Background Picture

You can add a background to the drawing by pressing the Pictures button and choosing Background Picture from the popup menu. This will bring up the Background Picture form. You can also bring up this form by right-clicking in the main drawing window and choosing Change Background from the popup menu.

Click the Load Picture From File button to select a picture to use as the background.

Click the Load Picture From Clipboard to paste a picture from the clipboard for the background image.

Click the Load Picture from Terra Server button to bring up the Terra Server form.

Click the Load Picture from Snapshots button to bring up the Snapshots form.

The background picture can also be set from the Section Finder.

Click the Remove Picture button to remove the picture from the background.

You can use the Transparency slider to adjust the picture's level of transparency.

The visible checkbox can be used to make the background visible or invisible without having to load or remove the picture.

Fit to Screen
This option will cause the background picture to stretch to the size of the drawing.

Other
This option will allow you to choose where the background is drawn. You can either choose an option from the popup menu or press the button to bring up a visual picker.


(Visual Picker)

Scale Picture
Check this box to have the background draw to scale. Enter the number of feet that the width of the background picture represents and the number of feet that the height of the background picture represents. Common scales, such as 1 square mile, are available from the popup menu arrow.

Lock Offset
This option allows you to keep the background’s offset locked to its origin, or its offset can be locked to a layer’s offset. If the background is locked to layer’s offset, then the background will move with the layer if the layer is moved by hand.

Gird Overlay
This option will draw a grid over the background image. This option is best suited for square background images.

 

If no background picture is selected, the grid will still be displayed.

 

 

Save Picture
You can export the background picture to a regular picture file by choosing Save Picture from the File menu.

 

Edit Picture

Choosing this menu option will open the currently selected background image in a new window. This window will allow you to crop and rotate the background image.

 

 

Click and drag on the picture to make a selection.

 

Set Picture as Background
Choosing this menu will set the current picture as the background picture.

 

Keep Selection Square
When this menu is checked, when making a selection, the selection will constrain itself to a square. Press the shift key while making a selection will also constrain the selection to a square.

 

Rotate

Choosing either of the Rotate menus will cause the picture to rotate 1/10th of a degree either clockwise or counter-clockwise.