Convert layered Visio documents to PDF files

A Microsoft® Office Visio document may contain many layers of information. For example, in a single Visio document, you can show the layout of your office on the background, and overlay drawings of network cables, telephone connections, and electrical circuits, each on its own layer. You can toggle layers on and off to view one layer or a combination of layers against the background.

What happens to those layers when you convert your Visio files to Adobe® PDF files? Do they remain intact?  You decide. You can preserve the layers and their visibility using PDFMaker in Visio. Layers can be converted intact, or the document can be flattened, which is PDFMaker’s default. If the layers are flattened, the PDF document looks like the original Visio drawing, but all the content is on a single layer.

Layers are converted using the settings you choose in Visio’s Layer Properties dialog, such as visibility, locks, and names.

Convert a Visio document to a PDF file

As with the other PDFMaker 7 options, you can select from basic conversion options in the Adobe PDF program menu. You can also choose Adobe PDF > Convert All Pages in Drawing. In addition, you can choose options to support searchable text, links, comments, and bookmarks.

Choose Adobe PDF > Change Conversion Settings to open the Conversion Settings dialog. The Application Settings are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Choose layer and object options in the Application Settings area of the Conversion Settings dialog in Visio.

Tip: You can embed object data in a Visio file. Object data consists of custom information about aspects of the drawing or its elements. This data can then be viewed in Acrobat.

The conversion process in Visio uses a number of dialogs. Click the Convert to Adobe PDF icon on the PDFMaker toolbar, or choose Adobe PDF > Convert to PDF to start the process. The first pane of the dialog deals with the drawing’s object data; click the check box to select whether or not object data is included. Include the object data if you think you may want to use it for searching—a useful option in a large or complex project. Click Continue to proceed to the next pane of the dialog.

Choose the layering option for the selected page or the document if you chose Adobe PDF > Convert all Pages in Drawing from the Adobe PDF program menu (Figure 2). Click the appropriate radio button to flatten all layers, retain all layers, or retain only some layers. Unless you intend your users to work with different combinations of layers in the PDF document, leave the default Flatten all layers option selected (see the sidebar for examples). Click Continue.

Figure 2: Choose how you want to use layers in the exported PDF document.

Note: In some cases, you should flatten a document to preserve its integrity, such as drawings that are certified by an engineer. In other cases, feel free to layer away. A layered PDF document can be a terrific advertising tool. Instead of showing your customer one product image and some color swatches, put the alternate colors on different layers and let your client click through bookmarked layers, viewing the product in its varying colors.

If you choose to preserve some layers, the next pane of the dialog shows lists of the layers in the document (Figure 3). The layers in the drawing are listed in the left column. Click a layer in the Layers in Visio Drawing column and then click Add Layer(s) to add that layer to the Layers in PDF column.

Figure 3: Choose and organize the layers for export.

Regardless of the layer option you choose, the final pane describes your layering choice. To save a step, click “Don’t show this step again,” which then bypasses the layer conversion confirmation and converts the document automatically.

Click Convert to PDF to create the output. A Save Adobe PDF File As dialog opens; locate the folder and name the file if you wish; by default the file is named according to the Visio file and stored in the source file’s folder on your hard drive. Click Save to process the file and create the PDF.

Note: If you are unsure which layering option to select, click Help at the bottom left of the dialog to show a pop-up window that describes the layering options.

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