topic binding images in AutoCAD Forum

binding images

Anonymous — Wed, 22 May 2019 14:11:04 GMT

A very hopeful solution to binding images to an AutoCAD dwg was offered by gdl_admin// and offered in the Partner Showcase on July 11, 2016. The solution was to open the image in Windows Paint, select all (ctrl+A), copy to clipboard (ctrl+C), and then, within the AutoCAD dwg, PASTESPEC. It worked - or seemed to. However, when the drawing was saved and then re-opened, the image did not appear. Multiple attempts to do this with TIFF images had the same result.

The odd thing is that the drawings preview with the inserted images, but they do not appear in the opened drawing. See the attached file explorer preview, and how it differs from the opened drawing. As you can see, there are no layers turned off in the opened drawing. This seems like a matter of toggling some setting. Any ideas, anyone?

Thank you.

Re: binding images

rkmcswain — Wed, 22 May 2019 14:14:54 GMT

The "preview" of the drawing is simply a snapshot of how it looked when it was last saved. Missing or changed file references in between the time of the last save and now, can make the "preview" pretty worthless.

As to the missing reference, what does the IMAGE palette say?

Re: binding images

leeminardi — Wed, 22 May 2019 15:03:51 GMT

Here's an unorthodox method for binding an image to a drawing. It has worked for me.

Create a bitmapped material using the image and then apply the material to a plane or solid. You may need to adjust the Material Mapping parameters to get the correct image size and aspect ratio. Change the visual style to realistic for viewing or plotting. With this method the image is part of the .dwg file.

Re: binding images

Anonymous — Wed, 22 May 2019 16:00:33 GMT

Thanks for your reply! Not sure what you mean by the image pallet - if you mean the references window, it does not show them because my goal is to not xref, but instead bind images to the drawing. I have versions of the drawing with the images xref'd, but I do not want external users to have to deal with xrefs. Also, the images are very large.

Re: binding images

Anonymous — Wed, 22 May 2019 16:05:33 GMT

Thanks for your reply! Several questions:

1. If I made a bitmapped material, would it remain high resolution? (The images I am starting with are high resolution TIFFs, and I need them to stay high resolution.)
2. I'm not familiar with applying the material to a plane or solid, nor adjusting material mapping parameters. Are these features available in standard AutoCAD?

Thanks again,

Patty

Re: binding images

leeminardi — Wed, 22 May 2019 16:20:36 GMT

Attached is an example file using a material to embed an image in an AutoCAD file.

Re: binding images

leeminardi — Wed, 22 May 2019 16:45:37 GMT

To create a bitmapped material:

Go to the Material Browser - Click Visualize tab Materials panel Materials Browser
Click the pulldown to create a new generic material
Click the Image box and then select the image file. It's a good idea to rename the material from Default Generic to something more descriptive.
Add a plane to your file. It's a good idea to have the aspect ratio of the plane the same as the image but that's not necessary.
Set the visualstyle to Realistic.
Select the plane then right-click the material in the Material Browser and chose Assign to Selection
The image should appear on the plane. It is possible that the image may be scaled incorrectly of rotated. You control the size and orientation of a material via the Material Mapping features. You will most likely be using planar mapping since you are working in 2D.
Select the plane and click Material Mapping and the mapping gizmo should appear.
Changing the size of the gizmo will change the tiling and aspect ratio of the image.

This should help you see if the image quality and process are acceptable.

Re: binding images

JTBWorld — Wed, 22 May 2019 17:13:56 GMT

You can also try our app to bind images. JTB Raster2OLE