embed tiffs

I have a couple of questions I would like to ask regarding the way you would
tackle these problems.
The first problem is that we have a job where we are provided with a number
of scanned drawings in tif format. If we insert these tifs into our drawings
as raster images then we have to include them with our drawings each time we
issue them, much as we would a non-binded xref. If we wish to embed these
tifs into a drawing we can open the tif in any image editor copy it to the
clip-board and then paste-special (which format would be best for
paste-special?) into the drawing. When we do this the drawing pan/zoom,
regen, etc. slows down significantly and the drawing takes forever to go to
the plotter. What would you do?
The next problem is that we want to "white out" certain areas of the image.
I've tried a number of things but can't seem to avoid the black splotch when
I plot the drawing.
Is there an easy way to do this that you know about?

 

I can't think of a work-around for including the TIFs, except to suggest the
following: Are they black-and-white? In that case, make sure they're reduced
to 2 bit images rather than gray scale. That will cut down your file size
immensely. Another option is to bite the bullet and trace over them
manually, then detach them from the drawing. A third option is to print the
drawings to full-size PDFs, which should leave the images embedded and be
suitable for plotting, although not for editing.

As to your other problem, if you're using a late enough version of AutoCAD
you can draw an irregular shape in paper space and make it into a viewport,
rather than the standard rectangle. Just draw around the areas you want to
leave out!

Marc

 

See: http://rkmcswain.blogspot.com/2005/04/binding-raster-images.html

Also note that you can use 'eTransmit' to send your drawings to others
without worry about manually including images, external references, etc.