Background images won't print....still

[Dan.Dominik]

Using Revit 2013 we have a sheet with elevation views (shaded display mode w/shadows).  In the elevation views themselves Graphic Display Options is set to Background>Image>Sky.jpg (stored locally).

The sheet and elevation views look great on screen.  However, no pc in our office can send this to the plotter, printers, or PDF and get the sky backgrounds to show correctly; the elevations have blank white backgrounds.  Raster printing is selected.

Searching the web and forums reveals that this has been an issue for years, with many references to a dwf export issue.  However, in our office it appears to be broken under ANY scenario.  Is this a known bug that has just been unresolved through multiple releases?

[Anonymous]

Try turning on/off hardware accelleration under Options/Graphics.

You should be able to make a pdf and print it.

Worst case is export out raster image or even a screen capture.

[Dan.Dominik]

Not really related, but we did go through these changes already just to test- no change.  

Further tests with other files revealed the same problem, backgrounds don't even preview in the plot window.  Very disappointing...

[pkirby]

*Bump, 2014 seems to be carrying on the tradition of leaving old bugs in the program to fester.  has anyone found a viable work-around for this?  background image looks great on screen and in sheet view but prints as a blurry splodge. when rendering the preview works perfectly, which is nice.

[kfielding · Accepted solution]

I've experienced a similar issue, it's a real pain. I've have a solution and it doesn't involve photoshopping the background in later!!

The solution was to insert an image into the view, and stretch it to suit the view, uncheck lock proportions on the properties palette.  It's a minor inconvenience, but you can print it which is a huge plus.

Hope this helps, although a little belatedly

Regards,

[Wouter]

This solution does work!

When you insert the image to your sheet and move/stretch it on/over the 3d view you 've put on the sheet.

[rvanhethof]

So I've used the "image on the sheet with view overlay" option for years.  Now Autodesk decided to finally introduce the Background image feature under Graphic Display Options.  I've tried to use it, but have been unsuccessful.  I hope I'm missing something and that Autodesk has not introduced yet another ill-attempted feature that was not thought through and thoroughly tested.  (That's a lot of o's, u's, g's, and h's!)

The problem is the ability (or lack thereof) to edit the image once it's placed.  The changes I make in the Customize Image section don't seem to 'stick'.  They revert to the initial settings as I inserted the image.  I've even tried swapping the image and it seems the only way to do this is to switch back to None for a Background, and Apply, and then load another Background.  Come on, really?

I cannot successfully stretch or offset the image once it's placed.  What's more, the image seems to change based on zoom level!  It does not stay 'locked' to the view when you zoom in and out; my elevation gets bigger but the cloud image stays the same size!

Unless I'm missing something, I find this a very clunky and under-developed feature.  Actually, in the state it's currently in, I find it unusable in its entirety.  I will be going back to my work-around of placing backgrounds on the sheet with the image over it.  The big downside of this method is that I have to go into Photoshop to make sure my image is the exact size I need it to be on the sheet.

[michael.whiteacre]

I managed to get the background image showing when exporting to an image file from revit, however - no amount of resizing or tweaking via trial and error in Photoshop could get it to accurately show in the correct location/size when exporting from Revit. Very frustrating and a big time waster. Autodesk should really get on to fixing this issue soon.

[PA_TButton]

I just had this problem myself, the Revit offsets don't work for positioning the image, what is shown is not what is printed, it defaults to the same position when printed. However I have found that if you photoshop the background image by cropping what you want to see and then change the size/ratio to match the view crop in revit it will position itself where it needs to be as the background image on your screen and when printed. Not the ideal solution, just more time spent in photoshop, but it has worked for me.

[damian]

Unfortunately doesn't work with a 3D perspective view.

Any other ideas?