Input/Output Settings
The Input/Output Settings section is where you can select the file to be converted and define the output settings.
Input Settings
You can select the file to be converted to a 3D report in this section. To select a file:
- Click on the Add File button on the toolbar, click the "+" symbol, or simply Drag and Drop files onto the input area from an external file explorer.
- Browse to the location on your computer where the file is located , select it. Multiple files may be selected, both in the file browser with multi-select, or one at a time using the Add File button. The file list may be modified by selecting a file and clicking Remove File.
- Move Up, Move Down buttons affect the currently selected (highlighted) input file. The order of the input file directly affects the order shown in the Model Tree structure of the PDF. Further, if enabling Sequence Animation, the file order controls the animation order.
- Remove files by selecting them and clicking the red delete button.
The file list table has several columns:
- Path and File Name - click to edit to change. Maybe relative or full path, or contain environment variables.
- Options - enable if you wish to specify file specific settings, such as part colour or interface.
- Interface - default or preferred interface for particular file, used if option is enabled. Helpful when the same file type can be converted by multiple interfaces.
- File Size - shows size or red if file is not found at specified path.
Output Settings
In the Output Settings section, you can define where the output PDF file should be saved, merge settings and document security.
- Click on the Change button.
- Browse to the location on your computer where you would like the output PDF file to be saved and click on the Save button. To append the new PDF to an existing PDF, select the existing PDF and then click on the Save button.
- The file path will be inserted into the Input file pathname field. You can also enter the file path where the file is located directly into the field.
- In the Merge PDFs mode field: (Conversion Tab) select the merge settings from the options provided in the drop-down list.
- The button Browse To opens the directory where the file is located.
- The button Open will open the specified PDF file in the field.
- The template PDF file field let's you specify a template to be used with the output PDF file. The previously mentioned Open, Browse To and Change buttons behaviour is the same as the ones on the output PDF file field. You can find sample templates on: PDF3DReportGen\Samples\templates
- Select Merge 0: new or replace to create a new PDF or replace the existing PDF. Select this option only if you want a new PDF and are not merging the PDF with an existing one.
- Select Merge 1: prepend to merge the PDF being created at the beginning of the existing PDF.
- Select Merge 2: append to merge the PDF being created to the end of the existing PDF.
- Select Merge 3: at page to merge the PDF being created at a particular page. Then specify the page number at which you want it to be merged in the Page number field.
- Select Merge 4: replace existing annotation to insert a new 3D annotation into the existing document at the specified page by replacing the existing one with the specified number.
- Select Merge 5: at placeholder to insert a new 3D annotation into the existing document at the location specified by template place-holder layout parameters.
- Select the Show PDF after close checkbox to view the PDF as soon as the file is converted. This option is selected by default. If you would rather not see the PDF file immediately, click on the checkbox to deselect it.
Template PDF Reference
Using the optional PDF reference menu, an existing PDF document filename can be specified. During conversion, the 3D content will be added and merged into this existing PDF to create a new derived PDF output. There are several categories of template PDF:
- Typical 2D flat document PDF created from Word, OpenOffice, Print Driver or any other typical PDF authoring tool.
- An existing 3D PDF file where a dummy place-holder 3D view has already been placed in the desired layout.
- A Place-holder layout template where the target 3D views are specified by PDF keyword XML properties.
When using a), a normal PDF, the location of the 3D view is specified using the Page Layout menus, based on distance from the edge of the page. When using b), and existing 3D PDF, the layout is taken from the existing document with the existing 3D view thrown away and replaced by the new conversion. Please refer to the chapter on How To Create Templates. The template PDF should not have any security settings enabled.
By using the Open button, the template can be viewed and verified before the conversion takes place.
Attachments
Within the Input/Output settings tab, it is possible to embed your selected input files as attachments to your resultant 3D PDF. Please refer to the chapter on How To Embed Files as Attachments.
Environment Variable Substitution
Within any input, output or template filename, a relative path may be used - normally this is relative to the current program location or the .pdf3dsettings file location. Within any file path existing environment variables may be used, such as %TEMP%/out.pdf,
where the environment is bounded by percent symbols.
Please note that when using environment variable substitution, names inputted incorrectly may still be read as valid paths. In the case of exporting a file, this may mean ReportGen attempts to export the resultant file into a new directory.
Part-Specific Options
In default mode, all settings are applied as global default to all objects and models. When multiple objects and models are present, specific settings can be made per object.
- First use the drop-down list "Apply Settings To:" to identify a particular object.
- Next, push the "Create Options" button. Now a new local set of parameters can be specified.
- Alternatively, use the "Options" check boxes on the input file list.
With this current object selected, change the values as needed. To create some other distinct values for another object, repeat the process by first selecting another object.
Example steps for creating local part-specific options:
- Add at least two separate input files "A.stl" and "B.stl".
- Go to Visual Effects tab, Materials panel.
- Use drop-down to select first model.
- Push "Create Options" button. Or alternatively enable the options check boxes on the input file list.
- Set some Diffuse and Specular color using color selector menus.
- Use drop down to select second model.
- Push "Create Options" button.
- Set some Diffuse and Specular color, different than first.
- Export State settings, so you can re-load and adjust later.
- Convert.