Expert: Bill DeShawn - 8/19/2010

Question
Hi, thank you for running a wonderful site like this, it's
been very helpful for me just by reading it.  But now I have
a question which I don't think it's been asked before. so
here I go.
I tried to make "searchable" PDFs from ACAD2010, using
Acrobat or Publish to PDF function, but to no avail.
By "searchable" I mean you can find the location of text in
a DWG file through search function (ctrl+F) of Acrobat
Reader.
All of texts, including multi-texts, dimensions and pointers
in my DWGs have styles with TrueTypeFonts.


Answer
Takeshi:
Doitashimashite.
AutoCAD Raster Design offers OCR (Optical Character Recognition).  But DWG to PDF plotting does not.  Also, AutoCAD Raster Design does not include the PDF file type.  As an alternative, Bluebeam PDF Revue CAD edition is a third-party program that is supposed to include the ability to convert True-Type text to be searchable in a PDF file.  The features can be studied here:

http://www.bluebeam.com/web07/us/products/revu/?src=52&gclid=CMPM9Z_kzqMCFQEPbAo...

I have no personal experience with this software; therefore I am not qualified to recommend it.  Fortunately this is not a private message.  I encourage comments from all readers on this subject.  I, too have wondered about creating searchable text in PDF files, but I have not had much luck.  For me, the $199.00 BlueBeam Revu for CAD price is too expensive.  I am almost certain there is no such conversion for SHX text.

You can download a 30-day trial at this site:
http://www.bluebeam.com/web07/us/downloads/cad/

Pricing is found here:
http://www.bluebeam.com/web07/us/store/

Good luck in your endeavors

Bill DeShawn
http://my.sterling.net/~bdeshawn