topic Re: placing drawings in elevations in Modeling

placing drawings in elevations

Anonymous — Fri, 26 May 2023 13:04:57 GMT

it's just a bit annoying but when i place drawings that have a white background, they show as having a black background in the elevation window but are fine (i.e. transparent background) when i print.

is there a way to turn on transparent background in the elevation window?

Re: placing drawings in elevations

Djordje — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 11:48:11 GMT

Can you post a screenshot?

Where and how are you printing from?

You are placing the SE views in the layouts, I presume?

transparent background and pdf

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 11:54:51 GMT

i've now been looking into this since yesterday but i'm still having problems.

i have placed a drawing of a tree in an elevation. the tree is in front of the house (and needs to stay there) but i can't make the background transparent. i've had a crash course in alpha channels and i have checked this in corel photopaint. the alpha channel is present and is black.

i need to publish to pdf and get the plans sent off for approval - please help!

Re: placing drawings in elevations

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 12:02:27 GMT

Djordje it's you - please help!

i am having these problems when i publish to pdf whether publishing direct from elevation view or from layout book (i'm using ac10).

i have opened the image in corel photopaint and have checked that alpha channel is present and is black.

i will try to attach a picture now...

Re: transparent background and pdf

Djordje — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 12:04:45 GMT

Derek wrote:
i have placed a drawing of a tree in an elevation. the tree is in front of the house (and needs to stay there) but i can't make the background transparent.

Is the tree a library part? Set the background pen to transparent.

Re: placing drawings in elevations

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 12:05:54 GMT

great... didn't work. i'll try again...

Re: transparent background and pdf

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 12:09:35 GMT

i needlessly created a 2nd post for the same topic... apologies.

i don't know much about image files, but the file is simply a 2d picture with an 'alpha channel' for the transparent background.

i have posted a picture in my post earlier today

Re: placing drawings in elevations

Djordje — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 12:27:10 GMT

It is not a drawing, it is a bitmap.

You have to be precise, man 😉

If you want the alpha channel recognized, your best bet is TIFF format. Not sure which one are you using now.

You can also create a cutout GDL from this image, using ArchiFacade. Great and extremely fast - except drawing the fill with the outline of the tree ... but it is also manageable.

Did you use the Figure tool? Checked the Transparent button?

Re: placing drawings in elevations

Djordje — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 12:36:11 GMT

Just tried with one of the TGAs from the standard ArtLantis library ...

It works.

Set it to Transparent.

Re: placing drawings in elevations

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 12:46:02 GMT

thanks for your help so far. i have identified the bitmap as a TIFF file. your comments made me realise that i wasn't importing properly! i have been trying to place a drawing instead of a figure.

even though this has been corrected, i am still having a strange problem - some of the tree bitmap is transparent (the bottom part of the tree) and some is not. any ideas?

otherwise i may have to delete the tree altogether...

regarding the ArchiFacade, thanks for the tip but i really can't afford any addons at the moment.

Re: placing drawings in elevations

Djordje — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 12:51:18 GMT

Do you have Artlantis?

Check >disk<:\Program Files\Artlantis\Medias\Objects\2D Billboards\Vegetation 2D

You can use any of them, and it will work.

Re: placing drawings in elevations

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 13:03:55 GMT

i don't unfortunately. i only have ac10 and i'm very grateful for it. i use it only for projects that i design and build myself so i can't really justify spending more on other software as i only design 2/3 projects per year. the bitmaps i have come from anywhere on the net where they are free!

i have looked into the alpha channel on corel photopaint and it corresponds exactly to the part of the bitmap i want to hide. i have tried to save in other formats and although another part has become transparent, it's still far from a good result...

Re: placing drawings in elevations

Djordje — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 13:09:52 GMT

Then go to archicado.free.fr and download some ...

Re: placing drawings in elevations

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 13:26:08 GMT

i can't believe it was the image file all along...

tried the website site and the files work a treat - thank you so much Djordje

Re: placing drawings in elevations

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 13:38:24 GMT

one last question - is it possible to make these billboards cast shadows or is that asking too much?!

Re: placing drawings in elevations

Djordje — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 03:36:32 GMT

Derek wrote:
one last question - is it possible to make these billboards cast shadows or is that asking too much?!

If they were proper 3D objects, they would have. See the ArchiFacade hint below. And it would probably slow down the S/E generation significantly.