Compare two drawings for differences

You can compare two revisions of a QY CAD drawing to identify the elements that have been added and removed on each sheet. The two sheets that you compare must be the same size.

1. From the Application menu, choose Tools→Compare Drawings .

2. In the Compare Drawings dialog box, in the Configure New Comparison section, select the draft files and the sheets that you want to compare.

   1. Under File 1:, click Browse, and then select and open the first .dft file to compare.

      The first sheet in the document is selected by default. You can choose a different sheet from the Sheet list.

   2. Under File 2:, click Browse, and then select and open the second .dft file.

      If you changed the sheet selection under File1, then the same sheet is selected automatically for File2.

3. To improve the legibility of the comparison output image, drag the Smoothness slider to the right.

   This increases the processing time, but it greatly improves the image resolution. This can be especially useful for reading text and numbers.

4. Click Compare .

   All viewports are populated with the results. They show:

   • Differences—Displays only the elements that are different between the two sheets.

   • File 1 <filename.dft> <Sheet number>—Displays the contents of the selected sheet in the first draft file.

   • File 2 <filename.dft> <Sheet number>—Displays the contents of the same drawing sheet in the second draft file.

   • Information—For each draft file, displays the QY CAD version number in which the file was saved, the file size, and the date when it was last saved.

     The number of pixels that are different between the two sheets is shown as a single value, expressed as a percentage.

5. To save the results of the comparison, click Save, and then type a name for the results file in the Save As dialog box.

   The name that you type is used to generate three .bmp output files. One file contains the differences, and the other two contain the information from the drawing sheets that were compared.

   • <drawing_name>_Differences.bmp

   • <drawing_name>_Original.bmp

   • <drawing_name>_New.bmp

6. If comparing a multi-sheet drawing:

   1. Use the Sheet lists to choose another sheet.

   2. Click Compare again.

      All viewports are refreshed with the new information.

   3. Click Save and enter a unique name for the second set of output files.

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