Tipster Maria Tzanetakou shared this tip, which makes printing an AutoCAD file to PDF a little less complicated.

"While trying to print DWG files to PDF using the Sheet Set Manager, I found the hard way that I was unable to print the desired DWGs as single-sheet PDF files. The same thing happened when I tried the Publish command. (Keep in mind that to publish DWGs, first you must create a correct page setup.)

"To overcome the problem, select Publish via the Sheet Set Manager (it's the same thing using the Publish command). In the Publish command window, adjust the settings as follows:

• Sheet list = None
• Publish to = Plotter named in page setup
• Location = Choose the location you want the PDF to send to
• Type = Single-sheet file

"The trick here is to make sure that at every DWG you select has its own page setup name. It doesn't matter if the DWGs have the same page setup name, but you must choose the page setups one by one. Therefore, if you have 10 different DWGs, you have to select the page setup 10 times."

Notes from Cadalyst Tip Reviewer Brian Benton: It has always amazed me how complicated printing in AutoCAD can be — and the same goes for making a PDF from your AutoCAD file. A PDF file can either contain one drawing or multiple drawings in it, but AutoCAD has to be instructed to create either type of PDF. If you are only making one PDF then the setting doesn't matter, obviously. But when you publish multiple drawings simultaneously then you will need to specify which type of PDF to create. Do that in the Publisher setting once you have loaded the files you want to publish to PDF. This setting will also work if you are plotting to a DWF (or DWFx) file type.