Through years of working with Ventura 4.2, 5(F5) & 7 (and now V8) and Autocad 12 & 14, I believe I've tried EVERYthing to get these two programs to work (or not) with each others. Below is a detailed description of my adventures.

Latest evaluation on V8

NOTE: All tests were done on a Pentium 166 with 64 megs ram in Win95. All tests were done in comparison with Ventura 4.2 that performs good under Windows 95, but is a little shaky around the edges, and must be periodically re-installed.

• Although both new versions (5 & 7) look extremely well and have many up to date functions they BOTH have one glaring drawback; they do not work (for all practical purposes) with windows metafiles (*.Wmf) generated from AutoCad Drawings. This is the basis for our Technical Manual Publishing.

• Ventura 7 will load Acad Dxf files(after several minutes!) but the text within the Dxf file is always scaled wrong and is unusable. All manual pictures have text and or number balloons to show part locations, and any OFF scaling is unacceptable. In addition to the scaling problem, the new Ventura creates a HUGE plot spool (generally 20 megs a page). This bogs down the computer to a virtual stand still for at least 20 to 30 minutes wile the system tries to deal with this massive plot file. Plotting an entire chapter of 60 to 70 pages is unthinkable. Ventura 4.2 by comparison would spool and plot the same page in 20 to 30 SECONDS.

• Ventura 7 will not load the Wmf's created with Ventura 4.2 (as converted from Acad12 copyclip command). With chapters in the 60 to 70 page range, re-copying and pasting 30 to 40 pictures would be an all day job. (assuming Ventura 7 worked with ANY Wmf's, which it doesn't)

• Ventura 7 faults out with the above dialog after attempting (for many minutes) to load a NEWLY created Wmf from Acad12. Acad14 has it's own problems with creating Wmf's. (more on that, below)

• Ventura 7 makes it very impractical to view a Wmf that you have on a page. Showing the Wmf (from it's hidden state) takes several minutes. (Actually, I'm using a Dxf for comparison since Ventura 7 won't load a Wmf from Acad at all.) Ventura Tech Support told me that this slowness was do to Ventura 7 actually loading the Wmf's in Memory for Editing purposes (though the file can't actually be changed at all - nor would you have reason to do so.). Obviously no one at Corel tested Ventura 5 or 7 with AutoCad files……. Ventura 4.2 shows the same Acad12 wmf in 3 to 10 seconds.

• Another option I tried was to copy the drawing to the clip board and paste it directly into Ventura 7. This worked with Acad12 (but NOT with Acad14) , but each file you paste in to Ventura 7 this way (you can't externally reference a file this way in the new Ventura 7) it adds approximately ONE MEG to the Chapter file. With a 60+ page chapter, it quickly grows to unmanageable (and unprintable with plot files of 20 megs per graphic page!) proportions.

• Ventura 4.2 would let you save the Paste (from Acad12) as a referenced Wmf, and worked perfectly.

• Another option I tried was to copy a Bitmap of the drawing to use in the manual. However this produced a blocky, unacceptable picture (the fine line art of the Wmf emulates the original drawing exactly).

• I've been working with Windows since it's inception and AutoCad since version 2.6 and I believe I've tried everything under the sun to make Ventura 5 & 7 work, but to no avail (some success with Acad14 and V5 -see below). It's obviously designed to work with simple graphics (bitmaps) and not Line art Based (AutoCad wmf). This makes it a fine program for magazines, but a poor choice for Technical Manuals.

• This is unsettling since Ventura 4.2 is some what unstable and must periodically be re-installed to continue functioning correctly.

• I've been through all the same tests with Ventura 5, with similar unsatisfactory results. This evaluation is for the record and for reference purposes (should anyone attempt to use either of these versions in the future). The options, at this point are to change to Adobe Pagemaker (how ever painful that may be), or wait for yet another version of Ventura. This way the change over would be at OUR timing and convenience. The other option would be to continue using Ventura 4.2 and hope Windows doesn't change it's operating platform anymore.

Since the release of Acad14 I've re-installed Venturas 5 & 7 and redone ALL the above tests, with varying degrees of success.

