SolidWorks Plotter Problems

[EdDaniels]

Hello all,

I am trying to plot a model on an HP DesignJet 750C Plus plotter. We need the model to be about 34"x34", and in color etc. As real to life as possible.

The problem is that as the plot size gets larger, the quality get diminished. If I plot only a letter size paper of my assembly at 100% scale, then it looks good (albeit only a section of the assembly). If i change the paper size to larger, then it gets worse. It gets so bad that some of the text in my assembly is unlegible. Furthermore, the same results are achieved when I create an Adobe Acrobat file using Adobe Distiller.

I have talked to SolidWorks, and they claim that there is a problem plotting shaded displays. It is being investigated as SPR 22560.

I was wondering if anybody knows if Photoworks can help relieve this problem, or if anybody has any suggestions as to work arounds that I can try.

Thanks!

 

[MrPickles]

Not that I am an expert or anything, but isn't it quite similar to printing images from a digital camera? You can only print an image as large as it will look good, which in the digital camera world is 150dpi for an acceptable print. Of course, 250 to 300 is better.

So how big is this file in DPI terms? If you saved it as a TIFF or JPEG, a 34"x34" print would have to be something like 5000 x 5000 dpi, which is 25mp (megapixels). I don't think SW will save you a file with this amount of pixels.

Unless I'm missing something, which is definetly possible, I'd like someone with more info to straighten us both out.


-----------
Mr. Pickles

 

[Rocko]

ok, here is what you will need to do :
1) Scale the model by the multiplier that you are enlarging from the initial good print size.(Roughly 5X)
2) You will need to use your HP plotting optimizing print commands so you will be less likely to get the jagged edge effect.
3) and yes the better the rendering the better the prints rendering will be

 

[berlitz]

I think Mr. Pickles is right and you have to save a high quality bitmap which has enough pixels so you get the resolution you want. You can't do this from native SolidWorks, for there is no DPI setting for exporting models to TIF.

But you can use one of my (free) macro. Go to

http://swtools.cad.de/macros.htm

and look for the one called mm_18.zip , this will save a bitmap of your modelview with the size you want. Only limited by your harddrive space, it saves as uncompress bitmap, so 34" x 34" in 300 DPI will result in a bitmap of 10200 x 10200 pixel and will take something about 300 MB harddisk.

HTH,
Stefan

--
unofficial german SolidWorks helppage

http://solidworks.cad.de

Shareware, freeware, tools and macros

http://swtools.cad.de

 

[SBaugh]

What about setting the Image quality of the SW model? I would think that might have some bearing on it too.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376
When in doubt, always check the help

 

[MrPickles]

Setting the Image Quality higher would help with the jaggies for sure. So the resultant 34" x 34" printed image wouldn't look so jaggy, but may be acceptable.

I don't have a big fancy color plotter or I'd try. Especially if I didn't have to pay the paper and ink bill. Ohh, and I don't want to wait while Stefan's macro crunched up 300mb of my disk. I have "Unfragged" (Un-EcoSqueezed) files that are already doing that....


-----------
Mr. Pickles

 

[Rocko]

Ed did you try my solution. It should work ok for you , keep in mind that your plotter may not be able to reproduce the dpi that you require.

 

[EdDaniels]

Thank you for all the responses. Here is what I have to say.

I am currently plotting directly from SolidWorks. I can plot from the model, or from a drawing showing the model. The image quality is set to the highest it will allow me.

Actually, from the drawing, I have the option to save the file as a TIFF. However, when I do so, and I set the DPI to 600x600 the results do not look very good. Everything is slightly fuzzy, and the file is 1.3 GB! Stefan, will your macro produce different results?

I know that my plotter is capable of producing good plots, because I have plotted from different formats before, and gotten good results. It is only when I print from SolidWorks that it gets jagged. Furthermore, when I use Adobe Distiller to create a pdf, it is jagged. This is because I choose Adobe Distiller as my printer to create the file.

Also, let me rephrase something I tried to convey before. When I print to letter size, it is only a "small window" of the assembly (we are plotting our model 1:1 which is about 34"x34&quot. This plot looks great, but only shows a small part of the assembly. Everything is crisp and round. If i increase the paper size to 20"x20", the plot loses a noticable amount of quality, and is still not the entire assembly. If i increase the paper size to 34"x34" then I lose much more quality. Because of this, I believe that scaling the model will not help. I believe it is a SolidWorks paper size problem. Correct me if I am wrong.

Here is what a SolidWorks tech guy told me:
"I dug up some info on the problem that the customer is probably running into. I found that there is a current issue when you try to print large shaded images from within SolidWorks. This issue is being investigated as SPR 22560 (When printing to color plotter from part or assembly, shaded view drawing window the display looks Jaggedy especially E size sheet.)"

The tech rep then told me how to save my drawing as a TIFF. This produced unsatisfactory results, as forementioned.

Thanks for the continued help!

