Image Files

Cubcrafter · 13 Apr 2012, 13:20

I have a .tif file that looks clear and very traceable but when I import it as an image into SketchUp the quality of the lines fall off quite a bit. Is there something that I can do about this? Also is there any way to import pdf files?

Thanks,

Larry

Rich O Brien · 13 Apr 2012, 13:25

Have you maximum texture size enable under preferences?

Cubcrafter · 13 Apr 2012, 13:30

Thanks Rich, fixed the problem.
Learn something new every day.

What about pdf files?

Larry

pilou · 13 Apr 2012, 13:36

Open your PDF
Click on your image for select it
CTRL + C = Copy
and Past it in any 2D prog : CTRL + V

Rich O Brien · 13 Apr 2012, 13:38

Not on Windows. I think Mac can import PDF.

Why not export the PDF as .jpg and import into SU?

Cubcrafter · 13 Apr 2012, 13:49

Rich,

I open the pdf file with Corel and save as a .jpg or .tif now. I have a complete set a full scale aircraft drawings as pdf files and I just wanted to eliminate that step.

This leads me to another question. Which file format is best to use to import and trace over?

Thanks

Rich O Brien · 13 Apr 2012, 13:55

Just make sure you image sizes are not larger than SU can display and that the file size is low to making the saving process as fast as possible.

I'm not familiar with Corel but I imagine it allows some compression of jpegs on export?

Alan Fraser · 15 Apr 2012, 09:44

If your pdf is vector based and you've imported it into Corel you ought to be able to do a deal of pre-processing there to make it SU-friendly. This includes converting any bezier curves into straight line segments. Use the Add Nodes facility to get an acceptable number of segments on each curve, before converting to straight line. When you're done, export it as an early version dwg...like R14, or even R11. This ought to ensure that any overlooked beziers get converted to straight lines too, rather than simply vanishing. Then import into SU.

I wouldn't recomend actually using the import as part of your mesh, but you will be able to inference off it very nicely. Pre-processing the beziers ensures that you end up with an sensible number of segments on each curve. You could simply export the whole thing as an early version dwg...but then each curve would contain 1000s of tiny segments instead of maybe a dozen or so.