DT_PDF

Plots the open drawing's paper-space sheets to one multi-page PDF at a location you choose. The Export PDF dialog pre-selects the permit sheets (the PV* layouts) in tab order; you can adjust the selection per sheet. Output is vector PDF.

On the ribbon: JobEngine → Drawing Tools → Export PDF

What it does

When you run it, the Export PDF dialog opens with every paper-space sheet listed in tab order. The permit sheets are pre-checked; use Permit sheets / All sheets to switch quickly, or check exactly the sheets you want. It also has an Open the PDF when done option so the finished file opens in your PDF viewer automatically.

After you click Export…, AutoCAD opens its native Save As dialog with <drawing>.pdf suggested. Choose the final filename and location there; AutoCAD also asks before overwriting an existing PDF.

After you choose the destination, the command checks whether the drawing still contains embedded (OLE) images that would print — the classic example is a client logo pasted into the title block. Only if it finds some does it briefly walk through each selected sheet (you'll see the tabs flip and a progress line per sheet) and zoom it out: embedded images only print on sheets that have been shown on screen, so without the warm-up, sheets you never opened would come out with a blank box where the image belongs. Drawings whose images are linked raster files (the modern setup) skip that walk entirely — you'll see "No plottable OLE content found" and the export goes straight to publishing, noticeably faster. If an image ever prints blank anyway, re-export with Fix blank or missing images checked in the dialog — that forces the full warm-up for that one export. Either way the drawing is always saved first, so what you see in the editor is exactly what lands in the PDF, even if you hadn't saved yet. Then the set is handed to AutoCAD's native foreground publisher, which steps through the sheets as it renders them (that tab movement is AutoCAD's own progress display, not the warm-up) and owns the publish progress and cancellation UI. The PDF is produced in a local per-attempt workspace first, verified, and only then moved to the destination you chose; a failed publish or locked destination cannot overwrite a previously-good PDF. The dialog tells you up front whether the drawing will be saved; a read-only drawing skips the save (and warns that embedded images on unvisited sheets may not print), while a machine with the enablePdfPreflight kill switch disabled warns that unsaved changes will not be included.

The key thing it does not do: it never scales sheets to fit the page. Each sheet plots at its own page setup — paper size, scale, and plot area exactly as set on the layout — so a site plan stays at its real engineering scale (1"=20', etc.) and the AHJ accepts it. The command only forces the output device to a PDF driver; everything else comes from the sheet.

When to use it

When the permit set is ready to send out. Note that it saves the drawing as part of the export (so the PDF matches what's on screen); your current tab is restored when it finishes.

Common problems