Text and entities over photos

Aside from assigning color 255 to all entities and then adjusting the screening in the pen file (I'm using Acad 2002), is there any magic tricks to getting entities (text in particular) to be universally visible when placed on top of an aerial photo? Thanks!

 

Are you having difficulties reading the text because of its colour over the aerial photo or is the problem because the text sits underneath the aerial photo?



 



Natasha



"USMC_RICK" <> wrote in message news:...

Aside from assigning color 255 to all entities and then adjusting the screening in the pen file (I'm using Acad 2002), is there any magic tricks to getting entities (text in particular) to be universally visible when placed on top of an aerial photo? Thanks!

 

Natasha:
It's a color issue. the aerial is a b/w photo, and since we're running blueprints from the plots (for construction drawings), a single line of text may cross over a section which is very dark AND very light. Several years ago, we used something called "fatty text" as supplied by an aerial surveyor (now out of business). That was also in a different CAD package, so it may not even exist in AutoCAD. Basically, each letter had a black "core" with a white halo, making it a consistent background upon which to read text.

 

It takes some management by the drafter but this woks VERY nicely:



Copy the text at issue "in place"



You now have a duplicate on top of the original text object.



If using .ctb's, change the "bottom" text object to a layer that is color 255 (white) and VERY thick (0.07", etc.)



This creates a cool white "glow" around the black text and it reads real nicely.



 



"USMC_RICK" <> wrote in message news:...

Aside from assigning color 255 to all entities and then adjusting the screening in the pen file (I'm using Acad 2002), is there any magic tricks to getting entities (text in particular) to be universally visible when placed on top of an aerial photo? Thanks!

 

BEAUTIMUS! That's exactly what I was looking for. I was just hoping that there was perhaps a single font which incorporated this, so that if I change text, it doesn't have to be done twice.

However, this is an outstanding port in the proverbial storm! Thanks for your help and insight.

Remind me to put you in for a raise.