Viewport DPI

[Andy Broomell]

I want each rendered viewport on a sheet layer to have an OIP parameter for DPI, rather than it currently being controlled solely by the entire sheet layer DPI setting. I think the sheet layer DPI functionality should stay in tact as it is, but add the functionality of individual viewports being able to deviate from that.

A viewport should default to the sheet layer DPI (perhaps with a checkbox that says "Use sheet layer DPI"), but if you want that viewport to render at a different DPI you should be able to type it in.

[PVA - Admin]

I think that may not be possible to implement in practice, as exporting a PDF or printing will always end up at one DPI for a given sheet, not a variable one. However I will check in any case.

What is your main motivation behind wanting to have separate DPI settings per-viewport on a single sheet?

[Andy Broomell]

That makes sense about exported PDFs being one resolution. I wonder if VW could resample any mismatched viewports to match the sheet layer DPI? This would be similar to how currently you can place multiple copies of a Bitmap object, shrink some smaller and stretch some larger (effectively creating objects with different DPIs), then export a single-DPI sheet layer.

As to why:

When doing a lot of RW renderings in different viewports, I have a single sheet layer where I place all my viewports. This sheet layer is purely for rendering; it's not a printed drafting plate. Among this grid of various viewports I'll often want to render one at a lower DPI as a test to see how changes look before taking the time for a high DPI rendering. This is currently achieved by going to the Navigation palette, clicking on the Sheet Layer tab, right clicking the Render sheet layer, selecting Edit, then typing a new Raster Rendering DPI and clicking OK. This of course changes the DPI for all of the viewports, so if I then have some other viewport that is ready to render at full DPI I have to do all this clicking again to change it back.

Another way I've approached this issue is to have two sheet layers - one low quality and one high quality, and literally moving a viewport back and forth between sheet layers as needed before clicking Update. But having all your renderings scattered across two sheets is disorderly and hard to keep track of...

So having a DPI field in the OIP of raster viewports would allow you to quickly change the DPI of a viewport before updating it. This added efficiency would be one step closer to Vectorworks being a great digital rendering program.

[PVA - Admin]

As long as having image/print/pdf export downsampling the DPI of all the various viewports is acceptable, then it may very well be doable.

And now that I think about it more, I have a similar procedure to yours, with a high quality sheet and a low quality sheet that I do stumble over sometimes, letting you have more control over the quality per-viewport makes a good deal of sense.

Adding notes to the request.

[scottmoore]

I know this is an old thread but has there been any movement on this issue. I too use a sheet layer as a de facto “contact sheet” to produce various renderings from viewports and there is certainly reason to adjust the DPI per viewport. 

[Jim Smith]

We often have one or more Context Sheets that have imported image. Our work-a-round it to print to PDF the whole set then print these Sheets sets separately. Having the ability to set some sheets differently would be a help.

 

[zeno]

UP. Actually i’m working with a pointcloud. Different settings means different results. See the attachment, there is a facade. With 50 dpi you can see only the exterior, with 300 dpi everything looks like a section, and you can’t controle it in design layer because the quality is absolutely lower. It could be very useful