High-Quality PDF Output

A feature of SVOffice™ 2009

April 12, 2011

Experienced modelers often say that they spend more time formatting results than they do actually creating or running their models. This is because every firm and customer has different requirements for the format of the reports they want. There are only two real constants that everyone wants: they want their graphs to be as high a quality as possible, and they want to generate standardized engineering drawings whenever possible. With SVOffice™ 2009, both options are easier to get than ever!

Vector-Based PDFs

Historically, SVOffice has always had the ability to generate Adobe PDF files, formatted as a bitmap that matches the output of the screen. More recently, this ability has been converted to generate vector-based results instead of a bitmap. The images below demonstrate the difference between the two:

Poster model output as a bitmap (click to enlarge)

Poster model output as vector-based PDF (click to enlarge)

With vector-based output, you can enlarge the image to any size you want without losing quality or accuracy of the result. This feature is now standard in all of our SVOffice products.

Engineering Drawings

It is very common to use engineering drawings in reports. SVOffice™ 2009 includes the ability to format its PDF output as a standardized drawing. The options dialog, found in the Model > Properties... menu under the "PDF Settings" tab, contains a variety of standard paper sizes. By selecting the export format as "Standard Frame", an engineering drawing including title, drawing number, company logo and more can be generated. Please visit our tutorials section to view the training video that describes how to use these features.

Poster model output as an engineering drawing (right-click to save PDF)

What about 3D?

Three-dimensional models are complex to render, but it is possible to generate vector-based PDF output for 3D models. Please note that some experimentation may be required for best results, and also be aware that you may need to simplify the view of the model to get any output at all. Reducing the number of elements via value blanking, or turning off features you do not need are good ideas for getting useful 3D output.

Aquifer 3D model output (right-click to save PDF)

Additional PDF Samples (right-click image to save PDF)

SVSlope® Grid and Radius model

Standard SVSlope® model

SVSlope® Tailings model

If you would like more information on this feature, feel free to contact us directly or to download the student version of our software and try it out!