Expert: Bill DeShawn - 11/25/2009

Question
Hi Bill,
I work in the engineering department of a steel mill. I use AutoCAD MEP 2009. We want to make our mechanical drawings available to the maintenance crew in the field. For security reasons, we think we need to present them with non-Cad images. We plan to use Document Locator as a platform for the crew to access the drawings. (I don’t believe D.L. has relevance on my question to you.)
The crew needs to be able to view details and read text onscreen, and print the drawings at their various locations on 8½x11 and 11x17 paper. Details should be clear enough at these sizes to be read with a magnifier, if necessary.
I am running tests between PDF & Tiff. Currently PDF is in the lead because it will print a zoomed-in selected portion of a drawing (easier to read), and because thus far I’m finding bit-map resolution problems with Tiff.
Do you have an opinion and/or are there other formats we should be considering?
The drawings typically have an original size of 36x24. Our library is huge—14,000+ drawings. We’d like to get off on the right foot.
Thanks for any help.
Carol  

Answer
Carol:  
Just about any image format can be edited, and so can PDF file with PDF writing software.  However, as long as the original DWG is in place and not sent any change that takes place in the field with the alternate format can never be blamed on the engineering dept as long as they never distribute the DWG file.  So, as far as security goes, I think you're safe no matter what you end up using.

PDF is my preferred format because it most closely emulates the output produced on paper from a plotter.  The choice of printers is always important.  I get no kickback from HP, but I find that if I stick with all HP printers and plotters, the output will be practically identical throughout their product line, regardless of whether they're inkjet or laser.  Also, PDF files remember their paper size and how the printed image is oriented on the sheet.  That's quite handy.

Keep in touch
Bill DeShawn
http://my.sterling.net/~bdeshawn