Exercise A2: Managing Images in a Drawing

In this exercise you control the display of images inserted into a drawing.

Use the Image Manager toolspace to view and edit image insertions, color maps, and other data associated with an image. The toolspace provides two views of the image data, the Image Insertions view and the Image Data view.

Access the Image Manager toolspace using the following methods:

• Click Raster menu Manage.
• On the command line, enter imanage.
• Right-click in the drawing area and click ImageManage.
• On the Raster Design Toolbar, click Image Management .

Related Exercises

• Exercise A3: Viewing and Changing Image Properties

Before doing this exercise, ensure that AutoCAD Raster Design toolset options are set as described in the exercise Exercise A1: Setting AutoCAD Raster Design Toolset Options.

Exercise

Open the drawing file for this exercise

1. In the \Tutorial1 folder, open the drawing file GettingStarted_02.dwg.

   You should see a set of six images, with one on the right overlapping three others. If you see only the rectangular frame for any image, select the frame, then right-click and click ImageShow. The image should appear.

Explore the Image Insertions view of the toolspace

2. To display the toolspace, click Raster menu Manage. If necessary, click the Images tab to display the Image Manager.
3. On the drop-down menu at the top of the toolspace, select the Image Insertions view.
4. On the management toolbar above the drop-down menu, click to expand the object tree.

   You can see an object for each image inserted into the drawing. Below each image insertion is the color map: BIN for bitonal, CLR for color, etc.

5. Click the drawing name (GettingStarted_02) at the top of the tree.

   Attributes for each image are displayed in the tabular item view.

6. Lower in the tree, click one of the image insertion names (Aerial, Arch, etc.) to select it.

   Properties for the selected insertion are displayed in the item view.

7. In the management toolbar, click .

   The item view is replaced by a preview of the selected image insertion. You can resize the preview pane to change the size of previews.

   Note: Image previews are available in the Image Insertions view of the Image Manager toolspace, but not in the Image Data view.
8. Click other image insertion objects to see a preview of each one.

Use the standard toolspace controls

9. On the command line, enter dockrd. The toolspace is moved to a docked position on the left side of your drawing.
10. On the command line, enter floatrd. The toolspace is floated over the drawing.

    Further exploration: You can also dock and float the toolspace with the cursor. Click and drag the floating toolspace to the top or left side of the window to dock it. Click and drag the handle of the docked toolspace to float it. Other commands you can try are hiderd to hide the toolspace, and imanage or showrd to show the toolspace.

11. On the floating toolspace colored control bar, click to turn auto-hide on.

    Now, when you move your cursor off the toolspace, it retracts into the control bar, giving you clear access to the drawing. To expand the toolspace again, move your cursor over the control bar. Auto-hide is convenient when you want to work in the drawing but retain quick access to the Image Manager toolspace.

12. To turn auto-hide off, click .
13. Click to see the Properties menu for the toolspace.

    You can use options on this menu to disable the docking feature, control the background transparency of the toolspace, and turn auto-hide on or off.

Show and hide images

14. Click any image insertion name in the tree, then right-click and click Hide.

    In the drawing, the image disappears, but the frame remains visible. Note that the image object remains both in the tree and in the preview window.

15. To redisplay a hidden image, right-click the insertion name and click Show.
    Tip: Another way to hide and show images is to select the image frame, then right-click and click ImageShow (or Hide). When the frame is selected, it changes to dotted lines with a blue square at each corner.

    Using the Hide option is the simplest way to remove an image from the display, creating minimal change in the drawing. Related commands are as follows:

    • Unload deletes the image from working memory. This option is available on the Image Data view when you right-click an image data definition. Reverse this option with the Reload option on the same shortcut menu.
    • Erase deletes the image and frame from the drawing and the object tree, but leaves an unreferenced data definition in the Image Data view, unless the Raster Design Options are set to always detach. The erase option is available on the Image Insertions view when you right-click an image insertion. If an image is erased but not detached, you can reverse the erase operation by right-clicking the image in the Image Data view and clicking New Insertion.
    • Detach is the most complete form of image removal, as it clears all of the image data from the drawing. This option is available on the Image Data view when you right-click an image data definition. Reverse this option by creating a new image insertion.

