I would like to make my drawings vector images as my isometric drawings stay raster and disappear if I try to make them high quality. How do you vectorize drawings without the drawings disappearing?
I would like to make my drawings vector images as my isometric drawings stay raster and disappear if I try to make them high quality. How do you vectorize drawings without the drawings disappearing?
Hi Kevin,
Thank you for the response. Whenever I save my drawings to PDF or adobe illustrator, all the views are saved as raster, with the isometric views looking just noticeably worse. The only thing that saves as a vector are the dimensions and their indicators from the drawing. Furthermore, when I toggle high quality as opposed to draft quality, all of the views disappear. Is there any way to save the drawing views as PDF in vector format or generate a vector image for them in SolidWorks?
Here is an example of the raster quality of my drawings when I save as a PDF:
Andrew, first ensure that you're using the SolidWorks Saveas PDF functionality, not Distiller or a PDF printer driver.
Second, when you save your pdf, make sure you've set these options:
These controls will render the model edges as vectors
Hi John,
Thank you for the tip, but I tried it and didn't work. The isometric views are still noticeably raster images with the other views just higher resolution raster images. I do not need the the views to be vector per se, if there is a less than ideal solution that would make the isometric views higher resolution rasters. With that said, it would be best if all images were vector.
That can happen if the drawing views are set to draft quality.
Make sure that your drawing views, whether shaded or otherwise are set to "High Quality"
John Burrill wrote:
That can happen if the drawing views are set to draft quality.
Make sure that your drawing views, whether shaded or otherwise are set to "High Quality"
This is the convoluted correct answer...You have to set all your views to "High Quality"...Why isn't this an option under the print settings? Things like this are the reason that Frederick Law created the thread Consistently Inconsistent Solidworks UI.
Andrew Brown wrote:
Hi Kevin,
Thank you for the response. Whenever I save my drawings to PDF or adobe illustrator, all the views are saved as raster, with the isometric views looking just noticeably worse. The only thing that saves as a vector are the dimensions and their indicators from the drawing. Furthermore, when I toggle high quality as opposed to draft quality, all of the views disappear. Is there any way to save the drawing views as PDF in vector format or generate a vector image for them in SolidWorks?
Here is an example of the raster quality of my drawings when I save as a PDF:
If saving a drawing view, perhaps a save to 3D PDF will work (I'm guessing here).
3MF may be the file format that sticks to behaving well as vectors and since they're drawing views, I'm hoping they'll be 2D (in a 3D file).
Just typin' as I'm wonderin',
Kevin
Hi,
Thank you for the response. Whenever I save my drawings as PDF or Adobe Illustrator, it saves my drawing views as raster images. When I toggle high quality as opposed to draft quality, the drawings disappear. Is there a way to make my drawing views into vector images? An example of the raster quality when I save as a is attached below.
To add to Kevin's response...
Save as PDF or AI will give you a vector file that is great for most all purposes. If you plan to use those images to make detailed line art for publication, a better option might be to save them as DWG or DXF. The reason is that PDF and AI files will recreate the tessellation (straight line segments to make up curves). DWG and DXF will use arcs that are easier to manipulate in Illustrator.
Keith Carter wrote:
To add to Kevin's response...
If you plan to use those images to make detailed line art for publication, a better option might be to save them as DWG or DXF. The reason is that PDF and AI files will recreate the tessellation (straight line segments to make up curves). DWG and DXF will use arcs that are easier to manipulate in Illustrator.
How would you use the DWG or DFX files in like Microsoft Publisher or Power Point etc...?
John,
I will usually use PDFs for most things. I'll Primarily use AI files if I am going to open them in Illustrator to create illustrations for owners manuals or instruction guides. The small straight line segments can create a mess if you're having to do a lot of clean up. The DXF/DWG is a little cleaner going into illustrator.
Honestly I don't do much Publisher or Power Point stuff. Only for the occasional off-tool sample review document. If i'm needing an shaded or rendered image with a transparent background to place in PP, I'll create a PNG file making sure to have a pure white background that will become transparent in the PNG.
If I understand what you're saying, you save the DWG or DFX files right to AI.. Is that right
I do a Save As (DWG) from a SW drawing. Then "Place" the DWG into Illustrator. That lets me remove lines that aren't needed, change line thickness, integrate other illustrations etc.
Keith Carter wrote:
I do a Save As (DWG) from a SW drawing. Then "Place" the DWG into Illustrator. That lets me remove lines that aren't needed, change line thickness, integrate other illustrations etc.
Hello,
The DXF preview window, titled "Cleanup", lets you remove bits before the DXF is written to disk.
You have navigation tools at the top and click "Remove Entities" at the bottom left:
Removed selections turn red:
Kevin
Curious: What's the workflow for people using Composer?
Kevin
I think I found the solution. You need to make sure all the views in the drawing are set to High Quality, and that High Quality is checked when creating the PDF:
Hi Matt,
That makes sense, but my drawings disappear when I select high quality. I can get high quality in wireframe, but not in the standard drawing with hidden lines removed. Do you know what my problem could be that is not allowing me to have a high quality drawing with hidden lines removed?
I don't have an explanation. It works for me. Can you pack and go one of these drawings and post it for testing? If you can't, create a new part or simple asm, and post that. I'll check and see if I can replicate it. If I can't, then we know it's a setting, corruption or video card conflict on your end.
Also, if you are on subscription, go ahead and send in a service ticket. This is weird behavior and may be a bug...Regardless it appears there's something going on that the SW people should probably be made aware about.
We have some things going on and I may not be in the office much later today and part if not all of tomorrow. So, I may not be replying until this weekend.
Hello,
Can you add more detail to your workflow?
Can you post some images.
You can File>Save As>AI for Illustrator
Kevin