Topic Title

I need to produce a Word document containing Dcad drawings. Those drawings need to be 'as printed' and not as seen on screen in order to produce b/w output and correct line weights. I am currently using the plot preview and saving as an emf file. That works, but the quality is not what I want. The text is fuzzy and diagonal lines are jaggy. Is there a better way?

I typically do the plot / preview / save as : to a PDF file. I then use CorelDraw to manipulate it if necessary and export it as a JPG or PNG file that should import into Word easily. I am not sure if a PDF will be editable when input into a Word document. If I recall correctly the full version of Adobe Acrobat has the ability to export a PDF file to JPG.

Hello Dick,

I recommend the use of EMF format. Just now I've tested and zoomed it to 500%, and I couldn't detect a consistent loss in comparing with Acrobat PDF.

I am using Win XP SP 2 with Word 2003. Have noted that in other machine, with Word 2000 it appears jaggy the diagonal lines. I am not sure if it was an improvement of Word 2003, but can be!

Thanks,
Miguel

What I am doing is essentially the same as you describe except that I am using Word 2000 and there is one additional step. I open the emf file in IrfanView and crop away the surplus white space. I am usinf emf because I found it produced sharper results than the pdf and it gave me the ability to trim away the white space around the graphic. But I would still like to find a better result regarding the jaggies and the TTF fonts. The graphic appears the same in IrfanView as it does in Word so I doubt that the newer version of Word would have anything to do with it.

What I do is save my dwg as a PDF via the 'plot preview'
Then I open it in Adobe PDF Reader. By Selecting "SNAP SHOT" Tool, I rubberband select the portion of the dwg I want. Then I open the Word Document and "CTRL+V" ie. Paste it

PS. Make sure you zoom close enough in the PDF file for resolution sake..

I just tried Sinha's suggestion and it does indeed produce a superior result. Plot to pdf, select the graphic in Reader (zoomed in) and copy to the clipboard. In Word, select the previous graphic and then select Paste and it is replaced with a better version. This is the way.

Actually I had used this method on another project long ago and had somehow missed its application for this one.

Hello guys,

By all what I am allowed to understand, EMF format is more then an image. It was designed indeed like a 'vectorial' object that can be more faithfully manipulated inside Windows applications (ex.: MS Word). Differently from a PNG, JPG or other bitmap images, it would fit the better show, when you shrink or expand it.

In certain cases, like images with little size, the results appear very interesting. I have done a comparative study, among all the options you have raised, and hope this can help to clarify things.

Below I got five images, being four captured from Word screen, and the fifth from Adobe Reader.
Those from Word are from 4 pages with the same image originally created in DataCAD XI, viewed at a 500% Zoom, and the Adobe is a 400% Zoom of the single PDF file image, created from the same source drawing.

I have created an A4 size drawing (a bit larger then A size) representing a diagonal wall with two little phrases, the first in Arial font and the other in a vectorial HLV. Obviously this do not covers the several flavours of its use, but can head to a pattern.

From the DataCAD Print Preview, I've used Paint Shop Pro to capture the image, converted it into two bitmaps formats (BMP and PNG) and inserted each one into Word.

Here are the images in Word.

FIRST: image inserted was .BMP format.




SECOND: image inserted was .PNG format.




THIRD: image inserted was Clipboarded.




FOURTH: image inserted was .EMF format.




FIFTH: image captured in Adobe Reader, at 400% Zoom.



Thanks,
Miguel