There are times when an image needs to be included in a drawing. For example, a client logo that needs to be part of the title block. It would be better to convert the logo into a block object by tracing over the image in AutoCAD and applying hatching as needed. But there are some logos that are not so simple and therefore using an embedded image is preferred.
If you have dragged and dropped the image into the drawing or used the OLE method, you realize that file is being referenced (X-REF) and therefore the separate picture file needs to be included when you send the file to the client. This creates issues when opening files that cannot find the X-REF or when using Autodesk Vault and checking in files.
The process to Embedded an image into AutoCAD begins with opening the file in an image editor. Since Microsoft Paint is a default application this will be average user’s method of performing an embedding.
Begin by opening the image in Paint with either the Open with or Edit commands from a right click menu. Once opened in the editor, select some or all of the image to be placed into AutoCAD. Also consider resizing the image as well for proper placement in AutoCAD. Lastly, the orientation is not adjustable in AutoCAD so if you need an image rotated 90 degrees then perform those steps in the editor before adding it to AutoCAD.
Use CTRL+C or the Copy button to place the partial image or whole image to the internal clipboard.
Now that the image is copied to the Clipboard, open your AutoCAD file for which this image needs to be placed.
Since the image is in the internal clipboard you may simply use CTRL+V or right click and choose Paste from the AutoCAD menu. You may also use the Paste Special from the Clipboard Panel in the Ribbon.
The image will come in and be fully adjustable inside of AutoCAD for general resizing (this may distort quality though). More importantly the file will not create an External Reference (X-REF) for the file which will prevent errors from appearing in regards to missing files when transmitted or moved internally. When this file is used in Data Management software like Vault it will also not need to search for this reference and allow a cleaner workspace and streamlined file management workflow.
This does increase the file size of your AutoCAD drawing, but the rewards of complete embedding far outweigh the adjustment of file size on disk. To this point make sure what you are embedding is in itself not so large that it bloats the files dramatically. Avoid going over 1 MB in size as that will also degrade performance in seeing the image in AutoCAD.
Some additional helpful system variables include:
OLEFRAME: Controls whether a frame is displayed and plotted on all OLE objects in the drawing.
- 0: Frame is not displayed and not plotted
- 1: Frame is displayed and is plotted
- 2: Frame is displayed but is not plotted (default)
OLEHIDE: Controls the display and plotting of OLE objects.
- 0: All OLE objects are visible and plot (default)
- 1: OLE objects are visible and plot in paper space only
- 2: OLE objects are visible and plot in model space only
- 3: No OLE objects are visible or plot