printing .dft in color to .pdf

[jsmith13phoenix]

Our company recently updated from V20 to ST5 and have had trouble with printing a draft file to .pdf and keeping the colors of the 3d model views. I've played around with the printer setting and made sure the "print all colors as black" box is unchecked, but that seems to only apply to lines and text.

I've had success with the "Save As Translated" saving option, but that is a slow process when saving, and when opening and browsing through the .pdf.

Is there a simpler and more efficient way to save a .dft to .pdf and still keep the colors of the model views?

Thanks!

 

[Kenny_G]

If you are "printing" to an external PDF printer like Acrobat, then you probably need to set both the Solid Edge print settings as well as the Printers print settings.
Other than that, I have no idea.

Ken G.

http://grundey.blogspot.com

Have you checked out the Solid Edge Community site?

http://community.plm.automation.siemens.com/t5/Solid-Edge/ct-p/solid-edge

 

[Enginerd9]

Interesting... somehow my set up was printing to color by default, and I actually had to change it to BnW. Now I can't remember how I did it!

I see two possible places where it will save to BnW by default: 1. File > Save As > PDF > Click on "Options" at the bottom of the pop-up and un-select it there; or 2. File > Solid Edge Options (at the bottom of the drop down) > General Tab > Un-select "Save colors as black and white."

There is a "Colors" tab as well, in which you select a color scheme... I don't want to dig in there without knowing specifically how / where / why, etc.

As far as printing directly to PDF... hmm. I seem to be able to print all line colors, etc. properly.

In the view properties (right click view, properties at the bottom), I see a Shading and Color tab. By default, my box for "Show shading in drawing views" is un-selected. If I select that one, and review the sub-selections, I seem to be able to produce some combination which allows me to print straight to color PDF. The two I would pay attention to are "Use assembly override colors" and "use part face colors."

"Use Model Colors" is also selected by default on my set up, with all sub-options selected.

Any luck?

 

[jsmith13phoenix]

Thanks everyone for your replies

PellaKen:
I have played around with both the printer settings and Solid Edge settings, but nothing has worked yet and there seems to be an infinite number of possible combinations to try. My patience is waning.

Enginerd9:
1. The Save As > PDF option works like the Save As Translate option. The view prints in color as well as the drawing lines and text. The "Save all colors as black" option only affects the drawing lines and text when unselecting it.
2. For the File > Solid Edge Options > General Tab option, the "Save colors as black and white" box was already unchecked, so that can't be it.

As far as the view properties go, the "Show shading in drawing views" box was originally selected and the 2 sub-selections were also checked, so that doesn't seem to be the problem either.

Like I said before, I have had success printing the drawing to pdf in color if I used the Save As Translated option. And now it seems the Save As > PDF option works the same way. But both of these options take a very long time to save and again to re-open.
It is possible this is the option if you want to save the draft as a pdf in color, but I was hoping to find a solution that was faster and more efficient.

Thanks again for your replies. If you come across a solution, please don't hesitate to post it.