Organizations in the engineering, architecture, construction, energy and other similar industries deal with CAD files on a day-to-day basis. CAD files are inherently complex and detailed, with extremely large file sizes. They are difficult to share over email and almost impossible to read on a mobile device. In addition, they can only be opened with special CAD software, for which individual licenses can cost upwards of dozens of thousands of dollars. For users who only need to view the CAD file – not make edits to them – it doesn’t make financial sense to spend resources on acquiring CAD licenses. This is where converting the CAD files to PDF comes in handy.
However, organizations need to be very careful which PDF conversion software they choose. Many PDF rendering products disregard the multiple layers in CAD files, flattening the file upon conversion. This can be extremely detrimental to the workflow if users need the capability to view individual layers.
Turning the CAD layers on and off
By converting CAD files to PDF using Adlib, organizations have the flexibility to turn the CAD layers on and off. Adlib not only maintains the vector quality of the graphics, but also maintains each of the layers and the initial visibility setting of the layers. By simple checking or unchecking certain layers, users can turn each of the individual layers on or off to change the visibility of the document. The converted file does not have one flattened image, but instead is a dynamic, complex file that users can manipulate as needed.
Initiating a workflow to merge multiple files and file types
In addition to converting CAD files to PDF, Adlib can enable users to convert multiple files to PDF – including CAD – and merge them into one single, navigable PDF. This is a useful feature for proposals and other large compilations of documents.
By initiating a workflow and selecting all of the documents that require conversion, users can merge the entire library into one high-fidelity PDF file. Like the single-file PDF documents, CAD files within this merged document have all of the individual layers, which can again be easily turned on or off.
For more details on the CAD-to-PDF capabilities of Adlib, watch the product demo.
