Cleaning Up Old PDFs with PEN TOOL

[Bay]

Hi All: 

I could really use expert-level technical guidance here... Working with an OLD pdf site map of a home community. I'm redrawing a few things in publisher to assist with some planning. This is nothing architectural or anything; just basic things.

QUESTION: The map/pdf is really old and, as the image demonstrates, is pixelated and not clean. Are there and tools or tricks to easily make the building, parking and street lines sharper, clearer and cleaner?

Thank you for your help!

[Bay]

Below is the entire image I'm trying to remove distracting, unnecessary lines, make the remaining lines cleaner, and to remove the "noise"...

[Old Bruce]

That looks like JPEG compression artifacts not noise, but that's effectively just  semantic difference.

I would be tempted to redraw the thing using the pen tool, any cleaning up is going to leave a lot of crud behind making the  remaining lines look like they are falling apart. Time wise I doubt there is going to be much difference in cleaning versus draw anew.

[Wosven]

Like @Old Bruce, I would redraw... It'sdifficult to get something clean since part of the drawing should stay, part of it should disappear, but they are the same value...

[Bay]

2 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

That looks like JPEG compression artifacts not noise, but that's effectively just  semantic difference.

I would be tempted to redraw the thing using the pen tool, any cleaning up is going to leave a lot of crud behind making the  remaining lines look like they are falling apart. Time wise I doubt there is going to be much difference in cleaning versus draw anew.

 

58 minutes ago, Wosven said:

Like @Old Bruce, I would redraw... It'sdifficult to get something clean since part of the drawing should stay, part of it should disappear, but they are the same value...

Thank you both. I was also starting to think a redraw was necessary... I guess I was hoping there would be an easier way. 

I'm familiar with the pen tool but I do have a question about it. ...Parts of the drawing (Parking definition area, etc) are absolutely straight on a single line while another part of the line is curved. How can I adjust for this when tracing with the tool? 

Thank you!

[Bay]

Questions about PEN TOOL:

1. Looking at the image above, how can I break off “long runs“ such as the parking lot and road lines? Or, would you guys recommend (and is it possible) doing those long run lines all at once?

2. How can I trace the parking lot lines that are perfectly straight in some areas and curved in others? Yes, I could simply hit the curves with lots of points to make the curve but I’m wondering if there is a more natural looking way to do it.

thank you!

[Bay]

1 hour ago, Bay said:

Questions about PEN TOOL:

1. Looking at the image above, how can I break off “long runs“ such as the parking lot and road lines? Or, would you guys recommend (and is it possible) doing those long run lines all at once?

2. How can I trace the parking lot lines that are perfectly straight in some areas and curved in others? Yes, I could simply hit the curves with lots of points to make the curve but I’m wondering if there is a more natural looking way to do it.

thank you!

 

I'm learning. Lack of responses on this forum may mean... "Figure it out yourself. It is not that hard."  😂😬 Anyway, sorry for the stupid question. I played around a bid with the pen tool and figured out it wasn't that hard to have the curves where needed along with straight lines where needed. 

Good to go! 👍

 

[Old Bruce]

9 minutes ago, Bay said:

I'm learning. Lack of responses on this forum may mean... "Figure it out yourself. It is not that hard."  😂😬

Hi, took a break for dinner.

Pen tool, use the escape key to end drawing a line. There is a line segment option which allows you to draw two points, start and end, automatically.

[Bay]

56 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

Hi, took a break for dinner.

Pen tool, use the escape key to end drawing a line. There is a line segment option which allows you to draw two points, start and end, automatically.

Thank you Bruce! I'll play with that button bar. ...Also, I was being a bit self deprecating with my last post. I realize after playing with the pen that I was being lazy with the original question.

Thanks again!

 

 

[Wosven]

Nice that you figure it out while I was sleeping

[Bay]

5 hours ago, Wosven said:

Nice that you figure it out while I was sleeping

 

Ha, ha... I actually just developed another question. If "Esc" ends a line with the last point, what can I do if I want to continue a line later?

Thank you!

 

[Wosven]

2 hours ago, Bay said:

I want to continue a line later?

You can click on a node with the Pen tool

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, Wosven said:

You can click on a node with the Pen tool 

That does not work for me. What does is to click on an end node with the Node Tool to select it & then to switch to the Pen Tool to draw the next connected line segment.

To make that easier to do, with the Pen Tool selected I can temporarily switch to the Node Tool by holding down the CMD key on my Mac, click on the end node, release the CMD key to switch back to the Pen Tool & add the segment.

[Bay]

Thank you both and for that Mac tip!!! 

...Loving Affinity and learning from all you guys!

[Bay]

I have a challenge question coming up...

I am tracing this map over a small formatted pdf... standard 8.5x11. I am going to want to blow it up to ANSI standard sizes. 

1. What is the recommended methodology I should use? What specific, sequenced steps should I take?
2. How can I maintain the aspect ratio of everything I've drawn?
3. Technically, how do I even increase the size of the drawing area in Affinity?

Thank you!

[Wosven]

You can proceed like this:

First, select all the lines and ensure they'll scale with object (keep same ratio depending of the new page format)

After this, you can modify the document: (I choose A4 since it's just a little bit biger than your format):

[Wosven]

1 hour ago, R C-R said:

That does not work for me. What does is to click on an end node with the Node Tool to select it & then to switch to the Pen Tool to draw the next connected line segment.

You're right, that just draws on the same "layer object", it's the CMD (Mac), Ctrl (PC) that do th etrick.

[Bay]

52 minutes ago, Wosven said:

You can proceed like this:

First, select all the lines and ensure they'll scale with object (keep same ratio depending of the new page format)

After this, you can modify the document: (I choose A4 since it's just a little bit biger than your format):

HOLY CRAP! THANK YOU FOR ALL OF THESE DETAILS! AWESOME!