Forums >> Workflow & Implementation >> API & Third Party Apps >> PDF Creation Methods

Phaeax

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Joined: Mon, Mar 5, 2012
29 Posts
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Hi everyone, I wanted to get other CAD Managers, IT personel, experienced or knowledgeable persons opinions on PDF Tools and the options we have in a large office.

I wanted to make sure I am making the right choice for my company. We need a PDF creation and modifying solution for about 25 users in our office. I prefer DWFs, but sometimes you just need to create PDFs and modify them.

I need a solution for; Printing, rearranging, combining, marking up and 3D printing would be great!

My options are as follows. *Please note that I do not want to spend the $$$ on Acrobat. I would like some opinions from those who have used all 4 in an office standard. Consider the ease of use, ease of implemenation, quality, etc. If you have any others, please let me know

PDF Xchange

Bluebeam

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Acrobat Professional.

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WWHub

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Joined: Tue, May 16, 2006
13079 Posts

You might not need full power for every user.  We use cute pdf for all of our users.  That works for 99% of our needs.  Cute is free and works well but it does not do markups or re-arranging.  For that, we have shared computers that have better programs.

You might look into xrev for print management.  It was written by MrSpot http://www.cadway.com.au/

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TKennedy

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Joined: Wed, Oct 7, 2009
654 Posts

I'll second Xrev for plotting (that includes to PDF). It comes with it's own PDF writer, but it doesn't seem to work ver well for printing to PDF outside of Xrev. For that I use DOPDF, but it seems that most people here use CutePDF. For splitting/merging PDFs, I use PDF Split and Merge. It may also rearrange PDFs, I'm not sure. If not, you can use the split and merge functions to get the same result. Mor markups, Design Review will handle PDFs. Opening a PDF will convert it to a DWF, but you can then use a PDF writer to print to a PDF.

With the exception of Xrev, those programs are all free.

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