Launch 7cad Forge PDF from StartMenu >>> 7cad >>> 7cad Forge PDF.exe, or from the desktop shortcut, or from Add-ins tab if you are in Autodesk® AutoCAD®.

The app must work with Forge server to get some updated info, license info from the product's web page, etc. Therefore, you must let Windows grant the app permission to access the internet.

At the start, the [Drawings] textbox is automatically filled with a direct link to a sample drawings folder. You can just click [Run Publish] and see how the publishing command processes.

Once it has succeeded, the app switches to Result tab. Click the [Download Output] button to download the result to your local PC as a drawings.zip file.

To run your custom work, click the [Drawings] button to select a folder of drawings. Look to the right, select a plotter name. Note that if you select "Use default plotter saved in each drawings", make sure those plotters are available "globally". For example, plotter like "Xerox 15" is a physical printer, available in your local office only, not Forge server. Custom plotter like "7cad PDF.pc3" is ok, but you need to upload "7cad PDF.pc3" and "7cad PDF.pmp" files to the working folder, via [Custom-Files] button.

You can save your working session in Run tab to a file to reopen it later.

Besides publishing, there are alternative options for the process:

+ Attach a lisp file to load at every drawing

+ Run but no publishing, just load the lisp file which should contain some script to execute

+ If you are an advanced user or developer, you can go to AppBundles tab to upload some custom app bundles and run its custom command via the lisp file

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HOW IT WORKS

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There are more than 2 apps working together, so, here is an explaination of the terms:

+ The 7cad Forge PDF app you are using is a Windows app installed on your PC.

+ Publishing works take place over the cloud, in a Forge server that runs AutoCAD.

+ To do it, it installs itself as an "app bundle" to the server.

+ Therefore, it needs to login into a Forge App account.

+ Note that a Forge App is not an app. It is a registered place in the Forge server. Advanced users and developers log in to their Forge App and install add-in apps to the server. Then, they command the server to run AutoCAD and load add-in apps.

+ The default Forge App account when you run this app is my own one. Forge is not for free. It costs money when you run AutoCAD on it. Therefore, if you are using my default Forge App, there is a limitation: You can run publishing up to about 18 drawings with it only.

+ To run the app in full, you must create a Forge App under your own Autodesk account. No coding required here. Sign in to your Autodesk account at https://forge.autodesk.com/myapps/ and click [Create App].

+ Remember when creating the Forge App, your app must have Design Automation and Data Management services enabled.

+ Get the ClientID and ClientSecret of your Forge App. Back to the 7cad Forge PDF window and click [Log in another Forge App].

+ After selecting the drawings, select plotter, click [Run], the app will install itself as an "app bundle" to the server under your Forge App account. Switch to the AppBundles tab and you can see the 7CAD FORGE PDF bundle in the list.

+ For your information, the pricing to run a Forge app is explained here: https://forge.autodesk.com/pricing. It costs about 4$ credit per 1 hour of running, hence, about 100 drawings, depends on how complicated your drawing and tasks are.

The installer that ran when you downloaded this plug-in from Autodesk App Store has already installed the plug-in. You may need to restart the Autodesk product to activate the plug-in. To uninstall this plug-in, click Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features (Windows 7/8.1/10) or Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs (Windows XP), and uninstall as you would any other application from your system.