cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Community Tip - Need to share some code when posting a question or reply? Make sure to use the "Insert code sample" menu option. Learn more! X

Use cases for inserting raster images into drawings?

RaphaelCNascime
1-Newbie

Use cases for inserting raster images into drawings?

Hello,

One of the enhancements we are working on for PTC Creo Parametric 4.0 is to provide a more powerful and easy to use tool to embed raster images into a Creo 2D drawing. If you're familiar with PTC Creo Layout, this is the same "Images" tool that can be found in that product.

I'd like to make sure that we test this new functionality against some real-world use cases, so please add a comment (or respond to me directly) with any example use cases you might have.

I'm looking for:

  • Image file format used (jpg, tif, etc...)
  • Size/resolution of the image file
  • Do you need to apply any special formatting to the image in the drawing?
  • Does the image need to be at a particular scale?
  • How many images are added to a drawing? (typical case & worst case)
  • Why do you need an image on the drawing?
  • What does the image represent?
  • Any examples, screenshots, etc...

Thanks for your help!

Raphael Nascimento

PTC Creo Product Manager


This thread is inactive and closed by the PTC Community Management Team. If you would like to provide a reply and re-open this thread, please notify the moderator and reference the thread. You may also use "Start a topic" button to ask a new question. Please be sure to include what version of the PTC product you are using so another community member knowledgeable about your version may be able to assist.
12 REPLIES 12

I have only seen it a couple of times where I work, but in those cases it has been to take a picture (jpg) of a kit of vendor parts that would have taken too long to draw. The picture was then embedded in the drw to document the kit and layout.

I think I have also seen cases where people have embeded logos that way.

Sorry I don't have any actual screenshots I can provide.

We regularly take vendor prints in PDF or jpg or tiff (or whatever they send us) and add them to our format to document the vendor item. Generally we do this in AutoCAD since it's hit or miss in Creo.

Below I show a typical version of this. I had to obfuscate the contents since we can't share that drawing.

We don't worry about scale or really anything other than readability once on our format.

We typically have 1 image per drawing but I have seen more based on the # of sheets needed.

vendor.jpg

StephenW
23-Emerald II
(To:StephenW)

Oh and we also need to be able to store the file in PDMLink with the image!!! Something that seems to be difficult or problematic for some odd reason.

Thanks.

That's one of the straightforward cases that we had in mind from the beginning and the new functionality should be able to handle this easily.

It seems the only "miss" that we might have with the new functionality is that we currently don't support import of pdf files into Creo, although we're looking into it.

PDF is definitely the most common format, just a guess, but probably 95% are PDFs.

I bury images in drawing formats for clients.  Quick and easy drawing logo.

The underlying images of shaded views are an automated way to use raster images.

All geometry and annotation is an overlay on images so there are no printing conflicts with foreground.

David_M
5-Regular Member
(To:RaphaelCNascime)

I sometimes add raster images to drawings using Adobe Acrobat after exporting to PDF. I put a placeholder in the Creo drawing file so that I know which image goes where. It isn't a good workflow, but it's better than using the OLE solution that's built-in. The images are usually diagrams from other sources, for example the make-up of a laminate material such as an anti-reflective coating on glass.

I think it is important that the user has control over whether the image is re-sampled by Creo. I feel that by default it should not be re-compressed. I want a very sharp image and the ability to re-scale it in the future without loosing the original quality. The image should definitely not be stored separately from the .DRW file. Once it is imported the image should be inside the .DRW file and the original no-longer needed. I also think it is important that the raster image is exported to .DWG if such an export is done.

The formats I would most like support for are PNG and TIFF. Importing PDF files into Creo would be a huge undertaking for PTC and of no value to me. I would not trust that the import was perfect. Bigger companies have tried to add PDF import and failed. However, I would welcome the ability to import SVGs which is also a much easier thing to do from a technical standpoint.

I'd be happy to beta test this or any other new functionality.

The first bunch is just regular bitmap management and shouldn't need a 'use case':

I'd add that being able to knock out one or more colors would be useful.

Stacking management - allowing the bitmap to be either first plotted or last plotted; sometimes referred to as z-order.

Editable polygon clipping using lines and arcs; splines are too sensitive to do a clean job.

Transparency control.

Scale, mirror, and rotate, color invert.

These are interaction needs:

Linked offset from other bitmaps, views, drawing geometry - the use is diagrams where the bitmap is used to clarify/illustrate relationships

Recoverable original file/replaceable/ extraction. - the use is to be able to manage updates at a later time without the complication of separately managing the content

*Unlike MS products that convert pasted graphics into an in-editable format and require delete/replace to update embedded bitmaps.

No GIF animations: let animations wait for Creo 22.

DavorGranic
14-Alexandrite
(To:dschenken)

Excellent ideas.

I would just add ability to make it grayscale.

P.S. Why not GIF animations? PTC should add stuff to software we will find use for it.

        Most problems in softwares come from creators opinion what is usefull and whats not.

I just dislike GIF animations, a hold-over from when AOL tried to sue the internet.

I avoided operations that treat raster images as much more than a decal because otherwise it leads to PTC embedding GIMP and I'd prefer they have a good integration with AutoIt. On a scale from free (GIMP) to cheap (Adobe Photoshop Elements) to expensive (Adobe DC, et al) there are plenty of image manipulation options. I know I included invert, but that's for making negatives, but I guess I could pass on that.

The rest make up for the fact that raster images are generally rectangular and the target use is likely not a rectangular result.

Thanks for the input.

I realized I didn't mention in the original post that you can test the functionality to a certain extent today, just in the context of a 3D model.

From the Views tab under the Model Display overflow you'll find the Images tool.

This is the same tool that we are embedding into 2D drawings, so the basic functionality you'll find in 3D mode in terms of setting transparency, removing background color, and move/scale/rotate are there.

Some items you mentioned that aren't already there would be good to look at for the future.

David_M
5-Regular Member
(To:RaphaelCNascime)

I don't think that Appearances or Images belong in the View tab. Adding either of these is a persistent model change, not a temporary view. Both should be under an "Appearance" group in the Model tab (by default).

Top Tags