Creating vectorial fills from referenced surface.

[Anonymous]

A couple months ago we had someone from Graphisoft come in and train us on ArchiCAD. I swear he showed us a method that I can't seem to find online anywhere. He had a surface jpeg and he was able to take the jpeg and create a custom vectorial fill from it automatically. Does anyone know how to do this?

[NCornia]

Hi GDCD_FL,

It sounds like you the item you are referring to is an "Image Fill". Vectorial fills are another type that uses vector patterns. Please see the following items:
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I hope this helps.

Best regards,

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the quick reply, unfortunately I emailed the trainer and he says he didn't show us what I thought he did. I'll need a 3rd party software to do what Im asking probably. What I was needing was to take a tileable jpeg and vectorize it so we could see it on our elevations properly. I don't think it's possible in-program, but thank you for the suggestions.

[NCornia]

I see. I might suggest InkScape. It is an OpenSource tool compatible on Windows and Mac OS X (using X11) that has similar functionality as Adobe Illustrator. You may use the Trace Bitmap feature to create vectors from bitmap and image files. It is best to do some clean up inside Inksape and then export as DXF. You may then import the DXF file into ARCHICAD and use the steps to create a Symbol Fill.

If I can find some time (chances are low right now; maybe in January) I will see if I can write up more precise instructions. But hopefully with that, it is a good start for you.

I hope this helps.

Best regards,