API print to pdf silent

Does anyone know how to print to a pdf silently using the API to
specify a filename, using a printer driver such as cutePDF or Adobe
PDF. This used to work once upon a time, but now the resulting file
isn't recognized by Acrobat as a pdf. I think it changed when
Solidworks added the Save As Pdf format.

If you're going to suggest that I use the SaveAs4 method with the pdf
option, please save yourself some time and don't. I'm tired of SWX
bugs with their pdf function and I just want to do it (what should be)
the simple way.

TIA,
Eric

 

Sorry, I havent looked into generating a PDF silently, but I have a few
questions you might be able to help me with.

We plan to start using PDFs as our production drawing in about a month.
I created a macro to use the "Save As PDF" option in SWX. Using a PDF
print driver like ActivePDF is faster, takes 3 sec vs 8 sec using "Save
As PDF" on the same drawing.

What other problems have you come across using the "Save As PDF"
option? If it causes to many problems, I may have everyone use a PDF
print driver option.

Please let me know your thoughts, thanks

 

I see three problems right now:

Word documents embedded within a SWX document print with a border
around them. This is new with the switch from Bluebeam. You can get
rid of this by right-clicking each Word doc and choosing "Sharpen Zoom
State", which is fine, except that we have hundreds if not thousands of
documents to do this on. One more workaround to remember...

I want to scale all pdfs to 8-1/2 x 11, but Save As pdf automatically
prints at 1:1. Printing them full size screws up the header size and
lineweights when we use Acrobat to print on 8-1/2 x 11 paper later.
The header turns out tiny (useless) and the lineweights appear too
thin. When I use a printer driver I just choose 8-1/2 x 11 paper size
and the pdf turns out exactly the same as hard copies on letter size
paper out of a printer.

Text in embedded Word documents is not crisp. This also is new with
the Adobe Save As function. Printing using a pdf printer driver
produces crisp text.

These issues wouldn't be that big of a deal if we were just using pdfs
for archiving purposes, but we're moving toward the pdfs being the
official document rather than the hard copy printout. We use a macro
that silently prints to pdf and then prints a hard copy of the pdf
using Acrobat. So we know the pdf file matches the paper print, since
we're actually printing the pdf. (We got burned in the past when
printing to paper, checking the paper print, and then printing to pdf
-- from time to time the pdf was different than the paper print. We no
longer trust SWX to produce the same print twice in a row.)

Frankly, I would just as soon not experience SWX's learning curve of
implementing Bluebeam and then switching to Adobe and then switching to
?? in the future. I could have saved hours of headaches and actually
have what I want if SWX hadn't broken the silent print to pdf with a
printer driver when Save As pdf was implemented.

Eric

 

If you're using SW06sp2.1...API to save PDF is broken there. Because
Bluebeam had so many problems I made SWub, download it from
www.markkulehtola.net ->SolidWorks ->SWxx-tools. It creates postscript
file for you, then you can use FreeDist to convert it to pdf. Quite
silent...



--

regards

Markku Lehtola
Certified SolidWorks Professional (CSWP)

www.markkulehtola.net

 

Markku,
When using SWxx-tools, when does the post script file get made? Is it
possible to automatically save a postscript file to a folder, and have
something monitoring that folder for new postscript files. When a new
one shows up, it automatically creates a PDF?

Im not very familiar with postscript files, but are there any
disadvantages to using them vs making a PDF directly from SolidWorks
using Bluebeam or Adobe?

 

SW Monkey kirjoitti:

SWub(BB) saves .prn every time you save the drawing (after the 1st
save), so it keeps the pdf-files updated.

Is it

That's the idea, you can do that with SWub, GhostScript and FreeDist.
they are all free. GhostScript handles the prn->pdf conversion,
FreeDist is a really nice gui for it and it handles the folder
monitoring etc.

I really don't know, never had any problems with them thought, but you
might loose some stuff that you can do with Adobe, like weblinks.

 

Markku, I like the idea of creating postscript files and having the
PDFs generated in the background. How can I save a .PRN file at a set
time, say with a macro button? Id rather not have it generated each
time I press save, since I dont need the PRN file until the drawing is
released.

 

you can use the PrintOut2:
swModel.PrintOut2 1, 1, 1, False, printername, 0#, True, filename

--

regards

Markku Lehtola
Certified SolidWorks Professional (CSWP)

www.markkulehtola.net

 

Markku,

You app uses the Bluebeam printer to generate the postscript file,
correct?

 

SW Monkey kirjoitti:

SWup is using what ever ps printer you want to use (there's one really
good on FreeDist site), SWup creates .prn (ps) files. SWuBB is using
Bluebeam/Adobe (what ever SW is using) and creates .pdf files.

Markku