How to make Adobe Acrobat PDF files from AutoCAD drawings and

MW Word files, and Excel files.

Updated 05/15/2002

1. Purchase and Install Adobe Acrobat 5.0 (Acrobat Reader is a different program) on your PC. A
Government site license is available for about $50 per seat and a $25 charge for a CD-ROM at each
site to load the program. This site license is for copies of 20 or more. It is available from
microwarerhouse.com on line. The Government sales area lists the product, but the prices are not
shown you have to call for pricing. The web address for Microwarehouse for the Acrobat 5.0
Government site license is : http://www2.warehouse.com/Licensing/default.asp?sel=Adobe_TLP
2. Adobe Acrobat 5.0 is the full program, which will make PDF files and works as a printer driver. Any
program that can print to a printer can make a PDF (Portable Document Format) file. This file can
easily be printed by anyone using the free Adobe 5.0 reader program available from Adobe.com
Acrobat reader V5 is a different program than Acrobat 5.0 as it will only read and print PDF files,
NOT CREATE THEM and is available for free from www.adobe.com Acrobat 5.0 has a printer
driver called distiller which will allow PDF files to be made from any program that print to a printer.
Each AutoCAD drawing is individually converted to a PDF file in step 1. Step 2 is to assemble all
drawings into one PDF file. An option would be to provide both a combined drawing set and the
individual drawings to allow users to download only those drawings needed. A table of contents with
drawing names should be added with drawing titles.
3. A properly made PDF file is readable when plotted on an 8-1/2” x 11” or 11” x 17”laser printer which
most people have access to or an inkjet printer. Lettering size and proper line widths are critical to
be able to read a reduced print.
4. Requirements for AutoCAD drawings to allow proper conversion to PDF or to plot to
paper.
a. You must have all nonstandard AutoCAD third party fonts and linetypes and shapes used
by original drafter to allow all symbols to be properly printed. Best solution: Do not allow any
fonts, shapes, linetypes to be used that are not shipped with the base AutoCAD package. Use
ROMANS font for all text if possible. This ships with AutoCAD. It is easy to read in ½ size
drawings. Use only fonts that come with autocad to prevent plotting problems. Fonts are
software, you cant give them away, which is another reason not to use “store bought fonts”.
b. Lettering should be MINIMUM 1/8” (.125”) height on a full size sheet (24”x36”). This
makes drawings plotted at at 11”x17” or even 8-1/2” x 11” easy to read. Line width for
11”x17” size drawing text should be about 0.15mm to be able to read text. Smaller
lettering such as 0.10 in. is very difficult to read.
c. Put no text or objects outside of border.
d. Must have all XFEFS bound into drawings. Some drawings may come in from consultants
with out all XREFS. This causes missing details. Best solution: Require all drawings to have
XREFS bound into final drawings or use no XREFS.
e. A physical scale bar should be placed on all drawings to show 1” in full size plot as most users
will plot to fit page which will make a non scaled plot. The PDF files will probably not be
plotted to any scale. Having ¼”=1’ on the non scaled drawing is not adequate.
f. You must have the plot style table (the .CTB file) from the drafter who made the drawing,
for all drawings. This is usually a color pen table which will be converted to a monochrome
pen table to convert all colors to black, (pen 7). Most drawings have color, for best legibility
plots need to be black. If you have more than one contractor on a project then each pen table
for each subset of drawings is needed to properly plot the drawings.

