problem importing PDF's

[Steve Dubai]

Hello.

I'm losing a lot of quality when I import a PDF. It goes very out of focus. I've tried every option in the import settings.

Can anyone help?

Steve.

[Benson Shaw]

Welcome to the forum!

I have not seen this problem with pdf import. A pdf my look fuzzy until zoom in. Is every pdf import out of focus? Any pdf in any VW file? Is this in Design Layer views? Sheet Layer View Ports? Try to describe the problem in more detail.

A test is to import a known "sharp" pdf (when viewed in Apple Preview or Adobe Reader or other pdf friendly software) into a new blank VW file.

Please make yourself a profile with a signature in this forum's My Stuff tab near top of the forum window. Show your VW version and a bit about your OS and hardware. That helps with troubleshooting.

-B

[Steve Dubai]

Thanks for your time Benson.

It's always fuzzy, zoomed in or out. Yes it's the same with any PDF, any VW file. It's in design Layer. I've tried many different PDF's that look sharp and it always imports fuzzy. I looks pixelated, like it's importing at a very low resolution.

Steve.

[Benson Shaw]

OK, This may not help, but at least it's something:

I am assuming that the problem is with all elements of the pdf, but looked mainly at text zoomed in as far as possible. If I import a pdf that was created in software (as opposed to a pdf scan of something) containing text and an image, I can get it to go jaggy if I uncheck Quartz Imaging in VW Prefs>Display tab.

I noticed that in the VWprefs>Edit tab toggling the 2d conversion and JPG/PNG made no dif to focus.

This is only apparent at extreme zoom. Your MB Pro probably has a better graphics card than mine, so can probably zoom further.

I think we need some others to offer help.

Best of luck.

-B

[Steve Dubai]

My imported PDF's are fuzzy without zooming in at all.

I'd tried with Quartz imaging checked and un checked and saw no difference.

What I want to do is import a PDF that was created from a different CAD software so I can make my own notes. But the quality of the import is not good enough use.

[Kevin McAllister]

Steve,

How are the PDFs being created originally? It sounds like they are being created at a low resolution as an image, without any vector data (ie. maybe screen resolution). There may not be enough data to zoom in on...

I have encountered this once and a while. It often happens if they are compressed when sending via the Mac Mail program (don't ever let it compress PDFs). When you ungroup a PDF in Vectorworks, you will often see how low resolution the bitmap portion of the PDF is.

It can sometimes help if you import the PDF onto a layer that's a small scale and you scale it down to the size you need.

Kevin

[Steve Dubai]

I think it has to be something to with VectorWorks, not with the pdf's. I've had this problem for a long time, it happens with every pdf I try to import, from many different sources, created in many different ways. Every time I import a pdf into VW it looks fuzzy.

[monkey]

have you tried importing it as an image file to see if that makes a difference?

[Steve Dubai]

Yes Monkey, importing as image file is how I import pdf's.

[Ray Libby]

Why not import as a PDF?

[Kevin McAllister]

Steve,

There's your problem.... you need to use File>Import>Import PDF not File>Import>Import Image File. If you use Import Image File, Vectorworks converts your PDF to a raster image and discards the vector information. You also lose the ability to snap to it.

Kevin

[Steve Dubai]

Thanks Kevin.

This is strange. I go to File> Import: "import PDF" is not there as an option.

[maarten.]

You need to switch your workspace to something else than "Fundamentals".

[Ray Libby]

Or add it to your current workspace.

[monkey]

aha, i thought you were importing as a pdf. that will defo make it blurry, i have just tried that now on several pdfs, and every one came in blurry

[Steve Dubai]

Bingo! Problem solved! Thank you all!

I was working in Classic workspace.

I changed to Spotlight and now "import PDF" is an option.

Now my pdf's are clear as day.

That's a fix. Thanks.

Steve.