file formats

[cshort]

I often need to send a drawing to a customer who does not have Deltacad on their system. Now I print it, scan it to a pdf then send it to them. Is there a better way to let users(do you mean 'customers'?-"the Boss") see the drawing without having to go through this process?

[Admin 1]

Does that customer have any type of Cad program at all? (not that that would or should ever be expected of a client - but I'm just asking.)

IMO, given that DeltaCad offers free & full functionality for 45 days, and assuming your customer(s) have internet access, you shouldn't have any problem sending them the original .DC drawings.

You simply need to include a link to the DeltaCad download page along with your .dc drawing file so they can view it. -- You may want to let them know that it only takes a few minutes to download and install it.

However, it's not a bad idea to also include the .pdf file so that they can still preview the drawing before downloading & installing DeltaCad to see it in its 'full glory'.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but snail-mailing printed plans and/or face-to-face drawing presentations work pretty well too.

[cshort]

(10-16-2010, 03:10 PM)The Boss Wrote: Does that customer have any type of Cad program at all? (not that that would or should ever be expected of a client - but I'm just asking.)

IMO, given that DeltaCad offers free & full functionality for 45 days, and assuming your customer(s) have internet access, you shouldn't have any problem sending them the original .DC drawings.

You simply need to include a link to the DeltaCad download page along with your .dc drawing file so they can view it. -- You may want to let them know that it only takes a few minutes to download and install it.

However, it's not a bad idea to also include the .pdf file so that they can still preview the drawing before downloading & installing DeltaCad to see it in its 'full glory'.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but snail-mailing printed plans and/or face-to-face drawing presentations work pretty well too.

Thanks.... I was hoping to find a free file conversion program that would take either a .dc file or a .dxf file and convert it to a .pdf file. Not sure the customer would be too open to adding Deltacad to his system.

[i44troll]

There is one more option, you can export your file as a JPG file (file/export/image file from screen) to minimize extra handling. The results may not be as crisp but there shouldn't be any problem viewing it.

chris "i44troll"

[Admin 1]

i44troll brings up a good point.

The .jpg samples on our Drawing Download Pages are .jpg files but I typically save them at 50% quality, rather than 100% quality. This is done simply to conserve server space. For your clients, 100% quality would be recommended but they will still appear to be a little "mushy", as it were. Also, they will likely be rather sizable files, as compared to the original .dc drawing.

As i44troll mentioned, the lines won't be as crisp as they are in your actual .dc drawing which is something that you may want to consider as well.

Perhaps if you ask Midnight Software nicely, they may include a "Save as a PDF" File menu option in a future release, if it's not too difficult for them to do so.

[cshort]

(10-16-2010, 06:27 PM)i44troll Wrote: There is one more option, you can export your file as a JPG file (file/export/image file from screen) to minimize extra handling. The results may not be as crisp but there shouldn't be any problem viewing it.

chris "i44troll"

Thanks.... I gave that a shot. I am using version 5 pro. The only visiable export options are bitmap and dxf. Is the jpg option only in a newer version? I tried the bitmap and the drawing is viewable but very fuzzy.
Thanks again.......

[i44troll]

cshort,

You may want to consider upgrading, there are so many more valuable features that are offered in version 7 compared to version 5, including the ability to rotate jpegs in your drawing. The upgrade cost is usually a bit cheaper as well, at $29.99 it's an easy buy, and you save 25% just by having a previous version to upgrade. click here to upgrade

Chris "i44troll"

[cshort]

(10-17-2010, 04:29 PM)i44troll Wrote: cshort,

You may want to consider upgrading, there are so many more valuable features that are offered in version 7 compared to version 5, including the ability to rotate jpegs in your drawing. The upgrade cost is usually a bit cheaper as well, at $29.99 it's an easy buy, and you save 25% just by having a previous version to upgrade. click here to upgrade

Chris "i44troll"

Thanks.... Will version 7 allow me to save drawing files as jpg files?

[jw48]

Version 7 will save as .dc, .dwg, .dxf and Misc(*.*). The latter seems to save a .dc as .dc, and so on.

I think it's a shortcoming of DeltaCad that it can't also save directly as bmp and jpg. I'd beg to differ with i44troll regarding the quality of jpgs made with 'Export|Image files from screen' - even at '100% quality' they're still not very good, in my humble opinion.

DeltaCad files can be saved directly as a pdf without first printing and scanning, by 'printing' to a program such as CutePDF. This produces excellent PDFs ready for publication. CutePDF is shareware but I believe there are free programs which do the same thing. CutePDF appears as a printer in the print dialogue, along with the hardware printer(s).

Regards
John

[i44troll]

(10-18-2010, 12:20 PM)cshort Wrote: Thanks.... Will version 7 allow me to save drawing files as jpg files?

The program allows you to "export" (yes, save the file as....) the screenshot of whatever you are drawing as a jpg image.