InDesign is unable to EXPORT TO PDF or to PRINT TO PDF.

Question

It is able to do so with other files, but unable to do so with a large poster (36" x 30"). It stalls/gets stuck at 13% everytime, and just stays there. The poster has a large map from ArcGIS as the background, which might be the problem (large file size). The map is placed in indesign as a PDF. I have searched all the forums and seen that many people have had similar, but slightly different problems. I have tried changing the preset from high quality o smallest file size. I have tried everything I can think of. No error messages appear; the background task just keeps running. I can see that it is still doing something because it takes up a lot of CPU. How can I resolve this?
My system: Win8 PC, 12GB of RAM

Answer 1

I may be wrong and I know very little about the subject, but is this a Geospatial PDF?
Does it have an attachment; an XML data file that is used internally by the PDF?
I tried several methods of Optimizing a PDF for the USGS that was 22.75x29 inches.
Not much luck. But I tried exporting as a TIF at 300 ppi.The resultant TIF looked OK, but you should inspect it to be sure elements aren't missing.
When I tried at 1200 ppi it threw up an error message.
Since this is only being used as a background.maybe 300 ppi would be enough.
Normally I would never recommend rasterizing a PDF, but this seems like an exception.