Industry trends

 

The Plot to File button saves your large format drawing as a .plt file so that it can be printed later, on another computer, or by a print production service.
 

Paper Size, Number of Copies
 

Make sure you’ve selected the right paper size and have the matching paper ready in your printer. You can also choose the number of copies to print.
 

Plot Area
 

This is where you must decide what you want to print from your drawing. If you have yet to set the visibility of the layers you want to print or hide, you’ll need to do that first. Next, click on the dropdown list to find five options: Display, Extents, Limits, View, and Window. Assuming you have checked the “Fit to paper” option, this is what will be printed from your choice of plot area:
 

• Display—Print what is on the screen, including any blank areas

• Extents—Fill the print area with all visible objects in the drawing

• Limits—Print everything that lies within the limits grid set in your large format drawing. If your drawing contains Layouts, then you’ll see a Layout option instead.

• View—Print a view that you have saved with the large format drawing. If there are no saved views this option will not appear.

• Window—This allows you to drag a window around any part of your large format drawing that you want to print.
 

To see what your large format print will look like using different Plot Area options, simply click the Preview button at the bottom left of the Plot dialog box.
 

Plot Scale
 

If you want to print a scale from AutoCAD rather than fitting it to your paper, uncheck the “Fit to paper” option. You can then select either a predefined scale from the dropdown list or enter a custom scale.
 

Plot Offset
 

This allows you to either center the plot on the plot area instead of starting from the origin or input a custom amount of space to offset the plot.
 

The expanded Plot dialog box
 

Clicking the arrow icon in the bottom right corner opens the expanded Plot dialog box, which contains some additional settings.
 

• Plot Style Table: Allows you to plot using different plot styles available on your computer

• Shaded Viewport Options: Select the shade mode for printing 3D views

• Plot Options: These are applied to layouts

• Drawing Orientation: Toggle the paper orientation
 

How to convert a CAD drawing to PDF
 

As architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms move toward remote work and digital transformation, digital file sharing is slowly becoming the norm. Instead of printing physical copies of your CAD drawings, you may find yourself converting your DWG files to PDF instead. Not only are PDF drawings more easily readable by users without AutoCAD, but they can preserve layer data and other properties at your desired file quality.
 
What’s confusing is that AutoCAD offers three different ways to convert your CAD drawing to PDF. Let’s look at the differences between each method and which one is best for your purposes.
 

Plot to PDF
 

This uses the Plot dialog box described earlier in this blog. Depending on which edition of AutoCAD you’re using, you should see options like DWG to PDF.pc3 or AutoCAD PDF (General Documentation).pc3. A PDF Options button should appear, allowing you to set the resolution for the output PDF drawing
 

Export to PDF
 

The export function can be accessed via the menu or by typing EPDF on the command line. This is useful when you’re in layout view. Using the Export command, you can plot all layouts of your drawing into a single PDF file.