Zoom to an image

16. Right-click an image insertion name and click Zoom To. The display zooms to that image.
17. To return to the previous view, on the Edit menu, select Undo Group of Commands.

Control image display order

18. In the drawing, notice that the image Aerial overlaps Pyrmd and Tractor. This display order is reflected in the Image Insertions view, where you see Aerial higher up the tree than either Pyrmd or Tractor. The order of insertions in this tree corresponds directly to their display order within the drawing.
19. In the Image Insertions tree, click and drag the Aerial image to a position below Pyrmd. Notice how this changes the display.
20. Click and drag Aerial to a position below Tractor.
21. Right-click Aerial and click Bring To Front.
    Tip: In some instances, the menu selections can provide more precise control of image display order than the click-and-drag method.

Edit color maps

22. Right-click Arch and click Edit Color Map.

    The Select Color dialog box opens. This is the color map control for all bitonal images.

23. Use the cursor to select a different foreground color for the linework, preferably a color that will be clearly visible against the background.
24. Click OK, then click in the drawing window to see the change.

    Your color choice is applied to the linework and frame of the image, but not the preview. Notice also that the RGB color values are listed in the label of the color map.

25. Click the color map object for any image insertion to see its color properties in the tabular item view.
26. Right-click Tractor and click Edit Color Map.

    The Image Adjust dialog box opens. This is the color map control for single-band grayscale and color images.

27. Change the settings for brightness, contrast, and fade.
28. Click OK, then click in the drawing window to see the change.

    Your settings are applied to the image. Notice also that the numeric values of these settings are listed in the label of the color map.

Explore the Image Data view

29. On the drop-down menu in the upper part of the toolspace, select the Image Data view.
30. In the management toolbar above the drop-down menu, click to expand the object tree.

    Note the different object tree in this view. Each image is represented by a branch of five or more objects. At the top of each branch is the image data definition, followed by a band group (with subordinate bands), and a color map with subordinate image insertion.

31. Click various data objects to see their properties in the item view.

Create new insertions

32. Right-click the color map for Aerial and click Edit Color Map.
33. Change the values for brightness, contrast, and fade. Note that these settings appear in the label for the color map object.
34. Right-click the color map for Aerial and click New Insertion.

    A duplicate instance of the grayscale color map is created in the tree, with a subordinate new insertion named Aerial:1.

35. Right-click the image data definition for Aerial and click New Insertion. This action creates a new insertion, Aerial:2, with the default color map.

Unload an image

36. Right-click the image data definition for Tractor, then click Unload. The image disappears, but the frame remains.
37. Click the drawing object at the top of the tree and notice the entry for Tractor in the Status column of the item view.
38. Right-click the image data definition for Tractor, click Reload, then click in the drawing window. The image reappears in the frame.
    Tip: Temporarily unload one or more images from a drawing to get faster application performance. You can easily reload the images when you need them.

Change the layout of item view columns

39. You can do this on either tab of the Image Manager toolspace. Click the drawing name at the top of the tree.

    In the item view, you see columns of information arranged using a default layout.

40. Right-click anywhere in the column header area to see a complete list of available columns to display.

    Checked columns are those you see displayed in the table. Add and remove check marks to control the data in the table. You can also select Show All Columns, or hide a column by right-clicking its head row and clicking Hide Column.

41. Add or clear check marks to change the columns in the table.

    You can change the order of columns in the table by clicking and dragging column head rows to a new location.

42. Drag one or more columns to rearrange the table. Note that when you drag a column, a blue line between columns indicates where the column will go when you release the mouse button.
43. If you want to change the width of a column, click and drag the vertical line between column head rows.

Turn image frames off or on

44. To turn off the frames around all the images, click ImageToggle Frames.
45. In the drawing window, right-click and click Repeat Toggle Frames to turn on the image frames.

    In the drawing window, you can also right-click and click ImageShow Image Frame(s) to turn on the image frames.

46. Close the drawing without saving changes.