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1 perry 1 ppmtoacad
2 !!!ppmtoacad
3 NAME
4 SYNOPSIS
5 DESCRIPTION
6 OPTIONS
7 BUGS
8 SEE ALSO
9 AUTHOR
10 ----
11 !!NAME
12
13
14 ppmtoacad - convert portable pixmap to AutoCAD database or slide
15 !!SYNOPSIS
16
17
18 __ppmtoacad__ [[__-dxb__] [[__-poly__]
19 [[__-background__ ''colour''] [[__-white__]
20 [[__-aspect__ ''ratio''] [[__-8__]
21 [[''ppmfile'']
22 !!DESCRIPTION
23
24
25 Reads a portable pixmap as input. Produces an AutoCAD slide
26 file or binary database import (.dxb) file as output. If no
27 ''ppmfile'' is specified, input is read from standard
28 input.
29 !!OPTIONS
30
31
32 __-dxb__
33
34
35 An AutoCAD binary database import (.dxb) file is written.
36 This file is read with the DXBIN command and, once loaded,
37 becomes part of the AutoCAD geometrical database and can be
38 viewed and edited like any other object. Each sequence of
39 identical pixels becomes a separate object in the database;
40 this can result in very large AutoCAD drawing files.
41 However, if you want to trace over a bitmap, it lets you
42 zoom and pan around the bitmap as you wish.
43
44
45 __-poly__
46
47
48 If the __-dxb__ option is not specified, the output of
49 __ppmtoacad__ is an AutoCAD slide file. Normally each row
50 of pixels is represented by an AutoCAD line entity. If
51 __-poly__ is selected, the pixels are rendered as filled
52 polygons. If the slide is viewed on a display with higher
53 resolution than the source pixmap, this will cause the
54 pixels to expand instead of appearing as discrete lines
55 against the screen background colour. Regrettably, this
56 representation yields slide files which occupy more disc
57 space and take longer to display.
58
59
60 __-background__ ''colour''
61
62
63 Most AutoCAD display drivers can be configured to use any
64 available colour as the screen background. Some users perfer
65 a black screen background, others white, while splinter
66 groups advocate burnt ocher, tawny puce, and shocking grey.
67 Discarding pixels whose closest AutoCAD colour
68 representation is equal to the background colour can
69 substantially reduce the size of the AutoCAD database or
70 slide file needed to represent a bitmap. If no
71 __-background__ colour is specified, the screen
72 background colour is assumed to be black. Any AutoCAD colour
73 number may be specified as the screen background; colour
74 numbers are assumed to specify the hues defined in the
75 standard AutoCAD 256 colour palette.
76
77
78 __-white__
79
80
81 Since many AutoCAD users choose a white screen background,
82 this option is provided as a short-cut. Specifying
83 __-white__ is identical in effect to __-background
84 7__.
85
86
87 __-aspect__ ''ratio''
88
89
90 If the source pixmap had non-square pixels, the ratio of the
91 pixel width to pixel height should be specified as
92 ''ratio''. The resulting slide or .dxb file will be
93 corrected so that pixels on the AutoCAD screen will be
94 square. For example, to correct an image made for a 320x200
95 VGA/MCGA screen, specify __-aspect 0.8333__.
96
97
98 __-8__
99
100
101 Restricts the colours in the output file to the 8 RGB
102 shades.
103
104
105 All flags can be abbreviated to their shortest unique
106 prefix.
107 !!BUGS
108
109
110 AutoCAD has a fixed palette of 256 colours, distributed
111 along the hue, lightness, and saturation axes. Pixmaps which
112 contain many nearly-identical colours, or colours not
113 closely approximated by AutoCAD's palette, may be poorly
114 rendered.
115
116
117 __ppmtoacad__ works best if the system displaying its
118 output supports the full 256 colour AutoCAD palette.
119 Monochrome, 8 colour, and 16 colour configurations will
120 produce less than optimal results.
121
122
123 When creating a .dxb file or a slide file with the
124 __-poly__ option, __ppmtoacad__ finds both vertical
125 and horizontal runs of identical pixels and consolidates
126 them into rectangular regions to reduce the size of the
127 output file. This is effective for images with large areas
128 of constant colour but it's no substitute for true raster to
129 vector conversion. In particular, thin diagonal lines are
130 not optimised at all by this process.
131
132
133 Output files can be huge.
134 !!SEE ALSO
135
136
137 AutoCAD Reference Manual: ''Slide File Format'' and
138 ''Binary Drawing Interchange (DXB) Files'',
139 ppm(5)
140 !!AUTHOR
141
142
143 John Walker
144 Autodesk SA
145 Avenue des Champs-Montants 14b
146 CH-2074 MARIN
147 Suisse/Schweiz/Svizzera/Svizra/Switzerland
148 Usenet:
149 kelvin@Autodesk.com
150 Fax:
151 038/33 88 15
152 Voice:
153 038/33 76 33
154
155
156 Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this
157 software and its documentation for any purpose and without
158 fee is hereby granted, without any conditions or
159 restrictions. This software is provided ``as is'' without
160 express or implied warranty.
161
162
163 AutoCAD and Autodesk are registered trademarks of Autodesk,
164 Inc.
165 ----
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