Transforming Viewports into vector drawings

[jjameson@urbanbloc.net]

All, League of vectorworkers,

 

We have sheets and sheets of detail viewports that point to 3D models and have annotation layers with dimensions, notes etc.

All neatly arranged with titles etc. 

We also have a separate production manual Vectorworks file that provides task information for production of said details. 

 

What are our options for reproducing the detail drawings in vector format retaining all the dimensions, text etc so they can be cut and pasted into the production manual file?

Seems like everything I tried looses most of the information, especially from the annotation layer.

 

Any ideas?

Thanks

Jerry.

[Robert Anderson]

Have you tried export to DWG / reimport of the sheet layers? 

[Pat Stanford]

Set your drawing window to the aspect ration you need for the manual, Zoom In,  and then Export PDF - Current View Only?

[mjm]

following on from @PatStanford, isn't making sheet layer viewports exactly the solution for this? 

[Benson Shaw]

Is this a problem of sheet size? eg the design file has large page size/sheet size with several or many viewports on a sheet, and the manual file needs letter size with only one or two viewports per page with a bunch of text and tables?  If this is the problem, a couple things can work:

 

1. Make 2 sets of sheet layers in the design file instead of creating a separate manual file.  Name each vp with prefix or suffix to indicate design or manual, eg Light 1 and Light 1man (vectorworks assigns default names by number, eg Viewport 1, Viewport 2, etc)  The sheets for the manual versions of the vps are letter size (or whatever your manual format).  Copy the design version of a vp and Paste onto a manual sheet.  If necessary, scale it via Modify>Scale Objects with option for Scale Text enabled and Scale entire Drawing disabled.  Drawing label scale indicator will update to display the new scale.  Note: a vp scaled via the OIP, does not properly scale or position annotation space text.

 

2. If the manual is produced by copying the viewports into other software (Word? Pages? InDesign?), perhaps a pdf method can work?  Select/Copy the vp. then Paste into the production doc. The Copy/Paste action to other software usually results in a vector pdf.  Downside of this is that if the vp is resized in the production software, eg by dragging a corner, the drawing label does not update to indicate the new scale - scale it in vwx, then copy/paste.  Another possible downside - if the manual is then published in pdf form, it makes a pdf of the pdf viewports.  The double step might create some distortion or resolution problems?