For a description of generic settings common to all tools in the Toolbox, see Working in Tool Settings Dialog Boxes.
The Figure tool is a dedicated tool for placing and manipulating images. Figures are embedded images in the project file.
Images files can be directly imported from within the Figure Settings dialog box.
For more information, see Figures.
Figure Preview and Positioning Panel
You have two options for obtaining image files:
•Click the Open button to browse the directory system for image files.
•Click the Paste button to use the contents of the Clipboard. (If the Clipboard contains image information, it will be used directly. If the contents is text, it will be first converted to bitmap.)
Note: You can also insert a cropped view of any image file into your ARCHICAD plan. With your ARCHICAD project file open, open any image format file. Click and drag (the Marquee tool is the only available tool) to select the desired image area, then copy it to the clipboard. Close the image file, then paste the clipboard contents into the open project. You can modify it like any other figure.
The Preview area displays the image.
The Name field below displays the imported file’s name, or “Pasted Image #” if the figure was inserted from the Clipboard. Click in the field to rename the image if needed. This does not affect the original file’s name.
Figure Size: Use these fields to give accurate dimensions to scanned site plans or measured layouts.
•Enter a value for the horizontal size of the inserted image in default length unit.
•Enter a value for the vertical size of the inserted image in default length unit.
•The Keep Proportions checkbox below allows you to fix image proportions if appropriate.
Hint: Dimensions are often distorted when drawings or images are scanned. Uncheck the Keep Proportions box to unlink the dimensions and adjust figure width and height independently if you want to make sure that dimensions are correct. This is especially important when inserting existing site plans, survey plans or layouts into ARCHICAD Projects.
Resolution: Adjust resolution of the inserted figure if necessary for specific print output quality:
•Enter a horizontal resolution in dpi.
•Enter a vertical resolution value in dpi.
Note: Figure size and image resolution are interdependent. By increasing image size, you decrease resolution, and vice versa.
Use the Restore Original Values button to reset the image default parameters for figure size and resolution.
Insert Figure using 1 to 1 pixel correspondence with screen resolution: Every time you insert the selected image with this option, one pixel of the selected image will correspond to one pixel of the screen. The figure size upon insertion will depend on the current zoom level of the screen.
Check Transparent to show elements that are located underneath the Figure’s white pixels, according to the current display order.
Check the Mirror icons to insert the figure flipped horizontally.
•Rotation Angle: Enter a rotation angle for the Figure.
Use the pop-up to define how this angle value should be interpreted when the element is placed:
•either Relative to Orientation (the angle will be measured relative to the Oriented View)
•or Absolute to Coordinate System (the angle will be measured from the (0,0) point of the project coordinates).
See also Set Orientation.
Click an Anchor point button to define the positioning point of the Figure.
Use the Storage Format field to change the format in which the file is saved within the project file: click on the preferred format and choose OK.
The control to the right of Storage Format displays the color resolution of the image.
The controls below display the horizontal and vertical image size in pixels.
Use the Save as button to save a copy of the selected image file in a different format as an external file.
The field next to the disc icon displays the file size of the selected image in kilobytes.