Friday, April 15, 2016

Are SHX Font Comments in PDFs a Problem for You?


Both AutoCAD 2016 and AutoCAD 2017 include improvements for working with PDFs in AutoCAD.



That means the popularity of vector PDFs will continue to grow. With or without layers, the ability to convert a PDF into CAD objects to edit and republish is a very useful process, but what if you open the PDF and move your cursor around the screen and see SHX text in comments like this?

If you want your SHX text to be converted to a comment in the PDF and you are using AutoCAD 2016, then you're in luck. If you don't want those comments created by default, just install AutoCAD 2016 Service Pack 1 and set the EPDFSHX system variable to 0 then publish to PDF.

There's an Autodesk Knowledge Network page describing the resolution to this issue.

Drawing text appears as Comments in a PDF created by AutoCAD 2016
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Drawing-text-appears-as-Comments-in-a-PDF-created-by-AutoCAD.html

Note that the setting should be 0 before you publish to PDF.