Importing and scaling files...

AllanRM · March 2015

Hi folks...
I am looking at the possibility of using a KNK Zing to help me in my model building efforts. I am building dioramas which need to be at a specific scale. Right now the software that I am using at the design stage is saving to a cad format which doesn't seem to be supported by MTC as an import. I can print to a PDF however - but only in raster format. By adding yet another stage to the process, I can produce a .jpg from the PDF file but then I have a problem scaling the .jpg to the size at which the design work was done.
Anything that could point me in the right direction to solve this so that I could go ahead and buy a nice shiny Zing would be most welcome.

I sure hope I have asked this in a way that can be understood!

Regards, Allan.

Gabe · March 2015

@AllanRM, welcome to the forum. I'm no expert on controlling scale within MTC. I think @SBryanW could do a much better job of that than I ever could. But I did want to chat with you a bit about a few points you made in your first message. When it comes to saving files for import into MTC, maybe your CAD software can save to an intermediate format? Like you might could save as a CDR file, Corel format, and then in Corel, save it as an SVG. You want to keep it vector if at all possible. Or maybe you could find and download a 3rd party PDF maker that supports vector information. If anyone reading this knows of such a PDF maker, please clue me in.

If you are going to go "yet another stage", try to produce a scalable vector graphic - SVG - as the output. I mean, "Scalable" is right in the name!

There are some really good videos on how to get the best results with Pixel Trace located on @SandyMcC's I Love KNK site. http://www.iloveknk.com/FreeVideos/MakeTheCut/Tracing/

And if you back-up a level to http://www.iloveknk.com/FreeVideos/MakeTheCut/
you'll find several other videos that are quite informative.

juliefes · March 2015

You should be able to print to PDF Creator, then save as SVG. The resulting SVG will importin into Make The Cut. Or you can print to Cute PDF Writer to create a vector PDF that will import into Make The Cut. These are better options than savng in a raster format and tracing.

Liz_A · March 2015

@AllanRM - you haven't said what method you use to create the PDF, is it a built-in ability of your program or are you using another pdf creation program such as PDFCreator or CutePDF? Here is an article you might find interesting, as you may just need to adjust the properties of your pdf printer to get the results that you want:

http://www.sheridan.com/sites/default/files/DJS_PCGeneralPDFCreation.pdf

Importing and scaling files...

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