Batch export named PDFs from layout
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Hi,
Is there a way to batch export PDFs from a LO document. Was able to do this on VectorWorks and its really useful. In VW, you set up your pages / sheets and when you do a batch export you can either export them as one multi page PDF document or as individual PDFs for each page. When exported the individual PDFs are named the same as the sheet in VW.
Does anyone know if this is possible in SU.
Thanks . . .
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Anyone? If its not possible I think it would be a great feature addition.
This is such a huge time saver and a fantastic way to keep drawings organised. When working on a large project with many drawings that need to be PDF'd to different people at different stages its a great way to keep everything in order and keep files to a minimum. Id love this as a feature in the next release. It could work with users being given two options,
1: export a multi page PDF where the PDFs file name is taken from the LO doc's name (eg Exhibition Stand_Edition 01.pdf)
2: batch export where names of individual PDFs are determined by the names give to pages (eg Exhibition Stand_general arrangement.pdf, Exhibition Stand_services.pdf, Exhibition Stand_electrical.pdf - all of these names would be determined by the name of the page in the LO doc rather than the name of the LO doc its self.Any thoughts from anyone else . . .
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Was just thinking this myself. I like exporting as a "book", but there are times when having separate pages is definitely an advantage for document distribution to specific trades that don't need the full set of plans.
The present method of exporting twelve pages one at a time is a bit tedious having to restart the export process for each page.
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And also having to make sure that the names and edition numbers tie up can be tricky. It would be amazing if you could name the page with the overall job name, the page / sheet name and the edition number (eg page name = House_general arrangement_01) and then choose to batch export these with the PDF'd files names referencing the page names in the LO doc (eg PDF name = House_general arrangement_01.pdf)
Would this be possible in a future edition? - Pretty please??
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@arcad-uk said:
The present method of exporting twelve pages one at a time is a bit tedious having to restart the export process for each page.
Agree completely ArCAD - its tedious and there is loads of potential for errors (like edition numbers not tying up). It means that you have to have lots and lots of version numbers for LO files.
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That is not a good solution if one wants to export pdf as vector graphics. I guess this could indeed be implemented at a point.
What I would like to see more however is to open a LayOut ruby API for 3rd party developers. "Small" but convenient things like this could have been scripted as plugins for a long time.
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@gaieus said:
open a LayOut ruby API for 3rd party developers
YES YES - definitely Gaieus. Thats what I love about SU - being able to build the application to work as I need it to with the tools I want to use. This is sadly lacking in LO!!! Simple little things like this could be developed easily and added by users if they feel they need them.
Come on Google - let the developers at it!I second you on the PNG export to Gaieus - PNG is too low quality for me to send to my contractors or clients. Would be great if there was an option even to do the PNG export but as PDF? For now Im just stripping the pages out of large multi page PDFs in acrobat then manually re-naming them. Takes a while and leaves room for error as I mentioned but it works for now - hoping I wont have to do this for too much longer tho!
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here's a little app i put together in automator which will make your life easier when it comes to extracting pages/renaming pdfs..
Extract Pages from PDF.app.zip
here's a little video of it in action.
[flash=800,510:2zjjd9sj]http://www.youtube.com/v/nb6-csTUSAw?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0"%20type=[/flash:2zjjd9sj]
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Jeff, that's really cool. Thanks for doing that.
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Thanks Dave R, cool script. I will definitely be making use of this - this afternoon in fact. It would be even more useful if you could auto assign sequential page numbers in LO too. You could then associate the page numbers to the file numbers? But still a very useful tool and one that will be seing some action soon.
I would still like to know if it might be possible to name PDFs from pages within LO at some time in the future. Our studio like many others names files to send to contractors and being able to ref the names from within LO would be such a great way to keep files in order.
Thanks again
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