PNG me !!!

Who are these people?

I ran across this the other day, where a vendor did not have AutoCAD (and we did not want to distribute DWG source files), they did not want to download Autodesk's FREE DWF Viewer (so that eliminated sending them a DWF file) and they only had an old version of Adobe Acrobat (read: I didn't have time to explain the differences between "full" and "viewer")...

So what were we to do?

And then I remembered that I could simply send them a simple graphics file... but which format would work best? Below are oldie but goodie AutoCAD commands, that I nearly forgot all about. With all the new fangled Publish to Web and more modern features, how was I to deal with a dinosaur (graphically & technology challenged supplier)?

BMPOUT: AutoCAD creates a bitmap file that contains the objects you select. The file reflects what is displayed on the screen.

Personal comment: My test BMP was 4,013KB (a large file)

JPGOUT: AutoCAD creates a JPEG file that contains the objects you select. Shade Plot options are preserved in the file when you use this command.

Personal comment: My test JPG was 386KB (more reasonable)

PNGOUT: AutoCAD creates a Portable Network Graphics file that contains the objects you select. The file reflects what is displayed on the screen.

Personal comment: My test PNG was 58KB (most excellent)

TIFOUT: A TIFF file is created that contains the objects you select. The file reflects what is displayed on the screen.

Personal comment: My test TIF was 5,354 (HUGE!!!)

TIP: before using the commands you can change your background colors to white (works good when pasting into manuals or faxing) or in our case, we simply checked Display Plot Styles and was using a monochrome plot style. I actually have one plot style (RED_ONLY) that plots (in this case displays) everything in black & white, except for the color red.

So we sent them PNG files and they were able to view, print, comment, etc... they of course marked those up with pen/pencil and then faxed them back.


Also see the EXPORT command, where the following output types are available:

• WMF: Microsoft Windows® Metafile (see WMFOUT)
• SAT: ACIS solid object file (see ACISOUT)
• STL: Solid object stereolithography file (see STLOUT)
• EPS: Encapsulated PostScript file
• DXX: Attribute extract DXF™ file (see ATTEXT)
• BMP: Device-independent bitmap file (see BMPOUT)
• 3DS: 3D Studio® file (see 3DSOUT)
• DWG: AutoCAD drawing file (see WBLOCK)

- Enjoy