Clipboard question

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debenriver
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Clipboard question

Post by debenriver »

I've been meaning to explore this for a long while!

RealCADD doesn't seem to share the clipboard very much.

For example text can be copied and pasted from a word processing program (such as Pages), spreadsheet etc. into RealCADD – provided the text tool is selected first. And RealCADD text can be copied and pasted to those other programs, again provided it is selected by the text tool.

But other items - like rectangles, lines, oval etc. etc., groups of objects, including text can't be copied and pasted either into or from RealCADD.

Old programs like ClarisCad were able to copy and paste to and from other programs (including directly from naval architecture programs MacSurf and MacHydro) via the clipboard, which was very useful. At the moment I have to do this via exporting to dxf and then importing into RealCADD, which mostly works OK, though it can be a bit of a hassle!

I'm just wondering why this is. If I got a clipboard management app, would I be able to copy and past more??

Cheers -- George
Eric Pousse
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Re: Clipboard question

Post by Eric Pousse »

Bonjour George,

This possibility was also in RealCADD in the past for the Mac version because Apple has the PICT file format for vectorial objects.
But this format has been deprecated by Apple some years ago, without replacement.
A developer of plugins for PowerCADD tried to resolve this problem : http://www.openclip.net
But it is not universal.
Actually I don't know if there is a good solution. SVG?
In Pages, if you draw some vectorial objects and copy them, they are converted in png picture, so bitmap picture...

Cordialement.
Eric Pousse
debenriver
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Re: Clipboard question

Post by debenriver »

Hi Eric

Ok - I understand now. I recall that PICT wasn't that great a format anyway – which I guess is why curved lines sometimes came out wobbly!

I guess I'll stick with dxf transfers! I'm transferring from pretty old programs – my MacSurf is version 7 (about 1998 – the last version for Mac's) and ClarisCad is 2.0v3 (even older at 1991) – so it's actually surprising how good the results are in RealCADD.

From MacSurf (which can save directly to dxf format), and which I still use on a regular basis, they are perfect (though I have to convert first to a more modern version of dxf for RealCADD to open them) – 100% accurate.

For Claris, to use my legacy files in RealCADD, I have to go through Claris Translator to get to dxf. Oddly enough, considering Claris' age, RealCADD can open those files directly. There is a quirk in that Claris (Cad or Translator?) saves files in US units, regardless of them being drawn in metric units. But if say a Claris drawing is at 1:10 metric scale all you have to do is open it in RealCADD at 1:10, then "Select all" and "Resize" by 0.254. Then it is correct metric at 1:10. Other scales are similar multiples of 25.4. Accuracy, apart from splines, is pretty good – probably as good as the original Claris accuracy was (which wasn't that great!).

I really haven't got to grips with SVG. All my stuff ends up online, so working drawings are converted to PDF so my builders can download them – which is simple and well supported. Where I do get problems is converting RealCADD drawings to a format to be loaded directly in a web page for illustrative and descriptive purposes – and getting them low enough in memory so the pages load quickly – less than 100kB – preferably considerably less. Mostly I play about with the zoom in RealCADD and save as a JPEG file – then run it through Photoshop to save for the web as JPG or GIF (which often works better for line drawings). SVG seems to produce much larger files, the few times I have tried it, though of course the quality is much much better. But JPEG and GIF aren't ideal for line drawings ...

Is there any purpose in being able to save from RealCADD to SVG – or is this not possible/economical??

Thanks Eric, cheers –– George
Eric Pousse
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Re: Clipboard question

Post by Eric Pousse »

George,

Writing SVG files will be easier than reading because I can use only some SVG objects instead of all if I read SVG files.

But I don't know if SVG format is very used.

Cordialement.
Eric Pousse
debenriver
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Re: Clipboard question

Post by debenriver »

Good Morning Eric

From what I read on the web, SVG files are used a lot (or is that just aspiration?) – though searching around I don't actually see that much. I can quite see that as XML text files they can integrate with HTML well for graphics, specially simple ones, logos etc. And are scalable etc. And are supposed to be less memory intensive than JPRG, GIF and PNG. And they are interpretable by search engines etc.

