PDF Generate

[Thiago_C]

I need help PDF Generate....please, can someone help me?

[ASTDan]

Take a look at this

PDF Tookkit for LabVIEW

I use Cute PDF to create pdf non programatically

Hope that helps

[jgcode]

I use Cute PDF to create pdf non programatically

I like this app too, have always wanted to check out the api to see if I could build a wrapper for LabVIEW but you have to pay to get the SDK.

I think I looked at this code once too and associated app

But UAC in Vista was blocking the app and I had to switch it off to get it to work.

I didn't like this, so I left it - but it did work (and it was free).

[Michael Aivaliotis]

Most PDF apps show up as printers in Windows. I assume you want to print from LabVIEW. Just perform a printing action as you normally would through LabVIEW and select the PDF writer as your printer.

[crelf]

There's also this from Matrix Consultants.

[Wim]

Hi,

I once used PDF Creator.

if you install scripting support it comes with a few examples. I used a print script together with system exec.vi so i could programmaticaly give it a filename to use (no annoying popups)

Greetz

Wim

[Antoine Chalons]

I think Mike is right, for many use cases having a small soft that adds a printer to your list and generates a PDF instead of printing paper.

We've used PDF Factory ($50) with many different customer, they're happy with this solution.

[hooovahh]

I've used PDFCreator in the past for generating PDFs using the print to PDF feature.  I remember one particular version had a .NET API so that you could have a little more control.  This also allowed it to work without having to change what the default printer on the system was.

[Ryan Podsim]

I've used PDFCreator in the past also and found it's worked well. More recently I've used iTextSharp, which is a .NET adaptation of iText, and had good luck with it. Admittedly, I haven't done any fancy or detailed PDF reports.

 

Side note: I may need to update our internal report library to make use of the new features.

[smarlow]

This is an old thread, but rather than start a new one, I thought I would reply here with some code.  I wrote a subVI that uses the COM interface of the latest version of PDF Creator (2.1).  It takes a VI ref as an input and prints the front panel to a PDF programmatically.  It also sets the file name so there is no pop-up.  You will need to install PDF Creator 2.1 and enable Auto-Save manually in the profile settings.  All I can say is it works for me.  If it doesn't work for you, you might have to fiddle with it.  Buy, hey, it's free!

Print VI panel to PDF.vi

[hooovahh]

Recently the PDF creating toolkit using ItextSharp by Exaprom has been updated to version 2.0.

 

https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-10952

 

The toolkit is very well put together and I've used it on a couple projects.  The example generates the manual for the toolkit, and it is pretty impressive to see all the features of the toolkit demonstrated, by generating the user manual.

[ShaunR]

Recently the PDF creating toolkit using ItextSharp by Exaprom has been updated to version 2.0.

 

https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-10952

 

The toolkit is very well put together and I've used it on a couple projects.  The example generates the manual for the toolkit, and it is pretty impressive to see all the features of the toolkit demonstrated, by generating the user manual.

 

Ooooh, that's a bit sexy-have a like! I think you have just given me have a brain-wave (maybe a brain-fart, difficult to tell at the moment)

 

I've been thinking a bit about the SQLite API for LabVIEW recently because it has been pretty much feature complete for a while now and no-one is requesting any new features and either there are no bugs or no-one is telling me.

 

Your post to that software has given me the embryo of an idea of a possible improvement to the library. It can already export data to CSV and SQL, mainly for archiving purposes, but what about PDF (or HTML for that matter) for report generation?. I think it might be nice to be able to generate reports directly from a DB and squirt them out to, say, PDF.

 

I'll have to have a think on this.Thanks for pointing out that software.

Edited May 28, 2015 by ShaunR

[Jordan Kuehn]

Recently the PDF creating toolkit using ItextSharp by Exaprom has been updated to version 2.0.

 

https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-10952

 

The toolkit is very well put together and I've used it on a couple projects.  The example generates the manual for the toolkit, and it is pretty impressive to see all the features of the toolkit demonstrated, by generating the user manual.

 

Well now I'm unhappy we paid for this awhile back.  http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/211148

[hooovahh]

Well now I'm unhappy we paid for this awhile back.  http://sine.ni.com/nips/cds/view/p/lang/en/nid/211148

Well they aren't the same, or made by the same company.  There are likely features available in one and not the other, and you likely paid for any support you needed.

 

That being said I'm super impressed with the Exaprom one and wouldn't mind paying (a reasonable) fee if I needed it.

[Jordan Kuehn]

Well they aren't the same, or made by the same company.  There are likely features available in one and not the other, and you likely paid for any support you needed.

 

That being said I'm super impressed with the Exaprom one and wouldn't mind paying (a reasonable) fee if I needed it.

 

From the comments I see that there is some sort of vague licensing requirement for commercial use.

[Jean-Marc]

The "Custom PDF Generator for LabVIEW - Simplicity AI" and "Exaprom PDF" are both based on "iTextSharp 4.1.6".  They have the same licensing requirement.

 

Il you take a look at the end user license agreement (EULA) for Simplicity AI (\LabVIEW 201X\vi.lib\Simplicity AI\SAI_PDF_API\PDF_Toolkit_EULA.pdf"):

 

"14.1 The software includes and uses the ItextSharp version 4.1.6 open source PDF library, which is licensed under LGPL (GNU Lesser General Public License)."

 

Jean-Marc