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

User Q & A (Post Here)
1

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.

2

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

1 Like
3

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.

4

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

5

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.

6

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.