Home » Technology » AutoCAD Design » Adding Images to AutoCAD part II

Adding Images to AutoCAD part II

© Jonathan Jonas

In the article before last we talk about how to add images to an AutoCAD drawing. We went over the Image command and some basics for scanning and saving. Also, we talked about some of the programs that are useful for image manipulation, such as PhotoShop from Adobe. This week we will be discussing what it takes to adjust, manipulate, resize, and in general change your image after it has been placed in your drawing.

First, once of the easiest things you can do is to use your grips to adjust its size. When you are at the command line, without typing in any command, simply click on the image, and you will get a little box on each corner. These by default are blue. These are your grips. You can then click on one of the boxes and drag that box to increase or decrease the size of the image. However, you cannot adjust the X and Y scales of the image independently of each other. The image will only scale proportionately.

Next, if you have cropped your image and inserted it only to find it has a few pixels extra that need to be removed - or perhaps you don't have an image editing program - you can crop the image directly in AutoCAD. This is done with the command Imageclip. As with most of the Image commands, this has a long command name and deserves either a hotkey, or the use of a button from the toolbars. This command gives the following response:

Select image to clip - This lets you pick the image you want cropped.

ON/OFF/Delete/ - The default assumes you want to create a new boundary on the Image you selected. Anything outside of your boundary will not bee seen. With the New Boundary it asks if you want to delete the existing boundary or create a new one. Personally, I find this is one of the idiot questions. You've already told it you want a New Boundary, but if you do you have to tell it so a second time, otherwise it will kick you back to the command line. It boils down to you having to press return twice in order to create a new boundary. Next is Delete, which removes a current boundary, showing the entire image. Lastly is ON/OFF which turns the boundary on and off for adjustment purposes.

Polygonal/ - The default assumes you want either a square or a rectangular shape to crop with, but choosing the Polygonal gives much more freedom. Choosing Polygonal will let you select points to define an area. You may note that this command is very similar to the xclip command for Xref's. One thing they forgot to include is the ability under New Boundary to Select an Existing Polyline, which would allow the user to create a pseudo circular image or generate a polyline from the existing boundary for editing. Personally, I think they dropped the ball on this command and I hope they increase its functionality in the next release.

The copyright of the article Adding Images to AutoCAD part II in AutoCAD Design is owned by . Permission to republish Adding Images to AutoCAD part II in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.