| # Save/Export Vectors

After WinTopo has vectorised your drawing, you will want to export the results to another application, for instance a CAD system, a GIS system, or a CNC system. Accordingly WinTopo provides a number of export formats for saving the vectors to file. (See also the Copy Vectors to Clipboard option).

Note: WinTopo Pro requires a license to save the whole vector image. Without a license WinTopo Pro will save a sample of the centre of the image. The Freeware version is unrestricted.

On the File menu select the Save Vector As ... option. The standard Windows Save As window comes up.

There are a number of different export formats which you can choose:

- DXF - This is AutoDesk's Drawing eXchange Format.

  Most vector based applications will have an import for DXF information. WinTopo saves the vectors as POLYLINE entities. The DXF format has a palette of only 256 colours, so WinTopo converts the polyline colours to the nearest colour in the DXF palette (WinTopo Freeware produces only Black vectors).

  In WinTopo Pro the drawing may contain ARCs, and in this case the Save As window shows an option for choosing either: Polyline Arcs or Arc Entities.
  Polyline Arcs is the default option, and this saves the arcs within the polylines, so that a polyline may be comprised of both straight and arc sections.
  Arc Entities saves the arcs as distinct ARC entities, and the polylines comprise only straight sections. This option is provided because some applications which have a DXF import do not support arcs in polylines.

- SHP - ArcView Shapefile format. Saved as the standard three files with SHP, SHX and DBF extensions.

  In WinTopo Pro the Save As window additionally has options for All Lines and Lines + Polygons. This gives the choice for separating the closed polygon features into a distinct Shapefile.
  All Lines is the default option. With this option selected all the vectorised lines are output into a single file as linear features. Closed polygons are treated the same as unclosed polylines.
  Lines + Polygons is the alternative. With this option selected WinTopo Pro will output two sets of Shapefiles. The first set will have the given file name and will contain all the linear vector features which are not closed polygons. The second file set will have the same file name but with -areas added before the file extension. This file set contains all the closed polygons. For example, if you save as image.shp you will get a second file image-areas.shp which contains the closed polygons.

- PDF - Adobe® Portable Document Format.

  The vector drawing can be saved to Adobe's popular PDF file. The active Line Width will be used for the PDF, as well as the current Vector Scale (unless it would make the paper size excessive, in which case it is automatically scaled down to fit a reasonable size).

- MIF - MapInfo Interchange format.

- ARC - R2V ARC file format.

  This format does not carry information about the vector colour, or elevation.

- DI - GenaMap Type 19 Input file format.

  This format does not carry information about the vector colour.

- WMF - Microsoft Windows MetaFile.

  Microsoft consider this format to be obsolete, but a lot of applications still support it. This format is poor at accurately transferring the arcs.
  The active Line Width will be used for the output.

- EMF - Microsoft Enhanced MetaFile.

  This is Microsoft's successor to the WMF. This format is better with arcs than WMF, but still not particularly accurate when compared with nearly any other vector file format.
  The active Line Width will be used for the output.

- ASC - Ascii X, Y, Z format.

  This is a raw text file containing one vertex per line. Each line contains five comma separated numbers:

      Vertex number, X coordinate, Y coordinate, Z coordinate, polyline number

  The vertex numbers start at 1 and increment for each vertex through to the end of the file.
  The first polyline number is 0. All vertices on a single polyline will have the same polyline number.

  The ASC format will be useful if your application cannot read any of the other formats, but has an option for reading XYZ points out of a text file.

- WTX - WinTopo Project Text file.

  Formerly this was the TXT file output option. WinTopo saves all its information about each polyline into a text file.
  For each polyline there is a header line containing information about the whole polyline.
  For WinTopo Freeware the format is:

      POLYLINE, sequential polyline identifier, polyline length, number of vertices, Z level/height, minimum X, minimum Y, maximum X, maximum Y, angle of first vector, angle of last vector

  For WinTopo Pro the format is:

      POLYLINE, sequential polyline identifier, polyline length, number of vertices, Z level/height, minimum X, minimum Y, maximum X, maximum Y, colour, layer, reserved value

  After this the polyline vertex coordinates are listed out, with the X and Y coordinate of each vertex per line.

      X coordinate, Y coodinate

  If there is an arc in the polyline then the arc details follow vertex coordinates on the same line.

