Drawing on top of an inserted picture

[Anonymous]

first of all when inserting a picture is there a difference between insert>attach and insert>raster image reference?

then,

when we insert the picture, i understand that i can draw lines on top of the picture to make my job easier, however, is there a tool or shortcut or feature so that the program will automatically draw lines on top of a picture, based on the objects in the picture's outline?

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

Hi,

>> is there a tool or shortcut or feature so that the program will automatically draw

>> lines on top of a picture, based on the objects in the picture's outline

Can be done with Autodesk RasterDesign >>>click<<<

- alfred -

[beyoungjr]

Raster Design is a great tool, as suggested by @Alfred.NESWADBA.

If you wish to try some online Raster to Vector conversion tools you can find them...

    https://online.rapidresizer.com/tracer.php

    https://vectormagic.com/

    http://www.autotracer.org/

There are MANY more to find online.

Results can vary greatly so find the tool that gives you the best result.  Study the settings that might be offered.  If a tool offers dxf files for download option please note that they are equally acceptable to AutoCAD.

If you happen to have an Adobe suite the Illustrator work extremely well too!

Just to clean up the point... plain AutoCAD has no tool for recognizing edges of raster image pixel data.  Many folks turn off OSNAPs and various tracking tools so they can freehand upon images but that can be a cumbersome effort.

Cheers & Good Luck,

Blaine

[Anonymous]

thanks but for now that is too costly for me

[gotphish001]

If you only need to do it for one thing that's pretty big or complex, you could just grab the trial of illustrator for free.

[Anonymous]

i first tried vectormagic. it wanted payment to be able to download the result so i moved on to the next one, rapidresizer.org.

i was able to download

dxf

svg

ai

eps

pdf

but i was able to insert only the pdf file

the others are not accepted in autocad

and the pdf file has vector images in it but then what? how do i trace the outline of the image in autocad?

[TheCADnoob]

If its a technical drawing i would definitely check out raster design as suggested by @Alfred.NESWADBA.

If its not a technical design but a simple logo, depending on the subject matter of the image i have had luck with inkscape. I did a walk though here. 

Often i just trace as i'm able to clean up the image as i go. In other words i can make sure it has symmetry and is full connected and not overlapping etc as i go instead of trying to find the problems in the converted geometry later. 

[TheCADnoob]

you can open dxf in autocad

[Anonymous]

and when i just want to insert a jpg, what should i use?

i use insert > rester image. is this correct way?

and what is the difference between insert > raster image and insert > attach?

[beyoungjr]

I prefer to avoid referencing images as "Xref" in AutoCAD when I use for a logo or similar.

Instead I usually copy and paste image data so it becomes and OLE object.

Open your image in paint or similar, select all or part of the image, use CTRL-C, then in ACAD use CTRL-V.

This avoids adding as a reference.

Poke around online and you will find many more raster to vector converters, and as was already stated, DXF will absolutely open in ACAD.

Cheers,

Blaine

[TheCADnoob]

I'm not exactly sure which methods you are referring to. 

with the command _attach (which i believe is insert > Attach) allows you to select raster as well as other attachment types like pdf etc

With the command _IMAGEATTACH (which i believe is the attach image) looks only has *.* in the file types

with the command -IMAGE you can attach as well and it leads to a different dialog box with several raster formats. It also beings in the images giving the options of scale and rotation. 

As far as i can tell all of these methods attach the image to the drawing as xrefs. In other words anyway you bring it in  (as one of the methods above) i believe it becomes the same type of object. 

I personally hate raster images in drawings especially when the content is something that could have been drawn (Raster tables like BOMs or raster versions of hand drawings)

I would try as @beyoungjr suggested and bring it in as an OLE. 

I just never have any luck with raster and it always seems to complicate things with our third party apps.