Problems creating pdfs in AECOSim SS5

Hello

Just been trying out SS5. When creating pdfs, I keep getting substantial parts of the building (actually it's a boat) missing. These seem to be mainly 'cut' elements. Everything is showing up fine on the screeen (in the Drawing Sheet). This wasn't happening when I printed these same drawings only a few weeks back in MIcrostation SS2. Have tried various different settings in the pdf drivers, including drastically lowering the resolution (300dpi instead of 600dpi), but none of this has had any effect.

It's pretty random but is affecting about 50% of the drawings. Any clues as to what this might be due to?

Parents
  • Hi Danny,
    Please try setting Visible Edges to cached in the Drawing models and let us know if that resolves the print to PDF problem.

    Regards

    Marc

  • Marc, ... Hello

    I've changed the Visible Edge settings to 'cached', .... and this seems to have made the pdfs 'print' correctly. However, switching to 'cached' has messed up most of the 'Saved Views' that I had created.

    Reading through the Help Manual, it isn't really clear how you update your Views/Drawings/Sheets with 'cached' on????

    Are you saying that printing pdfs will not be very reliable with the Visible Edges set to 'Dynmic'?

    Surely most people would want the Views/Drawings/Sheets to indeed dynamically update???

    I keep getting the following message

    This is not very clear or instructive. What is out of date? Which Ref, Which Levels? Overrides? Geometry?

    Just to do some basic updating of some drawings, I'm having to manually go into numerous Views/Drawings and change from 'cached' to 'dynamic' and back again, then re-fiddle with the Saved Views, then fiddle in the Ref Manager, ..... This is overly long winded and rather dis-jointed. I have just spent several hours fiddling with this and it's still not clear what the strategy/workflow is with this 'cached' on.

    Personally I don't want this 'cached' on at all. Generally speaking you want the Drawings to dynamically update when the amend the models. Surely that's the whole point??????? What are they called 'Dynamic Views' for????????????????? ......... because they are dynamic and up to date (and NOT out of date!)

    This 'cached' feature seems like a solution looking for a problem!

    If there is a problem/issue with 'freeze framing' some of the drawings at a certain point in time, ..... The Reference Manager and the various Saved Views is certainly NOT the place to do it.

    If there is a need to 'freeze frame' the drawings at a certain point, then do just that. There are various strategies, ..... generally based around 'copying' or 'exporting' the relevant models and drawings, which then go in a separate 'digital container', which is clearly labelled and dated.

    Can we not have this process mixes in with what is essentially the 'main production pipeline' for the drawings and design development?

    I sincerely hope there is some straight forward solution/workflow that can be identified because not being able to print pdfs because you're using 'Dynamic' to update the drawings is a real-own goal.

    Not very happy with this so far!

    Regards

    Danny Cooley

    Freelance AEC CAD/BIM Technician Architecture, MEP & Structural  ..... (& ex Low Carbon Consultant, ..... because they weren't that bothered!)

    OBD Update 10, Windows 10 Pro, HP Z4-G4, 64Gb, Xeon 3.6GHz, Quadro M4000

Reply
  • Marc, ... Hello

    I've changed the Visible Edge settings to 'cached', .... and this seems to have made the pdfs 'print' correctly. However, switching to 'cached' has messed up most of the 'Saved Views' that I had created.

    Reading through the Help Manual, it isn't really clear how you update your Views/Drawings/Sheets with 'cached' on????

    Are you saying that printing pdfs will not be very reliable with the Visible Edges set to 'Dynmic'?

    Surely most people would want the Views/Drawings/Sheets to indeed dynamically update???

    I keep getting the following message

    This is not very clear or instructive. What is out of date? Which Ref, Which Levels? Overrides? Geometry?

    Just to do some basic updating of some drawings, I'm having to manually go into numerous Views/Drawings and change from 'cached' to 'dynamic' and back again, then re-fiddle with the Saved Views, then fiddle in the Ref Manager, ..... This is overly long winded and rather dis-jointed. I have just spent several hours fiddling with this and it's still not clear what the strategy/workflow is with this 'cached' on.

    Personally I don't want this 'cached' on at all. Generally speaking you want the Drawings to dynamically update when the amend the models. Surely that's the whole point??????? What are they called 'Dynamic Views' for????????????????? ......... because they are dynamic and up to date (and NOT out of date!)

    This 'cached' feature seems like a solution looking for a problem!

