Hi, we have reports that produce model graphics in excel spreadsheets. The problem we find is that some models are not clear therefore we cannot read the contents or share with users. In some cases, we are able to right-click on an image in excel and then edit the picture to change it to emf format. This resolves the issue in some cases but affects other formatting elements.
We've changed the formats from xls to xlsx and that doesn't resolve the problem. Our code also tries to use twips to determine the size of the image in terms of row and column counts and I'm unsure if that is the cause of the blurriness.
I've also asked our Software AG representative to log an Empower call for assistance but I thought that someone here may have resolved this issue already.
Any assistance would be appreciated?
Hi there.
Just checked our own two ARIS installations (10.0.3 for production and 10.0.7 for testing) and we're having the same issue with both installations.
Information (maybe you could confirm whether or not it's the same for you):
- We you use the .emf format for the generation of the model graphic and for inserting it into the excel sheet
- The issue primarily occurs with huge model graphs (lots of objects to process, I assume the ARIS graphic generation messes up the vectors of the vector-graphic format emf? Or the emf format is the limiting factor, and ARIS tries to pack as much information into it as it can?). With small model graphs the issue doesn't occur.
Would you happen to have some sort of Empower Reference number, that we could refer to when making our own Empower call? If Software AG sees that more than one customer happens to have the same problem, they could probably allocate more resources towards fixing the problem, couldn't they?
I have the same problem, EMF format is producing even worse results than PNG format. I do see that for small model graphics the graphics are sharp in Excel but wider model graphics above a certain(?) width get blurred. In Empower I logged this with Software AG (incident 5369977).
This problem started when we switched to Windows 10 and Microsoft Office 365, before when running Windows 7 and Office 2016 this problem did not manifest itself.
Tue, 06/11/2019 - 08:33
There was an official solution for this some time ago:
Context.setProperty("use-new-output", true)
This line should be set before creating the graphic.
I think it helps (a little bit), but really large graphics are still unreadable.
How can I support this incident (ahm meaning that I have this problem as well) ?
Robert
Maybe by referring to the incident mentioned.
But I'm afraid the help we need will not come from Software AG as they admit they cannot find a solution for this and in fact they may be right, this is a Microsoft Excel problem. Funny thing is that if I output the same graphic from my report not to Excel but to Word output the model graphic stays clear and sharp and can be zoomed and still stay sharp, so this is definitely something to do with Microsoft Excel 365.
Hi,
please note that I opened a Brainstorm ticket (this is the app where SAG customers submit improvement ideas) #06795 asking for outputs with better graphic resolution . (Exporting models as png files in Connect usually procduce fuzzy images with little use when imported in powerpoint)
So far the answer from SAG is : "This feature is not planned for the next release. However, it generally makes sense from my viewpoint and would add additional value to the product - thus we keep it in mind for future releases."
And "If you want to increase the implementation probability of this feature, please vote for it in Brainstorm." :-)
