Export (print) selected sheets to PDF, DWG, etc. with automatic sheet format detection
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Using
Plugin window consists of 4 main areas: sheet reading settings area, sheet selection tables for files, export settings bar and status bar:
The sheet reading settings are opened in a separate dialog and saved in subsequent runs of the plugin.
The plugin can process all open files, as well as non-unloaded linked files. If several files are open at the moment the plugin starts, the Process all opened files option becomes available; when it is enabled, a separate tab will be created for each project in the plugin window. The Process linked files option works the same way.
If the Group sheets from assemblies option is enabled, sheets placed in assemblies will be grouped separately from other sheets.
There are 2 variants of the format detection algorithm available in the plugin:
- By Title Block. It is recommended to use it in most cases. The print format is determined by the size of the Title Blocks on the sheets. If there are elements on the sheet which go beyond the border of the main inscription, the sheet will be printed incorrectly. In this case you should choose the second algorithm.
- By Sheet contents. The print format is determined by the entire contents of the sheet. After printing the sheet to pdf it is trimmed to the size of the Title Block. This algorithm may cause regeneration of all sheets, which may result in long loading times for the plugin.
For example, there is some kind of graphic on the sheet that is outside the boundaries of the Title Block:
If the algorithm By Title Block is chosen, then printing will result in this:
But if you change the algorithm By Sheet contents of the sheet, the result will be correct:
Pressing the Read Sheets button starts automatic detection print formats for sheets (size in printer) according to the size of the Title Block, and initializes the PDF printer. You can also use this button if you want to re-read the sheets. Automatic reading of sheets at plugin startup is enabled with the option Read sheets with saved settings when the plugin starts.
If sheets were selected in the Project Browser when the plugin was started, then when the plugin reads the sheets, it will check those sheets in the table.
If the sheet print format will be matched to the nearest print format, or the sheet print format will not be matched, the corresponding notification will be displayed in the first column.
If you want to print only part of the sheets By Sheet contents algorithm, select By Title Block algorithm for all sheets. At that, the By contents button will be available in the name column of all the sheets. Clicking it will change the algorithm for an individual sheet – the print format of that sheet will be recalculated on the basis of the limits of the contents of that sheet.
If there is more than one Title Block on the sheet (composite sheet), the sheet will be divided into several sheets in the sheet table, with a suffix added through a slash. In this case, the table will display the print format that is matched to the Title Block. If you select algorithm By Title Block, the Title Blocks must be positioned without gaps (inserted on the edge of each other) for the plugin to work correctly.
Important: If there are several Title Blocks on one sheet, or any other graphics outside the boundaries of the Title Block, the total size of the describing rectangle must have the size allowed for printing. For example, if the sheet has two Title Blocks in A4 format, then the print size of this sheet will be A3. The maximum allowable size is A0x3 1189 mm x 2523 mm or 2523 mm x 1189 mm.
The default printing color settings are specified in the plugin settings window (see below). To change these settings for individual projects, groups of sheets or sheets, drop-down lists are available in the Colors column.
To quickly select multiple sheets in a table, select the necessary sheets (with Ctrl or Shift) and check any of the selected sheets.
When you right-click in the table area, a window appears with the following available actions:
A Print Set is a combination of several selected sheets that is saved and can be applied in subsequent runs of the plugin. A Print Set is created for each project separately.
The export setup bar contains the path to the export directory, checkboxes to select the export format, a button to start the export, and a button to close the plugin. Export current button allows you to export the current sheet of the current document to PDF without reading all sheets and selecting it in the table.
The Merged PDF format allows you to merge exported pdf files into one. It is not necessary to check the checkbox PDF.
Important: The merge is performed for the exported pdf files within the same folder.
The status bar contains information about the number of sheets in the current document, the number of sheets selected for export, the number of sheets whose format is undefined, the number of sheets whose format is fitted, and the name of the PDF printer.
In the upper right part of the window is a button that opens the dialog box for creating user formats .png)
:
Using the buttons on the right side of the window, you can add a new user format 
, import 
or export user formats from xml file, and delete the selected user format 
.
When creating an user format, make sure that the entered format sizes are acceptable for the selected pdf printer.
At the top right of the window is a slide-out tab with settings .png)
:
You can save the settings you have made in the configuration. The name of the current configuration is displayed on the right side of the main plugin window. The following tools are available for working with configurations:
- – creating a new configuration.
