Issues processing PDF files with SDL SDK

Question

Hi all, 
 
 It seems that Trados SDK has problems processing PDF files(this happens on analyze files although the scanning task for the file said it is translatable by Trados).The code is the same as in SDK examples.The error appears at Sdl.ProjectApi.AutomaticTasks.Conversion.ConversionTask: 
 
 " 2013-10-16 08:46:22,191 [2016] INFO Sdl.ProjectApi.AutomaticTasks.Conversion.ConversionTask - ProcessFile: getting filter manager 
 2013-10-16 08:46:22,191 [2016] INFO Sdl.ProjectApi.AutomaticTasks.Conversion.ConversionTask - ProcessFile: getting converter 
 2013-10-16 08:46:22,191 [2016] INFO Sdl.ProjectApi.AutomaticTasks.Conversion.ConversionTask - ProcessFile: checking source language 
 2013-10-16 08:46:22,191 [2016] INFO Sdl.ProjectApi.AutomaticTasks.Conversion.ConversionTask - ProcessFile: checking target language 
 2013-10-16 08:46:22,191 [2016] INFO Sdl.ProjectApi.AutomaticTasks.Conversion.ConversionTask - ProcessFile: converting file 
 2013-10-16 08:46:37,838 [2128] ERROR Sdl.ProjectApi.AutomaticTasks.Conversion.ConversionTask - Failed in Framework.dll PdfConverterCreate( 0) == Fail 
 at Sdl.FileTypeSupport.Native.PDF.PDFPreTweaker.TweakFilePreParsing(IPersistentFileConversionProperties properties, IPropertiesFactory propertiesFactory) 
 at Sdl.FileTypeSupport.Framework.Integration.FileExtractor.RunFileTweakersPreParsing(IPersistentFileConversionProperties properties) 
 at Sdl.FileTypeSupport.Framework.Integration.FileExtractor.ParseNext() 
 at Sdl.FileTypeSupport.Framework.Integration.MultiFileConverter.ParseNext() 
 at Sdl.FileTypeSupport.Framework.Integration.MultiFileConverter.Parse() 
 at Sdl.ProjectApi.AutomaticTasks.Conversion.ConversionTask.ProcessFile(IExecutingTaskFile executingTaskFile)" 
 
 I should add that this error appears intermittently.Do you know what could be the problem?Do you have a fix for it?

Daniel Brockmann · Answer

Hi Walter and mirimie, 
 Sorry for taking longer to answer this. This is very likely caused by problematic or invalid documents - we tried reproducing this multiple times using the PowerShell toolkit (available elsewhere on this forum) and projects with PDF files were created without any issues. Note that automating PDF files conversion on the server might not be very robust as it might have threading problems (due to third party component being used) - we did not test this thoroughly in server environments even though we know at the same time that our WorldServer team are using this component without problems. 
 Also in general - just from a best practices perspective - processing PDF files (in both interactive and automated workflows) is not necessarily the most recommended way of doing translation production. Typically we recommend going back to the original source format as this is typically more robust and localization-friendly way. However sometimes PDF cannot be avoided and then it depends on the underlying file format characteristics in terms of how well it can be processed. 
 Thanks 
 Daniel

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Issues processing PDF files with SDL SDK