Chart component / Resolution (pixels)

[CLE_MW]

Hi,

The visual quality of chart components (MathCad 10) when printed (pdf) seems not as good as that of "standard" plots, and changing dpi in printer settings didn't help there.

Is there any tip to improve this?

Thanks for your help,
Cédric

[rgunwaldsen]

Can you provide worksheet example?

The attached worksheet was printed to files (not device) using Microsoft pdf print driver and using Prime 10 save to pdf.

The plot content is simple (thanks, Fred K), but the resolution seems the same to my untrained eyes.

Roger

[CLE_MW]

Sure, here are 2 printouts, one with MC "saved as pdf", the other printed with pdfXchange.

In both cases, pixels are visible when zooming on chart components.

[Werner_E]

Confirmed!

Here Prime's native plot

and here the Chart component

Prime's native plot is a shame in many ways, especially given that one of PTC's main programs is a full fledged CAD application. But obviously it has the advantage that its not limited to a fixed pixel resolution.

I guess there is nothing that could be done on your part to significantly improve the quality of the printouts other than hoping for an improvement in a future version of Prime.

If you feel better doing so you can submit a suggestion for improvement as an ‘idea’ and hope that it will be considered --> Mathcad Ideas

[rgunwaldsen]

You are correct -- the resolution is worse than the "standard". This is a shame since the chart component was supposed to provide "presentation quality graphics". It is also a shame since pdf output of the "standard" plot and other non-chart seems to be able to maintain higher quality.

I agree with Werner that you should persue a support case with PTC.

PTC does provide a reference document: https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/CS422258?source=search 

How to create a vector high resolution PDF of a chart component graph plotted in Mathcad Prime

but this only outputs the chart as a higher-resolution pdf.

I pasted a screen grab into the attached Prime 10 file.

[rgunwaldsen]

I was mistaken in my previous post when I said that the chart component could only export high-resolution vector graphica as a ".pdf" file. It can also export as a ".svg" image file. And there seems to be a whole cottage industry of free/low-cost image converters available on the internet.

One clunky work-around is to:

1. Place the chart component in a hidden collapsible area and set format parameters to yout liking
2. Export the formatted chart as a ".svg" file
3. Use cottage industry converter to convert the ".svg" to high dpi raster image (e.g., ".tiff" or ".png:)
4. Use Prime to "import image" into worksheet below the chart area
5. Close (and hide) the chart area

The attached Prime 10 worksheet used this technique to 600 dpi raster image.

Some observations:

1. It's clunky, but so is the Chart component and new image export/convert/import manually needs to be done whenever the worksheet changes
2. It's a shame that the Chart graphic is not internally stored in vector form (like "standard"?)
3. It's a shame that "insert image" does not support vector graphic images