can't open pdf files in mastercam 2023

[[email protected]]

Can't open pdf files. just the outline of print imports?

Just now, [email protected] said:

Can't open pdf files. just the outline of print imports? mastercam 2023

 

[JoshC]

no issues on my end with pdf's opening so perhaps its an issue specific to the file or the computer, my guess is the file itself, you could try another file if you want, i threw a test file in here that seems to work for me just fine

Sheeve.pdf

[cncappsjames]

I just pulled in a few PDF's with no issues also.

[Bill Craven]

I just tried this and all that showed up was the outline.  But as I moved the mouse around the interior of the outline, I could see that other entities were in there.

I slelected everything and changed the color to green and everything was there.

 

I have a black background and the PDF geometry came in as color255  (black)

 

No warning about the geometry being the same color as the background color

[cam-eleon]

Some PDF's are just images/scan/pictures. I had this happen to me. But the PDF import works. Just double check the scale factor when in comes in. 

[Pete Rimkus from CNC Software Inc.]

"...No warning about the geometry being the same color as the background color..."

You're right ... that's missing from the PDF importer! I'll take a look.

Typically, the biggest issue will be what cam-eleon says : some PDFs are just images (aka 'raster data') and we cannot pull those in yet (but we've been trying).

Pete

[Pete Rimkus from CNC Software Inc.]

Now I am re-thinking this one (warning if the color is the same as the background color)...

The color coming in from the PDF file is an RGB value, and so we need to map it to the closest Mastercam color.  We do actually try to avoid the background color when doing that mapping, but what we use is the closest color to the background color that is not the background color. Our graphics system will balk at drawing entities that are defined with exactly the same color as the background color - so we go out of our way to make sure that they are not the same.

Color 255 is very, very dark, but it is not black. When I read in a PDF that has black entities (RGB = <0,0,0>) with a black (color 0) background, I also get entities in color 255, which is different (RGB = <0, 0, 51>) from Mastercam's Black.

I've got a PDF here that is almost black. If I set the Mastercam background color to anything but 202 they come in as color 202. If I set the Mastercam background color to 202 and read in that file, they now come in as color 204 (which is also very dark - almost black).

So the tough part for us when programming our importers is to say : When is a color so dark that it could be considered as visually being black? Perhaps we could use a brighter color for those ... but where to draw the line is unclear.

Edited: Note that this color mapping applies to ALL of the CAD file importers that have entity colors defined as RGBs.

Edited January 5, 2023 by Pete Rimkus from CNC Software Inc.

[Bill Craven]

This is interesting Pete,

Thanks for the insight.  There is so much stuff going on behind the scenes that the average person is unaware of. 

"Well, why don't they just..."  It's not that simple.