898 Part V Organizing and Managing Drawings

5.At the Specify insertion point or [Scale/X/Y/Z/Pscale/PX/PY/PZ/Protate]: prompt, pick any point near the top of your screen. Notice that the insertion point is at the top-left corner of the image.

6.Press Enter to accept the defaults for X and Y scales and rotation angle. Notice that you’ve lost the solid fill in the logo. The red rectangle came in fine. Also, you may see an added rectangle around the extents of the image where the extents of the screen were when the WMF file was created.

7.Pick the image. Notice that everything is selected with one grip at the insertion point. Choose Explode from the Modify toolbar.

8.Choose Tools Inquiry List, and pick any part of the logo. Press Enter. Notice from the listing that the logo is now made up of polylines. Repeat the LIST command with the text. It has been converted to a TEXT object. (If the text was based on a SHX font, it would be converted to polylines.) Because WMF files convert to drawing objects, you can edit them, but they may require a good deal of cleanup to attain a pleasing result.

9.Choose Insert Windows Metafile. Choose ab27-01.wmf. Click Options to open the Import Options (WMF In) dialog box, as shown in Figure 27-4. This time, check Wide Lines, uncheck Wire Frame, and click OK. In the Import WMF dialog box, click Open to import the file. Pick in a different location in your drawing, and accept the defaults.

10.Explode the inserted image. (You may have to pick it at its edge.) Erase the rectangle and the line at the right that remains. Now you have an image that is very close to the original. The text comes in with the Bookman Old Style font (or the font that you used — the same font as the original), although the spacing is not exact. Also, the logo now has its solid fill. It should look like Figure 27-4.

11.Save your drawing.

Figure 27-4: An imported WMF file.

Working with Raster Images

You can easily import scanned images, digital photographs, and other image files into your drawings. You can use these images to insert a logo, show a photo or artist’s rendering of your model, and for many other uses. Although raster (bitmap) images are generally much larger files than vector drawings, you can easily zoom and pan throughout your drawing. You can usually plot these raster images, as well. Table 27-2 shows the raster formats that AutoCAD 2006 supports.

You cannot insert raster images into AutoCAD LT. However, you can open an AutoCAD drawing that contains images and view the image. You can also use the IMAGE command to obtain information about the image. You can copy, move, and resize the image.

Table 27-2: Raster Formats Supported by AutoCAD 2006

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Figure 27-5: The Image dialog box.

Note Raster images usually don’t scale up very well. If you enlarge them too much, the dots get too far apart, and the image looks grainy. However, the higher the resolution, the better the image will look when enlarged.

Click OK to insert the image.

You can also use the DesignCenter to insert raster images, as described in Chapter 26.

The Express Tools contain a command, IMAGEEDIT (choose Express File Tools Edit Image), that opens a selected image in a specified image-editing application.

Managing images

As with xrefs, you may need a way to keep track of your images, especially if you insert many of them. Choose Insert Image Manager to open the Image Manager, as shown in Figure 27-6. The Image Manager enables you to manage the images in your drawing. You can insert images from this dialog box, as well.

Figure 27-6: The Image Manager.

You can use the List view and Tree view buttons at the top of the dialog box to view your images in a flat list or a hierarchical (tree) format. Here are the other options:

Attach inserts an image, opening the Image dialog box (refer to Figure 27-5).

Detach erases the image from your drawing and deletes all references to it in the drawing database.

Reload redisplays an image after you’ve unloaded it.

Unload removes the display of the image but retains the reference to it. Later, you can reload the image to redisplay it.

Details provides you with a preview, as well as information about the image, its path, and its size.

The Image Found At box shows you the location of the image. If you didn’t save a path when attaching the image, you can do so by clicking Save Path. You can also find an image whose Status shows Not Found by choosing Browse. This would happen if you moved the image after attaching it.

Clipping images

A powerful feature of AutoCAD lets you clip images just as you clip external references. Large images can slow down your drawing display. You may also simply find it distracting to see parts of an image that you don’t need for your work. For example, if you attach an aerial photograph of a city block but want only one house, being able to clip around the house and not display the rest of the image is a great advantage.

To clip an image, follow these steps:

1.Insert an image.

2.Choose Modify Clip Image.

3.At the Select image to clip: prompt, select the image. Pick the image at its border.

4.At the prompt, press Enter to accept the default of creating a new clipping boundary.

5.At the Enter clipping type [Polygonal/Rectangular] <Rectangular>: prompt, press Enter to create a rectangular clip, or right-click and choose Polygonal to create a multisided boundary.

•For a rectangular boundary, pick a first point and the opposite corner to create the boundary.

•For a polygonal boundary, specify the first point and then use the Specify next point or [Undo]: prompt to pick points until you’ve completed the boundary. You can use the Undo option to undo the last pick, or the Close option (which appears after you pick three points) to close the final boundary. AutoCAD creates a rubber-band boundary as you pick points so that you can see the result. Press Enter when you’re done.

