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thumbnails of paper space sheets are too small


Marvin7

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Why don't my paper space thumbnails seem to be saving as 1024 pixels?

Drawings that are saved while model space is active do save as 1024 pixels, so the problem only occurs when the thumbnails are a snapshot of a layout sheet.

Changing the "Thumbsize" variable has no effect, and I can see the file size doesn't change either, even though the thumbnail is clearly updating because I can see little geometry changes. But when the thumbnail is of model space, then the "Thumbsize" variable works exactly as I'd expect.

 

To be specific, I'm referring to the preview pane of Win7's Windows File Explorer. As I increase the size of the preview pane, the thumbnail stays tiny-literally the size of my thumb. This makes the preview pane significantly less useful.

 

My maxium thumbnail pixel size "Thumbsize" is set to 1024.

My "Updatethumbnail" is set to 16 (it was 15 originally but I don't even know what a 15 value does).

 

The attached drawing is saved as an AutoCAD 2010 file (AC1024):

430-thumbnail questionB.dwg

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Here's more info on Updatethumbnail: Just FYI.

The setting is stored as a bitcode using the sum of the following values:

0 Does not update thumbnail previews for sheet views, model space views, sheets, or Quick View images

1 Updates model space view thumbnail previews

2 Updates sheet view thumbnail previews

4 Updates sheet thumbnail previews

8 Updates thumbnail previews when sheets or views are created, modified, or restored

16 Updates thumbnail previews when the drawing is saved

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Are you zooming extents before you do a save, the thumbnail is a preview of the actual screen when you save a file not of your drawing contents.

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Are you zooming extents before you do a save, the thumbnail is a preview of the actual screen when you save a file not of your drawing contents.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but either way, the size of the thumbnail should be 1024 rather than 256 or whatever it is, regardless of how zoomed in the geometry looks...there would just be some added white space if not zoomed correctly. But to answer your questions, yes, I'm zoomed extents.

 

Having said, I'm noticing some strange behavior. Between now and an hour ago, Windows File Explorer will now expand the size of layout thumbnails when I increase the size of the preview pane, including of the file I previously attached, though it appears to do so even though the pixel size is still ~256 (I can tell from the pixelization of the expanded image).

Yet when I made a copy of the attached file, opened it, and re-saved it, I went back to Windows File Explorer to check it in the preview pane and only that one file won't expand. As nonsensical as it sounds, from current evidence, whether the thumbnails expand or not seems to be a Windows File Explorer issue, not AutoCAD...and if I wait an hour, maybe this new file I just made will also expand.:?

 

Either way, though, the pixel size of the thumbnails is obviously an AutoCAD issue, and the original problem remains with respect to that.

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...

Yet when I made a copy of the attached file, opened it, and re-saved it, I went back to Windows File Explorer to check it in the preview pane and only that one file won't expand. ...

Just to update some days later...the above statement is still true.

 

Nevertheless, I'm not surprised that everyone isn't jumping on this particular topic because I realize it's relatively unimportant, but is there anyone who can at least confirm that they can get a paper space thumbnail that's clearly more than 256 pixels in the longest dimension? If it's not possible than that would be good to know as well.

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Just FYI, if you draw a diagonal line across the paper space sheet, in the drawing I attached for example, you can use Windows File Explorer's preview pane (or take a screen shot and zoom in on it with a photo program) to manually count the pixels. That's how I know the thumbnail is ~256 pixels size (even though my options are set to 1024 pixels).

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I guess 99% of us could care less about the quality of thumbnails. Here is a link to some information though that might clear things up for you.

 

http://www.cadforum.cz/cadforum_en/thumbnail-settings-can-influence-autocad-dwg-file-size-tip8754

 

BTW...the system variable UPDATETHUMBNAIL actually "controls updating of the thumbnail previews in the Sheet Set Manager and Quick View."

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I guess 99% of us could care less about the quality of thumbnails. Here is a link to some information though that might clear things up for you.

