Drawings sent to clients, checkers or site crews almost always go out as PDF, because anyone can open one without AutoCAD. The job looks trivial, yet one drawing can produce very different PDFs. Some keep layers and some lose them. Some have searchable text and some do not. Sometimes "all layouts" comes out with pages missing.
This article covers how to save AutoCAD as PDF with the EXPORTPDF command and its command-line twin -EXPORT in AutoCAD 2027, with results read back from the PDF files themselves. The Plot dialog, plot style tables and lineweights are covered in how to plot in AutoCAD. For the whole drawing-set workflow taught properly, the Institute runs an AutoCAD course for construction.
Three ways to save AutoCAD as PDF
| Route | Type | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| The EXPORTPDF command | EXPORTPDF or alias EPDF | Quick export of one or all layouts, with a dialog |
| The -EXPORT command | -EXPORT, then P | Keyboard-only work and scripts |
| Plot to a PDF device | PLOT or -PLOT | Full control over paper, scale and plot styles |
On the ribbon the export tools sit on the Output tab, Export to DWF/PDF panel, Export drop-down. The same panel has a small Export to PDF Options button. On the menu bar, File → Export runs the general EXPORT command. These locations come from the 2027 acad.cuix file.
The EXPORTPDF command and the Save As PDF dialog
Type EPDF and AutoCAD opens Save As PDF. It opens even with FILEDIA set to 0, so there is no way to switch it off and type the file name instead. The Autodesk documentation says: "When you export your drawing to a PDF file, the Save As PDF dialog box is displayed."
Besides the file name and folder, the dialog has these fields, labelled exactly as in 2027:
| Field | Default | Choices |
|---|---|---|
| PDF Preset | AutoCAD PDF (General Documentation) | General Documentation, High Quality Print, Smallest File, Web and Mobile, DWG To PDF |
| Export | Current layout | Current layout, All layouts |
| Page Setup | Current | Current, Override |
| Precision | None | For Manufacturing, For Architecture, For Civil Engineering |
| Output Controls | Open in viewer when done, Include plot stamp |
The Current Settings box summarises the chosen preset: Layer Information: Include, Merge Control: Lines overwrite, Hyperlink: Include. The Options... button opens those settings for editing.
One detail loses files: for a drawing that has never been saved, the dialog opens in the Windows System32 folder. Click Save straight away and the PDF is not where you expect. Save the DWG first, or pick the folder before clicking Save.
Export PDF in AutoCAD from the command line with -EXPORT
-EXPORT, with the leading hyphen, shows no dialog at all. The 2027 prompts are quoted verbatim below.
| Step | The prompt | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Enter file format [Dwf/dwfX/Pdf] <dwfX>: | Type P |
| 2 | In Model: Enter plot area [Display/Extents/Window] <Display>: | E for the whole drawing |
| 2 | In a layout: Enter plot area [Current layout/All layouts]<Current Layout>: | Enter, or A for every layout |
| 3 | Detailed plot configuration? [Yes/No] <No>: | Enter, or Y to set the paper |
| 4 | Enter file name <Drawing1-Layout1.pdf>: | Type a full path such as D:/set/plan.pdf |
Answer Y at step 3 and AutoCAD also asks for paper size (Enter paper size or [?]), units, orientation and scale. Three more prompts then cover plot styles and lineweights. After the first P, the default at step 1 becomes <Pdf>, so next time Enter is enough.
Two things to know. First, without the detailed configuration the paper is the default US Letter size, and the PDF page comes out at 279 × 216 mm, not A3 or A4. For the right size, answer Y at step 3 or set a Page Setup on the layout first. Second, on an unsaved drawing, pressing Enter to accept the default name makes AutoCAD ask for the file name again; typing a full path writes the file at once.
Export multiple layouts to PDF in one file
Choose All layouts (the Export field in Save As PDF, or A in -EXPORT) and every layout lands in one PDF, one page each. The file also gets a bookmark tree named Sheets and Views, one entry per page named after its layout; click one to jump to that page.
There is a trap. A new drawing has two layouts, Layout1 and Layout2. With Layout1 open, export All layouts:
| Before exporting | PDF pages |
|---|---|
| Only Layout1 has ever been opened | 1 page, Layout2 skipped |
| Layout2 clicked once, then back to Layout1 | 2 pages |
A layout that has never been opened has not been initialised, and the export skips it without a word. In a twenty-sheet set where a few layouts were copied and never clicked, the PDF will be missing exactly those sheets. Before you export multiple layouts to PDF, click through every layout tab once, then compare the page count with the number of layouts.
