The Adobe
Portable Document Format (PDF) facilitates exchanging drawing sets electronically. An electronic drawing set is the digital equivalent of a set of plotted drawings.
PDF files can be easily distributed for viewing and plotting using the free, downloadable Adobe Acrobat software. You can send a published PDF file as an e-mail attachment, share it using a project collaboration site such as Autodesk A360, or post it to a company website.
Like DWF files, PDF files are generated in a vector-based format conducive to maintaining precision. Drawings that are converted to PDF can be easily distributed for viewing and printing in Adobe Reader, versions 7 or later, available from the Adobe website.
Unlike DWF or DGN files, multi-page PDF files are attached one page at a time (as opposed to one sheet at a time for DWF files or one model at a time for DGN files). Also, hypertext links from PDF files are converted to straight text, and digital signatures are not supported.