archicad and photoshop

[tom10]

Hi there can anyone help?

I am currently a 2nd year student studying architecture and although most of us use autocad i have just started to use archicad, so i am still trying to grasp the fundamentals of the program. getting there tho lol.

We have to produce precentation boards of our work and in the past i have used photoshop to set up a2 sheets and have exported 2d drawings into photoshop. I have tried to do this with archicad but i am unable to export my drawings as the scale is always changed when i open up the document in photoshop. can anyone help, does anyone know what to save a document as so this does not happen. help lol

 

thanks

tom

[bricklyne]

It depends,

 

a) What file format are you exporting the drawings as? raster image files (jpg, bmp, tff, etc) or Vector formats ( dwg, illustrator, etc)

 

b)Since it's Photoshop, and presentation panels that you're talking about exporting to, are you sure you mean 'scale' or might perhaps be referring to resolution and image size (tying back to the first question, obviously)?

 

One option you might consider is to export the ArchiCAD image files as .pdf files and then just open directly in Photoshop and resolve any resolution/scale issues from there.

[tom10]

Sorry maybe I wasn’t clear. Say for arguments sake I have produced the plan drawings for a three story building at a scale of 1:100 and I wanted to show each floor plan on one a2 sheet. I would set up a white a2 canvas in Photoshop and open up each plan drawing and simply transfer each plan as a new layer. The problem occurs when I save the plans in archicad. I am not sure what file format to save as. If I save as a jpeg then the scale of the plans is altered when opened up in photoshop. I was told by a friend who works in a practice to save the plans as either an eps or PDF, which I believe you mentioned. However in archicad when saving work I am not given that option.

Does that help explain my situation?

Sorry if this is a stupid question

Thanks

Tom

[bricklyne]

Ok, a couple of points here;

 

But first, a quick question; unless you're using some fancy pre-designed layout titleblock (raster image) for your plans, why not just print everything straight out from ArchiCAD using Plotmaker( for ArchiCAD versions 9 and below) or just directly from within ArchiCAD ( with ArchiCAD 10)? In fact you can even import any predesigned raster graphics, or layouts/titleblocks from Photoshop into ArchiCAD as a jpeg and intergrate that into your layout or border settings in ArchiCAD. This way you can control the scale of the drawing from either from ArchiCAD's printer settings or from Plotmaker(v.9) or the Layout tool's (v10) scaling properties. This would save you all the trouble of have to deal with file formats, resolution and scale between different programs. I think it would be easiest this way.

 

In any case, assuming that there's a reason that prevents you from going the above route, then to do it via exporting the file from ArchiCAD, the procedure is a little different than from that of exporting through other formats. For PDF files, rather than using the "Save As" or export command from the File menu, you have to go through the Print command via the "Page Setup" option in the File menu ("Page Setup"! , NOT "Plot Setup" command; this is very important). In ArchiCAD, ( as in most other program's that export pdf format, either through Adobe plugins or other third party agents) the PDF exporter functions as a virtual printer which appears in the printer menu along with your other physical printers. If you scroll through the available printer options in the Page Setup menu you should come across the 'Amyuni PDF converter', which comes standard with all ArchiCAD installations and it should also allow you to select everything from Paper size (all the way down to A0, I believe) to Resolution (all the way up to 1200dpi;- depending on your tolerance for large file sizes, of course), to image options for the pdf and among other things, frm the 'Advanced' option. And then once you've done this you can select additional print options like the actual scale ( like the 1:100, that you asked about) through the "Print" command, also found in the File menu. Note that this will print whatever is centered according to your scale on the currently Active Window selected in your workspace. Which means that if you were last working on a section or elevation, or detail, then that's what will be printed. So you have to make sure you select the window of what you want to print ( like the plan), center the image as much as you can (if you have sections of the file outside the print area that you dont' want to print), and then set it to print. It will ask you were to save the final or "printed" PDF file and that will be that.

 

It should be a similar procedure for printing EPS files except that under print options to select 'print to file' with the Postscript printer, if this is available in your installation. The only downside is that you might not have access to control things like resolution, scale image size and such, like you do with PDF files. I would go the PDF route myself.

 

Note also, that if you go to the "Save As" command (I'm not certain if this feature is available pre-ArchiCAD v10), you can also directly save whatever view you have active and centered, as a Photoshop PSD file.

 

 

I hope this helps.....

[lup]

hi

 

I would go this way:

 

To have fulle controll, export your drawing ("save as") in the Plotmaker format. Then open your drawing in Plotmaker . Then INSIDE plotmaker open your drawing (you need to select it and then in the file menu choose open"the name of your drawing"). then choose save as in th eps format. Finaly u can open it in PS and choose the resolution u want at the opening but anyway your drawing will be at scale in PS....

 

hope this helps...

 

lup

[tom10]

Hay thats great! Thanks for your help. i will give it ago tomorrow at uni. thanks once again!!

 

Tom