Making PDF files from AutoCAD DWG, MS Word, & Excel files 05/15/2002 Page 1/16
 i.This pen table is critical to plotting a drawing correctly: Get the pen table for full
size, usually 24”x36” and one for half size 11”x17”. The pen widths for half size
are about ½ that of full size. Setting the pen widths too wide can make text not
readable. Use the half-size pen table line widths to make the PDF files. If you only
have a pen table that is setup for full size drawing, check “scale line weights” when
plotting. This will reduce line widths for 11”x17” reduced drawings.
ii.The plot style table includes the shading for colors in a percentage. The use of shading
to indicate existing objects should be minimized. Use notes, arrows, or revision clouds
if possible instead of shading. Shading in the pen table is usually is a neutral color such
as gray and has a 0-100% range. If you do not have the pen table that built the drawing,
you cannot determine which colors are shaded or the correct line widths. This can lead
to errors if all lines are one density.
iii.Listed below is an example of a plot style table with full size and half size pen widths
vs color numbers. There are 256 colors in AutoCAD, only some are defined in this
example table. You must use the table your drawings was created with. Note that colors
8,9 have shading at 50% and 70%. If objects that use these colors are not assigned
these screens of 50% and 70% the default value is 100% which will produce solid lines,
not shaded making it difficult to determine what is “faded out” and what is solid.
1. Note that the text line width on pen 7 is 0.13mm. This will make a readable text
of 1/8” height on a full size sheet when plotted on an 8-1/2x11” sheet.
iv.There is no universal standard in layering and pen widths and you can not guess what
the drafter had in mind when the drawing was made so obtaining this table with each set
of drawings is very important.
SAMPLE PLOT STYLE TABLE TO SHOW EXAMPLE OF LINE WIDTHS AND SHADING DO NOT
USE THIS FOR YOUR DRAWING, EXAMPLE ONLY.
Note screening of 2 layers Most layers are at 100%

Pen Width in. Full Pen Width in. Half Pen width mm Full Pen width mm Half
Pen color Pen # Usage size Size size size Screen

BLUE 5 XBOLD 0.0276 0.0138 0.700 0.350 100%

GREEN 3 BOLD 0.0236 0.0118 0.600 0.300 100%
92 BOLD 0.0236 0.0118 0.600 0.300 100%
101 BOLD 0.0236 0.0118 0.600 0.300 100%
CYAN 4 HEAVY 0.0197 0.0098 0.500 0.250 100%
140 HEAVY 0.0197 0.0098 0.500 0.250 100%
161 HEAVY 0.0197 0.0098 0.500 0.250 100%
6 MEDIUM 0.0157 0.0079 0.400 0.200 100%
191 MEDIUM 0.0157 0.0079 0.400 0.200 100%
241 MEDIUM 0.0157 0.0079 0.400 0.200 100%
RED 1 THIN 0.0118 0.0059 0.300 0.150 100%
21 THIN 0.0118 0.0059 0.300 0.150 100%
30 THIN 0.0118 0.0059 0.300 0.150 100%
YELLOW 2 XTHIN 0.0079 0.0039 0.200 0.100 100%
31 XTHIN 0.0079 0.0039 0.200 0.100 100%
43 XTHIN 0.0079 0.0039 0.200 0.100 100%
11 HATCH 0.0047 0.0024 0.120 0.060 100%

LIGHT
GREY 8 SCREEN 0.0138 0.0069 0.350 0.175 70%

DARK
GREY 9 SCREEN 0.0197 0.0098 0.500 0.250 50%
RED 1 TEXT_BOLD 0.0118 0.0059 0.300 0.150 100%
WHITE 7 TEXT_NORMAL 0.0102 0.0051 0.260 0.130 100%
31 TEXT_FINE 0.0079 0.0039 0.200 0.100 100%

5. Making a PDF file: step 1, creating the PDF file

a. Edit the drawings (.ctb) pen table discussed above or make a new one for PDF. Open up a
drawing, click on the plot icon, and go to plot style editor table and have all colors 1-256
mapped to pen 7 and all virtual pens set to 7 or black. Set color to black.
b. Leave line widths and shadings alone, only map pens to 7 (black). This assumes that user will
print drawing out 11”x17” and large pen widths will obscure detail. Best solution: use pen
table line widths from original drafter. If you don’t have this you will have to make sure all
objects print correctly including any shaded objects. After conversion print drawing to
11”x17” to see if it is legible.
c. This pen table will be used to plot all drawings to black lines. This only needs to be done once,
reuse in future plots. Note different drawings may have different plot style tables. It is best
to have a standard layer and color convention and pen with table.
d. Set Plot Style Table as follows:

e. Set plot parameters:

i.Current tab
ii.Plotter configuration: pick Acrobat Distiller
iii.Pick Plot style table monochrome.ctb or other plot style table you have that was made
with each drawing to have all lines go to black, pen 7.
iv.Keep all line widths and screening that were in the original color plot style table.
Only map the colors to black.
v.Next pick Plot Settings tab:

Making PDF files from AutoCAD DWG, MS Word, & Excel files 05/15/2002 Page 3/16
 1.

