Tab Export (User, PDF Export)

You define the default settings for the export in this tab. When exporting individual pages or an entire project in PDF format, only one file is created regardless of the selection.

Overview of the main dialog elements:

Page filter:

From this drop-down list, select a page filter that you created as a scheme in the page navigator. A filter selected in this way will be saved in the PDF export scheme. If the saved filter no longer exists, the export is canceled and message is displayed.

A chosen filter is activated automatically. The entry "- Not activated -" deactivates the filter and causes an unfiltered display of the data.

Export medium:

You use this group box to specify the export medium to which it is to be output:

Storage medium: If this option is selected, the PDF file is output to a storage medium.
Enter the storage location in the Output directory field. You can specify any drive and subdirectory as the target for the export.
Click [...] to open the Select directory dialog and then navigate to the desired directory, or create a new one.
You can use the Insert path variable popup menu item to branch to the dialog Select path variable where you can select one of the available path variables.
E-Mail: If this option is selected, the PDF file is sent as an e-mail. When you call this function, the PDF file is compressed with the internal zip program and your installed e-mail editor is started.
From the Split size drop-down list select the maximum size for an individual e-mail file. The possible values are 1 MB to 10 MB in 1 MB increments, or you can select "Unlimited". EPLAN automatically creates the number of e-mail files required to send the whole project. All individual mails in the group will have this text in the subject line: "<File name> n/m". "n" is the number of the individual e-mail file and "m" is the overall quantity of the files.

Note:

A MAPI-based e-mail client must be installed and correctly set up on your computer in order to exchange e-mails. For this reason the e-mail app of Windows 8^® cannot be used either.

Generate file names:

In this drop-down list you specify the default method for allocating names when exporting PDF files:

From the page names: If you select this option, EPLAN assigns names to the PDF files in a standard way using the pattern <Page name>.PDF.
From properties: If you select this option, the file name is compiled from the project properties plus any freely-definable separators. Use the [...] button to open the Format: Property dialog to configure the file name.

Generate subdirectories:

In this drop-down list you specify the default method for generating subdirectories when exporting PDF files:

None: If you select this option, no subdirectories are generated during the export.
From page tree: If you select this option, subdirectories that reflect the project structure are automatically generated during the export. If there is already a higher-level function =Higher-level function1 in the project, for example, a subdirectory =Higher-level function1 is created and all the associated pages are exported to it.
From properties: If you select this option, the substructure name is compiled from the project properties plus any freely-definable separators. Use the [...] button to open the Format: Property dialog to configure the file name. Here you can use the "directory separator" format element, for example, to generate a directory structure with multiple subdirectories arranged one below the other.

Output:

Use this group box to specify how the files are to be output:

Color: Select this option if you want to output the PDF file in color. Then all the elements will be printed in colors corresponding to the "Color on white" color scheme.
Black and white: Select this option if you want all the elements on the project pages (apart from image files) to be printed in black on a white background. Image files are always output in their original colors.
Grayscale: Select this option if you want the PDF to be output in grayscale. Grayscales are calculated from the colors for the white color scheme.

Use print margins:

If this check box is selected, the print margins defined in the print settings are also used for PDF exports. As soon as a print margin has been set, a corresponding empty region is produced in the PDF pages. This produces a border when printing the pages from the Acrobat Reader.

If the check box is deselected then the print margins are not taken into account. This means that a border for punching holes may possibly not exist when the pages generated from EPLAN are printed from the Acrobat Reader.