This Wizard is called from the Add Graphic tool. There are four pages in this wizard - Select Images, Select an Area, Position Images and Vector Entities.
Add Graphic Wizard - Select Images
Select Images
This page allows you to specify an image to be added to the drawing. You can place an image or a single colour on the Outside and/or Inside of a component. A list of selected images, including a preview, is displayed on the form.
Fill type
From the pulldown list choose None, Bitmap, Single colour (where you can pick the required colour from a Windows-style colour picker) or Embossing.
Load from File
This option allows you to load an image from a file, choosing from an extensive list of file formats (detailed here.) You can enable/disable a preview of the selected image using the Show the preview pane button in the Open Image form. You can choose to insert the image as a link to the current drawing layer by ensuring that the Insert a Link tickbox in the Open Image form is switched on. Using this option, Impact will only save the path to the image as part of the project and this helps to keep file sizes to a minimum. Unticking the Insert a Link tickbox will embed the image. The image itself is then saved as part of the project.
If the option to Add new graphic images by default is switched on in Database Installation - Documents, then the Add Documents form will be opened. Here you can add the image file to the Document database.
You can click on the image preview to display the Image Information form.
Add to Documents
This button will be available if the highlighted image in the list has not already been added to the Document database. It opens the Add Documents form.
Load from Documents
This option opens the Project Documents form, from where you can choose an image file that is already associated with this project, in the Document database.
Acquire
This option allows you to acquire an image via a TWAIN data source, such as a scanner or a digital camera. It opens the Select Scanning Source form.
Add Graphic Wizard - Select an Area
Select an Area to Fill
Specify where the image is to be located:
- Automatic - PostScript images will be placed in the centre of the cut palette type extents and at their source dimensions. Bitmap images will be placed relative to the bottom-left of the cut palette type extents and the image will be symmetrically scaled to fit either the width or height of the design, depending on which is closer. The Position Images page is disabled.
- It is possible to use the cut extents of the imported PDF file and the cut extents of the drawing where the graphic is to be added.
In order for this to work the PDF must have the cut path that was originally exported from Impact and that path must have a spot colour/separation/swatch that matches a cut palette in the drawing. The extents of this cut path are then calculated from the returning PDF and the difference between that and the media box/crop box/art box/etc is then calculated so the graphic can be placed such that the cut extents of the graphic align with the cut extents in the Impact drawing. If there are no cut paths present the graphic tool will fall back to the original automatic method. - Rectangle around the current design - PostScript images will be placed in the centre of the cut palette type extents. Bitmap images will be placed relative to the bottom-left of the cut palette type extents. How the graphic fits the design is then based on the options on the Position Images page
- Rectangle around the selected entities - this option is only available if there are some selected entities. Images will be placed relative to the bottom-left of the selected extents
- Rectangle defined by an extents enquiry - from the pulldown list choose the required Enquire Extent Settings. Images will be placed relative to the bottom-left of the selected extents
- Polygon defined by the currently selected entities - this option is only available if there are some selected entities which form a closed profile. Images will be placed relative to the bottom-left of the selected extents. Images will be cropped to fit the shape of the selected extents
- Specify a rectangle to fill when this dialog is closed - the user will be prompted to draw a rectangle to position and size the graphic, so the Position Images page is disabled
Only use visible entities
Switch this option on if you want the wizard to ignore invisible entities when calculating the extents of the current design.
Add Graphic Wizard - Position Images
Position Images
Specify how the images should fit the defined area:
- Automatic (recommended) - Images will be scaled in either the width or height based on which requires the least scaling
- Fit Width - Images will be scaled symmetrically until they fit the width of the selected placement area
- Fit Height - Images will be scaled symmetrically until they fit the height of the selected placement area
- Stretch (This may distort the bitmap) - Images will be made to fit both the width and height of the selected placement area, this would lead to image distortion if the image and selected area have different aspect ratios
Add Graphic Wizard - Vector Entities
Vector Entities
This page is only available if you have selected a Postscript file for the image.
Create vector entities
Switch this option on if you want vector entities (such as lines, arcs and text) to be placed over the graphic entity. A new block will be created into which these entities will be added.
Palette
From the pulldown list choose the palette for the vector entities.