forum.datacad.com

Is there a way to produce vector pdf files from DataCAD, or is that in the works for the future? We were going to try to submit plans to the city of Phoenix, but having searchable vector pdf files are required. The only thing I can think of would be to bind the sheets and open them in AutoCAD and produce the pdf files. But all the line weights and such would need to be set up. I'm not sure how long that would take.

Jim Allen

Datacad's PDF's are vector generated PDF's in which that vector data can be pulled from them with the right tools, but I'd bet they are only looking for the searchable text aspect of it and have associated that with vector output comes the searchable text which Datacad does not give you from the output. You can use a program like PDF XChange Editor to perform a OCR recognition on your PDF files which will add a searchable text layer over your existing text. It works very well, but the process does take some time to run.
I use the PDF Exchange PDF print driver to "print" our PDF's in a single multipage PDF which then can have OCR done on all the sheets in one batch from within the PDF XChange editor. If you have multiple PDF's to OCR then you would have to have something like the PDF Tool's app that came be bought as a standalone app or comes with the PDF XChange Pro pack that allows you batch OCR multiple PDF's at once.

After reading this I had try if both SHX and TTF fonts were not searchable in a PDF created with Datacad. Sure enough, the TTF fonts are not searchable. I tried the Datacad and Arial fonts.