Topic Title

We submit our drawings to the local authority as .pdf's online at the 'planning portal'. The file size limit for the portal is 5,0MB. I have a DCAD 11 drawing which is 583KB The drawing contains some hatching, 2 photographs of approx 400KB (total) and an XREF site plan which is about 500 KB. When I save the drawing as a .pdf I cannot get a file size lower than approx 6,49MB If however I print to pdf995 I get a file size of 1,8MB (rotated view which is a pain). What is causing the .pdf file size to be bumped up so large when creating from Datacad? Any suggestions welcome please! Pierre Jordaan UK

Hello Pierre,

The AEC file is compressed at about 10:1 ratio, so the actual drawing size is ~5.8MB. If the hatching is non-associative, then making it associative would shrink it a lot. Purging unused symbols would also help.

Though I don't think those things matter in terms of the PDF -- you could try a copy of the file and use lower resolution photo images, less dense hatch, and the simplest font you can find.

There are PDF editors that may be able to rotate the PDF995 file?

Hi,

I think that you can upload up to 25MB to the Planning Portal, just the individual files need to be not greater than 5MB. I have this problem too and I just create a new sheet and re proportion the drawing between two sheet, then patch plot and attach the sheets individually.
Hope this is of help.

Bruce.

Are you using a the cement or dot hatch patterns??? I find that those two hatch patterns really drive up the file size of the pdf's. If your using the dot hatch pattern to create a "screen" or "shaded" appearance try using a solid bitmap fill in a gray scale instead of the dot hatch pattern.

I have a DCAD 11 drawing which is 583KB The drawing contains some hatching, 2 photographs of approx 400KB (total) and an XREF site plan which is about 500 KB. When I save the drawing as a .pdf I cannot get a file size lower than approx 6,49MB If however I print to pdf995 I get a file size of 1,8MB (rotated view which is a pain). What is causing the .pdf file size to be bumped up so large when creating from Datacad? Any suggestions welcome please! Pierre Jordaan UK

The problem is likely to be the phtographs. I routinely send out picture material as PDF. This is for convenience but can be unexpectedly large. Even my postage stamp sized signature can make a difference when added to a drawing and printed from DCad's PDF. I have also felt that PDF995 and the CTRLP driver kept the file smaller.

One big saver is resizing any photos to 133 or 150dpi, and to a much smaller "actual size". For drawing sheets 11x17" plotted-size, photos 4 to 6per page, about 6-inches (max width) is more than enough at the .jpeg level. And you can also increase the "compression" if possible. You can take an enormous amount of "data" out of a jpeg for .pdf and still have a legible, accurate image. If fact, most .jpeg images included in a Datacad drawing need some "white space" added to actual bring-out the black-n-white. If they are color and you're only reproducing in a black-n-white medium...or just don't need color in the .pdf...strip-out the color data and change the mode to greyscale 8-bit.

You also could consider posting your .pdf's as .zip files. If the end-user doesn't need the image "immediately"; you can compress them down dramatically at the .pdf-stage.

For a signature or logo image on drawings; instead of a .jpeg, covert 'em to a .gif-file. My page-wide letterhead as a bitmap or as a .tif is 2800k; as a .gif it's only 52k while still 4800x600 pixels. A .gif-format signature is tiny.