PDF Print/Export is crazy slow!
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I've not used Layout that much, but trying it out for a project. Rather large site model, so I'm not surprised it will be somewhat slow - but not this slow!
Each page takes ages to process. And each model is rendered as Raster. If I try Hybrid (which is what I really want then it takes a crazy amount of time.)
If I export with medium setting it's somewhat bearable, but the quality is poor and file is 40MB. And with High it's takes a very long time to complete, and the file ends up as 120MB!
If I print to Adobe PDF printer in Medium the file is smaller, but still poor quality.
If I manually export the images from SketchUp and compose in InDesign they do not take so long time and the files are nowhere near the filesize.
Any ideas, suggestions?
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Sorry TT....I have but only one suggestion.
If you have any non visible geometry you can do without, get rid of it.
I do not mean hidden geometry, just any that can't be seen in any given viewport.OK, maybe two....and I am not 100% certain about this one.
As I recall, any images used in SU can blow up the file size of LO .pdf export, and I think they also contribute to the slowness of .pdf export.
Also, Also, I know you cannot really get any significant .pdf file reduction in Adobe Acrobat...I get a message about masks that could not be reduced (or somesuch).Charlie
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For most of my drawings, I export low and uncheck layers. It is fast and the quality is excellent. The export quality from layout is very high, even set to low. Uncheck layers really helps with the speed. Also, how many pages in the file obviously impacts the export time. Try to keep files to less than 10 pages.
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I'm with TT on this one. I don't see the quality and it's slow (not in background). No other program I know of takes so long to print (on the Mac) -to pdf. However I have got decent size (smaller) files. They act medium-slow when viewing compared to most other pdfs.
But I am still just exploring for working drawings--I made the first full set of elevations inspired by Nick, with fog. I had not been planning to, but the preliminary models got far enough along, it was a no-brainer.
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@unknownuser said:
Sorry TT....I have but only one suggestion.
If you have any non visible geometry you can do without, get rid of it.
I do not mean hidden geometry, just any that can't be seen in any given viewport.There is no extra geometry. I keep all models lean and clean.
And there would be no point in slicing the model for each view. I have a large site model where we do continuous work and updates, I have several pages for various areas of interest in the model where we do solar study. The whole point of taking it into Layout was to get the layouts linked with the working model.@unknownuser said:
For most of my drawings, I export low and uncheck layers. It is fast and the quality is excellent. The export quality from layout is very high, even set to low. Uncheck layers really helps with the speed. Also, how many pages in the file obviously impacts the export time. Try to keep files to less than 10 pages.
There is no way that low quality is good enough for what I need. The resolution is low and image compression very bad.
I've unchecked layers, but it doens't seem to make that much difference. -
TT, Well I figured you did not have any bloat in your models.
I too am not pleased...at least often enough...to wish it were faster and better at .pdf export.
One other thing occured to me is to make sure print paper color is "off".
Charlie
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What's your output quality set to under file/document setup - rendering quality? Every pdf I've posted was exported on pdf set to low and rendering quality set to high. Most of my 5 page documents take 30 seconds or so to generate.
I'm not sure why you guys are having these issues.
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@unknownuser said:
What's your output quality set to under file/document setup - rendering quality?
I am certain I have tried every combination possible.
Currently I have my edit quality & output set to Medium.I then typically export to low quality for intial Email/Drop Box correspondence.
Once the design is near complete I up the export .pdf to medium and then export to high for the final.
I typically have to break apart the final to smaller chunks if anyone hopes to open them on their mobile devices.
Otherwise the final HQ .pdf file in DB remains intact for the print shop.My last two files:
15 sheets @ 11"x17" ~ 47MB
40 sheets @ 11"x17" ~ 69MBThese last 2 projects are exterior elevations/aerials with site.(for ARC Review)
Yes, they have trees and some other goodies that crank things up some....but the buildings are essentially shells for now.(I suspect similar to what TT is doing).Charlie
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I found little (none for raster) difference in quality once you choose Low for Pdf export (whether you choose Document setup high resolution output or low). Mac print to PDF is the same quality, time, and file size (in my tests) as export PDF high quality.
