ExportToPDF

Created: July 27, 2015 | Updated: October 31, 2018 | Applies to versions: 15.1, 16.0, 16.1, 17.0, 17.1, 18.0, 18.1, 19.0, 19.1, 20.0, 20.1 and 20.2

Parent page: WorkspaceManager Commands

The following pre-packaged resource, derived from this base command, is available:

Access Smart PDF Wizard

Applied Parameters: None

Summary

This command is used to access the Smart PDF Wizard, which guides you through the process of exporting your design into PDF format.

Access

This command is accessed from the Schematic Editor and PCB Editor by choosing the File » Smart PDF command from the main menus.

Use

After launching the command, the Smart PDF Wizard will appear. Follow the wizard's set of progressive (and intuitive) pages to collectively gather the information to effectively export your design to a single PDF document, as you require. The wizard supports:

Documenting either the active document, or any or all documents in the entire project - including schematics, PCB and Bill Of Materials.
Configuring printout settings when exporting a PCB document.
Adding additional information including net information (added as pin and/or net label and/or port bookmarks), component parameters, and global bookmarks for components and nets.
Controlling coloring for schematic and PCB content - either color, greyscale, or monochrome.
Managing specific items that can be included on, or excluded from, schematic sheets - No ERC Markers, Parameter Sets, Probes, Blankets, Notes.
Ability to define a print quality, in terms of dots per inch (dpi).
Choosing whether to export the logical or physical design. For the latter, you have control over which design variant is used, and whether expanded physical names are used for various net identifiers.
Saving the settings to an Output Job Configuration File (*.OutJob) - in this way you can publish the same job, with the same settings, over and over, without having to step through the wizard each time.

With the various pages of the wizard configured as required, click Finish to generate the PDF. If you opted to have the PDF opened after generation, it will be presented in the default Acrobat Reader installed on your PC. The generated PDF groups documents according to their type: Schematic, PCB or BOM:

For each Schematic, bookmarks are provided based on your settings which enable you to browse documents as well as individual components and nets residing on that document. If the source schematics are hierarchical, the hierarchy will be reflected in the PDF bookmarks with the top-level sheet appearing at one level and all sub-sheets appearing as sub-bookmarks. If you enabled the option to Use Physical Structure as part of the export process, the resulting PDF document will contain separate sheets for each channel in a multi-channel design.
For a PCB document, bookmarks are provided for each of the exported printouts.
For the Bill of Materials, bookmarks are provided so you can browse to each component.

If you have enabled Additional Bookmark settings to generate net information for Pins, Net Labels and Ports, you will see these when browsing a Schematic or a PCB (pins only).

Clicking on a bookmark will zoom to the area of the document where that object resides. The level of zoom applied is determined by the zoom control slider bar setting configured in the wizard. Where possible, the object will be centered within the main display window of the PDF Viewer. Highlighting will be applied when browsing by Components, Pins, Ports or Net Labels for ease of reference.

Tips

If you did not enable the option to generate net information, only component information will be available in the generated PDF.
Export options defined within the wizard are stored with the design project.
The same Smart PDF generator is used when generating PDF output from an Output Job file, as when generating a PDF directly using the Smart PDF wizard.