Many people need to export image files from AutoCAD to put into reports or other documents. I have an old tip on the topic, “Creating JPEG and PNG files.” There I discussed the following methods:
- JPGOUT and PNGOUT commands
- The Publish to Web feature
- Creating a PC3 file and plotting to file
Other subscribers added ideas, including simply taking a screen capture.
Remember that you can now output to PDF format using the EXPORTPDF command.
A subscriber just brought to my attention another way to create JPEG files. After reading that tip, he said:
One of the best methods that I have found so far is printing the AutoCAD file to a PDF file using the FREE Primo PDF virtual printer software (http://www.primopdf.com/index.aspx). Once the AutoCAD file is in PDF format you can then open and edit it in the FREE Gimp photo editing software (http://www.gimp.org/), which allows for the importation and editing of PDF files without having to have a full version of Adobe. Once you have the PDF in Gimp, and have made any changes you might desire to make, do a “Save As” to one of several image file types. In my testing I used the .jpg format. Gimp will tell you that you need to export the file to that file type, and gives you an option to change the resolution of the export. I used !00% and my .jpg looks much better than any of the results from the methods I have tried thus far.
How do you create good-looking images from AutoCAD drawings? Click the comment link to let others know.
Hi Ellen, An even easier method is to use PDF995 and Pdfedit995 which are downloadable free from http://www.pdf995.com/ (or $9.95 without ads)Pdfedit995 allows you to convert the last PDF created to an image JPEG, PCX, PNG, TIF, or BMP in different resolutions, very neat!
regards, Brian
Recently we needed a Powerpoint presentation of a powerplant 3D assembly we had created, showing the different steps involved in installation of the modules. I exported each of the drawings to Adobe Acrobat PDF, using 11X17 layout. Then in Acrobat, I saved each of the pdf’s to png’s, using the SAVE AS feature and scrolling down to PNG. The resolution was so good that the presentation blown up to eight feet tall was excellent. We then made posters of the same PNG’s, and I was amazed at the clarity of the finished product.
Quick, easy, remarkably clear png’s with no fuss.
I personally have used M-Color by Motive Systems ( http://www.m-color.com/ ) for years now. It creates PDF’s, JPG’s, and other format and does so by importing your CTB file so it knows your lineweights, colors, etc. It also works similar to Impression, but without all the bugs found in Impression so you can do color fills, gradients and image fills and does them independent of the line colors. It allows for the layers to be arranged in order for you can arrange how things are displayed on top of each other. It reads your paperspace and so can create the images or PDF’s at the correct paper size, it understands scaling and the scale differences between plotting from Model Space as compared to Paper Space.
The only thing I would say is try to avoid JPG’s for anything other than a draft presentation. The problem is if you ever bring a JPEG back into a program like GIMP or Photoshop and edit and then resave the file as a JPEG it compresses it yet again. I think you loose about 20-30% of quality with each save. It’s always a good idea to keep a copy of anything you do in PNG or TIFF format as they’re both lossless formats (they preserve the detail and have very little pixelation). That’s why Patrick Davis’ presentain could be blown up so much and still look good. JPEGs can’t handle this. Also TIFFs are good if you wish to keep your alpha channels and layer information but the files can be very large. PNGs preserve transparency and are quite small but same quality as TIFFs.
Hope that helps someone. It sure helped me when it was first explained to me.