Expert: Bob - 8/5/2011

Question
QUESTION: I have a number of high res georeferenced raster images that I have store on a network drive.  I would like to create an CAD drawing that has all of the boundaries for these images shown in thier real world coordinates so that the user can zoom to an area of interest and select the ones they want to see and then turn only those images on.  to actually insert the images would create an unmanageable file size.  Is this possible?

Thanks,

Steve

ANSWER: My instant thought was INSERT HYPERLINK.  You could make lower res thumbnails.



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I need a way for the users to bring the images they want into this master drawing so that they can then copy them into the cad drawing they need to work on.  the images are store with only a unique ID as the name, so I would like to use this master drawing a way of searching for the right image geographically and the tranfer the high res image (copy/paste) into your working drawing.

Answer
You cannot copy something from a drawing unless it is IN the drawing -- as you stated, inserting high res images would make the drawing huge (and tax the memory of the computer to view).

You might do better to make a web page with thumbnails and links than an AutoCAD drawing, if the purpose is to serve as a key for users to choose the images they need.

Or you might do better to approach your goal from another angle -- you have overlooked that copy/paste of a huge image might require very robust computers and/or cause crashes.


Bob