Plotting tiff

Hi all,

I have a problem regarding plotting high quality tiff files from cad. I need to plot a high quality tiff file (300dpi) from my drawing, but I have no understanding of how I could go about doing this. The tifout command does not produce high enough quality images. Is there anyone who has tried this or knows how to go about doing this? or does anyone know where I could get more information on this?

Thank you for any answers in advance!

Hi Banjo,

You can add a TIFF plotter then plot your drawing.

This is a quick instruction how you can add a custom plotter.

Hi Banjo,

 

You can add a TIFF plotter then plot your drawing.

This is a quick instruction how you can add a custom plotter.

Thanks Edwin! Great feature on the cadnotes site!!

Got new plotter now inserted as tiff, but don´t understand how it works with the pixels and paper sizes? Need to plot my drawing to an A4 and A3 paper with margins and 300dpi as a high quality tiff or jpg, how on earth do I do this? When I try the different papers sizes after setting the plotter as tiff 6 (uncompressed) the drawing just shows up as strange sizes on the "paper", for example a small square in the bottom right hand corner, or a portion of the drawings covering the whole "page".

The whole drawing needs to be black and white, with some grey areas and line weights need to be clear/sharp. Got plot style set as monochrome stb.

Been playing around with the plotting for a few days and am all confused over the seemingly very complicated process of plotting in cad..

I do this kind of thing regularly. Here are some general guidelines.

Try using a viewport. Make sure it include the TIF, the whole TIF, and nothing but the TIF. You may need to experiment with the viewport scale, but ultimately you want the viewport size to be the same as your paper. Then you can plot it at 1 to 1.

(optional) If the image has a scale or something with a known size, you can adjust the image's scale until it appears at actual size in model space. That may cut down on the experimenting you have to with your viewport.

Don't put the viewport border on a nonplotting layer. The image won't plot either. If the border shows up on the paper, set the system variable IMAGEFRAME to 2.

The style table has no effect on the TIF.

The resolution (dots per inch, or dpi) is a characteristic of the original image. If the image in your viewport looks grainy, it's probably because the resolution is too low. You can't do anything about that in AutoCAD, you'll have to work with the image.

If that doesn't help, we'll try again.

Why a TIFF? As you have discovered, plotting them to scale is not easy. I have not found a way to do it without inserting the image into AutoCAD. If a client has asked for a TIFF, find out from them how they plot it.

Why a TIFF? As you have discovered, plotting them to scale is not easy. I have not found a way to do it without inserting the image into AutoCAD. If a client has asked for a TIFF, find out from them how they plot it.

Thanks for both your answers. It´s really appreciated you take time to answer and try and help!! I`m new to this forum, but am overwhelmed by how quick people are at answering posts.

The client wants a tiff, as its for a paper publication and they recon it´s easier to put in tiffs in amongst text than anything else and the publisher at the end (whoever that is) supposedly wants a tiff or jpg. I tried messing with the jpg.s for a long time but found that tiff seemed to produce better/higher quality output, so went with that format.

I finally managed to get the viewport so that it plots in the size of an A4, now for the A3 I have not tried that yet, anyone done that before? Presume that it requires more fiddling..Seems like complicated stuff plotting to anything else than a pdf.

Never really understood what the different resolutions/paper sizes are that you can choose in the paper size menu, as they don`t seem to correspond during output to the size of the viewport set in paper space. Now I have it set as: 2480.00x3508.00 which seems to work for an A4 paper.

Interesting you say the style table has no affect on tiff, I found that the line weights seem to plot their own way in too, and it seems like you have to up the thickness for the line weights for them to properly show in the tiff.

Anyone have any thoughts on tiffing or any other experiences or tips? Any help or clues are SUPER much appreciated!

For the lineweights, have you tried selecting "Scale Lineweights" in the plot dialog instead of changing the plot style?

I should qualify my earlier statement--color tables have no effect on images. That's all I ever use, I just assumed the same behavior extended to style tables. I stand corrected.

Cheers for the lineweights tip. Goten to the conclusion that for things to properly show as a tiff file, and for lines not to bee too thin, thicker line thicknesses than default is needed. I also found it easier to use stb. instead of ctb., when outputting to tif, just in case someone else is struggling..

Cheers for all the help guys!! It was really really appreciated and good to hear some thoughts from people!

I do this kind of thing regularly. Here are some general guidelines.

 

Try using a viewport. Make sure it include the TIF, the whole TIF, and nothing but the TIF. You may need to experiment with the viewport scale, but ultimately you want the viewport size to be the same as your paper. Then you can plot it at 1 to 1.

 

(optional) If the image has a scale or something with a known size, you can adjust the image's scale until it appears at actual size in model space. That may cut down on the experimenting you have to with your viewport.

 

Don't put the viewport border on a nonplotting layer. The image won't plot either. If the border shows up on the paper, set the system variable IMAGEFRAME to 2.

 

The style table has no effect on the TIF.

 

The resolution (dots per inch, or dpi) is a characteristic of the original image. If the image in your viewport looks grainy, it's probably because the resolution is too low. You can't do anything about that in AutoCAD, you'll have to work with the image.

 

If that doesn't help, we'll try again.

I think he is trying to output as a tiff, not plot a tiff inserted in the drawing.

I think he is trying to output as a tiff, not plot a tiff inserted in the drawing.

Indeed that was my attempt. Managed now however, tif really seems to be extremely unreliable/unstable format, as regards to quality as when outputting/plotting my drw to tiff the drawing details can show up with varying quality even though I have just changed one small thing in the drawing, if that makes any sense..?

Ever thought about plotting to a .pdf vice a .tif file? Unless if said company needs it in a tiff format, I would give that a try. My previous experiences with plotting .tif files matches a lot of what the previous posters have commented to already. Plotting PDF files, if done correctly in my opinion, are much easier to manage and distribute to those who need it.

Another option is to plot to a PNG file.

If I use the plotter: "Publishto web PNG.pc3" I can save an output file in png format.

for an 11 x 17 file at 300 DPI, the output file should be 3300 x 5100 pixels.

The easiest way to set this is to use page setup manager to set the layout plotter to "none" and the page size to whatever A3 or A4 as you want.

Then when you plot, change the plotter to Publish to Web PNG.pc3" and set the custom plot size to "Previous Paper Size."

Eazy Peazy.

If the client doesnt want a png file, you can convert it to a tiff using microsoft office 2012 picture manager, but I bet that they can handle a png just fine.

Yes, I prefer .png for this type stuff.

Ok plot TIFF's all the time here is how to work it all out so it comes out perfect you just need custom sheet sizes in pixels big numbers 6000x4500 the other thing we found is to increase the pen sizes using a custoCTB.

1st thing tiff is DPI dots per inch so if metric you need a 25.4 factor

For an A1 metric we use 6mm outside the true title block line work as our plot window so the sizes becomes 813 x 566 this is a custom plot size which is 813/25.4x300 pixels and work out height also. An A3 would be say 390/25.4x300.

WE have multiple contractors and they have different size title blocks but the same theory applies take their plot window and calculate a custom sheet size.

(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"
   "N"
          ""
   "N"
          "Y"

      )
   )
 )
 (setq x (+ x 1))
)
(princ)

Get RxHighlight from Rasterex (www.rasterex.com) and save as TIFF. Also WiseImage frm CSoft (www.csoft.com) are the raster experts. Load vector DWG into and "rasterise" with lineweights