Monday, February 16, 2009

Exporting data from DWG or RVT to PPT

Update:

There is an easy way to bring vector data to PPT.

1. Export to PDF or DWF from CAD or Revit.

2. In PowerPoint, go to Insert menu and select "Object.." and then select the PDF or DWF.

Thanks to Johann H. for this tip. More info: here at Shaan's blog

Previous not so correct post:

There is no easy method to bring vector data from DWG or RVT to Powerpoint. There are many ways to bring data as a raster image. The following methodology seems to work the best:

  1. Export from CAD or Revit to PDF. You can use the Adobe PDF writer or PDF995, etc. to do this. To get a consistent image size in PPT, it is better to create the PDF to scale and to a fixed size sheet. (11x17 or 36x48; etc.)
  2. Open the PDF in Adobe Reader or Acrobat. (The following screenshots are from the Reader.)
  3. Go to Tools menu > select & zoom > Snap shot tool
    clip_image002
  4. Draw a rectangle to select a rectangular portion of the PDF or you can select the whole page. The selected area is copied to clipboard. Typically the copied data is in low resolution.
  5. To get a higher resolution image: without changing anything, enter 200 (or your calculated value – see next step) in the zoom percentage box and press enter.
    clip_image004
  6. (The rule of thumb to calculate the needed resolution: If the PPT is 11x17 and the PDF is 11x17 then set the zoom percentage to be 200 to 250 percent.)
  7. Go to Edit menu > copy. (If this gives a memory error, you have to experiment with a lower zoom percentage in the previous step.)
  8. Open Powerpoint and paste it there. (Edit menu > Paste)

4 comments:

Johann Hudtwalcker said...

a much better way (for 2D AND 3D): publish DWF, and insert it as an object in PPT.

see links: http://www.mossdesigns.com/dwftutorials.pdf
http://autodesk.blogs.com/between_the_lines/2004/12/embed_a_2d_or_3.html

Nicholas Iyadurai said...

Thank you. When I had tried, it didnt work the other day. yesterday it worked perfectly!

Johann Hudtwalcker said...

I really love this metod, since it allows you to orbit the 3D model, and paste many 2D sheets, zoom, pan, etc...

Clark said...

I found that autodesk changes things up with every release. Navisworks has a really difficult and hidden method for placing a "control box". Here's a link to a tutorial.

http://navisworks.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-to-navisworks-control-box-inside-of.html