Sometimes PDFs you load into On-Screen Takeoff or Oasis Takeoff do not look as good as they look in Adobe or other readers. Below are some things you can do to improve quality.
Resizing PDFs to Improve Quality
At times, when viewing a PDF image , the image seems distorted or not as clear as when viewing it inside Adobe® Acrobat® or other PDF viewers (Figure 1 and Figure 2).
Figure 1 - View of image as seen within Adobe Acrobat
Figure 2 - View of image as seen within On-Screen Takeoff
Why Does Adobe Look So Much Better?
In the example above, when the Architect saved the PDF, they specified a page size of 8.5 x 11 instead of the correct architectural size (for example, Arch E which is 48 x 36 inches). When On-Screen Takeoff or Oasis Takeoff renders the PDF, the PDF is rendered as an 8.5 x 11 image in memory. When you zoom in on this image, there is simply not enough image data available to display it with the same precision as Adobe. But of course, On Center Software has figured out a way around this (see below and Related articles).
Another reason image quality may be less than expected is the option to display "color" (higher quality/resolution) images is not enabled. Under Tools > Options (On-Screen Takeoff) or Settings > Options > Takeoff Options (Oasis Takeoff) there is an option to display images in "Color" - this increases the resolution and improves quality markedly. Additional information on using Enable Color PDF's can be found in Related articles. This helps when color or various grey-scaling is used on the plan.
Improving PDF Display Quality
First, turn click Tools > Options and check the Enable Color PDFs option on to see if the quality improves (above). If the page size shows 8.5 x 11 (or smaller), you will need to resave the PDF to a larger format.
The following steps may affect the scale listed on the image slightly. On-Screen Takeoff and Oasis Takeoff can calculate the correct scale using a known dimension line on the drawing. Be sure to re-Verify the scale. See the User Guide for information on setting/verifying scale.
Resaving a PDF
Using Adobe Reader, or another PDF viewer/writer, open the PDF
Click File > Print
In the Print window, select Microsoft Office Document Image Writer in the Name: field, and then click the Properties button
If
Microsoft Office Document Image Writer is not installed, you can search the Internet for any 'printer' that prints to TIF or PDF files. See the Related article regarding printing to PDF for more information.
On the Page tab, set appropriate Width and Height (in this example, we had to create a "Custom Size of 34" by 22")
On the Advanced tab, select TIFF and change the setting to 300 DPI
Click OK
Back in the Print window, select Fit to Printable Area under Page Scaling:
In the Page Handling section, select Auto-Rotate and Center, and then click OK
You will be asked to save the TIFF image to a file on your computer. Once saved, add the image to an On-Screen Takeoff bid to verify the new images is clearer.
On Center Software recommends you contact the Architect and ask them to send out plans that print at the architectural page size in the future - that way, the PDFs will be properly sized and scaled when you receive them.
