topic Re: Support for transparency in external PDFs in Documentation

Support for transparency in external PDFs

derekjackson — Fri, 16 May 2025 09:56:51 GMT

Hi, is there a way to enable transparency when placing PDF from external sources on a Layout?

It seems it's supported when placing a internal view, but PDF with transparent backgrounds always appear with solid white behind them?

Operating system used: Windows

Re: Support for transparency in external PDFs

CosminF — Fri, 16 May 2025 10:30:53 GMT

Hi,

There isn't a setting to have the PDF transparent, however, as a work-around, you can right click and Explode into current view.
This splits the PDF into its component parts and (if the PDF isn't a jpg image re-saved as a PDF) you can even edit lines, fills and text. And you can delete the white fill that is usually the PDF backdrop.

It is quite cumbersome to edit an exploded PDF but it can be done.

Hope this helps.

Re: Support for transparency in external PDFs

parvink — Fri, 07 Nov 2025 05:51:54 GMT

Archicad (by Graphisoft) does not support transparency in external PDFs placed on Layouts—the transparent areas are rendered as solid white. As a workaround, you might try converting PDFs to PNGs with transparency retained and then place those images instead.