• I had hoped with the new Acad14 that my problems getting an Acad wmf into these programs were over. Not exactly. Acad14 no longer supports the Copyclip command (it's the same as the CopyLink command) that worked so well getting Acad wmf's into other programs. Now the same command give you the entire current view, regardless of how few entities you've selected! What that means is when you insert the Acad14 wmf into your desktop software you get (as an example) a large black rectangle with your entities in the middle. This wmf is an exact representation of the display window you were working with in Acad14, NOT the entities you selected for export! Of course, this is useless. Go figure.

• After long searching on the internet, I came up with a great little file called Bwmfout.arx. Get it! This little file saved my butt! The good news is that this program gives you back the exported wmf's (from Acad14) that Acad12 used to do. This third party *free* utility fixed the goof up in Acad14. It gives you a wmf that Ventura 4.2 converts to placeable wmf and works just like the Acad12 wmf to Ventura 4.2! This new file also imports directly into Ventura 5!

• Ventura 5 does NOT like ANY wmf's created with Acad12 wmf to Ventura 4.2! But with the Bmfout.arx command used in Acad14, it's a simple matter of exporting the drawing to the wmf name of your choice, and then importing it directly into Ventura 5. So we're at least half way home.

• Even with this fantastic little utility (Bwmfout.arx) Acad wmf's STILL do not import correctly into Ventura 7! For some reason, in Ventura 7 you get a transparent wmf (as you should) but you still get a rectangle of the view you had in Acad14, and it is NOT resizable in Ventura. However, the new Bwmfout wmf from Acad14 works in EVERY other publication I've tried! So, another strike out for Ventura 7.

• I appears obvious to me that Ventura 5 AND 7 were never tested with ANY version of AutoCad. Considering the very large number of technical manuals out there that are produced with AutoCad, this is very confusing. I've spent months trying to find answers to the Ventura 7 / Autocad problem but all I get is 'try the next version', or resize the Autocad window-change your background color to white THEN export. This is a ridiculous solution and gives you wmf's of varying sizes that look amateurish in a professional publication. Well, I WILL try the next Ventura version (V8) only because the upgrade is $99 until June. You can be sure I'll report on that when it arrives, So check back!

Regarding V5 to Ventura 8 (and Autocad files):

Some basic notes on Ventura 8
The notes below are regarding how well Ventura works with Autocad and not necessarilly how ventura works in general. I'll have more as I continue working with V8 (looks like a kick-ass version tho!)

1.) Ventura 4.2 chapters (with Acad12 imported wmf's) import fine.

2.) Ventura 5.0 chapters (with Acad14 (Bwmfout wmf's) import fine.

3.) V5 doesn't work with Acad12 wmf's. (see http://www.benway.com/misc/ventura-acad.shtml)

4.) Wmf's from Acad12 don't import correctly into Ventura 8. V8 tries, but the resulting import is missing many lines. (I don't blame Corel for this, Acad12 exports an old 16bit wmf.)

5.) Wmf's from Acad14 import into Ventura 8 but Acad14 gives you the whole display with background color (see http://www.benway.com/misc/ventura-acad.shtml)

6.) Using Bwmfout.arx from within Acad14, the resulting exported Wmf's out work perfect in Ventura 8. (ironically, Ventura 8 finally has the same functionality with Acad that it did with Ventura 4.2!) And now you can go back to externally linking the Wmf, instead of Pasting it into your publication, as you had to do in V7 (because V7 didn't import the Acad14 wmf's correctly (acad14's OR Bwmfout's) The Wmf export problem now lies solely with Autocad 14, thus the need for the third party Bwmfout program to bring back this basic function to Acad that Autodesk screwed up with Acad14. They've heard from me about this many times :o)

7.) Ventura 7 imports V5 chapters fine, but any repeating frames (like with the page # tag) don't work. In V7 your repeating frames with the [P#] code would show just that on all pages. Any Acad14 Wmf's that you might have in you pub also don't work. Ventura 8 seems to have fixed these problems.

8.) Tables seem to import better in V8 than in V5 OR V7. They seem to hold on to the original format/tags settings better in V8.

9.) Ventura 8 prints many times faster than V7 OR V5. It seems that Corel worked towards V4.2 speed as a goal for V8, and it's VERY impressive.

10.) It has been very discouraging for us Acad/Ventura users over the years to see each successive version of Ventura (since 4.2) work worse and worse. Creating many headaches as we've tried to find workarounds and fixes. Ventura 8 seems to have fixed most everything... It appears the Corel has been reading the NewsGroups!
 

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