Too many settings in different places, and why not have pages all render the same? etc etc. The reason is that LayOut is so slow at rendering. My CAD is always the same, even with colors (images do affect it) all crisp, fast, output to reasonably sized pdfs ( no dumbed down resolution or quality offered),
I don't know what the deal is with pdf file sizes. Different programs produce different sizes and doesn't seem to be related to quality, vector or not. Some other pdfs are so slow to view as to be useless. I am talking in general here. There must be some ways to optimize pdf output and I hope LO gets some better results in the future.
So I guess I have the "problem" that HIGH / HIGH raster is as low I would want to go in quality--might be OK for some printed output. So the times and pdf sizes go up from there. Certainly in some cases the jaggies get lost in printing and your nose has to be "on the page" to see it all but it does affect the overall quality and is terrible for pdf viewing on the computer.
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If only there was a setting that would output Hybrid to print, and simple raster for screen. That would help me.
It's worth noting that I got a rather big model. A very large site plan with stepped terrain. I've used Layout before and not had too much problem with performance. But when I compare to how SketchUp handle the model it appear that Layout is lagging far behind.
Just wanted to check if I'd missed some "tricks".
Observation I made, I opened a High resolution PDF from Layout in Adobe Acrobat, right clicked one of the image tiles on one of the pages and it offers me to save it to disk. However, the recommended fileformat was BMP! ... is that an indication that the PDF from Layout saved the images as BMP? Or is it just a weird default in Adobe Acrobat?
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Perhaps a shared benchmark file is in order?
(For .pdf export time/file size...I know...I know...but perhaps it is simply not hardware related).& fwiw, the 2 projects I mention are ~ .25 acre and probably ~6+ acre respectively.
Unfortunately I cannot share the actual project files...maybe a vanilla/pseudo variant?Thoughts?
Charlie
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Well, if you want to see crazy PDF file size, I have one set of CDs for a 4000 sf house that is 415 mb. I exported on high quality. What I found is that exported to low quality printed on 24x36 inch paper reads really well, so that is why I export on low quality now. In fact the difference between high and low when printed is minimal at best.
If the file size is a problem, there are PDF exporters that work well. For me, the ease of export out of layout is great. If you are vector rendering an entire model, that is where you will pay in time. Mine are all raster with isolated line work vector rendered, so I never see exports take longer than 30 seconds for the larger files.
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@unknownuser said:
Perhaps a shared benchmark file is in order?
(For .pdf export time/file size...I know...I know...but perhaps it is simply not hardware related).& fwiw, the 2 projects I mention are ~ .25 acre and probably ~6+ acre respectively.
Unfortunately I cannot share the actual project files...maybe a vanilla/pseudo variant?Thoughts?
Charlie
I'm getting a new machine in two weeks, but my current setup is:
I7 2600k
Nvidia gtx 550ti
16gb ram
(1) 47" ledNew machine:
I7 3930 super clocked to 4.2-4.6
Nvidia gtx 680
64gb ram
(3) 47" led......he he he. -
Hi,
Not a technical answer but I found that certain styles I was using in Sketchup quadrupled the PDF file size in Layout.
Penguin2
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I use a pretty standard template based on the Architectural style.
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right click on layout process in windows task manager, set priority to high. It'll speed up a little bit
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Have you tried optimising the PDF's after export - this I've found can reduce the file size of lots of CAD generated files.
Advanced > PDF optimiser!
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@richard said:
Have you tried optimising the PDF's after export
Yea, very mixed results. The ones that actually bring the size down makes everything look really bad.
While in comparison, if I set up the same pages in InDesign I get much smaller files, no problem. -
Look at the meta of an InDesign export and a LayOut.
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I've learned to use my PDF995 to print PDFs out of Layout. It's much faster and the file sizes are 1000 times smaller with all the detail. It's a pdf printer port emulator.
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