embed tiffs

I have a couple of questions I would like to ask regarding the way you would tackle these problems. The first problem is that we have a job where we are provided with a number of scanned drawings in tif format. If we insert these tifs into our drawings as raster images then we have to include them with our drawings each time we issue them, much as we would a non-binded xref. If we wish to embed these tifs into a drawing we can open the tif in any image editor copy it to the clip-board and then paste-special (which format would be best for paste-special?) into the drawing. When we do this the drawing pan/zoom, regen, etc. slows down significantly and the drawing takes forever to go to the plotter. What would you do? The next problem is that we want to "white out" certain areas of the image. I've tried a number of things but can't seem to avoid the black splotch when I plot the drawing. Is there an easy way to do this that you know about?

I can't think of a work-around for including the TIFs, except to suggest the following: Are they black-and-white? In that case, make sure they're reduced to 2 bit images rather than gray scale. That will cut down your file size immensely. Another option is to bite the bullet and trace over them manually, then detach them from the drawing. A third option is to print the drawings to full-size PDFs, which should leave the images embedded and be suitable for plotting, although not for editing.
As to your other problem, if you're using a late enough version of AutoCAD you can draw an irregular shape in paper space and make it into a viewport, rather than the standard rectangle. Just draw around the areas you want to leave out!
Marc
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to block out parts... create layer for :white-outs" - pick a pen color i.e. 255, set ctb to plot it as 255. depending on size of area, either a wide polyline or a solid shade will work. there will be a very slight shading where you made the block-out but you really have to look for it
alternatively you could also clip the image depending on the are to be blocked out.
hth Brian
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