speed up printing dwg w/raster attachments to pdf

i have a few dgn files with hi-res pdf raster attachments (location maps) I can't knock the resolution down of raster files becuase they are large maps of entire counties and the text gets washed out. Likewise I also tried to crop only the portion i needed with photoshop and the text still gets washed out in the conversion.

 Attaching the pdfs and clip bounding provides great results, but when we go to create pdf files of the dgn with the rasters, they  take an exhorbinant amount of time to spool ( ~1hr). Is there anything i can do to cut this time back considerably?

 

Thanks.

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  • Hi Michael,

    Turning on the rasterized option on the print dialog should speed up the spooling of the PDF raster attachements, at least when printing a .dgn file.

    Thanks,

    Mathieu



  • yeah and it also makes the dgn file not look good.
  • I found something interesting.

    Printing a drawing with a PDF raster (4.2MB) attached from MicroStation XM using a pltcfg file (Bentley Windows Printer format) for an HP 9050 LaserJet prints with no problems what so ever.  The Rasterized checkbox is UNCHECKED.

    Printing the same aforementioned drawing from MicroStation V8i SS1 (08.11.07.180(171)) using the exact same pltcfg file to the same laser printer yields very different results.  The drawing won't update in the preview window and the printing process timesout when trying to print it.  If I CHECK the Rasterized box, then the drawing will update in the preview and print to the laser printer but the quality is not nearly as good.

    What is the difference?  One would think that with a more recent version of the software that the functionality would be better.  Im not knocking the Bentley folks, Im just kind of bewildered.

    EDIT: I should also note that the Rasterized Quality Factor =100

  • Hi Chuck,

    One reason that could explain the difference between MicroStation V8 XM and MicroStation V8i SS1 related to PDF file attached as raster is that the library that actually converts the PDF to raster data (i.e. : PDF library SDK) is more recent (i.e. : MicroStation V8 XM uses version 7.1 while MicroStation V8i SS1 is using version 9.1).

    During the testing of the new PDF library SDK we have remarked it was, for some PDF, much slower than the previous versions, especially when some antialiasing options offered by the PDF library SDK were turn on.

    So for MicroStation V8i SS1 we added some keyins that can be used to deactivate the antialiasing (see the list below).

    RASTER PDF SMOOTHIMAGE OFF

    RASTER PDF SMOOTHLINEART OFF

    RASTER PDF SMOOTHTEXT OFF

    Thanks,

    Mathieu

     



  • Hey Mathieu,  Thanks for the response.

    I have been testing the key-ins and then seeing how they effect printing and I am not seeing any difference in how its being processed.  Is this a situation where we have to toggle the rasterized button when we need to print a drawing with a PDF?  We use client county maps for our location maps and include that file in our plot set.  Seems like this would change how we do things maybe?

  • Chuck,

    By "not seeing any difference" do you mean that the speed and the quality have remain the same even after turning off the various smoothing?

    What about the display of the PDF in MicroStation V8i SS1? Are you seeing any difference?

    Choosing the rasterized print option and turning off the PDF smoothing options are two different, independent things.

    According to our tests, deactivating the smoothing options don't seem to have an impact on all PDF files. So maybe your PDF file is a little or not affected by those options....

    Also, as far as I remember, deactivating the image smoothing option seemed to have more effect (increase the speed, decrease the quality) when requesting rasterize data from the PDF at higher resolution.

    HTH,

    Mathieu



  • Mathieu,

    Thanks again for the response.

    When I did use the keyins, the image in the DGN did change slightly.  The overall printing process had no change.  I still need to check the rasterized button in order for it to print to our HP laser printers.  Full size isnt a problem since we're using the HPGL2/RTL plot driver format.  It also looks like we might be able to control the individual files that have PDF's attached through the print organizer so it may not be so much of an issue, but its just another setting that a user must remember to do.

    Thanks again for the responses.

    Chuck

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  • Mathieu,

    Thanks again for the response.

    When I did use the keyins, the image in the DGN did change slightly.  The overall printing process had no change.  I still need to check the rasterized button in order for it to print to our HP laser printers.  Full size isnt a problem since we're using the HPGL2/RTL plot driver format.  It also looks like we might be able to control the individual files that have PDF's attached through the print organizer so it may not be so much of an issue, but its just another setting that a user must remember to do.

    Thanks again for the responses.

    Chuck

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