Converting CAD Files to PDF Format
There are lots of ways to make a PDF file out of a CAD drawing. August 29, 2005
Question
Can you change a dwg file to a pdf file? I have a person who has Adobe, but not Autocad. Is this even possible?
Forum Responses
(CAD Forum)
From contributor J:
This issue was covered some time back. If you use WOODWEB’S search utility and search CAD and type in pdf and it will bring up a list of discussions you can sort through. There are several programs out there that will convert dwg to pdf. The adobe acrobat program is about $300.00 +/- and I use it for the same purpose you are asking about. It works, but I noticed it’s not perfectly to scale when you print out. This is not an issue for me, but might be for you.
From contributor A:
The Acroplot Pro is an excellent program for ACAD. It is full featured and works fine. I tallow appending to existing files and can batch process multiple pages into one pdf. The five license price is a pretty good deal.
From contributor D:
I like Viewcompanion. When I print, I batch print to plt files with ACAD batch plot utility. If I want to print them I print them from Viewcompanion. When I want pdf’s, I use Viewcompanion too. It will batch convert plt files to pdf.
From contributor R:
There is a utility called CutePDF that installs as a print driver and you can just print to pdf basically and you have a pdf file.
From contributor J:
To the original questioner: Check to see if you have the Acrobat distiller (if I'm not mistaken, it's native to AutoCAD). When you plot, the distiller should be in the list of plotters. Also, each plot will create a separate pdf. You will need the full version of Acrobat to make one pdf with several pages.
From contributor R:
If all you need is for someone to be able to view your files, sometimes its enough to just save your file as a wmf from ACAD and send that. You don't have all the tools as Acrobat, but anyone with a current Windows OS can view it.
