MicroStation to PDF to reduce file size

Unknown said:

I am trying to convert very large .dgn file sizes to a smaller pdf size

MicroStation files contain 3D models.  They store data, such as 3D coordinates, in 64-bit precision floating point numbers.  DGN is a very different format to PDF, which uses a different representation for 3D geometry. It's not clear what you mean by 'convert very large .dgn file sizes to a smaller pdf size'.

You can print from a MicroStation to a PDF?  Have you tried that?

Yes, that is what I have been doing - print to PDF and in the settings I can change the dpi, which reduces the size, but I still need to make it smaller. I wasn't sure if maybe there are settings when printing to PDF that I can change to help reduce the size of the file once it is printed. I have tried to reduce the size once it is a PDF, but that hasn't worked too well either.

I've run into this problem before, usually when there is a large air photo attached to the file, and when the plot has to rasterized because of transparent overlays. Use some combination of the following settings to reduce the pdf file size.

Change the driver resolution (sounds like you already tried this). If your plots are rasterized, there is a setting in this group called Rasterized Quality Factor. Lowering this can also reduce the file size. Also, under the Base Properties tab, pick Raster Printing, and lower the quality factor. You can try different values to find out what setting reduces the file size and still get acceptable quality.

You also may try setting Enable Optional Content to Off (this turns off creation of levels in the pdf).

Unknown said:

I've run into this problem before, usually when there is a large air photo attached to the file, and when the plot has to rasterized because of transparent overlays. Use some combination of the following settings to reduce the pdf file size.

Change the driver resolution (sounds like you already tried this). If your plots are rasterized, there is a setting in this group called Rasterized Quality Factor. Lowering this can also reduce the file size. Also, under the Base Properties tab, pick Raster Printing, and lower the quality factor. You can try different values to find out what setting reduces the file size and still get acceptable quality.

You also may try setting Enable Optional Content to Off (this turns off creation of levels in the pdf).

As to raster change resolution, I suggest you try  to do this at print time  at first  through the printer dialog box settings  when your  doing testing  rather than edit the driver settings as its easier to understand ( if your unfamiliar with mnst) and you can just  keep tweaking by the slider bar or value typed and it  doesnt change the driver  then when  youve found the optimum setting  you can visit the  driver and  make the change  once..

I tried all of the suggestions that you and John gave me and neither seem to really reduce the size. Thank you though! This is so frustrating. I'm thinking maybe I need to get on a forum for Adobe and Bluebeam to see how I can reduce the sizes once they are printed to a PDF.

If they are to be published on your website I assume they are not restricted > can you upload a few examples perhaps someone can give you better advice.

Unknown said:

I tried all of the suggestions that you and John gave me and neither seem to really reduce the size. Thank you though! This is so frustrating. I'm thinking maybe I need to get on a forum for Adobe and Bluebeam to see how I can reduce the sizes once they are printed to a PDF.

try this oneLowpdf.pltcfg

if doesnt make much difference try compressing or optimised in Full adobe acrobat or Bluebeam etc  many tools around

If your putting on website  an not intended for printing  then make the  paper size really small like A4 but he scale really big  1:50, 000 etc for maps this is still small

Unknown said:

I tried all of the suggestions that you and John gave me and neither seem to really reduce the size. Thank you though! This is so frustrating. I'm thinking maybe I need to get on a forum for Adobe and Bluebeam to see how I can reduce the sizes once they are printed to a PDF.

try this oneLowpdf.pltcfg

if doesnt make much difference try compressing or optimised in Full adobe acrobat or Bluebeam etc  many tools around

If your putting on website  an not intended for printing  then make the  paper size really small like A4 but he scale really big  1:50, 000 etc for maps this is still small

I've been fighting this same issue for years. Can't seem to find the sweet spot for drivers on the Bentley side. Using Acrobat to 'SaveAs Reduced Size' PDF really helps. Lately I've been getting higher quality rasters (GIS aerials) and have started to use Acrobat 'SaveAs Optimized' to retain more pixels for quality. Optimized gives you some more exacting sizing for the raster portions of the PDF.

Unknown said:

I've been fighting this same issue for years. Can't seem to find the sweet spot for drivers on the Bentley side. Using Acrobat to 'SaveAs Reduced Size' PDF really helps. Lately I've been getting higher quality rasters (GIS aerials) and have started to use Acrobat 'SaveAs Optimized' to retain more pixels for quality. Optimized gives you some more exacting sizing for the raster portions of the PDF.

Aha!  you have large rasters ie aerial photos, look inside your  pdf  driver the default compression  is  ZIPPED, if your using rasters a lot change this with the pulldown to JPEG it will compress further.. I sued to do what your  doing using external Adobe to compress, but  it just uses the JPEG  compression equivalent , so if you used the default zip internal compression setting you'll get big difference after  with adobe compress.. but if you  change the setting to jpeg  the  file will be  compressed to max already and the adobe compress wont change much  unless you have changed the resolution in the adobe compression in that case change the  resolution of the file and the  raster too in the  pdf.pltcfg... I example driver  I sent  has all these settings but you can tweak them further..  .. I would also turn off line line weights  or remap to weight 1 as a supper compressed lower res pdf will be  zoomed in a lot by viewers and the  lineweights also get magnified... ( check with  control 5  toggled in adobe reader when you've  zoomed in a lot you will see what i mean) .. BTW if you make new  drivers   just copy paste rename and  edit the new  renamed one so you always have the  pristeene original to go back too, plus it makes sense to a have a logical name for those  special pdf drivers...