lucylou Posted November 8, 2010 Share Posted November 8, 2010 Hi, I cant seem to be able to snap to points on a pdf i have just imported... any ideas why? (note all my snaps are turned on) please help! Thanks Quote Link to comment
Ray Libby Posted November 8, 2010 Share Posted November 8, 2010 If the PDF is created from an image it won't have snaps. To have snaps it must be created from vector data. Quote Link to comment
lucylou Posted November 10, 2010 Author Share Posted November 10, 2010 I dont know exactly which package the original plans were drawn in, but they are definintly some form of computer aided design. do they have to come from vectorworks originally? Quote Link to comment
bcd Posted November 10, 2010 Share Posted November 10, 2010 They just have to be vector based pdf's. If you zoom really close to a curved line and see it pixellated you are working with a raster pdf and will not be able to snap to it. Otherwise it may just be a case that you PDF is on a separate layer and you don't have Layer options Snap to Others selected. Quote Link to comment
Ray Libby Posted November 10, 2010 Share Posted November 10, 2010 In Vectorworks if you use the OS X built in print to PDF function you will have a raster PDF-no snaps. If you export to PDF from Vectorworks you will have vector data-snaps. Quote Link to comment
michaelk Posted November 10, 2010 Share Posted November 10, 2010 Actually, BOTH the PDF via OSX and PDF via VWX export will provide a vector PDF with snaps. Quote Link to comment
Kevin McAllister Posted November 10, 2010 Share Posted November 10, 2010 Make sure you are importing the PDF using Import PDF not Import Image File. In some instances Import PDF may need to be added to your workspace. While the PDF will import both ways, Import Image File places a raster image, not a snap-able vector based PDF. Kevin Quote Link to comment
bcd Posted November 10, 2010 Share Posted November 10, 2010 (edited) Good point Kevin - hadn't considered that. Edited November 10, 2010 by bcd Quote Link to comment
IanH Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 I don't know if this was ever resolved but I have just imported a (99.9% sure) vector based PDF and am unable to snap to any of the points contained within. VW2011 on Mac OS X Lion. I may see if it behaves the same on my Vista PC. I think its the first time that I have done this on my Mac. Quote Link to comment
Pat Stanford Posted September 27, 2011 Share Posted September 27, 2011 Try and ungroup the PDF. You should end up with three (or four) items. 1. A bitmap of the pdf 2. A blank white rectangle representing the paper 3. (Maybe) a rectangle showing the page border 4. A group containing all the vector objects in the drawing. If there is nothing in the group, then there are not vector objects and you won't be able to snap. Have you checked all the usual snapping issues? Class options? Layer Options? Layer scales? Layers in the same view? 1 Quote Link to comment
IanH Posted September 28, 2011 Share Posted September 28, 2011 Thanks Pat for suggesting ungrouping the PDF. I had not realised that you could do that. On doing so I got the bitmap of the PDF, the page border and most importantly I got the group containing the vector data. However, on ungrouping, the vector data was positioned off to the right (see attached image) of the bitmap but fortunately, once I have realigned the vector data back to the bitmap, it will allow me to snap to the objects as I hoped. This got me investigating further. When I had previously created a viewport that encapsulated the PDF I found that the extent of the viewport was much wider than what I expected. So I decided to see if I could snap to anything to the right of the original PDF and blow me down, there were snap points available to an invisible part of the PDF. I suspect that the PDF is the more likely cause of this unless anyone knows different although there is nothing untoward showing when viewing the content in OS X preview of Acrobat Reader. Checking it out the file info of the supplied PDF, the Content creator is "PDFCreator Version 0.9.7" and encoding software is "GPL Ghostscript 8.63". Quote Link to comment
JonPM Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 Never had to ungroup a pdf in 2014? I have a pdf file that is definitely a vector created pdf file. 2015 won't snap to the lines in it. I have kept VW 2014 on my computer for now and when I place the pdf in VW 2014, it snaps just fine. Ungrouping a pdf is a pain for me because I loose some of the text and other items in the pdf that I need. It seams that the text converts to bit map when I ungrpuo a pdf. For me, the way around it has been to open the pdf in Adobe Illustrator and export it as a dwg file. All lines remain vector lines and the text remains text for editing if needed. Currently running on an iMAc 27", OSX 10.9.5, VW2015 SP2. Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee PVA - Admin Posted December 5, 2014 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted December 5, 2014 Just to make sure, in 2015 you have "Snap to Geometry" enabled for the PDF that wont snap? If it still doesn't snap with that on, send it my way and I can take a closer look. Quote Link to comment
michaelk Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 Jim I'm seeing pdfs that I can't snap to in 2015. I can ungroup the pdf and get snappable lines. I'll send you a file. mk Quote Link to comment
bcd Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 have you tried in wireframe? Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee PVA - Admin Posted December 5, 2014 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted December 5, 2014 It was the Snap to Geometry option, it was off for those specific PDFs. Quote Link to comment
eleotti Posted August 18, 2016 Share Posted August 18, 2016 Hey, I have just had the same problem! The solution is super easy though: Select the pdf in your VW file,right click on it, go to properties and make sure that 'Snap to Geometry' is ticked. Quote Link to comment
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