PDF Export Triangles instead of Original

[LFO]

Hi Vectorworks Support Community, 

 

I have a ground plan that consists of objects that have black filling. In Vector Works they look normal but once I exported the pdf the objects appear as triangles. I will attach Screenshots also my Setting. Its in Germany but I can translate it too. I tried a lot and would be really happy if someones know why is not exporting it right?

 

Let me know if you need further information. I work with Mac (10.12.6) and Vector Works 2017 for Students.

 

Thank you so much!!

 

Greetings Leonie 

EXPORT PDF.pdf

[Art V]

When opening your PDF in a graphics program (e.g. Adobe Illustrator, Affinity Designer or other program) I noticed overlapping/self-intersecting geometry. This could cause the effect you are seeing depending on settings. (The self-intersecting/overlapping parts will show white unless the program is set to fill based on the outer boundary and ignore self-intersecting overlaps).

 

You could try using purge to remove overlapping items, though it may not work on all objects, and to simplify polylines/polygons.

 

Did you try a rasterized export of the PDF? ("PDF gerastert exportieren" in your PDF export dialog)

What is your source/source file format of this plan?

[herbieherb]

Is your Plan very far away from the vectorworks origin? Then move it near the vectorworks origin.

You can also try to increase "Geometriegenauigkeit".

[LFO]

Thank you so much for your support. 

 

- rasterize export as PDF (Auflösung mit Geometriegenauigkeit) didn't work

- moved the origin in the center but didn't work (was already close so it).

 

I checked for identical objects but there are none. 

 

The original source is a .dxf 

I make a new fresh import. It is much better but the outlines are still not sharp as they are in the vector works file. 

 

I realised one thing. When I delete a lot of the objects and export the pdf its much better. Do you have any idea why? 

 

I attached the original file called „berlin.dxf“ and the Vector Works file with all the objects „FRESH IMPORT EVERYTHING“ and only part of it „FRESH IMPORT LESS OBJECTS“ also with the pdfs. To see the weird outlines you have to zoom in into the EVERYTHING one. 

 

Thank you so much for your help!!

 

Greetings Leonie 

 

 

berlin.dxf

FRESH IMPORT EVERYTHING.vwx

FRESH IMPORT EVERYTHING Export PDF.pdf

FRESH IMPORT LESS OBJECTS.vwx

FRESH IMPORT LESS OBJECTS Export PDF.pdf

[herbieherb]

This really looks like an origin issue. Just pushing the origin onto the drawing does not help. This does move the user origin but not the vectorworks-origin. In the menu go to origins (Extras-Nullpunkte-Benuterznullpunkt festlegen) and delete all user origins. Then you move the entire drawing to the vectorworks origin.

[LFO]

Thank you so much for your answer. 

 

I did that what you described. It looks much better but still not as straight as the original file. Do you have more ideas what I could try? FRESH IMPORT EVERYTHING.vwx

[Art V]

@LFO there is an issue with the DXF file, the coloured areas are just fills (acad hatches) that have no boundary line and there are overlapping fills/hatches in the dxf file (e.g. I found an area that consisted of a large fill with two underlying smaller fills that also overlapped). This overlapping may be causing some of the holes in your areas depending on how VW tries to import/interpret the DXF information. It may be that VW is considering these to be substractions from the larger fill.

 

On top of that, the dxf is probably from a converted PDF file and this may cause some inaccuracies as PDF has a lower accuracy for geometry than CAD.

 

Some areas that seem to be a single area can consist of multiple adjacent fills, it could be that it has to be because they are different buildings/areas that share a wall but it could also be from the PDF to DXF conversion (or it could have been in the PDF as e.g. AutoCAD has a tendency to "triangulate" exported fills sometimes and the conversion software may have made an attempt to combine adjacent fills into a single area)

 

When I have more time to experiment I'll give it a try to import it into VW.

 

Just for the record, the origin in the DXF is at the lower left corner of the overall area and aligns with the WCS (= VW internal origin) so a coordinate issue/too large distance form the internal origin is quite unlikely to be the cause of your issue.

[Art V]

Just checked the DXF further by recoloring it, the black areas with white holes are correct, these are probably buildings with contained open spaces or paving.

 

A screen capture:

 

Green is probably lawn, blue is water, reddish brown are buildings, the beige lines are centerlines of streets and the purple lines are elevation lines.

e.g. in the left lower side of the large green area on the right you can see a building that looks typical for a church. Some of the street lines are going into the white spaces of buildings, so the white areas are probably paved areas, sometimes enclosed by the building.