lost "connector lines" thickness of 2 pixels after save as vcf file

[jim.orrell 0]

As I needed to reprint some Descendant Box Charts, I ran the reports and I saved them to a *.VCF file. However, when I reloaded it to VCF to print another copy all by double thickness "connector lines" had changed to single thickness.

 

The chart had been generated from TMG7 with "connector lines" thickness of 2 pixels (my boxes were 1 pixel). I had made a few simple changes like repaginate, move a few boxes, and paste a very small tree from another report. I also tried saving unchanged file with the same result. However, if I changed the line from single to double from withing VCF, is seemed to keep it after save and open. Not much use if you need to do a loaege chart!

 

I also noticed this loss of connector line thickness if I make the canvas bigger or smaller (via Tools > Diagram > Diagram Measurements).

 

Is this a known problem? I've been using TMG for a few years now (from V5) and never noticed this problem before, perhaps I missed it!

 

Is there a solution, perhaps a special way of saving? The only option I can think of is to save as a PDF file. Whilst that will allow reprinting, it will not allow VCF type editing.

[RobinL 0]

This is a known "issue" of at least 2 years standing.

 

It is a consequence of 2 factors. The choice of line thickness representation within TMG (points) at 72 per inch and the native screen drawing resolution of VCF (pixels) 96 per inch and the rounding down during the conversion or the saving of the file. You can see this effect when you copy a section of a chart onto the clipboard and then paste it back onto the same chart. The pasted copy will have thinner lines.

 

So there 2 work arounds. Don't use some line thicknesses (I think 2 is especially bad), and secondly, always use the Diagram Measurements to force a redraw of the screen to the rounded down thicknesses before you edit anything.

[jim.orrell 0]

Many thanks for the explanation. It's nice to know why something goes wrong and a way to alleviate the problem. Seems strange it was not designed to take account of that.

 

I upped the lines thickness to 3 in the TMG report, which then looked a bit too thick in VCF, however, after your suggestion of performing Diagram Measurements to force a redraw, they then went down to a line thickness of 2, just what I wanted.

 

This should be simple to fix in TMG, or at least it would be nice to have a comment in the help. The nearest I could find is in the section "Why Does It...?" > "Why does it show fonts at the wrong size when I open a saved chart?" which seems to be a related issue.