Help! DWG to Tif!

Hi all,

I'm new to AutoCAD and scripting in general with AutoCAD and was looking for some insight.

I need to convert DWGs to Tif. I have about a million sets of a million DWGs and need to convert different sets at different times...

I'm finding out this is a little more challenging than expected...

I'd like to write a script or batch plot type utility that will:

Turn off a layer

Choose monochrome

Save as tif.

I started looking into the raster function, but to be honest, I'm so green at AutoCAD I'm not even sure if that's the correct direction.

Any help would be great!

Thank you!

One option: http://www.print-driver.com/howto/convert_autocad_to_tiff.html

Hi all,

I'm looking to plot AutoCAD drawings in Tiff version 4.

Unfortunately, I can only find a version 6 option in AutoCAD.

Any recommendations?

Thanks!

Why do you need version 4?

I have an older system that I "must" interface to that can only read version 4...

yup it's old...

Do you mean TIFF Group 4 format? This is the same format used my fax machines. You could use Rasterex's RxView/Highlight to convert files. It can also do batch conversions and plotting. check www.rasterex.com

check out WiseImage from CSOFT. www.csoft.com This is raster editing/converting hybrib software and includes a fantastic batch studio. Versions work as standalone or inside AutoCAD. Other option to check is Rasterex's RxView/Highlight

Heres a plot multiple layouts to tiff and you could create a script and will do 100's etc .It uses autocads plot to tiff driver.

But its a big one, are all your drawings the same, is the title block at the same location in each drawing ? If you use plot extents is there junk in the current view ?

I would do batches say 50 at a time and check them, a couple of other things you need to set up a tiff plot style it is based around the DPI to be used in the conversion process I use 200 dpi A1 sheets and reprints are excellent. Our sheet is 801x507mm this equals 6401x4456 as a sheet size based on the window dimensions = a scale size of 0.127, also need a corresponding Tiff.ctb found that we needed to increase line thickness as it also scales in the conversion process.

Script & lisp

(load plottiff)
open dwg1 plotiff close N
open dwg2 plotiff close N
and so on 


(defun c:plottiff ()
(PROMPT ".....PRINTING DRAWING TO TIFF's....")
(setq doc (vla-get-activedocument (vlax-get-acad-object)))
(vlax-for lay (vla-get-Layouts doc)
 (setq plotabs (cons (vla-get-name lay) plotabs))
)
(setq plottablist (acad_strlsort plotabs))
(setq len (length plottablist))
(setq x 0)
(repeat len
 (setq name (nth x plottablist))
 (princ name)
 (if (/= name "Model")
   (progn
     (setvar "ctab" name)

     (COMMAND "-PLOT"   "Y"      ""  "TIFF"
       " A1 6mmoff"      "LANDSCAPE"    "N"
       "W"   "-6,-6"    "807,560" "1=0.127"  "C"
       "y"   "TIFF.ctb" "Y" "n"    "n"
       "y"   ""      "N" "y"
      )
   )
 )
 (setq x (+ x 1))
)
(princ)
) 

TIFF Compression Types-

Group4-Most commonly used for black and white (“bitonal”) scanned images.

Group3-Used for Faxes

JPEG-Used for Grayscale and Color scanned documents. There are two definitions of JPEG in TIFF, type 6 and type 7 and there have been interpretation issues with

type 6 in particular. Consequently these images are not always well supported.

LZW-Used for Grayscale and Color scanned documents. Due to historical patent issues this is not always well supported, although as the patents expired in 2004 more

recent software should provide good support.

There are more.

Check this thread....http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?26190-.dwg-to-.tif-group-4

I have a large format scanner/copier, but that won't help you unless you are in South Florida. Find a print service and have them scan it or plot it.

How are you running AutoCAD 2011 on an old machine? Why must your plots be a TIFF? There are always options, if you provide some information for your end results, maybe we can provide an alternative solution.

I have merged your threads. You need only ask once.

Nothing like a little self-promotion so early in the day.

And just what is freshclue.com? I'm always suspect of these kinds of links.

More spam to shot down, how sad