Converting Plan Images to TIFF

Sometimes, Architects may provide plans in a format that may be complex or highly compressed and degrade application performance. On-Screen Takeoff includes a built-in converter that can create a TIFF copy of almost any file.

 

Some files are automatically converted to TIFF upon use such as CPC files. These files cannot be displayed in their native format by On-Screen Takeoff and are, therefore, converted to TIFF when added to a project.

 

Other files can be converted from the Image tab.

 

Non-Group 4 TIF files may be converted to G4 TIFF format upon first import into a new bid only. When you first create a bid and add non-G4 TIFs to it, the program will prompt you to convert to Group 4 TIFF. This does not affect the original images as copies are made. This is the only time you can convert non-G4 TIFs to Group 4 TIFF format.

 

Converting Current Image to TIFF

Converting a Single File to TIFF

1. Load the file as usual in On-Screen Takeoff

2. While viewing the file on the Image tab, click Image > Convert Current Image to TIFF

3. On-Screen Takeoff creates a Converted folder in the same location where the image is stored

4. A new TIFF file is saved to the Converted folder named the same as the original file but with a TIFF extension

5. The Cover Sheet is adjusted to point the corresponding page to the new TIFF file

 

 

CAD Image Files (DWF, DWG, PLT, etc) can only be converted a single page at a time. 

Converting PDFs to TIFF

PDFs may be displayed/converted in grayscale or color depending on the way On-Screen Takeoff is configured. Under Tools > Options, you can select to Enable Color PDFs - by default, this option is not enabled to improve performance.

Converting a Multi-page PDF File to TIFF

1. Load the file as usual in On-Screen Takeoff

2. While viewing the file on the Image tab, click Image > Convert Current Image to TIFF

3. On-Screen Takeoff recognizes this as a multi-page document and prompts to Convert All

    

   

    

4. Choosing Yes will convert the multi-page file to separate TIFF files - one per page named for the original file with the Index number in parentheses (image.pdf, for example, would become image(1).tif, image(2).tif and so on).
5. During the conversion process, a progress indicator is displayed - Converting a large, multi-page file may take a few minutes

    

   NOTE: Even if Windows reports that the converter or On-Screen Takeoff are Not Responding, let the converter run - it will finish

    

    

Converting Multiple PDFs to TIFF

If a project includes multiple PDFs, On-Screen Takeoff makes it easy to convert all at once.

 

1. Load the files as usual in On-Screen Takeoff

2. While viewing any file on the Image tab, click Image > Convert Current Image to TIFF

3. On-Screen Takeoff recognizes that there are other PDFs in the project and prompts to Convert All

    

   

    

4. Choosing Yes will convert each PDF to a TIFF file - all stored in the Converted folder
5. During the conversion process, a progress indicator is displayed - Converting a multiple PDFs may take a few minutes

    

   NOTE: Even if Windows reports that the converter or On-Screen Takeoff are Not Responding, let the converter run - it will finish

    

    

 

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