 workstations to take care of including software install, configuration and future support...