Capturing Simple Images

You can capture pixel or vector images of the whole screen, or of the whole V6 application window.

This task shows you how to:

Before you begin: The currently active capture mode is identified by a red background color.
Related Topics
About Capturing Images

Capture the Full Screen

The Full screen mode is the default capture mode.

  1. In the Capture toolbar, select Full screen .

  2. Click the Options button.



  3. In the General tab, define the appropriate options (irrelevant options are grayed out).

    Important:
    • In the Hotkeys area, you can define a combination of keys to launch the capture. One key plus a letter must be selected at least but you can select two or three keys in addition to the letter, for instance: Ctrl + B or Shift + Alt + C. Only one combination of key is kept during the capture session.
    • The Rendering tab is grayed out because it does not apply to this capture mode.

  4. Access the Output Preferences tab:



    The file types available when saving to a file and in the Album vary according to the mode you selected, i.e. Rasterization or Wireframe. The capture above shows the output options available in Rasterization mode.

    Note: In 3DLive, the Output Preferences tab is a little different:

  5. Select file type then, if you are in Wireframe mode, click Properties... to define the properties dedicated to each format.

    Important:

  6. Optional: Click Look in: then navigate to the new image location before clicking OK to confim the save.

    By default, captured images are stored in the Album temporary folder in C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application Data\DassaultSystemes\CATTemp\.

    For more information, see Infrastructure User's Guide: Infrastructure Tools: Managing Images in the Album: Saving Images in Other Formats.

  7. Select the format in which the image will be saved in the Album.

    Warning: Captured images saved in the album are always saved in CGM format. The properties you define here have no impact on the format of the image stored in the album. These properties will be applied to the format you select when using the Save As button.

  8. Click OK to validate.

    The Capture Configuration dialog box is closed.

  9. Click Capture .

    The whole screen is captured:

  10. Click OK if you are satisfied with the capture, otherwise click Cancel (in that case, you are not prompted to save or print the captured image).

    If you click OK, the Capture Preview window is closed and additional windows might open according to the outputs you selected in the Output Preferences.

Capture the Full Window

The Full window mode lets you capture the whole V6 application window.

  1. In the Capture toolbar, select Full window .

  2. In the Capture Configuration dialog box, define the general configuration options of your choice:



  3. Access the Rendering tab:



  4. In the Active Mode tab, select the mode to be used for capturing images.

  5. If you are capturing images in Rasterization mode, access the Rasterization Options tab otherwise, jump to the Wireframe step:



  6. Optional: Select Customized in the Quality list then click More... to access the Image Size dialog box:



    The values indicated in the Pixel Size area are displayed for information only to give you an idea of the image size in pixels, according to the print size you defined.

  7. Optional: Define the print Width and Height.

    The maximum value you can set is 30000 x 23837.

  8. Optional: Define the Resolution, either in pixels/inch (.dpi) or in pixels/cm.

    The higher the resolution, the longer the capture generation (with a price to pay in performance).

    Important:
    • If the dpi value you set exceeds the amount of allocated memory, images are stored in bitmap format only (the files are named "capture_hour.bmp") in C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Temp.
    • Regarding fill patterns printed in HPGL2, PDF or PostScript format, if the size of the computed image exceeds the amount of allocated memory, then the allocated memory is reduced by setting a lower dpi value and therefore, the rendering might be different from what expected.

  9. If you are capturing images in Wireframe mode, click the Wireframe Options tab to define the semantic level and the capture size:



    In Vector mode, the size in mm of the generated 2D image depends on the size you select in the Capture Size list.

  10. Click Capture .

    The whole V6 application window is captured:

  11. Click OK if you are satisfied with the capture, otherwise click Cancel (in that case, you are not prompted to save or print the captured image).

    If you click OK, the Capture Preview window is closed and additional windows might open according to the output preferences you selected.