Choosing a PDF preset: five devices, five different files
Each PDF preset is a plotter configuration file (.pc3). The test drawing has 100 circles, two hatched areas, one line of Arial text and one of romans.shx text on two layers. Plotted to A3 with the five devices, it gives the results below.
| Device | Size | Layers in PDF | Font embedded | Line segments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DWG To PDF | 88 219 bytes | Yes | Yes | 1 787 |
| AutoCAD PDF (General Documentation) | 112 940 bytes | Yes | Yes | 6 080 |
| AutoCAD PDF (High Quality Print) | 114 426 bytes | Yes | Yes | 6 080 |
| AutoCAD PDF (Smallest File) | 17 712 bytes | No | No | 1 787 |
| AutoCAD PDF (Web and Mobile) | 88 212 bytes | Yes | Yes | 1 787 |
Smallest File is five times lighter but pays three prices: all layers gone, the bookmarks gone, and the Arial font not embedded. The file only records the font name ArialMT; the letter shapes are left to the viewer's machine. General Documentation and High Quality Print draw the same geometry with 3.4 times as many line segments, so their files are 28 % heavier. Web and Mobile gives almost exactly the DWG To PDF file.
A simple rule: for a set whose readers will toggle layers, use General Documentation or DWG To PDF. For the lightest possible viewing copy, use Smallest File and accept losing layers and embedded fonts.
Layers and bookmarks in the PDF
With the presets that keep layers, a PDF reader with a Layers panel shows the drawing's own layer names, each with a checkbox. A drawing with layers 0 and TUONG gives a PDF with exactly the layers 0 and TUONG. Reviewers can hide dimensions or notes to read the structure without AutoCAD.
For useful toggles, give layers meaningful names from the start; see layers in AutoCAD. If the drawing is cluttered with junk layers, merge them before exporting as shown in merging layers.
SHX text, TrueType text and accented text in the PDF
Text uses two kinds of font, and they reach the PDF by different routes:
| Kind of text | In the PDF |
|---|---|
| TrueType font (Arial…) | Real text in the page content, searchable |
SHX font (romans.shx, txt.shx…) | Drawn strokes; the original text survives only if PDFSHX is 1 |
The PDFSHX variable decides what happens to SHX text. For the same string ROMANS SHX 123:
| PDFSHX | SHX text in the PDF |
|---|---|
| 1 (default) | Strokes, plus one comment holding the text ROMANS SHX 123 |
| 0 | Strokes only; the original text is nowhere in the file |
Even with PDFSHX at 1, the SHX text sits in a comment, not in the page content: searching the page content for ROMANS finds nothing. The Arial text on the same page is found at once.
For accented text, such as Vietnamese, use a TrueType font. The line Tường gạch 220 – Cửa đi D1 in Arial reads back from the PDF with every accent intact, and a search for gạch finds exactly one hit. The cost is the embedded font: the same drawing weighs 83 325 bytes as a PDF with that line of Arial text and 2 064 bytes without it. SHX fonts usually lack Vietnamese accents; see text in AutoCAD.
Three things often repeated that are not true
| Often repeated | What holds on the 2027 release |
|---|---|
| "All layouts" always gives every sheet | Layouts never opened are skipped, with no warning |
| Every PDF from AutoCAD has layers | The Smallest File preset drops all layers and does not embed fonts |
| All text in the PDF is searchable | SHX text is strokes; the original text is only in a comment when PDFSHX is 1 |
Frequently asked questions
Which command saves AutoCAD as PDF?
EXPORTPDF (alias EPDF) with a dialog; -EXPORT then P for the command line; or PLOT to a PDF device.
How do I export multiple layouts to PDF in one file?
Set Export to All layouts, or answer A in -EXPORT. Open each layout once first, because unopened layouts are skipped.
Why is my PDF missing pages?
Usually some layouts have never been opened. Click through all layout tabs, export again, and count the pages.
Which PDF preset gives the smallest file?
AutoCAD PDF (Smallest File): five times lighter than DWG To PDF on the same drawing, but without layers, bookmarks or embedded fonts.
Why can't I search the text in a PDF from AutoCAD?
Text in SHX fonts is drawn as strokes. Switch the text style to a TrueType font such as Arial and the text becomes searchable.
Why does the PDF come out on Letter paper instead of A3?
-EXPORT without the detailed configuration uses the default Letter size. Answer Y at Detailed plot configuration? or set the layout's Page Setup before exporting.