 

http://www.cadforum.cz/cadforum_en/thumbnail-settings-can-influence-autocad-dwg-file-size-tip8754

Hey, I seriously doubt 99% don't care (maybe 75%8)). Being able to tell what's in a drawing without opening it would be a not insignificant time saver for almost anyone who does this professionally. Countless times I've had to open a drawing just because I couldn't tell a certain detail that was in it for sure, only to realize that's the wrong one and have to try again.

But thanks for the link. It was mostly stuff I already knew but it did make me think to check my ISAVEPERCENT variable. It was set to 0 though, so that' s not the problem either (not sure how it got that low, so I raised it back up to 50).

 

Nevertheless, if not one person out there has paper space thumbnails bigger than ~256 pixels across, then that's the answer. We'll know soon enough.

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Actually, that percentage is greater than 99%. Most people that do this professionally know exactly what file to open and don't have to rely upon thumbnails. Good luck with your endeavor.

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Actually, that percentage is greater than 99%. Most people that do this professionally know exactly what file to open and don't have to rely upon thumbnails. Good luck with your endeavor.

I'm not about to get into an argument with you about how many people don't care about my topic.

You're one of the more helpful posters on this forum and I appreciate you, Rob. We'll leave it at that.

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Look up THUMBSIZE in help. I am using 2014, hopefully it is in 2013 as well.

Yeah, one of the first things I did. Unfortunately, there's nothing in there about exceptions where thumbsize doesn't set the thumbsize as you'd expect it to.

 

 

Unless you are creating 3D drawings there is no need to have that variable set higher than 3.

Heck, that'd be 4 times as many pixels as I'm getting now. That would probably be good enough.

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IMAGINiT Technologies Support Blog

 

As posted by Bob Felton.

 

"Thumbnail previews in the new AutoCAD 2013 DWG file format are now stored as PNG images, providing higher-quality thumbnail previews in a smaller file size. Image resolution is still controlled by the THUMBSIZE system variable."

 

Makes one wonder why the switch to PNG images if the user is left wondering what all the hype re: "higher-quality previews" was about. And this is referred to as an improvement?

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Well this thread did seem vaguely familiar so once again I went looking and found this which, as it turns out, I offered up one possible solution that requires editing the Registry. Another forum member suggested going to a white background so when thumbnails are created there will be better contrast. Read through the entire thread and decide what you want to do next.

 

http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?74722-Black-Thumbnails&highlight=black+blobs

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IMAGINiT Technologies Support Blog

 

As posted by Bob Felton.

 

"Thumbnail previews in the new AutoCAD 2013 DWG file format are now stored as PNG images, providing higher-quality thumbnail previews in a smaller file size. Image resolution is still controlled by the THUMBSIZE system variable."

 

Makes one wonder why the switch to PNG images if the user is left wondering what all the hype re: "higher-quality previews" was about. And this is referred to as an improvement?

Less compression artifacts and filesize per pixel count, I guess, but yeah, most of that's probably just marketing-speak for something insignificant.

 

Just to clarify, a drawing saved with model space as the current view works exactly as the help file says it should. It creates thumbnails that are controlled by thumbsize. So it's not that thumbsize doesn't work at all. But my company saves drawings with Sheet 1 of paper space active, so that doesn't help me.

 

Well this thread did seem vaguely familiar so once again I went looking and found this which, as it turns out, I offered up one possible solution that requires editing the Registry. Another forum member suggested going to a white background so when thumbnails are created there will be better contrast. Read through the entire thread and decide what you want to do next.

 

http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?74722-Black-Thumbnails&highlight=black+blobs

Thanks. At this point, I'm okay with just knowing that it's no different for any other user, but I'll read through that other thread and troubleshoot some more...it's worth a shot.

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Just a thought, what size is your screen, I use windows 8 and in windows explorer with it set to extra large icons, I get 3 thumbnails across the screen at about 270 pixels wide which is enormous for a thumbnail, a thumbnail of 1024 is almost full screen !! And that is definitely a windows setting.

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