Batch Print of Compare Results dialog box

Use this dialog box to batch print or create PDFs of baselineWhen comparing, the baseline file is the file being used as the basis for comparison; the file to which a revised file is being compared. and revisedWhen comparing, the revised file is a modified file being compared to an original, or baseline file. files compared in the Compare Results window. Select one or more files from the Compare Results window that have changes. You can send the files to your printer or output them to a .PDF file. You can also apply a change tolerance, paper size, and DWG file options.

When you click Start, the batch printing process starts. This dialog box stays open during the process, with the Status area displaying the current drawings being compared/printed. If you are comparing/printing a large number of drawings, we recommend running this process overnight. You can cancel at any time. When finished, you can create a report of the results.

Batch compare only works for .DWG files generated in AutoCAD and .DWF files generated in Revit. This is because the individual entities and objects in these file types contain a unique object ID that allows Project Center compare to differentiate between unchanged, modified, and new objects.
You cannot batch compare .DWF files generated in AutoCAD and .DWG files generated from Revit or .PDF files.

Output to Printer

Choose this option to print the results on your printer. The baseline and revised drawings are printed overlapping each other.

Select Printer

If you want to select a different printer than the one listed, click to open the Print dialog box to select a different printer.

Make sure you are using a color printer so you can see the differences.

Output to PDF

Choose this option to output the results to a .PDF file.

Paper Size

Select the drawing's paper size from the drop-down list.

Output Folder

Click the icon to open the Select Folder dialog box to select the folder in which to save the .PDF file.

Ignore Lineweight

Mark this checkbox to ignore the drawing line weights and render them the smallest size possible to prevent overlapping in .PDFs. This method is recommended.

For example, in the Newforma Viewer, a line weight of two pixels appears as two pixels on the screen for AutoCAD and Microstation files, no matter how much you zoom in or out. As you zoom in or out, the line appears the same width. PDFs don’t follow that rule. As you zoom into a .PDF, the line becomes thicker. This becomes a problem when you try to publish a large, detailed AutoCAD drawing to a .PDF. In a .PDF, the lines become thicker and overlap each other as you zoom in. For example, if you have a line weight of 10, and two vertical lines at x = 0 and x = 5, the lines will overlap in a .PDF. Use this option to prevent that from happening.

Change Tolerance

If you want to ignore changes below a certain value, enter the value in the Change Tolerance field. Changes smaller than the toleranceIf an object in a drawing changes, even if it is moved by the tiniest amount, 1mm for example, it shows up as a change. The change tolerance feature enables you to ignore changes that are less than a certain size. You can set what that value is. The value is based on a ratio of the size of the change to the geometric size of the drawing. value will appear as unchanged and will be gray as indicated in the legend.

DWG Only Options

These options apply only to .DWG files:

• Choose Compare Model Space to ignore any changes that have been made to viewports in the saved layout of the revised drawing. This is useful when a viewport in a revised drawing’s saved layout has been moved, or the view within a viewport has been panned or zoomed to a different scale. In this case, all the geometry within the revised drawing’s modified viewport will appear to have changed, even if all the revised drawing’s actual model space coordinates are unchanged. When Compare Model Space is chosen, only the model spaces of each drawing are compared.

• Choose Compare Active Layout to compare the layout last saved in AutoCAD. it can be a model space layout or any of the paper space layouts.

Status

The status of the printing process appears here. Each file name is displayed as it is printing.

Report

Click to open the Create a Report dialog box to select the type of print report to create.

Start

Click to begin the batch print process.

The comparison will use the same color legend as the Compare Results window. The color legend does not appear in the printouts.

Batch print compares and prints the last saved version. For example, if the drawing was saved in Model Space, that is what is compared. If it was saved in Layout, that is what is compared.

 

To access this dialog box

Select one or more items from the list of compare results (at least one must have a status of Changed or Unchanged), then click Batch Print or Create PDF from the Tasks panel of the Compare Results window.

This task is not available for Excel spreadsheets.