    If there is a problem/issue with 'freeze framing' some of the drawings at a certain point in time, ..... The Reference Manager and the various Saved Views is certainly NOT the place to do it.

    If there is a need to 'freeze frame' the drawings at a certain point, then do just that. There are various strategies, ..... generally based around 'copying' or 'exporting' the relevant models and drawings, which then go in a separate 'digital container', which is clearly labelled and dated.

    Can we not have this process mixes in with what is essentially the 'main production pipeline' for the drawings and design development?

    I sincerely hope there is some straight forward solution/workflow that can be identified because not being able to print pdfs because you're using 'Dynamic' to update the drawings is a real-own goal.

    Not very happy with this so far!

    Regards

    Danny Cooley

    Freelance AEC CAD/BIM Technician Architecture, MEP & Structural  ..... (& ex Low Carbon Consultant, ..... because they weren't that bothered!)

    OBD Update 10, Windows 10 Pro, HP Z4-G4, 64Gb, Xeon 3.6GHz, Quadro M4000

Children
  • Hi Danny,
    Caching the DV writes new simplified 2D geometry directly to the Drawing Model, which is likely why it is giving you better results. Real-time dynamics are great for the all the reasons you've stated, but it's a "heavier" and more complex process. Caching provides both output and performance advantages, and is an area that development is focused on improving as we move forward.

    When you see that "Outdated" message, it simply means that the 3D model referenced into the Drawing has been modified in some way since the drawing was cached. You can un-cache (switch back to Dynamic) and then re-cache to capture those changes. However, that is all you should have to do - I've never come across a case where references had to be modified in any way to update the results. FWIW, the ability to keep the cached version up-to-date in a less manual fashion is also something development is working on... it's an important part of the process.

    Another option if you're getting incorrect plotted results is to enable the Rasterize option in the Print/Plot dialog. This will capture a bitmap of the DV and use that for the plotting process vs. streaming the live DV. It often takes a few minutes to generate though.



  • Steve
    Thanks for responding/clarifying a bit.
    FWIW, .... rasterising isn't really viable for mainstream drawing production, .... other than it taking an excessive time to produce an A1 drawing, ... often the output is slightly 'faded' compared to the equivalent 'wireframe' drawing: the line thickness's aren't as strong/pronounced and the colours are a bit faded/washed out.
    It seems that if in one of the View Attributes Windows (anywhere in the Drawing Production Pipeline) set to one of the 'rendered' modes), Smooth or Illustration, it then attempts to print the drawing using 'rasterised', even though one of those 'Display modes' is not actually used, because it is being overridden by one of the Display Styles applied with the Clip Volume (typically based on a filled/hidden edge Display Style). Previously I have had to go through all of the Saved Views, removing any 'shaded' Display Mode from the View Attributes to get rid of the 'rasterised' effect. Haven't checked this in a while, .... but it's something along those lines.

    As for the 'Outdated' message, ... it doesn't seem as straightforward as meaning that the 3D model had been updated. I keep getting this message when the source 3D model categorically has NOT been updated. What has happened is that the Saved View has been updated (not the geometry in the source Ref files). BUT, ..... what happens next is then seemingly dependent on what is set in the 'synchronise' settings. This opens another can of worms which I haven't yet fully figured out.

    I can see the benefit of the 'caching' approach. Say you have 100 drawings, then you update part of the building/model. There may only be 10 drawings affected by this change, the other 90 remain the same. So when you open 1 of those 90 drawings, it would be good if the software then doesn't have to re-calculate the Views/Drawings. However, for the Drawings that have been affected, normally you would want them to dynamically update by default (so you can see the changes/amendments that have been made in the model). Maybe there could be something that pops up and says 'This Drawing is out of date/cached, do you want to update it'. I suppose in a way there is, but it is still very 'muddled' at this point.
    I'll investigate a bit more.

    Regards

    Danny Cooley

    Freelance AEC CAD/BIM Technician Architecture, MEP & Structural  ..... (& ex Low Carbon Consultant, ..... because they weren't that bothered!)

    OBD Update 10, Windows 10 Pro, HP Z4-G4, 64Gb, Xeon 3.6GHz, Quadro M4000

  • You're welcome! Unfortunately I won't be much help when it comes to the details of plotting... I only know enough to keep me in trouble. :)

    Regarding your idea of better managing the updated status of cached drawings, this is one area where development is focused. I think the idea is for cached drawings to update in a more automated fashion, similar to what you've described. Obviously we're not quite there yet but are heading in the right direction.