Creating a tif image from AutoCAD/Getting good quality?

[BeartheHairless]

Hi,
I'm new here so I apoligize if this subject has been beat to death already. I am looking for a way to create a good tif file from an AutoCAD drawing. Using the plot to file function, I can only ever get 100dpi resolution. (If some one can tell me how to change that it would be great.) This just isn't very good for our needs. Right now, we plot the drawing, then turn around and scan it in, to create a tif image of good quality. (waste of time and paper, with some loss of quality)Any help will be appriciated. Thanks in advance.

Bear the Hairless

On the keyboard of life, always keep one finger on the escape key.

 

[birdlegs]

I haven't really tried this yet, but I think it will work with good results.

Using the file pull down menu, export the file to a WMF file. Then use Paint Shop Pro or another quality graphics program (I like Paint Shop Pro since it's faster and easier than PhotoShop - PhotoShop is more powerful, but trickier to use - Paint Shop Pro works well with CAD drawings) to open the WMF file and save it back to a TIFF file.

This will allow you to resize the file, either with inches or resolution (pixels) and achieve the results you desire.

Hope this helps,

Be Well

The Bird...

 

[Ares]

Once you select TIF as a printer go to properties (in PLOT dialog box) and set custom resolution as large as you need to get your dpi. I do not now of any limitation the higest I needed was 1600x1200 pixels

 

[birdlegs]

Agreed, but vector to raster conversion does not always produce the results one would think it should. I have had no luck creating high quality raster files of any type directly from AutoCAD.

 

[IFRs]

I have R2004, and commonly plot from Autocad directly to jpg format, in 1600x1280 resolution. It makes fine looking images. I guess you could then convert them to tif files (but why?). My 3D models look good to my eye, but then again, I'm doing simple mechanical drawings not for public review.

 

[BeartheHairless]

Thanks to all for the info so far.

Bird: Unfortunatly I am at a new company with limited software, I'm trying to get some new stuff in, but I'm sure you know what it can be like.

Ares: I have tried that method, but cannot get a good quality from it. No matter what you start with, if you go to output it, it is always 100dpi resolution. Any ideas how to change that? I am running ACAD 2000.

Again, thanks for all the help.

Bear the Hairless

On the keyboard of life, always keep one finger on the escape key.

 

[Ralph2]

Have you considered changing formats.. Go to Adobe's PDF format, easy to use and the quality "seems" to be pretty good, most of the drawings we get from third parties are now in this PDF format whereas they used to be tiff's.
Ralph

 

[BeartheHairless]

Ralph,
How do you create the pdf files? Are you using Adobe Writer?

Bear the Hairless

On the keyboard of life, always keep one finger on the escape key.

 

[Ralph2]

A viewer we use at work that also has the ability to convert to the PDF format is something called "Slick" from

http://www.slickwin.com/

They have a demo but not sure if that will allow you to make a PDF.

 

[walkingman]

There is an inexpensive program called Amethyst CadConvert that converts AutoCAD .dwg files to any of a number of raster formats including .tif on a batch basis. I have been using it for several months and I have had no problems with it. Just set your drawings to black lines on a white background and save them in AutoCAD. Then close AutoCAD and open CadConvert, select the .dwg file (or files) you want to convert and let it rip. You can use about any photo or graphics editor to crop the .tif images if necessary. If you are using the .tif images in Word you can crop them there, but with less precision. Amethyst's web site is at

http://www.cadwizz.com.

I believe you can try it out free. Don't forget to change your drawings back to your regular background scheme again after running CadConvert.

It works for me.

 

[RiBeneke]

The built-in AutoCAD .tiff and .jpg etc drivers have limited resolution.
You can obtain much higher resolution by installing other .tiff printer drivers that you set up as printers in AutoCAD.

http://www.informatik.com/

http://www.fcoder.com/

http://www.peernet.com

have these printer drivers for sale, and some are also
available as limited time or limited function demo versions.

 

[dooron]

I do a screen grab using "print screen", transfer to a photo editor, cut and paste as a jpg file, but the quality is not that hot.Its fast, simple and cleans the ACAD copy clip feature of any hidden vector/rastor type commands.

 

[azor]

hi
you can do that by changing the resolution of the image while u r rendering to file ( the rendering window ) i hope this will be helpfull

 

[Pauraic]

Just get a copy of adobe acrobat and print the dwgs directly to pdf format. When you open it in adobe acrobat you can then save the file as tiff,jpeg whatever you want. you can then open in psp or photoshop and adjust as required. This works well in our office where a lot of public display dwgs are required for different purposes

Pauraic

 

[shabba]

Go to the Adobe website and download a PDF printer driver (for free), install it as a windows printer and use it through autocad to create PDFs.

This is the cheapest way I know (cos it's free)

 

[BeartheHairless]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who has contributed. All the help is really appriciated. But I'm gonna ask for just a little more help. I had found somewhere a post about OttoTiff, a free download that converts a dwg file to a tif. It works great. Fantastic resolution. But I'm having one problem with it. It seems to randomly chop off part of my drawings. So if anyone has any advice on how to use it, I could really use the help. Thanks again for all the input.

Bear the Hairless

On the keyboard of life, always keep one finger on the escape key.

 

[alfadog]

Hi
I came upon this forum because of the same problem - the AutoCAD-supplied raster driver is limited to 100 dpi output.
I saw the mention of OttoTiff and gave it a try and it seems to work fine for my purposes - converting a letter-size sketch to jpg for easy e-mail or insertion in a Word document.
Bear: This worked for me:
Paperspace layout of the output size (ANSI A in my case) to match the setting in OttoTiff.
Close the dwg file with the paperspace view I want to be converted showing and zoomed correctly.
Don't know how much of that is important because I don't know how OttoTiff interfaces with the dwg but I guess it will use whatever view and zoom you last used??
Good luck
John
alfadog

 

[BeartheHairless]

Hi John,
Thanks for the info. up to now I had been trying to get it from the model space. It worked much better using paper space. I also found out that you don't need to close the drawing, just make a save in that view, and that works. I also set up a pen style in ottotif and it worked really well. I have also found a copy of ottopdf.(same as ottotif, but creates a pdf file) If anyone is interested, let me know. Thanks again.

Bear the Hairless

On the keyboard of life, always keep one finger on the escape key.

 

[IFRs]

Please post a link to OttoTiff.

Thanks !!!

 

[BeartheHairless]

Hey,
here is the link:

http://www.myndkryme.com/products.html

but I was having trouble accessing this for the past couple of days. If you would like, I can email you a copy of the program(its only about 500K), just tell me where to send it.


Bear the Hairless

On the keyboard of life, always keep one finger on the escape key.