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Controlling image display

You can control several aspects of image display using the commands detailed in this section. Control the image display to adjust the properties that control how the image looks.

Image display

The IMAGEADJUST command lets you change the brightness, contrast, and fade of an image. Choose Modify Object Image Adjust to start the IMAGEADJUST command and open the Image Adjust dialog box, as shown in Figure 27-7.

Figure 27-7: The Image Adjust dialog box.

This dialog box enables you to dynamically change the brightness, contrast, and fade of the image, using the slider bars or text boxes. You immediately see the results in the preview box. Choose Reset to return the image to its original status.

Image quality

Choose Modify Object Image Quality to start the IMAGEQUALITY command. AutoCAD displays the Enter image quality setting [High/Draft] <High>: prompt. Choose either High or Draft. This command affects the display of all of the images in a drawing. Use it when a high-quality image slows down performance. A regen is not necessary after you change this setting. Plotting is always done at high quality.

Image transparency

If the image format that you’re using supports transparent pixels, you can use the TRANSPARENCY command to create a transparent background for your image. This works for bi-tonal or grayscale images. (Bi-tonal images have only a foreground and a background color.) By default, transparency is off.

To turn transparency on, choose Modify Object Image Transparency and select the image(s) that you want to change. At the Enter transparency mode [ON/OFF] <OFF>: prompt, type on and do a regen. Other objects in your drawing will now be visible through the background of your image.

Image frame

The IMAGEFRAME command controls the frame that surrounds all images in a drawing. Choose Modify Object Image Frame. Choose one of three settings:

0: Turns off the frame, both in the drawing display and when plotting.

1: Turns on the frame, both in the drawing display and when plotting.

2: Displays the frame in the drawing, but doesn’t plot it.

Turning off the frame often improves the way the image looks. However, you select an image by clicking its frame. Therefore, an Off setting means that you cannot select the image, except when using commands specific to images, such as TRANSPARENCY, IMAGEADJUST, and IMAGECLIP.

When an image has a border, the border displays the properties of the layer that was current when the image was inserted.

Draw order

The DRAWORDER command (Tools Draw Order) changes the display order of objects, including raster and OLE objects. (OLE is discussed later in this chapter.) This command is very helpful when working with raster and OLE objects, where you may or may not want to hide the other objects in your drawing. You can move an object to the top or bottom or change its order in relation to another object — above or below it. To change an object’s display order, choose Tools Display Order and choose one of the submenu options. At the prompt, select the objects you want. Draw order settings are saved with the drawing.

STEPS: Working with Raster Images

1.Open ab27-b.dwg from the CD-ROM.

2.Save the file as ab27-03.dwg in your AutoCAD Bible folder.

3.Choose View 3D Views Top.

4.Choose Insert Raster Image.

5.In the Select Image File dialog box, choose ab27-b.tif from the CD-ROM. Click Open. Click Details. Notice that the image is 1 × 0.61 units. Compared to the house, it is tiny.

904 Part V Organizing and Managing Drawings

6.In the Image dialog box, uncheck Specify on-screen for the Scale factor, and change the scale factor to 5. Click OK.

7.At the Specify insertion point <0,0>: prompt, pick any point on the left side of the screen. The image is still tiny, but that’s okay. Choose Zoom Window from the Zoom flyout of the Standard toolbar to zoom closely into the image.

8.Choose Modify Object Image Adjust. At the Select image(s): prompt, select the image by picking its frame. Press Enter. In the Image Adjust dialog box, change the Contrast to 60 and the Brightness to 40. Choose OK.

9.Choose Modify Clip Image. At the Select image to clip: prompt, select the image again, which is shown in Figure 27-8. Follow the prompts:

Enter image clipping option [ON/OFF/Delete/New boundary] <New>: Enter clipping type [Polygonal/Rectangular] <Rectangular>: Specify first corner point: If OSNAP is on, turn it off. Pick 1 in Figure 27-8.

Specify opposite corner point: Pick 2.

2

1

Figure 27-8: Clipping the raster image.

10.Use Zoom Realtime to zoom out so that you have room to insert another image. Choose Insert Raster Image and attach ab27-b1.bmp (located on the CD-ROM) with a scale factor of 5. Insert it below the first image.

11.Click the Layout1 tab to enter paper space, which has three floating viewports. Click PAPER to enter model space. Click the bottom-left viewport. Choose View 3D Views Top. You should now see the images as a small dot to the left of the house. Use Zoom Window to zoom into the rendered table. Your drawing should now look like Figure 27-9.

12.Click the right viewport. If necessary, pan the house to the right until you can see the two images that you attached. Move the Cottonmill Houses image to 1 in Figure 27-9. Scale it, using a base point at its lower-left corner and a scale factor of 25. Move it until it fits nicely in the upper-right corner of the floor plan. Pan again to center the house in the viewport. (If it disappears, do a Zoom Extents.)

13.Choose Modify Object Image Frame. Right-click and choose 0. AutoCAD removes the frames from the two images.

14.Save your drawing.