Print to PDF may take a long time or fails in Revit

Autodesk Support

Feb 10, 2025

Products and versions covered

Issue:

Users reported that, when printing from Revit to PDF using the Adobe PDF printer (or other printers), the following results are encountered:

  • Printing takes a long time.

  • The progress bar in the dialog box stops/hangs.

  • The dialog box will be unresponsive.

  • PDF files can only be created one sheet at a time ("Combine multiple... into a single file" does not work).

  • Revit may crash at some point without printing the PDF when using vector processing.

  • Revit may print the previous job instead of the current selection set.

  • Opening the folder to save the PDF is slow.

Environment:

  • Adobe Acrobat.

  • Bluebeam PDF printer.

  • Cute PDF.

Status:

Investigation of this incident is complete. Third-party factors were identified, and a resolution within the Autodesk software is not possible.

Additional Information:

When printing large sets of views, the first view is processed. However, eventually, the printer processing dialog box (from Acrobat/Bluebeam) stops updating, even after Revit has finished sending all the views to the printer.

Workaround:

To resolve this issue, try the following:

 

Disable 3rd party add-ons

 

Update PDF software

  • Make sure that the latest updates are installed for Acrobat/Bluebeam.

 

Revit 2022 (and later)

  • Try using the native PDF exporter.
  • If you would prefer to continue using third party PDF printer, the solutions below can also be used with 2022 and newer versions of Revit.

 

Revit 2021 (and earlier)

  • Option A: Specify PDF Output directory; Do not "Prompt for File Name". 
    1. Open the "Printing Preferences" for the Adobe PDF printer. See details in Adobe Acrobat Help: Adobe PDF printing preferences (Windows)
    2. In the "Printing Preferences" dialog, click the Adobe PDF Settings tab
    3. For Adobe PDF Output Folder, browse to a specific folder where you want PDFs to be created
    4. For Bluebeam PDF printer: In the Bluebeam Administrator Printer tag, deselect the "Prompt for File Name" checkbox.
    5. Make sure that the "Prompt for Adobe PDF file name" and "Rely on System Fonts" options are NOT selected
    6. Click OK.
  • Option B: Use a different PDF printer: PDF export/print options in Revit.

Note: If printing issues are occurring for PDF printers other than Acrobat/Bluebeam or when using the native PDF export, this article would not apply. See the following link for more PDF troubleshooting: Print AND PDF.

Products:

Revit Product Family;

Incident ID:

90220

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