The Save As PDF option is found on the gCADPlus File drop-down menu. Its purpose is to provide users with the ability to present (print) designs in which (as shown below) transparency has been applied to entities in the design. In gCADPlus, any entity such as a circle, polygon, or closed polyline which initially has a transparency value of 255 (full color) may have that value set to a lower value. This option is typically used when there is a need to view understory planting through symbols indicating canopy planting. Printing these designs is challenging, but can be dealt with using this Save As PDF option on the File drop-down menu.
The image below comes from a design from a revegetation project for some school surroundings. Symbols used for the upper canopy were created using a single circle with the fill option in the gCADPlus properties box applied. In most cases, a transparency value of 100 was set giving about 30% transparency.
The PDFSave command in gCADPlus generates a PDF file that shows transparency in planting symbols and other entities. Here we show a design for a revegetation project where the upper canopy symbols have transparency applied. This enables understory planting to show through in a PDF file.
Tip: Printing a design in which transparency has been used to PDF writers such as CutePDF is not recommended and should be avoided. We have not been able to locate a PDF writer that produces satisfactory results.
We show how to edit and print a landscape design to PDF at high resolution and at a scale of 1:100 when the drawing contains symbols with transparency.
Here is a link with more information on the use of transparent symbols in a design from the Imperial (USA) environment.
Here is a link to a palette of symbols with transparency applied to them.