Thought I had found a nifty trick for using bitmap images as symbols but not quite there. I made a screen shot of a specific coach light fixture a client wants on the front of their house design. I used Photoshop Elements to make the surrounding background of the image into a transparent background. I was able to make a symbol of the light fixture image. But, when I then inserted into in a drawing, the background rectangle of the image was a medium gray color and showed up on the drawing. I then tried changing the image background to white but that symbol also inserted in the DCAD drawing with the gray, noticeable, background.
I did a crop of the fixture to the shape of the fixture but even making that a symbol, it shows up with a surrounding rectangle when its inserted as a symbol. I know DCAD is just inserting a rectangle of a bitmap and doesn't "see" just the image. If there was a way for bitmaps to be inserted with transparent backgrounds that wouldn't print, we would have a real coup for making future drawing symbols.
I did a crop of the fixture to the shape of the fixture but even making that a symbol, it shows up with a surrounding rectangle when its inserted as a symbol. I know DCAD is just inserting a rectangle of a bitmap and doesn't "see" just the image. If there was a way for bitmaps to be inserted with transparent backgrounds that wouldn't print, we would have a real coup for making future drawing symbols.
David Porter AIA
(DataCadder since v.2)
(DataCadder since v.2)