TBC - I can move georeferenced image but not a placed image - why not?

I am running into an issue where I cannot move a placed pdf image. I can move a georeferenced image though. more commonly a user would want to move a place image after getting coordinates, i.e. takeoff purposes or orientation of text.

I think this might be a bug because it will work when you georeferenced an image. Am I correct in this statement or is this a limitation of a placed image? Both have northing and easting for all 4 corners.

I tested this with move and transform by points an neither worked. In generally I would want to be able to use move on placed images for organization.

Hey Pat I just watched your video and I have a couple of ways you could approach this. ( I assume in your example that you do not care about project coordinates)

  1. You place the image so that it is at the correct scale, using known distance or a scale bar

  2. Then you could either vectorize the pdf and move the vectorized data, Or you could do a fake geo-ref by creating a line from corner to corner of the pdf. Then move the line to the desired location, and use the ends to geo ref the pdf. This will move the pdf to your desired location and keep the pdf at the desired scale.

Let me know what you think.

Shane

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Hey Shane. Thanks. Those are the tricks I ended up using.

Part of the issue is I do want these in the correct project coordinates so that I can use these in Google Earth and other software.

I believe this is an oversight and hopefully this will make it into the next release.

Pat,

If you are needing them in correct project coordinates shouldn’t you be using georef pdf to place the pdf?

I’m not sure why you would want to use the move command when working within a coordinate system.

Shane

Perfect example is bid time. Most times you are provided the pdf, usually without coordinate data. You will go through and prep this data. Once you get some coordinates, you could then move all of the information into the correct location with one command. Using this for: comparison, prelim data until a thorough model has been built, etc.

Another example is buildings. With the current lack of ability to rotate plan view, prepping building data is usually easier in an arbitrary coordinate space so you can see the text in a decent rotation. You would import the pdf it some arbitrary space, scale, do the necessary data prep and then move the data into the correct spot. You can use move and rotate or transform by points on the prepped data, it is just a shame that you cannot on a placed image. Yes you can then use georeference image but it is another process and slower, especially if you have multiple images like this, which is usually the case.

I know place image has just a scale or scale and bearing function, but you can do the exact same thing with Georef PDF - just enter coordinate values of 0,0 and 0,100 for the ends of the scalebar and pick the pixels and you are done - then you can move it no problem. The number of clicks is all but the same - click 2 points for the scalebar - ok you have to enter two coords - but really no big deal if that is what you are doing with Place Image. And if you have more than one sheet then you have to georef the other sheets anyway - so if you feel you have to move stuff later use Georef instead.

@Plheureux did you ever find a reason why TBC does not allow the movement of Placed Images? Found this post when I had the same question. I understand all the work arounds, but the Place Image command really does work best when you want to bring in many plans and you want to ensure all those plans stay perpendicular on screen and to the original sheet. On a large building we may be bringing in a dozen or so plans and the place image is really just the best way to do this. When you start out with the georef you need to make extra care that you don’t skew the plans to one another. By using Place Image with just defining distance you don’t have to worry about that issue.

@alan.sharp is there any reasonable way to convert a “placed image” into a “georefenced image” as far as TBC is concerned to allow for a future move, like via a command? Or is it more complicated than that on the backend?

Thanks!

I have asked Peter to look into this - currently the Placed Image / Georeferenced Image is internally tied to 2 or 4 survey points and those cannot be moved as easily as Grid Only or CAD points - this is why the Georeference Image is hard to move or to move and or rotate as a block of images.

The survey points are not exposed to you as a user however they are listed as the corners of the image

I am sure that a TML can get at those potentially to allow a movement of a Placed / Georeferenced image - even if it means computing new locations for those and moving them using a Georeference process.

Alan

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Got it. Maybe we are saying the same thing here, but currently a georeferenced image can be moved and aligned with TBC commands. You can use commands like move, transform or transform by points.

I just find that a “placed image” cannot be moved.

If you use the “place image” command all the properties show it being a georeference image, but it doesn’t act like a georeference image when you try and move. It works with one import method, just not the other.

There are some advantages of using the “place image”. ie No effort to keep the imported pages square to the the screen when bringing into the project.

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