Automatically create PDF or DWF files from AutoCAD

As electronic drawing formats (PDF and DWF) are becoming more popular both for internal checks during the design process and even final deliverables, it is important to have good workflows for this. A very handy feature for creating PDF and DWF files (that in my experience seems to be fairly unknown) is Auto Publish.

Auto Publish is found on the Plot and Publish tab in the options dialog.

There are quite a few options available in the Auto Publish Settings dialog. Some of the key ones are:

• Publish on Close, Save, or to prompt before publishing
• Choosing the file format, PDF or DWF
• Single-Sheet or Multi-Sheet
• The output location. Drawing Folder creates the file in the same folder the drawing is in. A full path could be provided here as well. Note: these settings are stored in the registry so this path can be added to a network based profile so multiple workstations output to the same location.

Once the preferred settings are made the Auto Publish needs to be toggled on before it will be in effect.

In my settings I chose to publish a PDF when I close my drawing file. I also specified the location to be the Drawing Folder. With these settings in place and the Automatic Publish toggled on when I close my drawing a PDF is automatically created.

Notice the layout tab name is added to the filename just like when publishing directly from AutoCAD. In the future the PDF will automatically be overwritten when I close the file again.

Auto Publish is a very flexible feature and the settings are stored in the AutoCAD profile which makes it great for managing a network based AutoCAD environment. The Automatic Publish toggle is off by default and there is not a registry key for this state. When the toggle is on and if you want to force it to be on through the AutoCAD profile here is the registry key for that (in the General section of the registry)

"AUTOMATICPUB"=dword:00000001

The Auto Publish settings are also stored in the AutoCAD profile in the AcAutoPublishOpts section of the registry.

Take some time to explore all of the options with Auto Publish, this can offer several streamlined workflows to the design environment.