Designer unresponsive after exporting as PDF

[Ralf_Maeder]

This issue was already present in versions prior to 1.8 and is still present in the newest version.

I have a self-created Designer document that seems to be rather complex.
It consists of an embedded PDF file placed in the background, which is a floorplan exported as PDF from AutoCad. I tried to import it directly into Designer and make it editable, but the software is painfully slow when doing so. So I decided it to embed it and this way I was able to make it manageable as a background in combination with the foreground layers that I created ontop of it.
These foreground elements are a dozen layers, each of them contains maybe 50 simple foursided poligons.

Once I export de document, in this case as a PDF, Designer exports the document but afterwards it maintains unresponsive to any input or clicking on menues, just scrolling and scaling the artboard with the mouse is possible. I have to terminate the software in order to start it up once again and from then on it works normally until I decide to export the same file again.

This does not happen with other (simplier?) files, just with this document. Still, I need to create a new variant each month where I edit the colors of the foursided poligons. I don't make changes to the embedded Floorplan.

Ralf Maeder

 

[Joachim_L]

The AUTOCAD files I used so far were quite complex, so AD could choke on processing this file. Is it possible for you to upload the ADesigner file plus the CAD PDF as a separate file? 

[Ralf_Maeder]

Hello Joachim, following your observation, I created a new Affinity document where I deleted the embedded PDF. This way the document weighs just about 500 KB. The original PDF is about 6.4MB and was exported from Autocad. I have no access to create the Autocad export on my own.

Once having embedded the PDF into the document and scaled it to full size of the artboard size, the Affinity document size increases to 38 MB. This is the moment where exporting causes the above mentioned issue.

Find attached the document and the PDF. 

Looking forward to you input.

Ralf Maeder

Without embedded file.afdesign GEOMET.SEP19_vector.pdf

[Joachim_L]

Wow, what a beast of a PDF! I tried the following things:

1) Optimizing with highest available PDF level in Acrobat. Result: AD is unresponsive.

2) Saving again in Illustrator CS6 as PDF. Result: Even Illustrator took "ages" to open the file. AD is unresponsive.

3) Optimizing with lowest available PDF level in Acrobat. Result: AD is unresponsive.

4) Saving in Illustrator CS6 as EPS. Result: AD is unresponsive.

5) Printing to PDF again from Acrobat. Result: AD is unresponsive.

6) Saving as JPG from Acrobat. Result: AD is responsive, but the background is a raster file.

Still having a question though. The creator of the PDF is AD 1.7x, is there any chance getting the original PDF made from AutoCAD?

My conclusion: This PDF is far too complex to be placed inside any Affinity application. The only chances I see is placing the file in a programme which is not breaking up the PDF to make it editable or converting the PDF to a raster file. Sorry for the bad news ... from my side / experience.

 

[Sean P]

Hi Ralf_Maeder,

Thanks for attaching the files - I've reproduced this and will get it passed on to development to see if anything can be done!

 

[Ralf_Maeder]

Dear Joachim, thank you very much for your extensive testing. Concerning the file header of the PDF, you may be correct and that I exported it from Affinity Designer, which I couldn't remember. Here I attach the original PDF that was handed over to me, supposedly exported from AutoCad.

Since all my attempts to make the imported PDF data manegeable in Designer failed, I opted to embed the PDF file instead. It is a viable workaround in this case, but the hanging of Affinity Designer after the export is annoying.

Dear Sean P, I appreciate you looking into this matter.

Ralf Maeder

 

GEOMET.SEP19pdf.pdf

[Joachim_L]

Sorry, but I have to give up on this. If it is true, the PDF contains nearly 1 million elements. Inkscape won't import. Illustrator opens, but you can't work with the file. Trying to simplify paths won't help.

Perhaps my average PC is simply too weak and you need to buy the new 60000 $ Mac.

Only solution for ME, would be to convert the PDF to a raster image.

[Ralf_Maeder]

Joachim, when I was struggling with the PDF at the beginning, I also tried to use a raster image instead, but I wasn't happy with loosing so much fidelity when zooming in (since the file is for the sales department, they don't care for tecnical limitations but want to zoom in towards an individual plot of land.)

Once I placed the PDF like it would be an image file, instead of opening it as a document (which would have forced Designer to process it), Designer generated an embedded PDF file. I was able to have the full resolution, vectorized floorplan right inside of Designer, even if it was not directly editeable, which was of not so big concern in this case. 

In other words, I have found that embedding the PDF file has a big advantage towards rasterizing it.

Oh, and just for the record, Designer exports a perfectly usable PDF file, even in this case, with selectable layers just like I wanted. The only problem is that the software is unresponsive after every export and its process has to be terminated (I use Process Lasso for that purpose). Also it would be great if Designer could manage these complex files even better and maybe one day make them editeable without a lot of hickups.

Greetings,

Ralf Maeder