...Because I can't find the time to do the epic post on Publisher in AC10, I'll just let the info drift out a bit at a time.
For 10, I'm strongly encouraging everyone to use Publisher as much as they can. How do I perform this encouragement? By building a lot of Publisher sets into the templates. The goal is to always use Publisher for all standard printing, PDF, and DWG output. All the pertinent info is stored in the Publisher sets, so you don't have to worry about it: Page setup, DWG translation, whatever.
For any Publisher set, you can publish the whole thing or select items and publish only those.
Here I will describe the basic parameters of the three main types of Publisher sets.
Printing
• Publishing Properties: "Print". That's it.
• CD layouts are set to E size (30x42) by default. (This is true across the template. The layouts are set to E masters, and the Sheet Area object is set to E size.) If your CDs will be D size, you must change the size in all three places.
• Schematic and existing layouts are set to C size by default.
• Sizes C, D, and E are set to print on the plotter, obviously. B (11x14) and letter size are set to the small printer.
• Publishing Properties: "Save Files". In the templates, the path is blank. In a developed project file, the path should be 1 Projects/[ProjectName]/2 Output/Publisher Outbox. Use 'Flat file structure'.
• A PDF Publisher set must have a 'top folder'. Within this folder are the items to be published, and/or links to subsets of the layout book. The name of this folder will become the name of the published PDF file.
• Under the Format tab at the bottom, the file type is PDF. The paper size (E by default) is set under 'Page Options'. Most PDF sets should 'Merge to one PDF file'. This is set by checking the box with the top folder highlighted.
Please note: This 'Save Files' method is the only way to get PDFs from Archicad. OS X's built-in PDF printing does not work in AC. (Guess what happens? You get a single sheet PDF containing only the last sheet published. Sweet.) In 9, you would print PDFs. In 10, you must save them.
DWG
• Publishing Properties: "Save Files". In the templates, the path is blank. In a developed project file, the path should be 1 Projects/[ProjectName]/2 Output/Publisher Outbox. Use 'Real folder structure'. (Note the difference compared to PDFs!)
• Under the Format tab at the bottom, the file type is DWG. The default DWG Translator, set via the Options button, is 'Export Default 2002'. If you are certain the consultant has ACAD 2004 or later, you can use 'Export Default 2004'.
• A DWG Publisher set must have a 'top folder'. This results in a single folder in the Publisher Outbox. (Select the top folder to change the translator for the whole set at once.)
All file output (PDF, DWG, others in the future) goes to the Publisher Outbox of the project. From there, all files must be moved to their proper output folder. Use the 'Append Date' application to do this. If you don't move them, they will be overwritten with the next Publication.