Trimble Business Center

Is there a way to increase the resolution of the plan sheet plots to PDF?  The output I am getting currently is horrible. The line work is poor and all the arcs are broke into the line segments. Any symbols are completely illegible. 

Attached is the plot I am trying to generate.  Is this as good as I can expect? 

I have went into the print setting in the PDF printer I am using and them to maximum.  But I don't see a place change that in the resolution.  

Is there a place to change this?  I can't find it in any of the settings.   Every other program I have used has an option for the DPI you want your PDF plotted to. 

Thank you for the help. 

That looks like a problem with the PDF Print Driver to me - try Cute PDF as an alternative

Which method are you using to Print - The Sheet layout method or the Plotbox and Print command. The Sheet Layout Method is way more sophisticated than the Plotbox and print command approach, i would recommend that you use the Sheet layout approach

Here is an example I created using the Sheet Layout

If anything, people ask if we can dial back the resolution rather than the other way around as the PDF files we create are larger than "you would expect" because of the high resolution that we use. Jennifer Metz made a post the other day - she uses Acroplot PDF professional -that gives a lot of extra controls on Plotting to PDF than a standard Print to PDF driver and she says that it works well for her - that is a tool you can free trial but it does have a cost associated with it if you want Good Quality but the ability to ratchet back the resolution. 

Alan,

I tried it with  CutePDF with the same result.  The previous PDF writer I

was using is PDF-Xchange.

I am plotting from the sheets layout and the odd thing is if I zoom into

the sheet I get better resolution. But it does not plot that way.

Is there a setting I am missing?

Thank you for the help.

Paul Roeder

AllRoed Consulting, LLC

paul@allroed.com

503-964-4980

From: alan_sharp@trimble.com <trimble@jiveon.com>

Sent: Tuesday, February 5, 2019 9:29 AM

To: Paul Roeder <paul@allroed.com>

Subject: Re:  - Re: Plan

Sheet-Plot to PDF Resolution

Trimble <https://community.trimble.com/?et=watches.email.thread>

Re: Plan Sheet-Plot to PDF Resolution

reply from Alan Sharp

<@Alan Sharp//community.trimble.com/people/alan_sharp@trimble.com?et=watches.email.thread>

in Trimble Business Center for Construction - View the full discussion

<https://community.trimble.com/message/14917-re-plan-sheet-plot-to-pdf-resolution?commentID=14917&et=watches.email.thread#comment-14917>

Send me your cell no Paul and I can call you later today when I get back to

Denver

Not sure what you are doing wrong here

We can try the Sheet in one of my layouts and see if that works

Can you send me the project also to take a look at what you have and maybe

I can see the issue

Alan

Alan,

My number is 503-964-4980

I am not what I am doing wrong either.   I am certain this is not the

quality of plots the software is supposed to produce.

Thanks for the help.

Paul Roeder

AllRoed Consulting, LLC

paul@allroed.com

503-964-4980

From: alan_sharp@trimble.com <trimble@jiveon.com>

Sent: Tuesday, February 5, 2019 10:07 AM

To: Paul Roeder <paul@allroed.com>

Subject: Re:  - Re: Plan

Sheet-Plot to PDF Resolution

Trimble <https://community.trimble.com/?et=watches.email.thread>

Re: Plan Sheet-Plot to PDF Resolution

reply from Alan Sharp

<@Alan Sharp//community.trimble.com/people/alan_sharp@trimble.com?et=watches.email.thread>

in Trimble Business Center for Construction - View the full discussion

<https://community.trimble.com/message/14937?commentID=14937&et=watches.email.thread#comment-14937>

OK - I have tracked the issue down to Linestrings. If I import the CAD file and run through the Plotting Process to the Sheet View and then Print to PDF I get good results using the native CAD Polyline Objects.

If I join lines together (Arcs and Lines) (using Join Command or Project Cleanup) and the Arcs are small radius arcs (of a few feet radius) then I get the same chording effect in the PDF output that you were seeing. I checked back in some older projects of mine and replicated the same problem so this appears to be an issue with printing of small radius arcs through the Sheet Plotting process where the Arcs are joined into Linestrings.

I have reported the defect in to the Development Team and will let you know when it has been addressed. Thanks for raising this issue - I had seen this problem in a different form when drawing Title Boxes that have small radius arcs in the Titles areas when you use the Fillet command or join Arcs into continuous lines (they become linestrings), however they also show up in sheet view as chords, whereas these do draw in Sheet View correctly it is just on the PDF output that they are not working correctly.

Lastly, you asked about Plotting Resolution when we print to PDF. The Sheet Layout method of Printing is using Vector Linework output not Raster so the Resolution should be identical to your drawing output to a plotter or printer. the resolution only affects the output PDF when we print Cut Fill Maps, Ortho Photos, PDF Images, Logos or photos on drawings when we Print to PDF using Raster Methods. A Raster output from TBC of e.g. a Cut Fill Map is extremely high resolution (I believe 600 DPI) as can be seen in this image below of a very small part of a Cut Fill Map. 

When you use the Plotbox method followed by print Preview / Print we rasterize the drawing for the printer and that is significantly lower resolution (that is meant to be "Cheap and Cheerful" / "Quick and Easy" printing as can be seen below (this was a 1:200 scale plot to an 11x8.5 sheet of a part of your drawing using the Plotbox method. You see this on all PDFs that are Raster PDFs.

I hope that this answers the question Paul

Alan

Alan,

Any update on this issue?  

I am having this same issue and it basically makes it impossible to use TBC for plotting. Can anyone provide an update? Or give us an idea of when we can expect to see this fixed? Thank you, 

This issue has now been addressed in the Daily Builds of the product - I verified this last week. The next Full Release is planned for May - Beta is due to start shortly I understand and this fix for sure will be in that Release. I will forward this post to the Product Management Team to consider for a Patch Update to address this issue sooner

Alan

Ken / Paul

If you want to Beta Test the updated Plotting capability, we would be happy to get you on the Beta Team ASAP to validate the fix now meets your needs. If you wish to become a Beta User please email me at alan_sharp@trimble.com andI will have our Beta Group Manager send you a Beta Test Agreement that you would need to sign, and then we can get you the Beta Builds of TBC v5.1.

Thanks

Alan