Batch Publishing

The Publish command exports a series of sheet layers and/or saved views from the current drawing and externally-referenced files to DXF/DWG or DWF format. Vectorworks Design Series users can also export to PDF or Image formats, or output to a printer with this command.

The publish list and options can be saved as a set. The list order can be changed, and each item can be published in either color or black and white. If the Issue Manager is in use (Vectorworks Architect or Vectorworks Landmark required), sheets and views can be sorted by issue date for quick publishing.

Set the visibility of layers and classes in the viewports/views. All visible and grayed layers are published. Invisible layers and classes are not printed, or published to PDF or DWF; they can be published as invisible DXF/DWG layers, if the option is selected in the DXF/DWG Export Options dialog box. Each sheet layer or saved view is published as a separate file.

Parameter	Description
Sheets and Saved Views Available (Available list)	Lists the sheet layers and saved views present in the current file (indicated with <Active File> in the File Name column) and, if specified, within the selected folder (indicated with a file name and path). Click in a column header to sort the sheets and views by the column parameter. For example, click in the Issue Date column to sort by the Issue Manager issue date (Vectorworks Architect or Vectorworks Landmark required). Sheets and saved views from restored sets that cannot be found display in red and cannot be published.
Show All Items	As items are added to the publish list, keeps them in the available list. If you need to publish an item to multiple formats (for example, to both print (Vectorworks Design Series required) and export to DWF), select this option to show all sheet layers and saved views in the file, whether or not they have been selected to be published. Deselecting this option will cause an item to disappear from the Available list when you add it to the Publish list.
Folder path	Displays the most recently selected project folder and file path, for including sheet layers and saved views from other Vectorworks files within the folder
Select Folder	Opens the Choose Project Folder (Mac) or Select Folder (Windows) dialog box; select a project folder, including any subfolders, that contains sheet layers and saved views to be published. Once a project folder has been selected, all saved views and sheet layers from Vectorworks files within the folder (and any subfolders) are automatically added to the available list. Files must be the same version as the active file.
Add New Items as	Sets the default Publish To value for each item that is added to the Publish list (DWG/DXF or DWF). If Vectorworks Design Series is installed, Print, PDF, and Image options are also available.
Add	Adds one or more selected item(s) from the Available list to the end of the Publish list
Add All	Adds all sheet layers/saved views in the Available list to the end of the Publish list
Remove	Removes one or more selected item(s) from the Publish list
Remove All	Removes all sheet layers and saved views from the Publish list
Set to Publish	Select a previously saved set to publish
Save a Set	Saves the current publish set in the current file, to be restored later; see Saving a Publish Set
Manage Sets	Manages saved file sets, and restores a previously-saved set of sheets and views for publishing; see Restoring a Saved Publish Set
Sheets and Saved Views to Publish (Publish list)	Lists the sheet layers/saved views to be published; to change the list order, use the cursor to drag and drop the items in the # column. Click Color for each item to toggle between color and black and white.
Publish To	Select one or more items in the publish list and then select from this list to change the output format (DWG/DXF or DWF). If Vectorworks Design Series is installed, Print, PDF, and Image options are also available.
Options	Opens the appropriate dialog box to set the options for the currently selected item: ● DWG/DXF and DWF: see DXF/DWG and DWF Export Options ● Print (Vectorworks Design Series required): see Printing a File ● PDF (Vectorworks Design Series required): see Exporting PDF Files ● Image (Vectorworks Design Series required): see Exporting an Image File; some image export options are not available when publishing All items of a specific type that are added to the publish list will default to the user specified options if left unchanged.
Export PDFs as Separate Files (Vectorworks Design Series required)	For items to be published to PDF, exports each selected sheet layer and saved view as a separate PDF file; deselect this option to create a single PDF file only
Open Destination Folder upon Completion	After publishing, opens the containing folder for published files
Create Folder for Each File Type	Creates a folder for each file type within the destination folder Certain publish formats, such as DWG/DXF, require subfolders for output organization, even when this option is deselected.

3. Select available items from the available list on the left side of the dialog box, and use the buttons in the middle of the window to move them to the publish list on the right side of the dialog box. The Publish To column in the right pane indicates the current output setting for each item. To publish an item to multiple formats, Show All Items must be selected; add the item to the publish list multiple times, and specify a different format for each one.

4. Verify that the output options for each item are set appropriately, and then click Publish.

6. If PDF, DWG/DXF, DWF, or Image is a selected publish format, the Select Folders dialog box opens. Specify a location for the output folders.

7. Click OK. The output files are printed or created based on the selected settings. Within the specified output folder, a subfolder is created for each type of output file. A publish log file is created in the same location, which summarizes the results of the publish job.

Saving a Publish Set

You can save the current publish settings to be reused later. The set of sheet layers and saved views, along with their color settings, list order, and publish method, are saved in the file. If the file set contains sheet layers and views from a selected folder, specify how to save the path relative to the current file.

The PDF, Image, and Print publish options are available in Vectorworks Design Series only. Items that were saved with PDF, Image, or Print options will not display if the saved set is opened with Vectorworks Fundamentals.

Parameter	Description
Name	Enter a unique name for the set
Absolute path	Sets an absolute path to files used by the saved set. Use the absolute path when the location of the referenced files with respect to the current file is not going to change.
Path relative to the active document	Sets a relative path to files used by the saved set. Use the relative path when the files might be moved to another computer or platform; as long as the relative path between the files remains the same, the referenced files can be found. All files must be saved on the same volume or server to select this option.
Open Destination Folder upon Completion	Select to open the containing folder for the saved set
Create Folder for Each File Type	Select to create a folder for each file type in destination folder
Export PDFs as Separate Files (Vectorworks Design Series required)	Select to publish each sheet layer or saved view as a separate PDF file

2. Click OK. The settings are saved with the file and are available for future publish jobs.

Restoring a Saved Publish Set

Parameter	Description
List of saved sets	Lists the currently saved sets by name; select a set to edit, recall, or delete it
Edit	Opens the Edit Saved Set dialog box; rename the set and/or change the file path style (relative or absolute)
Delete	Deletes the currently selected saved set(s)
Recall	Restores the list of saved views and sheet layers, along with their settings, to the export list in the Publish dialog box

3. Click Recall. The settings for the selected saved set display in the Publish dialog box.

If the saved set references external files and a file, sheet layer, or saved view from the set cannot be located, you are prompted to manually locate a missing file, or warned that sheets or views are missing. Missing sheets and views display in red in the Publish dialog box, and are not included in the publish job.