1. What is AutoCAD Raster Design 2009?

AutoCAD® Raster Design 2009 software is the one of the leading raster application for design professionals in any industry who need to use or reuse scanned paper drawings, maps, satellite images, aerial photos, digital elevation models (DEMs), and similar digital data with their design projects. It is the Autodesk solution for managing, converting, analyzing, and editing all types of raster images in AutoCAD® software and applications based on AutoCAD.

2. What is new in AutoCAD Raster Design 2009?

• 64-bit support—Raster Design 2009 supports the environment of its host Autodesk product: 32-bit or 64-bit. This flexibility enables you to easily install Raster Design 2009 on any compatible application using any supported operating system.
  
  
• ESRI® GRID format improvements—Discrete themed data is a form of raster data commonly used to represent such things as land cover, zoning, and other classified data. Discrete themed data in ESRI GRID format is now represented properly in Raster Design. This capability, coupled with the continuous themed data handling required for working with elevations, provides a more robust environment for accurately using raster grid data.
  
  
• New Ribbon interface—When Raster Design is installed on AutoCAD 2009–based software, tools and options are presented in a concise visual format—the Ribbon—enabling you to quickly select commands appropriate to the work you are doing. Moving between applications is now quick and intuitive. The Ribbon, which runs across the top of the application window, is both customizable and expandable, so it can be optimized for each user and to meet each company’s standards.

3. Why do I need AutoCAD Raster Design if AutoCAD has raster functionality?

AutoCAD software enables you to insert, view, and plot raster images, but you cannot edit and modify these images or perform image analysis and image processing with AutoCAD software alone. With AutoCAD Raster Design, you can modify and save or export images for use with other drawings or applications.

As a raster conversion and editing application, AutoCAD Raster Design includes an easy-to-use image management tool to help manage the numerous raster files you may be using in your project. AutoCAD Raster Design also improves DWG™ image management letting you embed images in the DWG file, so you do not have to manage separate image reference files. It includes tools such as tonal adjustment, palette controls, raster entity manipulation (REM) with SmartPick, raster snap, image rubbersheeting, optical character recognition (OCR), and vectorization tools with SmartCorrect.

In addition, AutoCAD Raster Design supports a wide range of industry-standard raster data such as the JPEG 2000, ECW, and LizardTech™ MrSID® formats. It also enables you to display and analyze digital elevation models and multispectral data (satellite imagery such as Landsat and IKONOS) to assist in better decision making. (See the table in question 7.)

4. Does AutoCAD Raster Design automatically convert raster images to AutoCAD vector drawings?

AutoCAD Raster Design includes semiautomatic and interactive raster-to-vector conversion and OCR features that can produce highly accurate results, meeting the needs of most AutoCAD users. Some scanned drawings may be compatible with automatic converters, but the data resulting from these automatic processes may require significant cleanup and geometry verification. Because of this, Raster Design has continued to focus on the semiautomatic and interactive raster-to-vector conversion tools to help ensure more accurate results.

Additional raster imaging functionality is available from independent Autodesk Registered Developers as stand-alone applications and as add-on applications to AutoCAD 2009 and AutoCAD Raster Design 2009 software. The Partner Products Catalog contains information on thousands of products and services that complement Autodesk software.

5. How accurate is the OCR technology? Do I still need vectorization tools (VTools) with OCR?

AutoCAD Raster Design enables you to select areas of text for recognition with industry-leading OCR technology. You verify the OCR results with the aid of both a user dictionary and your AutoCAD dictionary to make your final AutoCAD text (or mtext) should be completely accurate.

Still, the OCR results depend on the quality of the original text. The technology in AutoCAD Raster Design is best suited for machine-printed and hand-printed text. Hand-written text, cursive, and script are generally not suitable for OCR on engineering drawings and maps.

If the text is unclear or if there is too much interfering geometry or image noise, then the VTools Follower feature is your best choice. Although OCR makes the most sense when you have a clean block of text, the VTools VText feature is also more efficient if you need to do only a line or a few characters. In addition, OCR provides Rub erasure.

6. How do I convert contours or boundaries?

AutoCAD Raster Design has three powerful line followers: Polyline, Contour, and 3D Polyline. These vectorization tools are specifically designed for semiautomatic conversion of scanned contour and soils maps. You control every aspect of the vectorization process, including output linetype, color, and action at decision points.

7. What file formats does AutoCAD Raster Design support?

AutoCAD Raster Design supports a variety of industry-standard file formats:

8. Can I save digital elevation model (DEM) and multispectral images after transforming and editing these types of raster data?

Yes, AutoCAD Raster Design enables you to save the results of coordinate transforms and edits to multispectral and DEM files to industry-standard formats. You can then reuse the edited images in existing or new projects.

9. Can I save an existing image to LizardTech’s MrSID or ER Mapper’s ECW format?

While AutoCAD Raster Design 2009 does not currently allow saving to MrSID or ECW image format, you can directly edit these MrSID and ECW images. By saving the changes or edits (such as cropping and highlighting areas of interest) to JPEG 2000 format, you retain the multiresolution advantages of small file size and fast performance with high visual image quality.

10. Does AutoCAD Raster Design work with AutoCAD 2009 and other AutoCAD 2009–based products?

Yes, AutoCAD Raster Design 2009 is the raster application for AutoCAD 2009 and the industry-specific products based on AutoCAD 2009 software. Raster Design 2009 is compatible with the following products:

• AutoCAD® 2009
• AutoCAD® Civil 3D® 2009
• AutoCAD® Land Desktop 2009
• AutoCAD® Civil 3D® Land Desktop Companion 2009
• AutoCAD® Map 3D 2009
• AutoCAD® Architecture 2009
• AutoCAD® MEP 2009
• AutoCAD® Mechanical 2009
• AutoCAD® Electrical 2009
• Autodesk® Topobase™ 2009

11. Can I use AutoCAD Raster Design 2009 with earlier versions of AutoCAD?

Because it is an add-on product, AutoCAD Raster Design 2009 works only with AutoCAD 2009 and AutoCAD 2009–based products.

12. Can I share hybrid files created in AutoCAD Raster Design with other AutoCAD users?

AutoCAD software products support inserting, displaying, and plotting of standard AutoCAD raster images. As long as you use standard AutoCAD images, you can share any hybrid file you create or edit using AutoCAD Raster Design and AutoCAD products with any other AutoCAD user. However, if you want to share Raster Design custom images (16-bit, multispectral, and DEM image types), the target AutoCAD application requires the Raster Design object enabler to be installed.

AutoCAD Raster Design 2009 FAQ (pdf - 171Kb)