      X coordinate, Y coodinate, ARC, X centre, Y centre, Radius, Bulge

  The word END terminates each polyline.

  The WTX/TXT file format may change in subsequent updates of WinTopo, so you are advised not to write any application import facilities which are infexibly dependant on this specific format.

  Here is an example of the WTX file:

      RASTERFILE, C:\scans\wintopo\samples\image.png
      GEOREFERENCE, 0.4286856063, -0.0145317155, 55.1769236358, -0.0145317155, -0.4232362130, 282.0279008937
      CONTROLPOINT, 119.0000000000, 426.0000000000, 100.0000000000, 100.0000000000, 1
      CONTROLPOINT, 344.0000000000, 182.0000000000, 200.0000000000, 200.0000000000, 1
      CONTROLPOINT, 352.0000000000, 418.0000000000, 200.0000000000, 100.0000000000, 1
      POLYLINE, 1, 12.041595, 2, 0.000000, 300.268837, 270.329870, 304.243261, 273.584974, 3749695, 0, 0
      300.268837, 270.329870, ARC, 290.710601, 285.696251, 42.573466, 0.0710678119
      304.243261, 273.584974
      END
      POLYLINE, 2, 3.000000, 2, 0.000000, 199.811088, 269.497929, 199.854683, 270.767638, 8880773, 0, 0
      199.811088, 269.497929
      199.854683, 270.767638
      END
      POLYLINE, 3, 41.974314, 7, 0.000000, 300.363293, 260.580905, 312.816973, 273.294340, 3157039, 0, 0
      300.363293, 260.580905
      300.752016, 260.652474
      305.681901, 265.485359, ARC, 300.395724, 271.746826, 19.244109, 0.0837665933
      307.469302, 267.543413
      307.912519, 267.952118, ARC, 293.341245, 285.230429, 53.079983, 0.0739731550
      312.373756, 272.885635
      312.816973, 273.294340
      END
      ...
      ...
      POLYLINE, 788, 176.318124, 3, 0.000000, 269.330815, 94.259972, 301.264259, 161.821551, 328456, 0, 0
      298.910121, 93.257284, ARC, 277.554330, 92.884315, 49.796488, 0.1045187023
      296.927269, 101.756703
      271.684952, 162.824239
      END
      END

  The first line in the file begins with the word RASTERFILE and is followed by the name of the raster image file from which the vectors were generated.
  WinTopo Pro also puts the image georeference information at the beginning of the file. The GEOREFERCE line is followed by the same parameters as are present in the World File output.
  If control points have been specified then they are included in the file on lines beginning with the word CONTROLPOINT. The CONTROLPOINT word is followed by the raster coordinate, the corresponding vector coordinate and the point's Enabled status.

  The WTX file has the benefit that it can be reloaded, either from the "File->Open Vector..." or the "File->Open Image..." menu option. When a WTX file is opened WinTopo will load both the raster image file and the vectors. This will only work if the original raster image file is still present in its original location. The raster image is not stored in the WTX file - only a reference to its location. The WTX file is therefore very useful for storing your work, if you want to take a break and go back to it in another session.
  Additionally, the WTX file can be opened from within the Windows Explorer. When you click a WTX file in Windows Explorer it will launch WinTopo Pro, showing the raster image and vectors.

### Copy Vectors to Clipboard

As an alternative to creating a vector file, you can use the Windows Copy & Paste mechanism to transfer the vectors to another application.

The Copy Vectors option is on the Edit menu, and is available after vectorising, or digitising. After selecting Copy Vectors you should go to your other application and select the Paste option.

Not all applications have a Paste function for vector data, but most CAD based applications should be able to achieve this.

Please note, that the Microsoft Windows Clipboard uses the WMF or EMF formats for transferring the data. Windows 95/98 tends to use WMF and Windows NT/2000/XP tends to use the EMF format. The same limitations will apply to the accuracy of the transferred vector drawing, as are experienced with using the WMF or EMF formats for transferring by file. Even on Windows NT/2000/XP many applications will Paste the vector drawing using the WMF format. The limitation on accuracy mainly affects the correct placement and orientation of arcs.

Related Topics:

- Saving the Raster Image
- Licensing WinTopo Pro

- Contents Page