Design Layer Viewport Resolution

[GenesisCM]

I have previously presented all my drawings with Sheet Layer viewports so I am very familiar with these, however, I have recently come over to using design layer viewports to link to a common file. The problem is that the resolution on these design layer viewports are so poor that I cannot issue any drawing for communication. Previously I have set my viewports for 300dpi which at A3 gives a good image that can be zoomed in on. My design layer resolution would be in the order of 48 dpi at the moment. I need help on this issue so let me go through what I have been over with my local tech support.

The output setting in Resolution in Document Preferences is '600 dpi' for both PDF export & printing. The OpenGL options have been set to 'high' for detail.

Regardless of what I set the resolution to in Document Preference (and also in the print dialogue box for the PDF export (or printing through the apple 'Save as PDF' the print is always the same size and resolution.

Does anyone have any suggestion on how to increase the resolution. Could it be something to do with the referenced file. Sorry I forgot to mention that this is a reference viewport linked to a master file.

I have attached two PDF prints. One from the original master file that was a Sheet Layer Viewport at 300 dpi and another that is the design layer viewport from the second drawing that referenced the original file. By the way the referenced file was up to date in the Navigation Palette.

Interestingly the dimensions of the original file is 1555 pixels for an A3 sheet (16.5 inches) which gives 94 dpi despite being rendered at 300 dpi. The referenced file is 1191 which gives 72 dpi. Now I do recall that 72 dpi is a default setting for something within VW.

I am at my wits end regarding this as I can see the benefits of design layer viewports and want to use them but this resolution issue is a show stopper.......

[islandmon]

NTSC = 72dpi for Monitors/Displays.

Design Layers utilize the Video Display resolution ... higher resolution displays, ie. 2560x1440 provide 4x more pixels

with better anti-aliasing compared with those older 640x480 monitors.

A Video screen capture will be the same for both DLVP & SLVP even if the Page output resolution of the SLVP is set to 600 dpi.

[bcd]

I"m surprised Export as PDF has anything to do with screen resolution - perhaps page size for the Design Layer - be sure your view is set to fit nicely on one page.

Have you tried placing the DLVP into a SLVP and exporting to PDF? I'd expect you would get the control & results you need doing this.

[GenesisCM]

I am also not to sure about the video resolution as I am exporting to PDF. Also when I zoom right in on the viewport the resolution does not update. The closer you zoom in the more pixilation you see. If I was doing a screen capture I guess the video resolution could impact but I am on a new 27" iMac at 2560 x 1440.

Thanks for the idea about creating a SLVP from the DLVP it makes sense unfortunately it didn't work.

I'm wondering if it is something to do with the sharing function of the file. I just don't understand why the original file is OK but the referencing file is not. That tends to suggest that the VW preferences are not an issue as they are common to both files. It is either something in the document settings or it is a problem within VW when picking up a referenced viewport.....

Aslo I forgot to mention I am running VW 2010 +RW on a 2.8 Quad core iMac with a ATI Radeon HD 4850 card so I don't think it is anything to do with the graphics.......

[GenesisCM]

My local support Ozcad in Australia solved this issue. It is related to the crop of the viewport. If you remove the crop & render the whole viewport it works just fine. It is obviously an inherent problem with the program. The way around it at the moment is to simulate a viewport crop by creating the equivalent of a photo matte. Make a rectangle slightly larger than the page size. Then create a rectangle the size of the required crop of the viewport and then clip surface to see the viewport through the matte. It a bit of a pain but then this is VW 2010 so I not holding my breath that they will fix this bug. Someone may like to check if this also happens in 2011. May the fix will be the same as 2010.

[bcd]

I bet it has something to do with the scale of the DL. Try resetting the DL scale to 1:1 in the source drawing and include the crop in the DLVP. I'd be interested to see if this also resolves the issue.