– duplicate current configuration.
– rename current configuration.
, 
– export and import configuration, respectively.
– deleting current configuration.
If there are views with a temporary mode on the printed sheet, you can use Temporary mode handling (hiding/isolating or showing hidden elements) of views option to select the plugin operation: Disable mode, Leave mode, or Ask.
- the path to the directory where the sheets will be exported. This option is duplicated in the export settings line.
Also in this group are the options to create subfolders by document name, by date, by export format type, and by sheet group name. If you choose to create a folder by date, a drop-down list of formatting options for the folder name becomes available.
The order of the options corresponds to the order in which the folders are created. For example, if you enable the first two options (by document name and by date), a folder with the project name will be created in the export directory, and a folder with the print date will be created inside it.
If the group name contains only invalid characters (e.g., "???") and the option to create a folder by group name is enabled, the folder name will be “Incorrect group name”.
If the option to create folders by sheet group name is enabled, the group names will be added to the name of the merged pdf file when exporting to the merged PDF.
contain the following options:
Printer Name – drop-down list of installed printers, where you must select the printer to export (print) to PDF. To the right of the list displays a message about the support status of the selected printer.
Colors – one of the three export options:
- Color: All colors in the project are maintained and printed, provided the printer supports colors.
- Black Lines: All text, non-white lines, pattern lines, and edges print in black. All raster images and solid patterns print in grayscale.
- Grayscale: All colors, text, images, and lines are printed in grayscale.
- B&W with exclusion: printing is performed with the color option, and then converting the pdf file to black-and-white (monochrome) format, excluding certain colors from processing. This method makes it possible, for example, to print monochrome drawings with color signatures in the Title Block. To edit the excluded colors, click the
button:
Print type – vector or raster processing. Read more.
Сompress PDF – allows to reduce PDF files size in cases when there are pictures on sheets or export with bitmap processing.
To Exclude Title Blocks from processing (for example, if there are Title Blocks on the sheet that are located entirely inside the boundaries of other Title Blocks), you must enter in the appropriate field, separated by commas without spaces, the values that are contained in the names of the Title Blocks (family name or type name) that do not need to be processed by the plugin.
For composite sheets, you can disable adding a suffix in the file name when only one composite sheet is exported by using the corresponding option.
Below is a block of print options settings, which are exactly the same as in the Revit print settings window:
contain the following options:
Delete *.pcp files – files with the *.pcp extension created when exporting to DWG will be deleted in the export directory.
Export Setups – drop-down list of export options for the current document. Learn more about export settings.
Export views on sheets and links as external references – if this option is disabled, any Revit or DWG links in the project to be exported to a single file rather than to several files that reference each other.
Export to file format – drop-down list of export file formats.
contain the following main options:
Combine sheets into one dwf file – if this option is on, all sheets are exported to a merged dwf file.
Stop on error – if the option is disabled, the export will continue until all sheets are processed.
The Export Object Data and Graphics Settings blocks repeat the similar settings block from the Revit print settings window:
allows you to customize the names of the imported files. The group contains a text field for specifying the file name mask. The mask may contain parameters of the Sheet Parameters, Project Parameters and system variables. They can be specified in the file name mask field by enclosing them in appropriate symbols: <Sheet Parameters namt>, *Project Parameter name*, %system variable name%.
You can also quickly add the above mask elements by using the drop-down lists Sheet Parameter, Project Parameter, and Variables, and clicking Add.
Below the File name mask text field there is a drop-down list of the sheet parameters, where you can quickly add a parameter to the file name mask by clicking the Add button.
If file name mask is left blank, files will be exported with standard names, which depend on the format in which the export is made.
It is also possible to set a limit on the number of characters in the file name by checking the appropriate checkbox.
apply to merged PDF and merged DWF/DWFx and are similar to the file name generation setting:
When you close the settings tab, the specified settings are checked and the selected printer is initialized. If a printer is selected for the first time, the necessary printer settings will be made, including the addition of print formats. In this case, the plugin may hang up briefly.
Errors may occur while configuring the printer. In this case, it is recommended that you restart Revit and restart the plugin.
Supported PDF printers
Watermark
When exporting (printing) to PDF, it is acceptable to add a watermark to a sheet. To add a watermark, use Organization Settings.