Erik

 

[SBaugh]

If you have a image program like Paint shop pro. You could take a screen shot (Print Screen on your keyboard) Paste it in the program (Edit, paste) and adjust the width to 34x34. Just an idea

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP
3DVision Technologies

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376
When in doubt, always check the help

 

[EdDaniels]

Scott,

Thanks for the suggestion, but the screenshot method would not produce my desired 600x600 DPI (well it might be 600x600 DPI, but it would not look good).

Erik

 

[berlitz]

Hi Erik,

> Stefan, will your macro produce different results?

It makes a BMP (uncompressed) of the actual modelview using SolidWorks API calls. With 34" x 34" in 600DPI it results a bitmap 20400x20400 pixels which makes something up to 1.3 GB

You have to print the resulting bitmap from a program which can handle these kind of bitmap.

If you save a tiff from SolidWorks drawing and you get the same 1.3 GB then the TIFF is uncompressed also. Try using the "PackBits" option for compression to get smaller TIFF file size.

I would recommend NOT to try to save the TIFF or bitmap with that high resolution, 150 DPI should be far good enough.

Stefan

--
unofficial german SolidWorks helppage

http://solidworks.cad.de

Shareware, freeware, tools and macros

http://swtools.cad.de

 

[ctopher]

I use HyperSnap Pro, take a screen print of the desired area, then print with any format and size. Works for me.

 

[MrPickles]

Ed,

Just wondering if you have "Fast HLR/HLV" checked in "Tools | Options | Systems Options | Drawings | Default Display Type" ?

I "think" it used to cause some issues in printing, but I don't remember if it was just causing problems on drawings though...


-----------
Mr. Pickles

 

[NHPilot]

I use the same plotter and know what you're talking about. Shaded views on a drawing look like a poor quality bitmap but the same drawing unshaded looks perfect.
As far as plotting the assembly itself, I've used photoworks to create a high dpi image file, then plot it.

If you're looking for an exact 1:1 scale though, you'll find that you can't easily control scale.

I've never had luck stretching an image to size unless it was very high dpi to begin with. I guess, if you take 300 dpi and scale it x10 you would end up with something like 30 dpi because you're scaling every pixel. Kind of like looking at newsprint through a magnifying glass.

 

[EdDaniels]

Hello again,

Thanks for all the input.

Stefan - I tried using your macro, and did not get satisfactory results. I tried to generate a bitmap that was 300x300dpi, and 36"x36". The estimated file size was about 1.3GB, however the file that was created was ~21MB. The quality was poor. Do you have any suggestions? Is your macro compatible with SolidWorks 2003?

ctopher - I tried using HyperSnap Pro, but did not get a good quality picture. When I take the screenshot, I cannot see all the detail of my model, therefore when I blow it up, I still cannot see this detail.

Mr. Pickles - I just tried plotting with Fast HLR/HLV checked and unchecked, and I cannot notice any difference.

NHPilot - Have you had any luck with plotting with PhotoWorks? I believe that it is my only option left, because apparently in SolidWorks large shaded plots do not plot correctly. Does Photoworks create a picture that has to be streched or can I create a picture that is actual print size? Does it print using a rendering of the model or a screenshot? I may have access to PhotoWorks in the near future, but before I spend the time and money I wonder if you have had good results.

Thank you all for the input, let me know of any other suggestions.

Erik

 

[NHPilot]

I have plotted image files created in photoworks with good results, even as large as C size.
Photoworks will create an image the size that you define. I usually create an image larger than I need then shrink it down. The HP 750C Plus is limited to 300 dpi whereas some of our newer printers are capable of well over 1000 dpi. Photoworks can render to a file or directly to a printer. I usually do more realistic renderings although there is an option to use the solidworks properties in place of any assigned materials.

I should also mention that by adjusting both shaded quality and wireframe quality to the upper end, and turning OFF anti-aliasing, printing of shaded drawing views increases slightly. I turn off anti-aliasing when printing anything with curvy surfaces to prevent what ends up looking like I've meshed the model for analysis.

 

[JNR]

This may be plotter/driver related to some extent. We have an HP DesignJet 500 and we get great plots even at the large sizes and 1200 dpi.

3/4 of all the Spam produced goes to Hawaii - shame that's not true of SPAM also.......

 

[EdDaniels]

JNR,

Are you plotting shaded views? I was told that wireframes plot OK when large, but shaded views become blocky.

I tried plotting to a HP DesignJet 1055CM, a Solidworks recomended plotter, and I got the same crappy results. I think that this plotter should be well capable of looking good. Perhaps my drivers are not correct, but I think the plotter itself is not the issue.

Let me know what you think!

Thanks,
Erik

 

[pdybeck]

We also have an HP 1050 plotter and get very good results with the image quality. I am not satisfied, however, with the print setup in SolidWorks. It's very disjointed. Seems to me that it could use some work. Any body know what it looks like in 2004.

The pessimist says the glass is half empty. The optimist says the glass is half full. The engineer says the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.