Expert Training

Although BMP is a standard Windows format for exchanging raster data, it’s certainly not the preferred format of many programs. Other common raster formats include PCX, JPEG, and TIFF (the latter two appears as JPG and TIF in Windows). Among their other advantages, these formats offer image compression, which can reduce the size of raster files dramatically.
If the program that you’re trying to work with works best with other formats, or you want to avoid huge BMP files, you have a couple of options:
Create an AutoCAD-friendly format (such as WMF or BMP) and translate it to another graphics format using a translation program such as HiJaak (www.imsisoft.com) or VuePrint (www.hamrick.com).
New for 2004 AutoCAD 2004 includes new JPGOUT, PNGOUT, and TIFOUT commands for creating JPG, PNG, and TIF files in the same way that you export WMF and BMP files. Type the command name, press Enter, specify a raster file name, and select the objects to be included in the image file. These commands use the current drawing area background color as the background color for the image. If you want your image background to be white, make sure that the AutoCAD drawing area color is white when you run the command. (Choose ToolsðOptionsðDisplayðColors to change display colors.)
If you need to convert drawings to a raster format other than BMP or TIF, the second option is to use the AutoCAD Raster File Format driver. This driver enables you to “plot” to a file using one of nine raster formats, including PCX, JPEG, and TIFF. Before you can use the Raster File Format driver, you must create a new plotter configuration: Choose FileðPlotter Manager and then run the Add-A-Plotter wizard. After you create the Raster File Format driver configuration, you use the Plot dialog box as described in Chapter 12 to generate “plots” to raster files.
To go the other direction, raster image file into an AutoCAD drawing, use the IMage command, as described in Chapter 13.