Crop and mask to cut images using AutoCAD Raster Design

00:03

When you want to display only a portion of an image in a drawing, AutoCAD Raster Design provides a couple of different options.

00:11

Cropping permanently deletes data outside a selected boundary.

00:16

Masking hides or unloads images outside the mask boundary, but does not permanently alter an image.

00:23

Both can affect more than one image at a time.

00:27

From the ribbon, Raster Tools tab, Edit panel, expand the Crop drop-down to view the list of options,

00:33

including Line, Circular Region, Rectangular Region, Diagonal Region, Polygonal Region, and Aligned Rectangular Region.

00:43

Each one defines the area you want to keep, or display, a little differently.

00:48

Here, click Rectangular Region, and you are prompted to specify the first corner point of the area to keep.

00:56

Zoom in to the upper-left corner of the image and click to specify the first corner.

01:02

Move to the right, and then click a second point to define the border angle.

01:07

Finally, move down to click a third time for the second corner point.

01:12

This crops the image based on the rectangle you defined.

01:16

To save the cropped image as a new file, in the Raster Tools tab, Insert & Write panel, click Save As.

01:23

For this example, click Cancel.

01:25

In the Quick Access Toolbar, click Undo to return to the original image.

01:31

Expand the Crop drop-down again, and this time, select Line.

01:36

On the image, click to specify the first point of the line, and then the endpoint.

01:41

This creates a rectangular region that is defined by a distance on either side of the line.

01:46

Again, click Undo to return to the full image.

01:51

The width of the rectangle you just created with the Line command is defined in the AutoCAD Raster Design Options dialog.

01:58

In the Insert & Write panel, in the lower-right corner, click the dialog box launcher.

02:04

In the AutoCAD Raster Design Options dialog, open the Feature Settings tab to access the Rub/Crop Line Width setting.

02:11

You can either type in the value or use the Pick button.

02:15

Here, enter a value of 0.5, and then click OK.

02:20

To see the effect of this value change, expand the Crop drop-down and again, click Line.

02:27

Zoom in to the top-left corner of the map, and this time, on the lower-left of the main street in Makawao, click to specify the first point.

02:36

Then, on the upper right of this street, click again for the second point.

02:41

Notice the cropped area is half as wide as it was previously.

02:46

Click Undo to return to the full image.

02:50

Masking works differently than cropping.

02:52

A mask does not trim the images permanently, but only hides or unloads the data you choose not to display.

02:59

It is essentially a clip that can affect more than one image at a time.

03:04

To create a mask, on the Raster Tools tab, Manage & View panel, expand the drop-down and select Create Mask.

03:13

In the New Image Mask dialog, leave the defaults, Enable mask and Hide image(s), selected for this example.

03:20

Click Rectangular, and then in the drawing, click three points to define a rectangular region as you did with the Crop command.

03:28

Once the mask is created, the result looks the same as the crop, with the images inside the mask boundary clipped, or displayed.

03:37

However, the images outside the mask are only hidden—or unloaded, if you choose that option in the New Image Mask dialog.

03:45

This means that you can modify the mask region, such as enlarging or reshaping it, to display a different area of the image.