PDF Ovelay for Drawings?

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Huntxtrm

Senior Member
Location
Cleburne
Is there a good pdf tool to use for overlaying one page from a drawing onto another page of the same set of drawings? This would benefit me greatly, in estimating, and for the boys in the field. Any ideas?
 

tkb

Senior Member
Location
MA
Bluebeam is perfect for this.
you can overlay and adjust the opacity of each layer to help view the composite.
 

Huntxtrm

Senior Member
Location
Cleburne
I'm sold. I'm trying it out now. How is the learning curve? Easy to grasp, or takes a while. I am familiar with cad, some of the controls seem the same. So far.
 

Huntxtrm

Senior Member
Location
Cleburne
Bluebeam is perfect for this.
you can overlay and adjust the opacity of each layer to help view the composite.


Problem I'm having is, all my pdf drawings seem to be locked for editing! Is there any way around this, besides tracking down the arch, and getting him to change it and send it back? I would have to go through several channels to do that. Bid would be due, by the time it got back to me, if it got back to me. I spoke to BlueBeam, had them on remote, the couldn't do it. I thought maybe some of you have ran into this before.
 

luckylerado

Senior Member
Problem I'm having is, all my pdf drawings seem to be locked for editing! Is there any way around this, besides tracking down the arch, and getting him to change it and send it back? I would have to go through several channels to do that. Bid would be due, by the time it got back to me, if it got back to me. I spoke to BlueBeam, had them on remote, the couldn't do it. I thought maybe some of you have ran into this before.

I have not had that problem with drawings. Some NFPA docs that we use are protected but the snapshot tool still works.

They should be able to provide the password.

If not you can print as pdf to remove the restrictions but then you lose some of the vector info the OCR and transparency.

There is software out there that will remove the restrictions.
 

Smart $

Esteemed Member
Location
Ohio
In some cases you can use a print-to-pdf print driver to make a new document without the direct-edit restriction, provided printing is permitted from the original doc'. However, some print-to-pdf drivers, such as Adobe PDF, check for editing restrictions on print and will not allow the print to new doc' to proceed.
 

Huntxtrm

Senior Member
Location
Cleburne
I got the pdf to accept editing by printing as pdf through "NitroPDF" its a program already on my computer. Now, question is How to precisely over lay one page from the document over another, in the same document? I can't seem to get it to do it. I tried snapshot, as instructed in one of the videos. But, I cannot achieve a precise alignment? Any ideas? Or suggestions?
 

GoldDigger

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Placerville, CA, USA
Occupation
Retired PV System Designer
If you look at the video, it looks like the alignment tool uses objects in the drawing rather than points in a digital ink version. There may not be a way to do it in the print PDF except by dragging and stretching.
 

luckylerado

Senior Member
I got the pdf to accept editing by printing as pdf through "NitroPDF" its a program already on my computer. Now, question is How to precisely over lay one page from the document over another, in the same document? I can't seem to get it to do it. I tried snapshot, as instructed in one of the videos. But, I cannot achieve a precise alignment? Any ideas? Or suggestions?

The file loses so much information when you print to pdf. It is no longer a vector graphic . This limits bluebeams overlay features significantly. You can change the opacity of the snapshot and use the arrows to fine tune it into alignment but you are not going to be able to change the colors or use many of the other tools or snap to content.

It is a shame that they have locked down the PDF. Not sure what they think they are protecting. I would not hesitate to call and ask for the PW.
 

Smart $

Esteemed Member
Location
Ohio
The file loses so much information when you print to pdf. It is no longer a vector graphic . ...
That is typically only true if the print driver is set for "Print as Image" or some opacity features in the drawing cannot be duplicated by PostScript and must be rasterized.

It is true some vector graphics do not make it through the same as the original encoding. For example, a line with line weight and length may end up a rectangle with near zero line weight and same color fill.

As to anything BlueBeam, you have the floor.
 
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