Non-White Paper Color TIF File from Drawing

[araschdo]

I have a white part that I would like to get a good 300dpi shot of it in the shaded format. (Not Shaded With Edges)

I have put the part onto a drawing in a drawing and <Save As...> <*.tif>. I select the <Print Capture> radio button from the TIF Export Options Window so that I can select 300dpi. Although I have set the <Drawings, Paper Color> in System Options to a dark blue, the resulting tif file has a white background, making it difficult to see the edges of the part. The blue background shows up just fine on screen.

If you set the TIF options to <Screen Capture>, then the default is 96DPI, which does not show enough detail. I cannot use the <Shaded With Edges> format because the displayed edges destroys the fine details.

Does anyone have a workaround to this issue? I'd be happy with any color other than the white I get... Changing the color of the part is also sadly not an option.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Have you tried saving as PDF?


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[SBaugh]

Have you tried a JPEG?
Have you tried to use Print screen and crop out the Image?

Those and as CBL points out PDF, are your only options.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

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[Theophilus]

TIFF files won't include a background (in SolidWorks, anyway), and therefore a default background of white is selected. Try a different format as recommended above and you'll get the results you need.

A workaround is to open the TIFF file in Photoshop (or similar) and change the background there, then add the image to your drawing.


Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reality is no respecter of good intentions.

 

[araschdo]

Thanks for your rapid responses. Aside from the non-white background, a high dpi (like the 300 I listed) is absolutely neccessary in order to achieve an acceptable level of detail.

It seems like any output from a drawing is going to yield a white background no matter what format you choose. From my hunting it looks like in order to get a background color you have to print from the part or assembly window and then you have no control over image size or quality.

Saving as a jpg: Unfortunately yields only 72 dpi. Also depends upon window size and your monitor's display settings. It doesn't seem like you have any options to choose your desired level of detail or image size.

The print screen method is also dependent upon window size and your monitor's display settings and so therefore is seriously handicapped at porviding high quality images.

Saving as a pdf: I can't tell what the dpi is, but the level of detail is on par with the jpg.

Printing as a pdf: Using a large format drawing sheet and printing to a pdf at a large paper size with image quality set to high yields a decent level of detail, but the background is still white. :-(

Even printing a pdf from the part screen instead of the drawing screen yields a white background.

Oh well, it looks like I am out of luck.

 

[ctopher]

We use Hypersnap DX. Works well for us.

http://www.hyperionics.com/

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP2.0 / PDMWorks 05
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[araschdo]

I just checked out the Hypersnap page. At first I thought it may be able to pull it off by zooming in on a detail before the capture since it has the ability to Auto-scroll and concurrently captures long web pages and other documents, enabling it to grab more than is visible on the screen. I figured I could then resize the huge 92dpi image to the smaller print size which would crank up the dpi in the process.

I downloaded the free trial and couldn't make it fly. Is this process what you were referring to?

The following was excerpted from this webpage:

http://www.hyperionics.com/hsdx/hs4faq.asp#ImgRes

-----------------------------------------------------------
Image resolution issues - e.g. can HyperSnap capture images at 300 dpi resolution?

A screen capture program like HyperSnap can only capture images at the resolution the screen displays them. There are about 96 pixels per inch on a typical monitor, and that's what you get on your screen captured images. To make resolution higher HyperSnap would have to somehow invent and insert dots in-between screen pixels - nothing that would really give you good results.
----------------------------------------------------------

 

[ctopher]

I was able to save my settings in HyperSnap to 300 dpi, then save as TIF. The file is too big to show an image here.

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP2.0 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site
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"DON'T BE IRREPLACEABLE. IF YOU CAN'T BE REPLACED, YOU CAN'T BE PROMOTED"

 

[SBaugh]

Then set your resolution higher etc, and do the print screen image. Get a good image tool like Paint shop pro and I don't think you will have to worry about the DPI until you get to your Image tool. I believe you can save out of there at a certain DPI.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

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[plusfours]

A rather long-winded workaround is as follows:
If you want a 300dpi image, and the screen capture gives you 72dpi, you will need 4x4 times as much detail (as dpi is dots per linear inch, and we are talking area). Therefore, zoom into the part ~4x and take multiple screen captures of different areas of the model You'll need a minimum of 16 to get the rez, but with overlaps you'll need a bit more. Open all of them in a paint program like photoshop or paintshop pro and copy them all into one image on different layers. You can then move each layer individually to stitch the image into a whole. Flatten the image and save as a tif or jpeg and voila!, a high rez image.
NB If the image is a perspective view, use the scroll bars at the bottom and side of the screen to pan the image, as the standard pan control changes the relative viewpoint of the model.
I have done it this way pretty successfully in the past
Plusfours
Good taste never goes out of fashion

 

[araschdo]

Plusfours - that's a great workaround. Seems so obvious now! Thanks.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Printing as a pdf: Using a large format drawing sheet and printing to a pdf at a large paper size with image quality set to high yields a decent level of detail, but the background is still white. :-(

If you "print" to a PDF device,(to create the PDF, not an actual print), you get the option to Print background

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