Translucent Images

[abbrantley]

I'm using Autodesk Land Desktop 2007.

I would like to insert two images and make one of them a certain percentage of transparent to be able to see through the fore image.

Any suggestions on the procedure for this?

 

[borgunit]

Ralph Grabowski is an excellent source of AutoCAD info...

http://www.upfrontezine.com/eBooks/#autocad

"Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects." — Will Rogers

 

[borgunit]

oops wrong post
sorry

"Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects." — Will Rogers

 

[LHA]

The image has to be in a format supported by ACAD. The good news is this includes almost every type of image I can name...bmp, gif, tiff, jpg, many more. The bad news, it does not support pdf.

Then, type IMAGE in command line (also pull down Insert, Image Manager) and select. Repeat with the other image. You will need to run Tools, Draw Order, Send to Back with one, and Bring to Front with the other.

Engineering is the practice of the art of science - Steve

 

[abbrantley]

I know how to insert the two images and execute the draw order command. The part I am not aware of is how to make one or the other translucent to a point to be able to see both images while they are overlayed

 

[MEM1]

You can make all pixels that are a specific color in a grayscale or color image transparent. (The transparency color of a bitonal image is always the background color of the image.) This is useful if you want to overlay two images or place an image in front of objects.

This option is not available if the image is currently unloaded or if the Raster Extension is not loaded. To load the Raster Extension, choose any Raster Extension command, such as Image Manage, from the Map menu.

Note The transparency color is stored in the drawing as an Autodesk Map custom object. If you send the drawing to other users, they can see the transparency color only by opening the drawing in Autodesk Map or Autodesk CAD Overlay. If they open the drawing in AutoCAD, they see a message that AutoCAD cannot reference the custom object and will not display the transparent color.

 

[abbrantley]

So this procedure would not accomplish the task if the image had more than two colors? Am I thinking of this right?

 

[atook]

abbrantley, it doesn't sound like what you're asking for is available directly in AutoCAD.

One work around might be to merge the two images into one image using a graphics program like Photoshop ($$$) or Gimp(Free). It's not hard with these programs to adjust transparency etc. The only downside of this is that you'll end up with one large graphics file.

 

[cvg]

it will work with more than two colors and photoshop is not generally required. For instance, I just inserted a jpg color photograph into a cad file, set transparency on, brightness 50, contrast 50, fade 0 and set draw order so it is at the back. Autocad drawing now shows on top of the photo. I am not using autocad map or overlay, just autocad 2005.

 

[civilsid]

I am using Civil 3D 2007 and this is what I do:

Load whatever multiple images you need and scale them in appropriately.

Highlight images (individually or in combination) and rt click for shortcut menu.

In the shortcut menu, you can select transparency from a submenu then select on or off (by typing ON or OFF on text line).

Maybe regen the doc and then make sure they are not the same color or you can't tell which is in foreground.