But when I have tried to create an SVG image from my drawings it has made very big files – the only way I have made them is firstly to print a RealCADD file as a PDF, then open that (in Inkscape) and save as SVG. Even using the roughest mesh (1) this produces very big files – though even so the quality is good. But maybe this is not the most memory efficient way to go?

For example using a smallish RealCADD file (no color), saved at 100% zoom to JPEG (Best) and then photoshopped to save for the web with 9 point text quite readable:

Original RC 61kB
PDF 140kB (printed directly from the RealCADD file)
JPEG 84kB (tolerable quality)
GIF 40kB (again tolerable quality)
SVG 795kB

And a much larger RealCADD file done the same (saved to JPEG – best – at 100% zoom)

Original RC 1.6MB
PDF 2.0MB (printed directly from the RealCADD file)
JPEG 222kB (tolerable quality)
GIF 131kB (again tolerable quality)
SVG 16.4MB !!!!

In practice, for files to go on to a web page, for illustrative or informational use, slideshows etc., I often save to JPEG at different zooms until I get the right balance of image size, quality and memory. Perhaps resulting in a thumbnail image (say 250px wide) at <10kB and a bigger image (say 1100px wide) at <100kB or a slideshow image at say 640px wide and <50kB.

So, unless saving to SVG directly from RealCADD rather than go through a PDF, results in substantially smaller files, then it may not be worth it (for me at least), unless to create small logos and graphics??

Cheers -- George
Eric Pousse
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Re: Clipboard question

Post by Eric Pousse »

George,

I think that it is not the best way to compare files.
I do a little drawing in Inscape (12 objects only) :
SVG = 10 Ko
PDF = 9 Ko
PNG = 231 Ko
RCAD = 33 Ko (pdf file converted to read with iPocket Draw)
Eric Pousse
debenriver
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Re: Clipboard question

Post by debenriver »

I'm a little lost here

Ko is kibi-octets right? An octet is 8 bits? A kibi-octet is 1024 octets. a kilo-octet (ko) is 1000 octets

A kB is kilobytes – and a byte is generally 8 bits. However a kilobyte can be (loosely) 1024 or 1000 bytes. Really we should be using kibibytes (KiB) for 1024 bits and kilobytes (kB) for 1000 bytes. But you don't see this in general use??

But I don't quite understand how this affects the argument!!

Cheers -- George
Eric Pousse
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Re: Clipboard question

Post by Eric Pousse »

from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octet_(computing) :
"In France, French Canada and Romania, octet is used in common language instead of byte when the 8-bit sense is required, for example, a megabyte (MB) is termed a megaoctet (Mo)."
and
1 Byte = 1 octet = 8 bits
Eric Pousse
debenriver
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Re: Clipboard question

Post by debenriver »

Oh - OK – I misunderstood.

I thought you were saying that comparing memory in Ko was a better way than kB. But now I see that it is basically the same!

Bit of thread drift here .... But the problem still remains – well it's not a problem, more a difficulty – which is getting a technical drawing into a format suitable for a web site without making a page, that has several images, slow to load! This is not specific to RealCADD of course – it's pretty much true of any vector file being saved as a raster image.

I do pretty well saving RealCADD files to JPEG at different zooms, depending on the size of image I finally want, and the physical page size of the RealCADD file. That works quite well. But SVG suggests itself as it is vector – so no blurry results!

Which is why I was wondering if it would be worthwhile being able to save directly from RealCADD to SVG now that browsers almost universally are able to load SVG files – and if that would result in reasonably low memory and better cleaner images. Because getting from RealCADD to SVG via intermediate formats (like PDF and Inkscape) seems to result in hugely larger files. Which is why I was trying via dxf, which crashed on the drawing I was using, which is now fixed ... :mrgreen:

Cheers -- George
Eric Pousse
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Re: Clipboard question

Post by Eric Pousse »

Bonjour george,

I will see for saving drawings as SVG files.

Cordialement.
Eric Pousse
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