Allplan FT New User's Survival Guide
update August 2005 - Detailed guide now added - much of the text below is superseded - see link to detailed guide.

• How do I bring in a scanned image? - First make sure you have a licence that includes the Scan Module - the icon looks like this on the Cad Navigator. The scanned image you are bringing in to Allplan needs to be in uncompressed 'tif' or 'bmp' format (v16.1 onward allow more formats). First you need to convert the tif or bmp to 'rlc' format (see the Help file) using the 'converter' tool (if you choose your file to convert and the dialogue disappears and nothing seems to be happening - look in the Command line to see if it is waiting for you to accept 'Set brightness limit value ....[update v16.2 this query now appears in a pop-up dialogue - I find 50% not dark enough and set this value to 75%:) ]) and then you need to open the drawing file you want to 'link' to the rlc bitmap and from there use the 'Insert Image' tool.
  
  There are a load of options on the way about resolution and color intensity but just use the defaults. Note that the scan always comes in rotated 90 degrees (why - noone knows - just use the bitmap editing tools to rotate it back).
  Sometimes you have to play about with the scan resolution as imported - note that this can be different to the original scan resolution - try the default setting offered by Allplan first .
  Update June 2003 Allplan 2003.1 I find that the value offered for resolution by Allplan can be strange - I always try 300 dpi first when the original was scanned at 150 dpi in grayscale and then converted to 1 bit b&w. This seems to work most of the time.
  
  
  Check with the measure tool on a known distance on the image just to be sure - if scaling is twice what it should be then use the 'clear link' bitmap tool and then 'insert image' again but this time set a resolution value twice that offered - you get the general idea.
  
  You can do this without altering the size of the original image by using the 'zoom factor' properties box instead of the 'Resolution' setting. Note that inputting a calculation to the 'zoom factor' property entry does not calculate correctly(!). It is safer to calculate the factor first and then enter the figure.
  
  Note that any alterations to the bitmap change the original. Switch to another drawing file to draw on top of the image and leave the image linked drawing file in reference mode (the system will warn you if you don't). You can plot a mixture of bitmap and vector on inkjet plotters. A neat feature is 'Bitmap elements' - symbols made from bitmaps. There are many supplied as standard - look in the symbol libraries for trees, shrubs, people (that is 'architectural' people!) - or you can make your own by cutting out of a bitmap. I sometimes use this for bits of old drawings if I wish to incorporate them in a new drawing but do not have the time to vectorise them by tracing.

back to New User's Survival Guide