Issues with Printing High Resolution Ortho Imagery from Civil 3D

[sfleming98GJ7]

Hello. 

I have been having issues with high resolution orthoimage tiles not printing correctly.  My preferred method to attach images is to use the MAPIINSERT command and insert the image file as an external reference.  When using this method, the images come in clearly on the correct coordinate system and appear crystal clear while I am working in autocad, but as soon as I go to print, the printed version of the image becomes very light and illegible with some type of shading issues.

I have already found a work around to this issue with printing by attaching the images to a drawing using the MAPWSPACE command and linking to the image as opposed to referencing it and modifying the transparency settings through the Task Pane.  This is not my ideal solution though because this method does not allow me to reference the images to other drawings and makes working on projects with other employees difficult when we cannot share an external reference that has the image files.  I am looking for a way to print correctly while still attaching the images as an external reference.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

[Pointdump · Accepted solution]

Steve,
I tried just now with Raster Tools IINSERT. Sharp, clear, vivid image and it plots that way too. PDF attached of results.
Dave

[sfleming98GJ7]

How do I get raster tools?

[Pointdump]

Steve,
I think Raster Design is included with Civil 3D Subscription. Check your account page for a download.
Dave

[sfleming98GJ7]

Dave,

I installed raster design and used the iimport command and it worked perfectly.  Looks like you found my solution.

Thank you!

[JamesMaeding]

I finally grabbed the image from the share site (btw, thanks a bunch for posting there as the gis site wanted an account login...), and its the good old typical uncompressed tif with a world file.

I have no idea why gis sites use uncompressed tifs when a png with zero loss is 10x smaller...anyone know?

Anyway, I did my typical convert to jpg at 80% compression, insert into drawing using a lisp that reads the world file, and plot with no issues. It wasn't even interesting, completely run of the mill.

I then tried inserting the tif and plotting, no issues. Did anyone try that?

So all the trouble was from fancy insert methods, when no one is "reprojecting" to another system, as I understand it. If you were, then the raster design insert is needed, I believe, and we use that a lot too, but save the reprojected image and use it like any other image.

So to avoid using map or civil3d or raster design, use this lisp I wrote years ago instead.

The math behind world files is well documented, no need for any gis functions.

There are two commands:

IMAGE-IN (inserts an image using world file)

WORLD-OUT (creates a world file for an image in the drawing)

They work on tif, jpg, png, and sid files.

It only does one file at a time, but I can enable the multiple if you are willing to get doslib library.

Anyway, these use normal autocad, or bricscad, it does not need not map or verticals.

So now you have a solution that works on any acad in the company, how's that for killing two birds with one stone?

Also, you can now tell people they can hand adjust an image to match, say, a topo, and recreate the world file easily.

I don't know how people get along without such a lisp, the verticals are a pain.