Once a landscape design application such as gCADPlus has been installed on the Mac and your first design created, you will need to print the design. The Mac will not handle high resolution printing directly from gCADPlus. In order to print, it is necessary to install a ‘phantom’ printer called PDFWriter and print to it. The finished print can be sent directly to the client or taken to a service bureau for hard copy printing.
This movie runs through the steps required to download and install PDFWriter (v 1.2.1) on a Mac. We take a complex landscape design file and run a PDF print from an A3 sheet on a Mac under CrossOver.
Tip: Here is a link to an excellent step by step set of notes on installing PDFWriter. Of particular note is a ‘fix’ that enables the resolution to be set to 2400dpi and get access to a wide range of paper sizes.
When adding the printer, recent Mac OS versions may not automatically include
“Lisanet PDFwriter” in the “Use:” list. It will be set to “Generic Postscript Printer”. To
specify PDFWriter, you must choose “Other…” from the list, navigate to
“/Library/Printers/Lisanet/PDFWriter” and select “PDFwriter.ppd”.
To create PDF files instead of hard copy printouts, select “PDFwriter” as the printer in any of
print window. The created PDF file will be in the “/Users/Shared/PDFwriter/[user]”
folder (where [user] is the short name for your log in account).
After installing a new virtual printer on a Mac, we use PDFWriter to create a high resolution (2400 dpi) A2 print. It can be a little tricky to locate the print and we use the Mac Finder to guide to its location.
Troubleshooting\
Where are the PDF files?
Use Finder, navigate to your iMac, then to MacOs > Users > YourName > Shared > PDF
Cannot print all page sizes & resolution.
We have had several users report that although the PDFWriter works well, the full range of paper sizes (A0, A1 etc.) are not available and the print resolution is limited to 300 dpi, not the 2400 dpi shown in the movie. If this is the case, it is likely that the wrong PDF driver (possibly version 1.1) is installed instead of version 1.2.1. To remedy this, you need to remove the current driver(s) and install the later version.
Here are the steps to take to remove the old driver:
Open the Applications folder in the Mac Finder (if it doesn’t appear in the sidebar, go to the Menu Bar, open the “Go” menu, and select Applications in the list), search for the PDFwriter application by typing its name in the search field, and then drag it to the Trash container (in the dock) to begin the uninstall process.
*** Important warning ***
Once that has been done, switch the Finder focus to iCloud Drive and search for PDFWriter again. If you find another copy, drag it to the trash container to remove it.
Once all traces of PDFWriter have been removed, try installing the printer driver again making sure you download and use the PDFWriter install file called. PDFWriter_for_Mac_1.2.1.dmg
Tip from Apple support: Copy protection on the Mac may prevent opening the file. If so ..
On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Security & Privacy, then click Privacy. Select Files and Folders. Select the tick box below an app to allow it to access files and folders in that location. Unselect the tick box to turn off access for that app.