Plotting in CAD

[Gary Prentice]

Can anyone point me in the right direction, before I get thoroughly bamboozled contacting the help desk?

 

I'm using Keysofts LandCad LT, which I understand is run on an Autocad base. Great program, particularly for a novice like me, but I'm running into difficulties when I come to plotting/printing.

 

There's loads of options to print to, but primarily PDF. My problem is, I think, that because I'm starting on topos at A0, plotting the crown spreads/rps's, tree ref no's etc and then printing/plotting to A4 the text becomes unreadaable.

 

If I save as a BAK or DWG it's no issue, enlarging works ok, but once it's in a PDF (A4) any attempt to increase the zoom %age just creates a pixellated mess of the text.

 

I'm halfway through 'Autocad for Dummies' so I may yet find the answer, but it would be handy to get a little guidance if possible.

 

Thanks in anticipation.

[stumpyb]

Assuming it works the same way as standard Autocad just plot as 'DWG to pdf' and set the page size to A0 then it will look as it does on the screen. Another way is to set the line weight for the text to 0.0mm but it is more of a ball ache to do unless you have all the text as the same layer where you can use qselect to select all the text at once.

[Gary Prentice]

Thanks, I'll try that tonight.

 

I'm only just getting used to the command line, I managed to lose it and had to second reinstall to get it back.

It wouldn't be too hard to q select as the tree ref numbers are, I think over four tree category layers.

[stumpyb]

if you loose the command line again it is just Ctrl+9 to get it back.

[Paul Barton]

Hi Gary,

 

Does all text become pixellated, or just the tree reference numbers?

[Gary Prentice]

if you loose the command line again it is just Ctrl+9 to get it back.

 

I did actually do some googling to find that out, but Ctrl+9 led to a fatal error and a program closedown:biggrin:

 

Learning autocad/cad is just like learning a new language, I read the instructions and then need to search elsewhere just to understand what the instructions are saying. I'll get there.

[Paul Barton]

I have found in the past that the plot DWG to PDF function can throw things out.

 

I installed a third party PDF creating software (PrimoPDF) and set that as the default printer in CAD. It works really well.

[Gary Prentice]

Hi Gary,

 

Does all text become pixellated, or just the tree reference numbers?

 

I think it's all the text. Generally I'll make (freeze?) the layers with spot heights and other text I don't want to unclutter the drawing - so I'm not too sure without looking back.

 

I'm pretty sure it's my fault, in the decisions I make in the plotting process. I normally save as a PDF, paste into a word document and then convert the Doc or DocX to PDF - which probably doesn't help.

 

I might try converting the doc to pdf then add the drawing pdf to it - I think that way it wouldn't go through a file format conversion twice.

 

 

This will be just something stupid that I'm approaching wrong, I don't mind making a fool of myself on here but would rather not do the same by contacting IT Support at Keysoft:lol:

[Gary Prentice]

I have found in the past that the plot DWG to PDF function can throw things out.

 

I installed a third party PDF creating software (PrimoPDF) and set that as the default printer in CAD. It works really well.

 

I think there's a dozen or more PDF options in the program to save to. I use PDF24 Creator - a third party app, but also used most of the other save to options as well. Pretty sure it's my setting up as Stumpyb said - I'll try A0 or whatever the original topo was drawn out.

 

Cheers Paul

[Paul Barton]

I wouldn't worry about looking silly to the Keysoft support team - I have set a precedent for that over the years!