The default size for the PDF file is 1200 DPI. If the PDF file sizes are too large,
you can to into Acrobat distiller properties and change the resolution of the
Acrobat Distiller print driver to a lower resolution say 600DPI.
f. Set Plot parameters as follows:
i.Paper size 11”x17”, Landscape, Extents, Scaled to fit, center plot, check scale line
weights if pen table is for full size (24”x36”) drawings to proportionality reduce line
widths.

g.PLOT drawing using

Full Preview: First drawing below is color AutoCAD drawing:
 h. Dr
aw
in
g
below is Full preview of plot, all color set to black. If this is OK, right mouse, PLOT and
continue to plot. This completes making the PDF file. PDF file will be in same directory as
DWG file. Acrobat adds layout1 (1).pdf to name of all drawings in contract in same fashion,
so e1.dwg becomes e1 layout (1).pdf You can rename file if you want same name.

6. STEP 2:
Making one
PDF file for
whole project

Making PDF files from AutoCAD DWG, MS Word, & Excel files 05/15/2002 Page 5/16
Note: To make the project drawings easier for the user to plot you can assemble all drawings
individual PDF files into 1 PDF file, which contains any number of drawings. If the contract is large,
say 50 sheets, you may want to make several files, one for each discipline, Arch, Elec, Mech, Civil,
Structural, so users can download a smaller group of files. You can also provide each PDF file of each
drawing. The PDF files are about the same size as the DWG file so a 300K DWG file will be about a
300K PDF file. Avoid large hatch patterns if you can, it makes files much bigger.
a. Open up Adobe Acrobat 5.0 program
b. Open up the first drawing in the set you want to have in the combined PDF file as follows, in
this case pick e01 Layout1 (1).pdf as the first drawing to be put into the combined file
detroiteepdf.pdf, which will put the following e01 to e18 drawings in this one file.

c. Rotate drawing
counterclockwise so title block is in landscape mode with the rotate pulldown box

d. Go to Document,
insert pages and
select all the pages you
want in this combined file. Select page e02 to e18 using shift or control keys the files (you are
already in page one). In this case all e sheets e02 to e18 Layout1 (1).pdf files. Hit select. The
result will be one file with 18 drawings, one page per drawings.
 e. Next screen will ask where you want to insert pages, normally after page 1. Hit OK
f. Repeat this procedure for each drawing, but select after last sheet on next sheets.

The current drawing name see top of page e01

layout1 (1).pdf now has all 18 sheets in this one
file.

Making PDF files from AutoCAD DWG, MS Word, & Excel files 05/15/2002 Page 7/16
g. Do a file save as detroitepdf.pdf so you have a separate file with all 18 drawings. Do not
save as the first drawing name, e01 Layout1 (1).pdf or you will put the rest of the files e02-e18
inside the first pdf file. DONE!!!
 7. Summary: this whole process takes about 15 minutes to do for these 18 files from plotting to a pdf to
making one total file with 18 drawings combined in one file in this example detroiteepdf.pdf.
8. Options: you may want to provide one large file as well as the individual files and an index of files to
allow contractors to plot only those individual files or have several subgroups by discipline.
Making PDF files from MS Word or Excel spreadsheets

The process of making PDF files from MS Word or Excel files or any other program is as easy as selecting a
print driver. The process of combining separate documents is identical to that for AutoCAD drawings in step
2 above. In this example 6 specs will be converted into 1 PDF file. The following assume you have installed
Acrobat 5.0 and the printer driver is installed. Verify this by looking at your installed printers. Do start,
Settings, Printers, you should see Acrobat Distiller. This is the printer driver which actually prints to a PDF
file.

