Attaching Images in Autocad

by Jeff Weber
(Vincennes, Indiana, USA)

Autocad attached image with fade set to 70 percent

Attaching Images in AutoCAD can be very useful. Whether you are trying to show an existing condition or you need to convert a hard copy drawing into an actual drawing file.

Here is how it is done.

First thing you need is an image that you want to attach.

JPEG images work very well and I rarely have a problem using these types of image files.

Next in AutoCAD you can do one of the following actions.

Type IMAGEATTACH on the command line, select the Insert pull down menu and select “Attach Image Reference” or type IM on the command line.

The first two options will open a “windows type dialogue box”.

At this point you just navigate to a location on your computer where you image is stored, select it and then click on Open.

The third option is slightly different.

When you type IM an AutoCAD dialogue box appears.

This box will display ALL your “references”, whether they are images or drawings…etc.

Now you need to right click in the white space below the title “Reference name”.

A short cut menu appears and you need to select “Attach Image”.

This then takes you back to the Microsoft Windows type dialogue box, explained earlier.

Once you have your image selected you are taken back to the AutoCAD environment.

The dialogue box that appears now shows you three options: insertion point, scale and rotation.

There is also a check box for each option that is “specify on screen”.

I usually have the first two check boxes checked and have the box for rotation unchecked and set to zero.

Once you hit the OK button you are taken back to your drawing.

Now AutoCAD expects you to “Specify on Screen” those items you had checked.

So, pick a point for the insertion point.

Before you pick another point, move your cursor.

You will see that by just moving the cursor you can make your image larger or smaller.

Click to set the size of you image, or type in a scale factor.

Now you have an image attached to a drawing.

If you are familiar with inserting Xrefs you will find the process very similar.