Removing AutoCAD SHX comments from a PDF 10/30/2017

There are several ways to remove the AutoCAD SHX comments from a PDF before submittal.
The first way is to prevent AutoCAD from creating the comments when exporting your drawings
to a PDF. Instructions for that can be found on AutoDesk’s website Here

• https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdca
rticles/Drawing-text-appears-as-Comments-in-a-PDF-created-by-AutoCAD.html
If you do not have the right version of AutoCAD for that to work, or do not wish to modify
Windows Registry settings, you can also use a PDF editing program such as Adobe Acrobat
Pro DC to optimize the PDF. This is recommended anyway, as you will also want to Flatten
your PDF (remove layers) before submitting to the City for review.
These instructions will be specific to Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. If you do not have a PDF editing
program on your computer that is capable of what is described in these instructions, we DO
have 4 kiosk computers in the Development Services 1st floor lobby at 55 N Center St that have
Adobe Acrobat Pro DC installed and available for use.

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC Document Optimization Steps:

1. Open the PDF you’re looking to Optimize
2. Make sure that it opens with Adobe Acrobat Pro DC. (right click the PDF, choose Open
With and select Adobe Acrobat Pro DC
3. Go to Tools > Optimize PDF > Advanced Optimization

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4. Under “Discard Objects” select all of the options, but don’t click “OK” yet.

5. Under “Discard User Data” select ALL but the second option. The most important ones
to have selected are the first, third, and last options:
a. Discard all Comments, forms and multimedia
b. Discard all object data
c. Discard hidden layer content and flatten visible layers.

6. Click “OK”

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7. Once Optimization is finished, Click on Tools > Comments to make sure that no
comments appear in the document

8. That’s it! You’re ready to submit. Make sure you save a copy of the Optimized file
separately from your original copy in case you need to make additional changes before
the optimization process.

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A few important notes:

• If you received an “Incomplete submittal” due to AutoCAD text, you will need to upload
the optimized drawings to the correct record number in DIMES. Once you upload the
new documents, email permitservices@mesaaz.gov to notify the City that the PDF has
been fixed. Include the record number (PMT17-xxxxx) in your email.
• Why does the City of Mesa require documents to be Optimized before submittal?
o There are a couple reasons.
 The software we are using to complete the electronic review submittals
utilizes the Comments section of PDFs for document review. If there are
comments in that section when the document is submitted, those
comments can cause confusion and clutter when our plan reviewers go to
review a document. Actual comments from our staff can get buried under
the potentially thousands of AutoCAD SHX “comments” and can easily
get lost.
 Performance. Because the Comments on documents are synced with the
cloud based review software, it can take a much longer time to initiate a
review of a submittal. What would normally take 10-15 seconds to open a
document can take 2-5 minutes or more depending on the document size.
That significantly reduces the productivity time of our reviewers.
• As mentioned previously, we DO have 4 kiosk workstations available to use with Adobe
Acrobat Pro DC in the Development Services lobby at 55 N Center St if you do not have
a PDF editing program available.

If you have any questions at all, feel free to give DIMES Support a call at 480-644-3338

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