Diamond Version 5 User Manual: Printing, copying, and exporting structure pictures

Saving the Structure Picture as 2D Image File

This article is about saving a structure picture as Windows Metafile or in one of several bitmap formats: BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG, or TIFF.

- The File -> Save As -> Save Graphics As command saves the current structure picture in a graphics file, either a bitmap format, a Windows metafile, or a VRML, OBJ, or STL file (three-dimensional coordinates).

- You can also use the File -> Export command to save 2D image data.

Note: To save 3D data (OBJ, STL, or VRML format), see "Export of 3D structure picture data".

Previous article: Copying the Contents of the Structure Picture
Next article: Creating video sequences or image series

Using the "Save Graphics As" command

You can save the contents of the structure picture in various formats. Please note that you save only the graphics data in that case but no structural informations (as "Save Document As" and "Save As -> Save Structure As" in the "File" menu do).

To save the structure picture in a graphics format, assure that the graphics pane has the input focus (e.g. click once on the graphics pane) and then choose the Save Graphics As... command from the Save As sub-menu of the File menu, which opens the Save As Graphics dialog. (This is derived from the standard Windows dialog to save data into a file.) In the Save Graphics As dialog, choose one of the following graphics formats:

After you have chosen the output format, adjust the file name, if necessary, and confirm with the OK button.

The size of a metafile depends on the number of objects used in the structure picture. The size of a bitmap is independent from the number of objects but depends highly on the bitmap size (in inches), the resolution and the color depth. A bitmap file can have up to ten or twenty megabytes. The other raster graphics file formats GIF, JPEG, PNG, and TIFF use compression, so files with just a few details get smaller.

When you use BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, or TIFF format, the Save Graphics As dialog is followed by the Save Graphics dialog where you can define the resolution of the target bitmap (or keep the resolution given by the picture layout or the physical resolution of the graphics pane) as well as additional options.

Width and height of the bitmap

You have two choices to define the dimensions, i.e. the width and height in pixels, of the bitmap:

(1) Use the width and height that is defined by the picture layout
In this case, the bitmap's width and height are determined by the picture layout settings, which are accessible with the Picture -> Layout command.
- If you use "Window" layout, the bitmap will have the same size (in pixels) as the current structure picture window pane.
- If you use "Bitmap" layout, the bitmap's dimensions (either in pixels directly of in cm or inch along with a resolution in dpi) is used.
- If you use "Printout page" layout, the printout page's dimensions (in cm or inch) along with the screen resolution are used.

(2) Define width and height directly in input fields
Here you can define an alternative width and height, in pixels, by typing in two values, for the target bitmap. Set the checkmark at Keep aspect ratio of layout, if you want your target bitmap have the same aspect ratio (width by height) as the window pane has or the bitmap or printout page have, depending on your layout settings.

Transparent background option

Here you can define the background color as "transparent". Since transparency is not directly supported in the bitmap files, Diamond chooses a color that does not appear anywhere else in the structure picture and adjusts the background color slightly, if necessary. Set the checkmark at Replace background color, if you want to use this option, or clear it, if you want to use the same background color that is used on the screen. (The checkmark is automatically checked, if the "Transparent" option is set in the "Picture Layout" dialog.)

Frame option

If you want to have a thin black frame around the target bitmap, set the checkmark at Draw a frame around the bitmap.

Using the Export command

The "export" of data works similar to the several Save [...] As commands that are also available from the File menu (or some context menus, e.g. for tables) with the main difference that the exported data are deposited in a special folder (which can be changed via the common Windows Save dialog that will prompt you for the target file title after the Export dialog), while the Save [...] As commands use an individual latest folder each.

The File -> Export command opens the Export dialog, which offers several options to write structural, or graphics, or textual data into a file. Here we only look for the option to export structure picture graphics. Activate the option (radio button) Structure picture graphics for that and press the OK button (or the Return key). Choose the file type in the subsequent Export Graphics As dialog as well as the file name and, if necessary, the target folder where to save the graphics file.

If you use a raster graphics format like bitmap, GIF, JPEG, PNG, or TIFF, you will have the change to set or adjust the resolution and other settings as described above for the File -> Save As -> Save Graphics As... command.

Previous article: Copying the Contents of the Structure Picture
Next article: Creating video sequences or image series