Quality of Imported PDF Drawing

[Gizmo88]

I've just started using Access and am very limited in my knowledge. I am in the Land Surveying field, and we are using Access for the first time to produce Vertical Bench mark forms for a State DOT District. The forms are used for general information about the Benchmark along with a sketch describing it's location. We are producing the sketches in ACAD/Civil 3D and then saving them as a PDF. On the form there is a box for the sketches, and we are right-clicking in that box and then choosing 'Insert Object..." and then browsing to the location of our saved PDF and then inserting. The problem we have is the quality of the image when it is inserted. The ACAD drawing and PDF are very high quality, but in the form after inserting the quality is pretty poor. Is there a way to fix this through some settings, or maybe a better way of inserting the drawings themselves? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Jeff

[Micron]

there is a box

What exactly is this? Bound or unbound object frame? Image control?
The usual approach is to have a table of links (if need be, you navigate to them first as you probably are now by using FileDialog or msoFileDialogFilePicker). For your purposes, I suspect the images are too large, so a better approach might be to use those table links and let Windows open them in Acrobat viewer (or Adobe Acrobat) or whatever app is best.

EDIT: I should ask, by inserting you are not storing these files in an Access table, I hope?

[Gizmo88]

I was trying to figure out what the 'box' is and while doing so I double clicked inside it and this message popped up: "The OLE Object is empty. You can't edit a bound object frame if the field in the underlying table doesn't contain an OLE object. Right click the field, click Insert Object, and use the dialog box to locate and add the object to the field". I would guess that means it is a Bound object frame (?). I am pretty sure that we don't have a table of links, just a folder elsewhere on our computer that contains the individual PDF drawings. Most of the PDF's are around 50 kb.

[Micron]

OK, so bound OLE object frame it is. I still wouldn't save the object in a table, even if only 50Kb each. The method you seem to be using would appear to be the most problematic based on user group/forum postings, many concerned with the dreaded OLE object errors. If we were talking images of the map, Access will create a bitmap of the image, which is what it will really use. Make a bmp of a pdf map and see what your file size will really be, but I think you are not using images, just files.

Without belaboring the point, I'll just say that you should seriously consider creating file paths in a text field and allow Windows to serve it up. Perhaps I'll get some backup on my opinion from learned peers here. You could also research the subject. You will find many results on how to do it but maybe fewer as to why not. Those "not" opinions are from some very respected and well known Access developers.

[Micron]

cross posted https://www.access-programmers.co.uk...d.php?t=303224

gizmo, please read https://www.excelguru.ca/content.php?184 to understand how this should done.

[June7]

Review https://www.accessforums.net/showthread.php?t=73766

Agree saving files in db will quickly use up Access 2GB file size. I have never used OLEObject field/controls because they are just aggravating, however, I was not aware PDF would actually display. Will they print with good quality?

[Gizmo88]

Thanks for the replies, Micron, and sorry for the cross-posting. I didn't realize what I was doing. I googled Microsoft Access forums and thought that I would post in both of the forums that popped up in my search. I am going to get with the other person at my work tomorrow who is working on this with me and see if we can follow some of your suggestions. Thanks again for your help.

[Gizmo88]

Review https://www.accessforums.net/showthread.php?t=73766

Agree saving files in db will quickly use up Access 2GB file size. I have never used OLEObject field/controls because they are just aggravating, however, I was not aware PDF would actually display. Will they print with good quality?

They print pretty bad. Readable, barely, but not at all like the high quality from Autocad and the PDF's we made.

[Gizmo88]

We can't be the only firm that has had problems doing this. Usually, these forms are in an Autocad or Microstation format and we fill them out with text, do our drawings, and print them out of those programs with the usual high quality those programs produce for drawings. Maybe we should call our client who is requiring we use Access for this and ask them how they get the inserted drawings to be high quality or if they just live with the low quality. We are going to be doing a lot of work for this client over the next few years so we are going to need to learn this Access software.

[Micron]

re cross posting - as you no doubt read, it isn't frowned on if it's done correctly. Thank you for acknowledging.
When you print from autocad or microstation you're using the native application to communicate with the printer. If the client doesn't have those apps, then this must be why you're creating pdf's. If they do have the apps, then I'd let Windows do all the work as I noted.

The "low quality" you're seeing might only be in the Access view. If you successfully loaded one or more into the control, what happens if you try to print it? That might tell you if what you're seeing is just because it's "squeezed" in the Access control or if in fact, the image quality is poor. Or are these not being viewed in the contro?
Not sure if the end goal is to only ever view on screen or if you/the client intends to print, and I have to admit that in spite of years of experience, I have little when it comes to that control, preferring to avoid the headaches it presents. To repeat myself, having a textual file link in a table with which you open a pdf (or whatever type it is) by using it's native viewer is common practice for all the reasons noted herein.

BTW, Access is easy to do poorly. It has a bit of a long learning curve, but there many good sources of tutorials and information. The foundation is normalization. Get that wrong and you will slog from the beginning to the end.

[Gizmo88]

The low quality is both in the Access view and when we print them out, and the end goal is definitely the printed version as they will be used by many firms and individuals both in office and on the job site for the life of the project. Printing to a PDF from Autocad/Civil 3D and Microstation is pretty standard in our profession for when clients don't have those apps, and even when they do we almost always give both. PDF's are just easy to open and use and they have the same quality as the originals.

The more I think about it, the more I am not surprised by this. Autocad and Microstation are designed for the sole purpose of producing high quality professional grade technical drawings, whereas Access is a Database management program for which displaying drawings doesn't seem to be it's primary purpose. It just might not have the same graphic capabilities those other programs are designed to have. I am going to get with the other person tomorrow and show him your responses, he is more knowledgeable about this area of software technology so he will probably understand your suggestions a little better than me. I very much appreciate the help and will post what we find out.

[Minty]

As Micron has posted, and you have discovered, Access does weird things to the way it prints / stores embedded objects.
I've had simple company logo's come out looking horrible on reports, and ended up saving a separate image file to make it look vaguely acceptable.

Store your documents on a central file server, save the document path in the database and you can then open the original pdf via access and it will look and behave as per the original.

[isladogs]

I've only skim read this thread so apologies if this has already been suggested here or in the crosspost.

Another approach is to open the PDF file directly within Access using a web browser control.
The quality will be as good as the original but there will be a short delay whilst it loads
The same method works for Word/Excel & Powerpoint files within Access & the really clever thing is those files are fully editable in Access

The zip file contains an example app together with some screenshots & a registry file.
If you find the PDF etc open outside Access, run the registry file to fix that issue

[Micron]

ridders, what is the quality of the pdf printout from a browser control? As good as if printed from Acrobat Reader? Would need to be opened to print, so no conflicts regarding browser version, or would it open in the default native app anyway? Maybe you missed that the goal is to print them out, which I think then involves the native app. Thus IMHO, might as well work from a table of links. However, it is a good option for OP to consider as the browser control might provide a clearer view and user can still invoke the native app to print pdf.

[isladogs]

Hi Micron
As I wrote in my previous reply:

The quality will be as good as the original but there will be a short delay whilst it loads

Why not try it and see what you think.

The main purpose is when you want to view an external file without leaving the app e.g. built in help files
I was just offering it as an alternative approach to consider
However, in this case, my preference would also be to save the file path in a table and open the file in the default app.