Pretty Specific - AutoCAD to Acrobat conversion
 

I'm working on my portfolio (time for a drier climate), and want to convert AutoCAD drawings to Acrobat (since everyone has Acrobat Reader, but not everyone has AutoCAD). My plan is to use html on a CD, , which makes it easy to offer short explanations and provide easy links to my work (very user friendly). Anyway, my problem is this:

When I try to print 24 x 36 AutoCAD files to Acrobat, the largest paper size I'm allowed is 11 x 17. Now, I can save it that way (using "fit to paper size"), then convert it to 22 x 34 in Acrobat - but there are two problems with this - first, it's a pain to have to do the extra work; and since I work mainly on 24 x 36 sheets, the enlarged versions are not exactly to scale (to be to scale, I would have to enlarge the 11 x 17s 210%, but the 22 x 34 option only enlarges it 192%)

I probably just lack a driver that would allow me to print to Acrobat directly as a 24 x 36 sheet. But is it an AutoCAD driver, or an Acrobat driver? Any help would be appreciated.

Other than this little problem, the conversion works really well - and I suppose scale is not so important when viewing the files on a monitor. But I want to provide prospective employers the ability to print the files, if they have a large format printer.

I have this same problem when I convert DWGs into PDFs. I wish I could help you out, but it's never been enough of a problem for me to figure out a solution. Usually the people I send my drawings to don't have a large enough printer anyway.

I hope to be in your position soon, and it would be nice to know a better way to show my work. Good luck.

I do this all day long, every drawing I do is plotted to PDF so that I can send the client a sample drawing. When I use the plot command I send it to the acrobat distiller and when the pdf is made it prints out on normal 8 1/2 x 11 paper

I am running AutoCAD 2005 and Acrobat 6.

I was able to do an old dwg in .pdf at Arch. "D" size.

I had a whole list of paper sizes to choose from.

What AutoCAD are you running and what version of Acrobat?

Make 'em pdfs.

And add a "matchstick" scale, just in case.

I'm using ACAD 2004 and Acrobat 6.0

On the Autodesk site, it says to click the radio button for "custom size" in the Start/Printers/properties/Adobe PDF Properties window, but I never get "custom" as an option. It also says that you need to do a custom installation of Acrobat - the Express installation doesn't load everything. So I did that. Still no change.

I guess I can live with 11 x 17s or 22 x 34s - if anyone is serious enough to want to see full-size, they can send me an airline ticket and I'll bring along hard copies.

Like <b>hunnychile</b> suggested, I'll just put a graphic scale on each sheet.

Thanks to everyone for your responses.

Chill Babe, it's only Spring time...the dogwoods haven't even bloomed yet.