Placing Decals in AutoCAD

[Albert D Hart]

One of our nXtRender for AutoCAD resellers wanted the ability to put illuminated images on monitors easily - as well as putting images into blocks of picture frames.

There is a capability in AutoCAD to place this kind of decal image into a model, but they did not know how to do it - (Their furniture dealer clients basically place 2D furniture layouts into AutoCAD, and rarely work in 3D) - and we did it once, but were usually unsuccessful.

So we added a wizard to place decals directly onto surfaces in blocks:

What is "clever" about this Wizard is that it can place different decals into different instances of the same block using same layer, or place decals by block name, or place the decal by layer name. And also the Wizard can browse for the image, define self glow, and place the decal all in one process.

I suspect the images do not show up in AutoCAD - especially when placed by block instance, block name which AutoCAD does not support (I think)

Would this a good addition for nXt?

Or is this easy to do already in AutoCAD for experienced 3D users?

[Albert D Hart]

Since posting this we did find the nXt Decal function, and were able to get it to work. (This wasn't available for the people we wrote this for in the first place)

The main difference is that the Decal Wizard above automatically places a decal on an existing face by selecting any pixel inside the face. (It works really for monitor screen and picture frames) On the other hand, it cannot place a Decal at all on a wall unless you place a 3DFACE on the wall first, since it automatically applies the decal to an existing face.

[Peter Milner]

If I use a decal for a monitor I make it as an area light rather than just adding glow so that it casts light. I also make it reflective as most screens these days have a glass front.

This addition may be useful as a "quick fix" solution for less experienced users, but the limitation of fitting to size could possibly cause more problems than it solves.

[Albert D Hart]

Thanks for the reply and for taking a look a this. We may pull this Wizard out of our first release until we can merge it better with the existing Decal function in nXt. The existing one creates real geometry with object properties, etc. The one we wrote for furniture dealers created a material - and could not add "real" lights or other object properties.