Making PDF files from AutoCAD DWG, MS Word, & Excel files 05/15/2002 Page 9/16
STEP 1
1. Open up Word document, file open pick file, in this case 16010.doc is first file

2. Document will
open and the PDF logo will be in menu bar automatically. The logo on the left will automatically
print to the PDF driver, or you can select this printer and make it (Acrobat Distiller) the default printer.
This logo was automatically installed when you installed Acrobat 5.0 If you use other programs to
print files and logo is not there just select (Acrobat Distiller) as the default printer.
3.
4. Click on Left Acrobat Logo and file will be printed to PDF in same directory as the 16010.doc file
is converted to 16010.pdf. Acrobat will automatically give the same file name as the .doc file
document.pdf. Click on save.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.Open up each document

Making PDF files from AutoCAD DWG, MS Word, & Excel files 05/15/2002 Page 11/16
 and click on this PDF icon, or print to Acrobat Distiller printer:
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37. Page numbers within that section will be retained. If you want consecutive page numbers, then all
sections will have to be placed on one document first. Recommendation: leave each section a separate
PDF file to preserve section footers and numbering.
38. Step 2 Making one file for all documents in a project
a. Print all sections of MS Word documents individually if section numbering and pages in
section numbers are to be retained.
b. IF you want all MS word documents in one file with consecutive page numbers, open first PDF
file and insert the rest of the PDF files. WARNING: Headers and footers will be messed up if
you do this, you will loose section formatting.
c. Assemble all individual PDF files in one subdirectory.
d. Open up first PDF file 16010.pdf in this example, then do a Document Insert pages, select rest
of files to add click on select.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
a. The result will be one document 16010.pdf with the other sections from 16050.pdf to
16721.pdf inside this first document

b. Next screen will ask where you want to insert pages, normally after page 1. Hit OK
53.
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
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66.
67.
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76.
77.
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79.
80.
81.
82.
83.
84.
85.
86.Do a file
Save As
DIV16EEpdf.pdf to have a different file name with all of DIV 16 electrical specs in one document.
Do not save to the first file or all sections will be in this 16010.pdf file. This resultant file has all 9
sections in this one file, DIV16EEpdf.pdf.
87. Summary: you may want to provide a table of contents with all spec section numbers and individual
specs sections or groups of specs to allow users to print only sections needed, reducing file download
time.

Making PDF files from Excel Spreadsheets

1. Process is identical to the samples for MS word described above. The Acrobat PDF icon will
appear in the spreadsheet task bar to do a save.
2. Define and set print range, and plot to fit in page setup to one page wide.

Making PDF files from AutoCAD DWG, MS Word, & Excel files 05/15/2002 Page 13/16
 3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20. Click on icon to save or
print to Acrobat Distiller
printer

21. Open up each spreadsheet and save as pdf.

22. Combine multiple .pdf files same as described above in MS Word and AutoCAD example.

Acrobat Print Icon

 23.
24.
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How to have
Acrobat
automatically rotate drawing files to landscape when opened:
From Gil M. Levesque Architect Ogden UT.

Usually, when you save drawings in Adobe Acrobat, they always load in portrait view and you need to rotate the first drawing
counterclockwise to view it properly. You can set a page action in an Acrobat PDF file, so that when the file opens, it will
automatically rotate counterclockwise.

How to set a PDF file with drawings in landscape format to automatically rotate drawings:

1. Load desired PDF drawing file into Adobe Acrobat .

2. Once loaded, go into pull-down menu: Document
3. Select Item: Set Page Action (should be the last item in menu)
4. When “Page Actions” Window opens, Click “ADD”
5. When “Add an Action” Window opens, Click pull-down arrow and select the top item: “Execute Menu Item” and then
click “Edit Menu Item” button.
6. A new window will pop open showing you a pull-down menu. Select the View pull-down, then “Rotate Counterclockwise”.
The Pull-down menu window will close and return you to the “Add an Action” window.
7. Click the “Set Action” at the bottom of this window and it will close.
8. At the “ Page Actions” window Click OK button.
9. Save your File and close it.
10. Open it again to check that the action occurs after opening the file.

TEST ALL FILES! Open up all PDF files and make sure you can print them before submitting them for final
assembly.

Steve Sichau

Making PDF files from AutoCAD DWG, MS Word, & Excel files 05/15/2002 Page 15/16
Electrical Engineer R6 RO Portland OR
503.808.2523 Email:ssichau@fs.fed.us

Please send any comment to me for updates, Thanks.