Work-around for exporting backgrounds to PDF and EPS

[hoholuma]

Hello,

I am using the free evaluation version of Sketchup Pro 8.0.11751. Eventually I will be purchasing Pro in order to export to PDF and EPS files.
Does anyone know of a work-around for exporting to PDF and EPS files where the integrity of textures, shadows, smooth shading, backgrounds, and transparency is maintained? Specifically, I am would like a background in the exported files that is not showing up (see info taken from Google Sketchup site below). Is it just a question of making a 'page' in Layout?

Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to provide.

2D PDF/EPS Export Details
This is a Pro only feature.
The PDF and EPS export is used to export vector SketchUp files for use in other vector-based editing programs like Adobe Illustrator.

Warning: Some graphic features of SketchUp, including textures, shadows, smooth shading, backgrounds, and transparency, cannot be exported to PDF and EPS.

[Gaieus]

If you turn ground and sky off and set the background colour to whit in LayOut, you can export without the background (i.e. completely transparent).
This can be done (with the same settings above) with this plugin - only to png image format (not pdf) straight from SketchUp:
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=30819

Also, you can export ("print") as a pdf file straight from any application (that has printable content) with some virtual pdf printer like PDFCreator or similar. There is a good topic about it here:

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=179&t=41826

[driven]

hi,

the SU export to EPS or PDF are 2D vector formats so you'll get all the 'scale' linework.

on a mac

If you want a PDF 'Image' of your drawing then export to Tiff or Png for the transperancy, open in Preview and save as PDF, that will contain the image file data.

I recently found 'Skim.app', which is FREE and great for EPS and PDF including annotation and presentation. [there's a link in the Useful Mac Apps thread.]

There's also an applescript 'scale export' helper being developed you might want to help out with?

john

[pbacot]

@unknownuser said:

If you want a PDF 'Image' of your drawing then export to Tiff or Png for the transperancy, open in Preview and save as PDF, that will contain the image file data.

This is a great way to get a transparent background in your pdf. However I find the difference here is that if one "exports" to pdf in the Pro version, the resulting image can be converted to vector objects in other programs. If one uses the method above, the image is only a bitmap pdf. This method shows shadows and other styles, whereas the "export" to pdf does not.