"save as pdf" looks terrible

Discussion in 'Pro/Engineer & Creo Elements/Pro' started by Aggrevated, Mar 28, 2008.

  1. Aggrevated

    Aggrevated Guest

    Ok, so I've been reading a lot of posts about changing pen definition
    files and such. It sounds rediculously complicated.

    I never plot. I never print directly from Pro/e. Everything becomes
    a pdf first (i guess this is just printing with the distiller) using
    save-as then pdf.

    My problem is that even jacked up to 600dpi, my pdf's are ugly. My
    line widths for everything are just too large.

    If I save-as to dwg and then create a pdf from dwg-editor (AutoCAD)
    they look fantastic.

    Is there any easy fix for this? Distiller options I can change? Or
    am I going to have to futz with my table.pnt?

    Anybody have a good table.pnt that I can have a copy of that makes
    great pdfs?
     
    Aggrevated, Mar 28, 2008
    #1
  2. Aggrevated

    Aggrevated Guest

    Oh, and I can't seem to find my table.pnt file anyway. Supposed to be
    at <loadpoint>\text\table.pnt but it isn't there.
     
    Aggrevated, Mar 28, 2008
    #2
  3. Aggrevated

    Janes Guest


    Create a file with the following:

    pen 1 thickness .005 in
    pen 2 thickness .005 in
    pen 3 thickness .005 in
    pen 4 thickness .005 in
    pen 5 thickness .005 in
    pen 6 thickness .005 in
    pen 7 thickness .005 in
    pen 8 thickness .005 in

    Name it table.pnt
    Put it anywhere you want it.
    In config.pro, include an option called PEN_TABLE_FILE and point it to your
    table.pnt file; or,
    create a PCF file for your printer and include the path. The options in the
    file will read like this:

    plotter POSTSCRIPT
    button_name Generic Postscript
    button_help Print to any printer that supports generic postscript format.
    plot_drawing_format YES default
    plot_segmented NO default
    plot_roll_media NO default
    plot_label YES default
    plot_handshake hardware default
    create_separate_files NO default
    plot_with_panzoom NO default
    rotate_plotting NO default
    allow_file_naming YES
    plot_name NO
    plot_translate .13 .13 default
    interface_quality 6 default
    pen_slew 0.000000 default
    plot_destination printer default
    plotter_command windows_print_manager
    pen_table_file h:\table.pnt
    plot_sheets ALL default
    paper_size D default
    paper_outline NO default
    plot_clip NO default
    plot_area NO default

    In the 'Help>Fundementals>Plotting and Printing', it tells what all these
    options mean and do. You'll have to customize yours to work with your
    printer, including creating your own custom plotter command.

    The last thing I can think of that you need to set in your config.pro is the
    option
    pdf_use_pentable to yes.

    David Janes
     
    Janes, Mar 29, 2008
    #3
  4. Aggrevated

    Janes Guest

    Yes, it is ridiculously complicated.

    David Janes
     
    Janes, Mar 29, 2008
    #4
  5. Aggrevated

    Janes Guest


    Someone recently recommended this option for cleaning up pdf line weights
    and other printing problems:
    USE_SOFTWARE_LINEFONTS set to yes.

    Has anything helped so far?

    David Janes
     
    Janes, Apr 11, 2008
    #5
  6. Aggrevated

    Aggrevated Guest


    Yeah, I did what you suggested and made a table.pnt that looked like

    pen 1 thickness .003 in
    pen 2 thickness .003 in
    pen 3 thickness .003 in
    pen 4 thickness .003 in
    pen 5 thickness .003 in
    pen 6 thickness .003 in
    pen 7 thickness .003 in
    pen 8 thickness .003 in

    And it works pretty good.

    I might try out the "sofware linefonts" thingy when I'm in the mood
    to tinker
     
    Aggrevated, Apr 11, 2008
    #6
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